Juice Fasting

helpful tip: DON'T JUICE FAST

Detox Diets: Do They Work?
by Martica Heaner, PhD
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It seems everyone has tried a detox diet these days. Although regimens vary, they generally entail a juice fast lasting days or weeks and often include a “cleanse” with limited food and/or “detoxifying” supplements. Serving up a small allotment of calories can produce dramatic weight loss, which makes detoxing tempting to typical dieters.

But what’s unique about this trend is that it’s also attracting people not trying to lose weight. That’s because these fasts are billed as a way to improve health by removing impurities from the body. Many of the juice regimens purport to cure chronic health conditions and diseases. All this gives detox diets more street cred than the typical fad diet—but is that warranted?

Are These Diets as Scientific as They Sound?

“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.

Of course, some detox diets take a more sensible route, providing juices or supplemented shakes with adequate calories (around 1,200 per day) and protein. “As long as you’re healthy and only follow [a diet like this] for a few days, you will probably lose a few pounds, [but] it’s doubtful that you are going to cure a disease,” says Cohn.

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?

Detoxing the Liver of Thousands of Toxins . . . ?

The most common claim is that a cleanse 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. “The liver is a 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. The liver is self-cleaning; you just have to give it good fuel in the form of healthy food.”

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. Eating less processed food and more plant foods means more fiber, more nutrients and fewer chemical additives. Detox diets may even have a valid detox effect if people forgo alcohol that they might otherwise drink.

Some people think that a regimented, strict plan helps them mentally prepare to embark on a healthier way of eating. However, people often return to their former eating vices when their cleanses are over.

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.

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.

Easy Ways To Eat Healthfully All the Time

Drink more water.
Eat more organic plant foods.
Exercise vigorously.
Get more fiber by eating more plant foods.
Omit or eat fewer animal foods (and choose only free-range, organic, etc., if you do).
Don’t smoke.
Don’t drink alcoholic beverages.
Avoid processed foods.

For more information on detox diets, please see "Detox Diets: Myths vs. Reality" in the online IDEA Library or in the February 2013 issue of IDEA Fitness Journal.

A.C.E. Certified Personal/Group FitnessTrainer
IDEA Fitness member
Kickboxing Certified Instructor
Been in fitness for 30 years and have studied kinesiology and nutrition