What are your thoughts on "Body Cleanses"?

You heard wrong.

Your body takes care of detoxifying itself just fine.

Water. Lots of good, plain water. Your body can do the rest all on its own.

You can help it even further by focusing on things like fresh, very lightly cooked, or frozen vegetables with little to no sauces, and what is generally termed as "clean eating" which generally involves as few prepackaged, prepared foods as you can manage and a reasonable mix of carbohydrates, good fats, and proteins. Plus lots of fiber, but that will come pretty naturally in a "clean" diet.

They don't work. However, they dehydrate you. What toxins do you think you have ingested that you need to get rid of?

Most cleanses act similar to activated charcoal (actually used for binding toxins in poisoning cases). These cleanses pretty much use various types of clay...you are pretty much eating dirt that captures other particles (look up zeolites for specifics). Dietary fiber works in a similar manner

IMHO, just let your body (liver and kidney) get rid of your "wastes". Your liver processes fatty substances into more water soluble substances to be removed through the kidneys. A calorie deficit will help ensure your liver is eating away at your excess fat...fat is where most toxins are stored BTW (Cleanses do NOT get rid of fat!)

Thanks for the info everyone.... @doubglass I don't know of any per say. My mom passed away from breast cancer 15 years ago and she had to do a few colon type cleanses. The naturopath doc said that our colons contain many toxins. I just thought it sounded really gross and wondered if that might help to kind of get a "fresh start".

And I'm sure he or she would have been happy to sell you a product to deal with that.

In a way your naturopath (sorry, I won't use the term doctor for somebody with 4 years of undergraduate education) was correct, but that's also the reason we poop - it expels the waste products from our bodies. Eat lots of fruits and vegetables, avoid processed foods and drink lots of water and, in the absence of acute disease or poisoning, your body does the rest.

A naturopath (ND) has to complete four additional years of schooling, actually.

Thanks for the info everyone.... @doubglass I don't know of any per say. My mom passed away from breast cancer 15 years ago and she had to do a few colon type cleanses. The naturopath doc said that our colons contain many toxins. I just thought it sounded really gross and wondered if that might help to kind of get a "fresh start".

And I'm sure he or she would have been happy to sell you a product to deal with that.

In a way your naturopath (sorry, I won't use the term doctor for somebody with 4 years of undergraduate education) was correct, but that's also the reason we poop - it expels the waste products from our bodies. Eat lots of fruits and vegetables, avoid processed foods and drink lots of water and, in the absence of acute disease or poisoning, your body does the rest.

A naturopath (ND) has to complete four additional years of schooling, actually.

Or not...

Wikipedia: "Doctor of Naturopathic Medicine (ND or in Arizona "Naturopathic Medical Doctor" or NMD), in 16 U.S. states and six Canadian provinces refers exclusively to a medical degree granted by an accredited naturopathic medical school.[1] While these degrees may be held by people outside of these states and provinces, in most other jurisdictions, the terms are unprotected and may be used by anyone, regardless of educational level."

WA licenses NDs and I'm going by Bastyr's information on their naturopathy degree program.

I love st ives apricot scrub. It really cleanses my body and the scrubbing feels so good