How Safe and Helpful Are Detox Diets For Your Body

Detox diets are a very popular way that people use in order to get rid of the harmful toxins that we ingest every day. These diets encourage you to eat natural foods and also encourage you to ingest lots of water and veggies which is all stuff you know is good for you. You hear about celebrities going on detox diets all of the time, and people who go into drug or alcohol rehabs are said to be detoxing as well, so you may wonder if it would be safe and ok for you to do as well.

This is not really the cases

Like many other fad diets, detox diets can have harmful side effects, especially for teens. First of all, toxins can come from food or water, from chemicals used to grow or prepare food, and even from the air that we breathe as I mentioned above. Our bodies bring in toxins and then process those toxins through organs like the liver and kidneys and eliminate them in the form of sweat, urine, and feces.

Although detox diet theories have not actually been proven scientifically, the people who support detox diets believe that toxins don't always leave our bodies properly when we use the bathroom. Instead, they say that these toxins hang around in our digestive, lymph, and gastrointestinal systems and even in our skin and hair.

These toxins can cause all kinds of problems, like tiredness, headaches, and nausea.

Given up certain foods because of detox diets

So the basic idea behind the detox diets is to temporarily give up certain kinds of foods that are thought to contain these toxins in the first place. The idea is to purify and purge the body of all the harmful stuff.

Although detox diets vary by a great deal, most of them involve some version of a fast: which is, giving up food for a couple of days and then gradually reintroducing certain foods into the diet. Many of these diets also encourage you to undergo a complete colonic irrigation, otherwise known as giving yourself enemas to clean out your colon. Of course, there are still others that recommend that you take herbal supplements to help speed the cleansing process.

There are tons of detox diets out there to choose from. Typically they involve 1 or 2 days on a completely liquid diet and another 4 or 5 days slowly adding brown rice, fruit, and steamed vegetables to the diet. After a week of eating only these foods, you gradually reintroduce other foods with the exception of red meat, wheat, sugar, eggs, and all prepackaged or junk foods.

Lots of claims are made about what a detox diet can do for you like preventing and curing disease to giving people more energy to making them more focused and clearheaded. Of course, eating a diet that is lower in fat and higher in fiber can help many people feel more healthy, but certain aspects of these detox diets claim that this is because of the elimination of toxins. This actually does help to clean out your system, but there are some things that you should beware of first.

Basically, to begin, detox diets are intended for short-term purposes only and should not be taken for a long period of time. You should not use a detox diet if you are trying to lose weight.

Detox diets are not good for...

Because normal teenagers need lots of nutritional foods in their diet, like enough calories and protein to support rapid growth and development, diets that involve fasting and severe restriction of food are not a good idea for them. For teens who are highly athletic, fasting does not provide you with enough fuel to support these activities. It is for these reasons; detox diets can be especially risky for teenagers.

It is not recommended that people with diabetes, low blood sugar, or eating disorders go on detox diets either.

You should also know that this type of diet can be addictive. That's because there's a certain feeling that comes from going without food or having an enema which can feel like a high that some other people get from nicotine or alcohol. This can become a dangerous addiction that leads to major health problems in the long run.

Also, many of the supplements that are used during detox diets are actually laxatives, which are designed to make people go to the bathroom more often. Laxative supplements are never a good idea because they can cause dehydration, mineral imbalances, and problems with the digestive system.

Finally, people who fast for days on end may drop pounds, but most of it will be water and some of it may be muscle which your body needs. Fasting for longer periods can also slow down your metabolism, making it harder to keep the weight off or to lose weight later.

We're not telling you that eating lots of veggies and fiber and drinking lots of water is a bad idea, but even good things can be overdone. For proper health you need to have a balanced nutritional level that you can only by eating such foods as protein from lean meats, eggs, beans, or peas and calcium from low-fat or fat-free milk or yogurt.

You definitely shouldn't start a detox diet or stop eating from any major food group without talking to your doctor or a registered dietitian first. The human body is designed to purify itself. Your liver and kidneys will do the job they're supposed to do if you eat a healthy diet that includes fiber, fruits, veggies, and plenty of water.

When taken once every 6 months or longer, the detox diet is not harmful and will cleanse your body of the toxins that you want to be rid of. Just make sure that you are not over doing it or prolonging the diet for longer than you need to.