Detoxing? What nonsense, say experts
The holidays were a feast of whipped cream, bacon, chocolate ice cream and alcohol. In short: your body feels like a rubbish dump, and you’re fed up with it. There’s only one solution: good resolutions and radically getting rid of all that filth. Detox, is that the answer? Hold on with your wheatgrass smoothie, because detoxing is utter nonsense, say the experts.
Even with a maximum of four guests and no parties, you turned December into a wild ride, with plenty of mayonnaise, frikandellen, caramel sauce and all of it sprinkled with considerable amounts of alcohol. Your pounding head and your smelly body are trying to tell you something: things have to change. All those fit chickens on Instagram know the score: if you want to see your six-pack—or at least your own feet—again, detox is the only solution. That means going hungry, drinking green smoothies and perhaps even rinsing your mouth with coconut oil or apple cider vinegar. What do the experts think?
Clean slate
Detoxification, or ridding the body of toxins, is a natural process, say the nutrition experts at I Am a Foodie, the platform where twenty dietitians separate fact from fiction when it comes to food. We do indeed take in toxins, for example through air pollution or our food. Detoxing with certain detox products can then sound very appealing: giving that polluted body of yours a thorough clean-up.
Removing waste?
But your body does all that by itself, explains expert Rob van Berkel. ‘Detoxification is a normal process intrinsic to the body, in which toxins are rendered harmless and leave the body. This can happen through urine, faeces, breathing, hair, skin or sweat.’ When regular medicine talks about detox, it is often in connection with alcohol and drugs. In alternative medicine, it refers to detoxifying, removing waste or cleansing the body. Fasting, juice fasting or other special diets were devised for this purpose. But no detox product has ever been shown to work, writes I Am a Foodie. ‘Even without noticeable symptoms, you would supposedly feel much better after detoxing. However, an actual measurement of the toxins—their quantity, type and location—is missing. It is an assumption. So they create a solution—a detox product—for a problem that may not even exist.’
A knock
Still want to detox? Fortunately, it is harmless, because according to the expert our bodies can take a knock. ‘The health risks do increase as detoxing takes more extreme forms and lasts longer. Examples include the use of laxatives and diuretics, an overdose of nutritional supplements and an inadequate diet,’ he writes. You also run health risks if detoxing is combined with a low-calorie diet, or if you start taking activated charcoal (that’s Norit) while detoxing.
Marketing
So why do people nevertheless feel better after such a detox treatment? It makes sense, the site says. You have probably lost a few kilos, eaten consciously and paid extra attention to your sleep, relaxation and exercise. That always gives you a boost! The blunt conclusion: ‘The popular concept of “detoxing” is a marketing concept that has little to do with detoxing.’
