Evidence Based
If you’re having trouble losing weight and keeping it off…
If you’re battling hunger and cravings…
If you want to “reset” your system after a period of poor health habits…
Or if you generally just feel like crap…
You might find yourself seriously considering some sort of “detox diet.”
The yoga girl swears by a 3-day water cleanse. The smiley doctor guy says a juice diet can give you a shiny new liver. The raw food weirdo gushes about the wonders of eating everything uncooked. And don’t get me started about the Instagram “models” smugly posing with their green smoothies and kale chips.
The more you look, the more cleanses and detox programs you find, with each one apparently better than the last.
The problem, however, is all of them are missing the forest for the trees.
While it’s true your body is regularly exposed to a wide variety of toxic substances, and while some of them are particularly nasty and can accumulate in body fat, there’s no evidence that trendy “cleanses” and “detox diets” help mitigate the damage or rid the body of toxins.
That is, yes, your body has a certain amount of harmful chemicals deposited in its fat stores, but no, drinking a bunch of lemonade for a week isn’t going to do anything about it.
If you want to feel and look great for the rest of your life, you need to commit to several things:
- Exercising your body several hours per week (resistance training is particularly important).
- Eating a lot of high-quality food with special emphasis on plenty of fruits and vegetables.
- Not smoking.
- Consuming alcohol in moderation.
- Avoiding dependencies on drugs and medicines.
- Maintaining good sleep hygiene.
So, if you want to know why you should stop trying to detox your body, listen to this episode!
Oh and if you like this episode and want to get notified when a new one goes live, head on over to Spotify, iTunes, Stitcher, YouTube, Soundcloud, or Google Play and subscribe.
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Timestamps:
5:42 – Do toxins cause weight gain? What causes weight gain?
23:31 – What are toxins and how does the body process them?
29:02 – Do detox diets help with rapid weight loss?
Mentioned on the show:
What did you think of this episode? Have anything else to share? Let me know in the comments below!
+ Scientific References
- Durrant, M. L., Garrow, J. S., Royston, P., Stalley, S. F., Sunkin, S., & Warwick, P. M. (1980). Factors influencing the composition of the weight lost by obese patients on a reducing diet. British Journal of Nutrition, 44(3), 275–285. https://doi.org/10.1079/bjn19800042
- Henry, R. R., Wiest-Kent, T. A., Scheaffer, L., Kolterman, O. G., & Olefsky, J. M. (1986). Metabolic consequences of very-low-calorie diet therapy in obese non-insulin-dependent diabetic and nondiabetic subjects. Diabetes, 35(2), 155–164. https://doi.org/10.2337/diab.35.2.155
- Aminah Alleyne Jones, MD, MPH Ranit Mishori, MD, MHS Aye Otubu, MD, M. (n.d.). The dangers of colon cleansing | MDedge Family Medicine. Retrieved May 25, 2020, from https://www.mdedge.com/familymedicine/article/64413/gastroenterology/dangers-colon-cleansing
- How does the liver work? (2016). https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK279393/
- Ruiz, J. R., Sui, X., Lobelo, F., Morrow, J. R., Jackson, A. W., Sjöström, M., & Blair, S. N. (2008). Association between muscular strength and mortality in men: Prospective cohort study. BMJ, 337(7661), 92–95. https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.a439
- St-Pierre, N. R., Milliken, G. A., Bauman, D. E., Collier, R. J., Hogan, J. S., Shearer, J. K., Larry Smith, K., & Thatcher, W. W. (2014). Meta-analysis of the effects of sometribove zinc suspension on the production and health of lactating dairy cows. Journal of the American Veterinary Medical Association, 245(5), 550–564. https://doi.org/10.2460/javma.245.5.550
- Álvarez-Pedrerol, M., Ribas-Fitó, N., Torrent, M., Carrizo, D., Grimalt, J. O., & Sunyer, J. (2008). Effects of PCBs, p,p′-DDT, p,p′-DDE, HCB and β-HCH on thyroid function in preschool children. Occupational and Environmental Medicine, 65(7), 452–457. https://doi.org/10.1136/oem.2007.032763
- Cohn, B. A., Cirillo, P. M., Wolff, M. S., Schwingl, P. J., Cohen, R. D., Sholtz, R. I., Ferrara, A., Christianson, R. E., Van Den Berg, B. J., & Siiteri, P. K. (2003). DDT and DDE exposure in mothers and time to pregnancy in daughters. Lancet, 361(9376), 2205–2206. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(03)13776-2
- Van Wendel De Joode, B., Wesseling, C., Kromhout, H., Monge, P., García, M., & Mergler, D. (2001). Chronic nervous-system effects of long-term occupational exposure to DDT. Lancet, 357(9261), 1014–1016. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(00)04249-5
- Ouyang, F., Longnecker, M. P., Venners, S. A., Johnson, S., Korrick, S., Zhang, J., Xu, X., Christian, P., Wang, M. C., & Wang, X. (2014). Preconception serum 1,1,1-trichloro-2,2,bis(p-chlorophenyl)ethane and B-vitamin status: Independent and joint effects on women’s reproductive outcomes. American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, 100(6), 1470–1478. https://doi.org/10.3945/ajcn.114.088377
- Rogan, W. J., & Ragan, N. B. (2007). Some evidence of effects of environmental chemicals on the endocrine system in children. International Journal of Hygiene and Environmental Health, 210(5), 659–667. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijheh.2007.07.005
- Codru, N., Schymura, M. J., Negoita, S., Rej, R., & Carpenter, D. O. (2007). Diabetes in relation to serum levels of polychlorinated biphenyls and chlorinated pesticides in adult native Americans. Environmental Health Perspectives, 115(10), 1442–1447. https://doi.org/10.1289/ehp.10315
- Cohn, B. A., Wolff, M. S., Cirillo, P. M., & Scholtz, R. I. (2007). DDT and breast cancer in young women: New data on the significance of age at exposure. Environmental Health Perspectives, 115(10), 1406–1414. https://doi.org/10.1289/ehp.10260
- Jandacek, R. J., & Tso, P. (2001). Factors affecting the storage and excretion of toxic lipophilic xenobiotics. In Lipids (Vol. 36, Issue 12, pp. 1289–1305). American Oil Chemists Society. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11745-001-0844-z
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