Detox diets have become a quick fix for a lot of people. ?I personally have tried it and must say that the best thing I have ever done for my body was eating healthy & natural rather than ?starving? my body of essential nutrients. ?While I submit that this my opinion, IDEA Fitness Connection recently posted an article about detox diets, titled ?Detox Diets: Myth vs. Reality.? ?For fear of sharing published works that were made available only to members of IDEA, I would like to share only some of the findings this article presents:
?Extreme detox diets are not nutritionally balanced,? says Christine Gerbstadt, MD, MPH, RD, a Maryland-based medical doctor and registered dietitian. Even diets that incorporate a meal or smoothie can have too few calories, especially if you exercise while on them. The risks are considerable.
?When you?re not getting enough protein or calories, you can lose muscle mass and experience dangerously low blood sugar, which can cause you to pass out and create electrolyte imbalances that, in extreme cases, can lead to a heart attack,? says Marjorie Nolan Cohn, MS, RD, CDN, a spokeswoman for the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics who has a private nutrition-consulting practice in New York City.
In other words, it?s true that these exercises in portion control can produce weight loss. But the bigger question is whether a detox diet truly ?de-toxes.? These diets are said to be able to cleanse the liver and flush the body of toxins, but do they?
What Is Detoxing?
Removing poisons from the body is a seductive idea, but much like the word?natural,?the term?detox?is so overused that it can mean just about anything.
Detoxification is an established medical treatment?for helping drug addicts and alcoholics make it through withdrawal?
?But when it comes to dieting, there is no real scientific basis for detoxing,? says Gerbstadt, author of?Doctor?s Detox Diet?(Nutronics Publishing 2012), a clean-eating plan in which she tries to salvage and redefine the term. A quick Medline? search of peer-reviewed medical journals shows no studies proving that a diet can ?cleanse? or ?detoxify? the body.
?Detox diets are created by people with products or books to sell, but this is not a legitimate medical treatment,? says Carla Wolper, EdD, RD, a registered dietitian and assistant professor of eating disorders research at Columbia University in New York City.
One of the big problems is that it?s usually unclear what exactly is being detoxed?
Selling the Idea of Toxic Bodies
Of course, a lack of scientific evidence does not deter the marketers of diets or the people who try them?With today?s diets, those selling detox can often make a very compelling case. In a recent television exchange, former sitcom star Suzanne Somers, who sells alternative health books and supplements, interviewed Andrew Weil, MD, a medical doctor who also sells alternative health books and supplements. Weil noted, ?There is a tremendous amount of toxicity in the environment . . . in many cases, the effects are unknown. But . . . if we don?t have all the evidence in, let?s err on the side of caution and take precautions.? Somers added, ?We are exposed to, they say, 80,000 toxins on a regular basis, 200 toxins while we do our morning ritual . . .? (What are these toxins, who says we have them, and what evidence supports the claims? She did not say.)
?If you are not sick, then you probably do not have dangerous toxins in you,? says Wolper. ?Even if you are sick, it may not be because you have toxins.? There is no denying we are exposed to environmental pollutants, chemicals in water and processed foods, hormones from animal foods, and pesticides from plant foods, but it?s not clear in many cases if normal exposures are truly harmful. Furthermore, it?s difficult to know whether the body?s own detox systems?like the liver?are so inadequate that they need help from a special regimen.
?no proof of detoxing is provided, despite dramatic promises that it will happen.
Detoxing the Liver of Thousands of Toxins . . . ?
The most common claim is that a regimen detoxifies the liver, the body?s own self-detoxification organ. It?s assumed the liver gets clogged like an air conditioning filter and must be cleaned so it can continue detoxifying.
?But there is no evidence showing that a normal liver gets clogged with toxins,? says hepatologist Nancy Reau, MD, an associate professor of medicine at the University of Chicago who treats patients who have liver cancer, cirrhosis and other liver conditions. ?The liver is a very sophisticated filter. Everything you inhale, put on your skin or eat enters the bloodstream and is brought to the liver. It then generates specific enzymes to help remove things that are unhealthy or change them to a healthier form.?
Pros and Cons of Detoxing
The upside of a detox regimen is that cutting out bad eating habits and helping the body eliminate waste more easily make good sense. Choosing organic foods has been shown to reduce pesticide exposure (Smith-Spangler et al. 2012), and eating less processed food and more plant foods means more fiber, more nutrients and fewer chemical additives?.Weil himself asserts that the body can detoxify itself if you simply stop putting toxins into it. He recommends avoiding alcohol, secondhand smoke and household chemicals?as well as drinking more water, eating enough fiber, getting enough exercise to improve elimination and increase breathing (exhalation) rates, and sweating in steam rooms. (Of course, this advice suggests that drinking juice all day or taking certain supplements is not necessary.)
?The belief that it can kick-start a healthier life may only be a fantasy. In fact, the deprivation during fasting may result in a backlash?an impulsive return to junk-food eating. A 2002 study in the?European Journal of Clinical Nutrition?found that both during but also after a fast, obese people experienced increases in hunger and appetite (Oh, Kim & Choue 2002). In a 2009 study published in theEuropean Journal of Neuroscience, researchers took late-morning brain scans of normal-weight adults as they viewed pictures of high-calorie foods?once after eating breakfast and once after skipping it. The scans showed greater activation in brain areas associated with reward when subjects had skipped breakfast, suggesting a difference between fed and fasted states of mind that might help explain an increased desire for overindulgent eating (Goldstone et al 2009).
But if your routine consists of alternating an occasional detox week to fix a chronic pattern of poor eating habits, what?s the point? ?A lifetime of good, healthy eating is going to be more effective than a sometime, short-term cleanse,? says Reau.
SO do you believe in the detox myths? ?In my own detox experience, I did notice a change in my energy levels which dropped, I had headaches & my exercise regiments were not as intense. ?I personally would rather stick to a healthy diet. ?The foods I eat definitely determine how I feel & I take note of what makes me feel awful as opposed to what gives me energy & keeps me full. ?Below are some tips on how to keep your body healthy in the inside:
- Drink plenty of water, the recommended amount is 8-10 cups
- Exercise!
- Stay away from anything that has?preservatives or any food that is processed which means you need to ?read nutrition labels. ?If there is anything on the label you can?t pronounce or need to look up, then put it back.
- Eat more fiber by increasing plant intake
- Try to find clean (non-pesticide or chemically grown) sources for meat, veggies & fruits including eggs.
- Don?t smoke
- Avoid alcohol
If you have any thoughts on the subject, please feel free to comment below!
Source: http://healthfitnessexpedition.wordpress.com/2013/02/13/detox-diets-yay-or-nay/
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