The Detox and Cleanse Myth: Why Short-Term Fixes Won't Solve Long-Term Health Problems

Cleanses and detoxes have become popular in recent years as a way to lose weight and improve overall health. The idea behind a cleanse or a detox is that you consume only a limited amount of food (or no food at all), and usually drink plenty of a specific kind of low-calorie beverage, whether it be an herbal blend, lemon water, or a mix of certain vegetables or fruits. This hiatus from normal eating is proposed to both stop the influx of foodborne toxins into your body and remove the built-up toxins that are already there.

However, the truth is that there is no practical difference in the amount of toxins that you are consuming during such a cleanse. Your liver processes most of the toxins out of your body over time, and cleanses and detoxes do not assist or rush this process. While most of the herbs and blends used in detoxes are healthy, they unfortunately do not have any special toxin-removing capabilities. Direct assessments of detox and cleansing diets show the same effect as lowering calories and eating healthy. The downside to longer periods of “detoxing” or “cleansing” is that protocols often lack protein, resulting in muscle loss. Any studies showing evidence of a benefit to detoxing are usually severely lacking in experimental rigor and seldom appear in a peer-reviewed journal (if at all).

A huge downside of the detox/cleanse paradigm is that it postulates that you can reverse weeks or months of poor eating habits within days of strict adherence to a special dietary and fluid protocol. In order to restore your health to the condition you had before a stint of poor eating practices, you simply have to eat well over time.