Cleanse And Detox Trends - Do They Harm Or Help You?

The cleanse industry is worth a shocking $5 billion. While detox products themselves may be fairly pricey, at around $8 per bottle, they represent only a minor expense for you. That’s still a lot of bottles being sold, and a lot of folks succumbing to the idea that they need a cleanse to kick start their weight loss, shed some fat or get their new healthy lifestyle off to a flying start.

You can blame (or congratulate) celebrities and so called industry health experts for this rapid rise in the popularity of cleanse and detox diets and products. Do they actually benefit you, and if they do, is the benefit anywhere near as huge as manufacturers would have you believe?

Detox Diets: The Help

There’s certainly a lot to be said for this. While the effect may be a placebo, there’s nothing wrong with the placebo effect – if following one of these cleanses makes you feel great, then more power to you. And if following one of these cleanses marks the start of a series of genuinely healthy lifestyle changes, well, you're on a roll!

With regard to weight loss, there’s no doubting that you almost certainly will lose weight following this type of diet, even if it’s just for a few days.

While some cleanses involve drinking ready made products, just as many run of the mill diets advocate simply ditching whole foods for the week – especially high sugar, high fat, processed foods. Instead, you eat nothing but raw fruits and vegetables, or opt for the more popular method of juicing.

If a food is fresh and can be juiced, you can eat, or rather – drink, it. This means that smoothies and shakes combining a multitude of fruits and vegetables, from spinach to sugar snap peas, berries to beetroot and asparagus to apples are on your weekly menu.

Just by switching from a high-calorie, highly processed, nutrient deficient diet to this shifts your body into fat burning mode. It’s almost impossible to over consume calories when eating like this, so even if you’re not training alongside your detox, you’ll be in a calorie deficit in no time, and will almost certainly lose at least some weight.

There’s also the motivation factor to consider. Many people struggle to gain motivation when they don’t see the scale moving downward. It can feel like you’re putting everything you have into sticking religiously to your healthy eating plan, yet results are hard to come by. Not so with a cleanse – the fast initial weight loss can act as a catalyst for bigger and better things. If you've lost five to ten pounds in just a week, that can give you some serious motivation to carry on making progress, even when you switch to a more sustainable eating plan.

Detox Diets: The Harm

Where do we start with this one?

Firstly, the idea that switching just to fruits and vegetables, or even specialized detox products will rid your body of toxins is utterly absurd.

Even if the products or diets did this, it would take far more than a few days or even a week to rectify any damage caused from years of an unhealthy diet and poor lifestyle habits, not to mention actual toxins that you have probably also been exposed to. The true fact however is that cleansing products simply don’t do "detox" – and they don't need to, either, because your body already has its own amazing detoxifier; your liver. If this is up to scratch, you have no need to embark on cleanses.

Secondly, you have the issue of the calorie intake.

A low calorie intake, as discussed earlier, will help you lose weight. Great, you may think, until you examine it further. Only eating fruits and vegetables will mean your calorie intake is incredibly low – this may not do you any lasting harm if you only keep it up for a few days, but it’s definitely far from good for you.

Plus, these diets are completely devoid of any usable protein (fruits and vegetables do contain protein, but the amount is minuscule and doesn't contain all the essential amino acids your body needs, making them incomplete proteins) as well as healthy fats. Most detox diets don’t allow any fat whatsoever, despite the fact that fat is essential for maintaining healthy hormone production and cell function.

Demonizing Certain Foods

Just go with the idea that these detoxes are beneficial for a moment.

This can create a terrible relationship with food. Say you’re following a detox, and believe that meat, fish, dairy products, grains and nuts are off the menu. They’re either too high in fat, contain carbohydrates, or supposedly add to the toxins in your body – this makes it incredibly difficult to maintain a normal social life and a healthy relationship with food.

For the duration of the diet you become a social hermit, unable to partake it meals out or dinners at friends’ houses. After the diet finishes, even though you’re supposed to transition back into “normal” eating, they’ll always be that nagging voice in the back of your mind, arguing that a lot of the foods you’re now eating are causing damage and harm to your body. This of course, is not the case, but it’s difficult to get that notion out of your head.

Demotivating

Just because some folks will find the initial rapid weight loss highly motivating, others will find it just as demotivating.

There’s a high expectation to carry on losing weight at this fast weight. If you lose five pounds in week one on a detox or fast, you’ll want that to continue, even if you switch diets. The meal plan you go onto post-cleanse is probably far healthier and sustainable, but if you’re now “only” losing one to two pounds per week, it can make you feel like you may as well not bother.

A lot of the weight loss during your cleanse will be simply due to having less food in your body. You’ll potentially lose muscle mass too as a result of the chronically low calorie intake and will have lower levels of muscle glycogen (the body’s stored form of carbohydrate.) Suddenly your five pounds of weight loss equates to only one, possibly two pounds of pure fat loss.

The Bottom Line

Will cleanses and detoxes harm you? It’s highly unlikely if you only run the odd short-term one.

Will they help you? Almost certainly not. There just doesn't appear to be any need or scientific backing to them.

Your wallet can take a big dent from the expensive products, but your waistline probably won’t.