Are detox diets and cleanses really helpful for you?

Do detoxifying diets and juicing really work?

Many have heard about detox diets, juice cleanses, and other methods that should clean your body from various dangerous toxins and other things that supposedly pose a danger to your health. These claims about such methods even created a trend and a fashion wave of anything that should detox your body.

From juices, teas, drinks, and cocktails to drugs, pills, or even full-on diets, detoxifying cultures have taken over. Your body is capable of cleansing itself without anything like that, however. That is often forgotten to mention when detox products need to be advertised and pushed to people.

Even though these processes are natural, cleanses, nutritional diets, and similar products can be helpful. Detoxification diets are more popular than ever these days because people have already tried all the popular methods of improving their health. Raw diets, veganism, ketogenic living methods, and other popular, overly-advertised, and pushed diets have been around for a few years.

A detox diet claims to cleanse your blood and eliminate harmful toxins from your body. That might be the main difference from other, more commonly known diets. However, even though there are many believers in such diets, it is not entirely clear how this diet can clear your body of everything bad.

What specific compounds should these diets eliminate?

Detox diets are short-term interventions designed to initially eliminate toxins from the body. A typical detox diet relies on fasting periods and a strict diet of fruit, vegetables, juices, and water^[1].

The diet can also include herbs, particular teas, supplements, and even enemas or other types of colon cleanses and physical interventions. These diets are often advertised as the answer to many questions, from health issues to youthfulness, beauty, and weight loss.

A detox diet should supposedly be helpful and attack issues with the body. These claims include:

• resting your organs by fasting;
• stimulating your liver to get rid of toxins;
• promoting toxin elimination through feces, urine, and sweat;
• improving circulation;
• providing your body with only healthy nutrients;
• stopping aging processes.

Detox therapies are often suggested because you might be exposed to harmful chemicals in the environment or what you eat. These can include pollutants, artificial chemicals, heavy metals, and other dangerous substances. These diets also claim to boost your immune system, improve digestion, increase energy, and help with weight loss.

However, there is little scientific research on detox diets, and the few studies that do exist have major flaws. It's not clear which toxins these diets are supposed to remove, and how they work is also unknown. Actually, there is little to no proof that detox diets take out any toxins from your body^[2].

Moreover, your body has its own cleaning system, which includes the liver, feces, urine, and sweat. Your liver breaks down harmful substances and helps get rid of them. Still, some chemicals like organic pollutants, phthalates, bisphenol A (BPA), and heavy metals can build up in the body's fat or blood and may take years to get rid of. These substances are often removed or reduced in today's commercial products.

Research doesn’t support many health claims linked to detoxification programs

Overall, there's little evidence that detox diets remove these substances from your body. How well do these diets work? Some people say they feel more focused and energetic while on and after detox diets. But this feeling of well-being might just be from cutting out processed foods, alcohol, and other unhealthy items from your diet. You might also be getting more vitamins and minerals than before^[3].

However, many people also say they feel very sick during the detox. Some might say that this is the factor that makes them believe the detox is working.

There aren't many scientific studies that look into how detox diets affect weight loss. Some people might lose a lot of weight quickly on these diets, but this often comes from losing water and carbs, not fat. This weight usually comes back soon after stopping the diet.

A 2015 study looked at overweight Korean women who tried the lemon detox diet, which involves drinking a mix of maple or palm syrup and lemon juice for a week. The study found that this diet greatly reduced their weight, BMI, body fat, waist-to-hip ratio, and waist size and also improved health markers like inflammation, insulin resistance, and leptin levels.

Detox diets that drastically cut calories can lead to weight loss and better metabolic health, but they probably won't help keep the weight off long-term. Detox diets can have effects similar to short-term or intermittent fasting, which might help improve certain health markers like leptin and insulin sensitivity in some people^[3].

However, not everyone will see these benefits. Studies show that detox diets can increase stress and lead to overeating.

Potential benefits might attract people to these diets, but there are side effects

Some parts of detox diets can be good for your health, such as:

• Avoiding foods with heavy metals and persistent organic pollutants (POPs)
• Cutting out processed foods
• Drinking more water

These benefits can help improve your health whether or not you're following a detox diet. However, before starting a detox, it's important to be aware of possible side effects.

Side effects of a detox diet can include:

• Severe Calorie Restriction: many detox diets suggest fasting or cutting calories a lot, which can make you feel tired and irritable and cause bad breath.
• Fasting for a long time can lead to a lack of energy and shortages of vitamins and minerals and cause serious health issues like electrolyte imbalances or even death.
• Colon cleansing, often recommended in detoxes, can lead to dehydration, cramping, bloating, nausea, and vomiting.
• Some detox diets might make you take too many supplements, laxatives, diuretics or even drink too much water.

The detox industry isn't well-regulated, and many detox products aren't based on science. Sometimes, the labels on these products aren't accurate, which can increase the risk of taking too much and having serious or even deadly outcomes^[4].

Certain people should not start a detox or restrict their calories without talking to a doctor first, including:

• Adolescents;
• Older adults;
• Undernourished people;
• Pregnant or breastfeeding individuals;
• People with diabetes or other blood sugar issues;
• Individuals with an eating disorder.