Cleanses

I don't understand the notion of cleansing. Your body's not a garburator that you clean once in awhile. It's a piggy bank that every day you make a deposit to your health. If you eat horrible foods, you damage your body, and starving yourself for two days isn't going to fix it. Most of the claims about cleanses aren't backed up by science and don't make sense. Food doesn't make your body toxic, and toxins don't cause weight gain. And 10-15lbs of waste isn't clinging to your colon, that's absurd! When you eat food that's processed or high in saturated fat, your bad cholesterol rises. So if cleansing means getting rid of white sugar and trans fats and eating more fruits and veggies and whole grains. Then that's something to support, it's healthy eating. If you did that for 6 weeks, and restricted your saturated fats and sodium, your cardiovascular system and liver would improve. You'd be giving your body the nutrients and fibre that it needs. But if you only drink lemon water, or severely restrict your calories, you put undue stress on your body. Your metabolism drops to compensate, so you don't lose anything, except water weight. And then there's just no way you're getting enough nutrients, such as calcium. Drugstore cleanses are glorified laxatives or extremely low cal diets. They are plain out dangerous. They make your body process toxinswithout nutritional support. A cleanse should not mimic an eating disorder, losing weight isn't supposed to be the goal of a cleanse, if you choose to cleanse, knowing the facts, the pros and cons are your first step to making an educated decision. It's not a weight loss quick fix and shouldn't be used as such.