Are cleansing diets myths?

[grayman]

From an article I read in my morning paper: "Are cleansing diets myths?".

The article takes a more rational approach to the topic, explaining what cleansing diets are, how they can be harmful, and how the body naturally detoxifies.

Cathy Smith was often tired, and felt kind of crummy. Maybe another cleansing diet would help by clearing her body of all the excesses of modern life -- caffeine, sugar, alcohol and more...Four weeks and about $400 later, she felt worse than ever.

Carol Denton, a nutritionist who works at the Institute for Health and Healing at Abbott Northwestern Hospital, said she will sometimes advise clients to do what she calls a "gentle cleanse." In essence, it's a healthy diet consisting primarily of fruits, vegetables, nonmeat proteins and lots of water. It excludes nicotine, caffeine and alcohol.

"Your body is an amazing thing," she said. "It's designed to detoxify, and given an opportunity to do that, it will."

Enjoy.

 

[ClintonHammond]

According to every doctor I've ever talked to (And I talked to a BUNCH in the last year, trying to find relief for my wife's gallbladder pain before surgery fixed it)

They are a TOTAL load of hogwash.... You want the same result? Take the money you'd spend on such nonsense, and just eat that. Especially if you consume it as a lot of small change.... I talking about large handfulls of pennies and nickles, fresh from your city sidewalks. It'll bowl right through you, like prunes through a short grandmother and take everything with it.

 

[Fnord]

Carol Denton is spot on!

What the snake-oil sellers call a 'cleansing diet' is more harmful than most of the stuff that causes the need for 'cleansing' in the first place.

Look, if you eat right in the first place, you'll have fewer problems. Eating 'bad,' then eating 'good,' and then cycling back and forth will do more harm in the long run -- much like the 'binge/purge' cycle of anorexic/bulemic.

Just eat sensibly, and include lots of water, fruits, and vegetables. Exercise is also important. So, log off, get up, and take a 20 to 30 minute walkabout right now!

-Fnord of Dyscordia-

 

[GrnMtSkeptic]

I'm supposed to go through a "cleansing" diet before my colonoscopy... Laxatives three times at 20 minute intervals, twice. Somehow I don't think I'm gonna feel a lot better....

 

[RichardR]

A report in “Food Technology” says the body's own natural detox system works fine. From the BBC:

"Our lungs, kidneys, liver, gastrointestinal tract and immune system are effective in removing or neutralising toxic substances within hours of consumption."

…detoxing can be dangerous for groups such as teenagers or pregnant women, who cannot afford to deprive themselves of food groups.

Ursula Arens, a registered dietician and spokeswoman for the British Dietetic Association said: "'Detox' is a meaningless term that is used all the time.

"And because it hasn't been defined, it's impossible to say if it's worked or if it hasn't."

She added: "All food is made up of chemicals, and all our body does with food is a chemical reaction.

"The body is set up to deal with the chemicals it doesn't want, and excrete them."

Detoxing is a useless fad promoted by Naturopaths. Quackwatch calls detoxing “an irrational concept” and an “elaborate, manipulative hoax”.

 

[Fnord]

I'm supposed to go through a "cleansing" diet before my colonoscopy... Laxatives three times at 20 minute intervals, twice. Somehow I don't think I'm gonna feel a lot better....

Ahh ... now that's a different story. The proctologist wants your plumbing 'cleaned out' not just 'cleansed'.

Think 'Roto-Rooter' versus 'Liquid Plumber.'

-Fnord of Dyscordia-

 

[Blue Wode]

From the article posted by Grayman:

So this past spring, the 43-year-old Minneapolis woman signed up with a chiropractor for a cleansing program.

- snip -

Four weeks and about $400 later, she felt worse than ever.

Not only a poor advertisement for detox diets, but also for chiropractic theory and its claimed cure-all, the spinal adjustment.


Detox diets thoroughly debunked here:
http://www.senseaboutscience.org.uk/index.php/site/project/47

 

[Serenity]

Serenity’s Super-8 Detox Diet Plan
Sponsored by the Wyndham Hotel Group, LLC.

Drink 8 - 8 oz glasses of water p/day along with a balanced diet.
*Notice I didn’t say alkaline water.

If I had to flirt with the Woo internet sites and a multivitamin just would not quench my craving for supplements; I’d hedge my bet and order Alpha lipoic acid and Resveratrol supplements from a reputable source

 

[Lisa Simpson]

I'm taking a nutrition class, and my teacher doesn't believe in detoxifying diets. Eat a balanced, varied diet, with plenty of fiber (at least 25 grams per day) and your body will "detoxify" itself.

 

[joobz]

i also remember hearing on the radio a "detox" plan that including stuff that's supposed to replace your intestinal "flora and Fauna", which I assume is there way of saying the intestinal bacteria.

The part that always killed me is how they wanted you to believe that your bacteria is bad, but thier powdered bacteria is good.

 

[GrnMtSkeptic]

i also remember hearing on the radio a "detox" plan that including stuff that's supposed to replace your intestinal "flora and Fauna", which I assume is there way of saying the intestinal bacteria.

The part that always killed me is how they wanted you to believe that your bacteria is bad, but thier powdered bacteria is good.

Because it is All Natural Aerobic Lactobacillus (tm).

 

[Mongrel]

The part that always killed me is how they wanted you to believe that your bacteria is bad, but thier powdered bacteria is good.

Don't forget the bit where they never tell you that anything that's lives in the intestines as part of the flora can't survive the stomach acid

 

[skeptifem]

the fact that none of the cleansing people can ever tell you what the toxins are, why they are harmful, and how exactly the diet 'cleans' them out of you i have guessed they were bs.