*Short story: if you have a healthy liver and kidneys, your body does that for you*
Longer story:
All the detox and cleanse products are based on false promises and scare tactics. Do they ever say what toxins they are actually removing from your body? Are we just sitting around, accumulating biologic radioactive waste in our organs that must be cleansed from our bodies? Most likely not.
Buying an herbal powder or pill to detox your body will not solve all your problems. Just like taking one scoop of a pre-workout drink won’t make you look like the steroided out guy in the add.
There is absolutely zero scientific evidence behind any herbal or supplement form of a detox or cleanse product. The only one that “worked” was olestra – but that just blocked fat from being absorbed and came with the lovely side effect of “oily, leaky stools and anal leakage” – fun.
What about natural food cleanses and detoxes?
Here’s the deal: they usually contain lots of vegetables, fibrous carbs, lean proteins, and no artificial fats, sweeteners, and are low in calories. Doesn’t that sound like a diet recommended for fat loss?
Bingo
There is usually nothing magical about the actual food itself – but the quality and quantities of various ingredients lead to feeling better, which is a great thing! Couple that with the fact that sometimes they are made for you, makes these “cleanses” a no brainer option for busy people.
However, they are not actually cleansing you of anything, or fixing your metabolism.
(Proponents of “metabolic damage” actually fix peoples metabolism in quite the opposite way – with adding MORE food – in the form of reverse dieting – but thats a different article)
When you go from eating haphazardly, junky, and garbage foods to a consistent, calorie controlled, high fiber, moderate protein diet – you feel better, you will probably lose weight (some water weight if it’s a low carb cleanse), and thus got good results if thats what you were after.
Another point – LISTEN TO YOUR BODY! Maybe every time you eat dairy, you feel like garbage and need to rush to a bathroom? Then stop eating dairy. Maybe you feel like you are going to explode when you eat 5 pounds of pasta. Must be the gluten – NO – it’s the fact that you ate well past satiety – or maybe it is gluten, only you can truly figure that out. But do NOT just assume that you have a gluten intolerance because the latest guy or gal in the checkout isle told you.
But what happens when that 7-14 days is over? And you have to go right back to eating like you used to? Yup – the weight comes back, sometimes more.
This is why quick fixes – cleanses/detoxes/other buzz words – don’t actually work for most people. If you follow a program for 7-14 days, blindly eating what is given to you, how do you ever learn how to continue that path on your own?
You don’t need to earn a degree in nutrition, but I always recommend that people educate themselves on the basics of nutrition, learn how different nutrients affect them, and use your body and results as an experiment of sorts.
So what CAN we learn from successful cleanses?
Eating veggies, lean protein, fibrous carbs, healthy fats in moderation, and drinking water is good for the body……no shit, now give me $199.99.
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Stay healthy my friends,