Hmm.. to detox, or not to detox, that is the question...

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Replies

  • 5auce
    5auce Posts: 51 Member
    I did master cleanse a couple of years ago, followed it to a T-laxative tea, salt water flushes included. I lasted 10 days. At first I was full of energy and thought it was awesome, I lost a lot of weight. By day 8 or 9 I started to get this gross thick white coating all over my tongue and my breath was horrible no matter how much I brushed my teeth. I felt like I had taken 4 hits of acid. I don't know if my skin looked awesome and no one told me anything but that's probably because I couldn't leave the house. That was it, I was over it. I came out of it just like you were supposed to, slowly starting with broth then adding certain foods. I didn't have a poo for almost 2 weeks after and gained all the weight back and then some. I spent a lot of money to not eat anything and mess up my body. Soooooo not worth it.
  • fit4lifeUcan2
    fit4lifeUcan2 Posts: 1,458 Member
    My stock answer to MFP questions on detoxes:

    1. There is no (zero, zip, nada) credible scientific evidence that cleanses or detoxes do anything. No toxins magically get released from your body because you drank a juice, didn't chew any food for 3 days, took a pill, etc.

    2. Your liver and kidneys detox your body, day in and day out. That is what they are designed to do.

    Use common sense, eat real food, and your body will thank you.

    Bravo!! This is the most sensible answer I've seen yet on MFP.:flowerforyou:
  • Corkline
    Corkline Posts: 107
    I like to do my version of a detox. If you cant kill it, or grow it, then dont eat it. basically cut out foods that come in cardboard boxes and packets and get back to cooking real fresh foods that tasts great and the whole family can eat. :wink:

    I support this kind of detox! And I've done it a few times, when I've gone a little overboard with sugar and caffeine and stuff. But pills, cleanses and stuff like that worry me...
  • surromom2010
    surromom2010 Posts: 457 Member
    Are you just looking for someone to say yes they work? Because it seems that everyone who has said they don't work is getting the hush hush..

    I have used a detox

    I lost weight

    Gained it back immediately and had no positive effects that lasted a day longer that the detox itself.

    My answer "NO"
  • jgrode1984
    jgrode1984 Posts: 112
    I did a raw food cleanse (uncooked fruits and veggies) for about five days before calorie counting. I flushed a lot of junk out of my digestive system, felt refreshed in the mornings, more energy through the day, and a good starting point for a new way of eating healthy. I wouldn't use pills or elixirs, just good old fashioned straight from the earth food. Plus there is lots of recipes and ideas if you google them so you don't get bored....
  • TrishLG
    TrishLG Posts: 173 Member
    Detox means no meat, dairy, fat, sugar, junk food, toxic beverages.
    The old Weight Watchers had everyone starting on cabbage soup.
    That got the toxins out, flushed what needed to be flushed, and gave everyone a high initial weight loss that encouraged them to keep going.
    Not a bad idea.
  • EatClean_WashUrNuts
    EatClean_WashUrNuts Posts: 1,590 Member
    Hmmm, to cut out my liver and kidneys or not...That is the equated medical version of your topic. There is No reason if you have working organs.
  • AnvilHead
    AnvilHead Posts: 18,343 Member
    ...The old Weight Watchers had everyone starting on cabbage soup.
    That got the toxins out, flushed what needed to be flushed, and gave everyone a high initial weight loss that encouraged them to keep going...
    Which toxins does cabbage soup eliminate from your body? And what is the process by which it eliminates them?
  • TamaBrett
    TamaBrett Posts: 22 Member
    To all the people that have used the word "toxins", what are "toxins"?
  • FredDoyle
    FredDoyle Posts: 2,273 Member
    Detox means no meat, dairy, fat, sugar, junk food, toxic beverages.
    The old Weight Watchers had everyone starting on cabbage soup.
    That got the toxins out, flushed what needed to be flushed, and gave everyone a high initial weight loss that encouraged them to keep going.
    Not a bad idea.
    It IS a bad idea. Start reading here:
    http://www.quackwatch.org/01QuackeryRelatedTopics/detox_overview.html

    The Mayo clinic has a word about it too:
    http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/detox-diets/AN01334
  • FredDoyle
    FredDoyle Posts: 2,273 Member
    To all the people that have used the word "toxins", what are "toxins"?
    No one has EVER stated once on this site what these mysterious toxins are since I've been here (or any where).
    Not holding my breath...don't expect the proponents to answer. It's woo, pseudoscience at its best.
    Unicorn horn, pixie dust and fairy wings.
  • notthatthis
    notthatthis Posts: 218
    To all the people that have used the word "toxins", what are "toxins"?
    No one has EVER stated once on this site what these mysterious toxins are since I've been here (or any where).
    Not holding my breath...don't expect the proponents to answer. It's woo, pseudoscience at its best.
    Unicorn horn, pixie dust and fairy wings.

    the toxins are peoples bad karma that are invading my prahna and limiting my ability to transcend. I am a breatharian and I know what i am talking about.
  • evileen99
    evileen99 Posts: 1,564 Member
    I recommend reading the book "Clean" by Alejandro Junger. It's got some really interesting ideas in it - he basically suggests doing a lot of juicing (not solely drinking juices) for 3 weeks in order to give your bodies natural detoxing organs and systems a little break and a jump start. The liver and kidneys DO detox our bodies for us already, but nowadays we eat so much food that the body is busy breaking down all that food all the time when it could be using that energy to help heal and maintain our body. As with any book or article, take it with a grain of salt. No one is right about everything, but he makes some good points. Good luck :)

    *I should say that I have followed a lot of his suggestions for several months and notice a HUGE difference in how I feel and how much energy I have, but I don't follow it to a T or anything.

    Your liver and kidneys do not need a "break." Even if you're not eating, all your cellular functions are continuallly creating waste and by products that yorur organs process around the clock. The idea that they need to "rest" is preposterous. Does your heart need to rest from all that pumping?

    My heart wouldnt need rest from "all that pumping", but what I put in my body decides how hard my heart has to pump. Being that eating unhealthy definately puts you at risk for heart disease, wouldn't excess metals, toxins and free radicals give your cleansing organs more of a workout than need be?

    I am asking the people that HAVE detoxed, if it is something that they would reccommend. Nowhere in my post did I say I wanted to lose a ton of weight fast and spend a bunch of money. Geesh, tough crowd.

    What makes you think you have "excess metals" in your body? What symptoms are you having? Because heavy metal intoxication has SERIOUS symptoms, not just this "blah" feeling. If you think you have excess metals in your system, get your blood levels checked. And what toxins? Name them! Again, have you been tested? And about these mysterious things giving my cleansing organs more of a workout than need be, wouldn't raising my heart rate through exercise give it more of a workout than need be? Unless you're seriously ill, YOUR ORGANS DON'T NEED TO REST.

    Even that quack Dr. Oz had to admit that cleansing diets don't work--he did his own little study with two groups of his watchers. One group ate their normally crappy diets, the other was given a two week stay a a spa and ate a specifically designed Dr. Oz detox diet for those two weeks. At the end of the time period? The blood tests between the two groups HAD NOT CHANGED. Whatever "toxins" Dr. Oz was checking (he never named them) were not affected by his detox program.
  • HatherM
    HatherM Posts: 404 Member
    I followed a 'detox' which was literally just eating & drinking fresh real raw food for one week - smoothies, salads, seeds, nuts, soups, basically a vegan diet - I did lose weight & I felt good for doing it.

    I wouldn't recommend tablet versions as you will be missing out on nutrients your body needs.

    Your body needs a varied & fresh food diet to perform at it's best, so just cutting out processed foods or living by the 80% rule of eating clean 80% of the day & allowing yourself a little snack that makes up 20% is a good way to go
  • notthatthis
    notthatthis Posts: 218
    I know the true value of "detox" products, books, videos and seminars. Profit, where once no market existed thus the markekteers spotted an enormous profit and thus the detoxofication products were launched and hark did the cash registers ring. Now a $5 billion dollar a year business and 50 years ago there was no value.

    But the scientists asked, but where is the proof to back up your claims? The marketeers had no answer so they bombarded the world with their press releases and the internets and so it is proven, "Say it loud enough and long enough then people start to believe it".

    Detoxification - no medical proof. Our body does all the detoxing we need, and when it cannot like in sepsis - then you die and no amount of detoxing will save you. Or wrecking your detox organs with alcohol - see cirrhosis

    Intermittent Fasting and IGF-1, this is still not proven but more evidence points that this succeeds and benefits.
  • AnvilHead
    AnvilHead Posts: 18,343 Member
    To all the people that have used the word "toxins", what are "toxins"?
    No one has EVER stated once on this site what these mysterious toxins are since I've been here (or any where).
    Not holding my breath...don't expect the proponents to answer. It's woo, pseudoscience at its best.
    Unicorn horn, pixie dust and fairy wings.
    Y'know, I was just thinking about it when I read the above bolded passage: The vast majority of toxins we take into our body on a daily basis enter via inhalation. Maybe a "breathing cleanse/detox" is what people really need. If you held your breath for, say, three days, you'd give your respiratory system a well-deserved rest from all that breathing we do every day, and it would also vastly cut down on the "teh toxinzzz" taken in via respiration. Eat some cabbage soup beforehand and do daily soaks in epsom salts to draw all those poisons out through your skin (by whatever process makes that happen), and you should be a completely new, cleansed, rebooted, jump-started, detox'ed person after three days!


    (disclaimer: somewhere out there, there's somebody desperate/gullible enough to take this seriously and try it. It's satire. Don't do this. It wouldn't be good for you - just like any other cleanse/detox)
  • blleadon
    blleadon Posts: 187 Member
    Parasite cleanses are interesting to read about. I have tried it but I can't tell of the results because I didn't look at my waste.
  • evileen99
    evileen99 Posts: 1,564 Member
    Parasite cleanses are interesting to read about. I have tried it but I can't tell of the results because I didn't look at my waste.

    You're not full of parasites. Again, these people that claim we're loaded with creatures feeding off of us are the one who, coincidentally, make money selling you the cure.
  • happythermia
    happythermia Posts: 374
    My version of a detox is basically drinking only water and tea (instead of bourbon haha)

    I still totally eat.
  • ILiftHeavyAcrylics
    ILiftHeavyAcrylics Posts: 27,732 Member
    Science says no.

    If you ask enough people, you'll find people that say the Earth is flat http://theflatearthsociety.org/cms/

    They will still be wrong, completely wasting their time, and leading others astray with their beliefs.

    Agree.

    Respectfully, OP, it doesn't really sound like you want anyone to post unless they are in favor of detoxes, and most of us aren't. We don't have to have tried it to know it's a bad idea, but if you want to hear from a member who *has* done one, see this post on the master cleanse:

    http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/851582-master-cleanse-aka-lemonade-diet-my-30-day-story
  • Admiral_Derp
    Admiral_Derp Posts: 866 Member
    Tried a couple of different "cleanses", both the kind you spend money on and natural, food and drink cleanses, and I couldn't tell that either had any kind of lasting benefits. I feel better eating balanced (majority of my diet structured around getting all the necessary vitamins, minerals, carbs, proteins, etc., and then eating whatever for whatever calories I have left), and taking plenty of exercise (especially lifting heavy stuff), I've lost more weight that way, and kept it off as well. IMO, "detoxes" are a waste of time and money, and a lot of the science (already posted by others) seems to support it.
  • skrakalaka
    skrakalaka Posts: 338 Member
    I used to do cleanses and detoxes because I was impatient and wanted immediate results. All it did was empty my wallet, make me and miserable, cause me physical pain, not to mention the embarrassing bathroom emergencies at inopportune times. As someone who has done it before, no I do not recommend them.
  • Tammi140
    Tammi140 Posts: 47 Member
    Thank you to those of you that have shared your experience with different detoxes. I do appreciate you taking the time to satisfy my curiosity! Hugs

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