A Detoxing Program Is Not Always Safe
Popular detox diets promise to flush poisons from your body, purge pounds of excess fat, clear your complexion and bolster your immune system, but experts say there’s little evidence that extreme regimens such as the Master Cleanse or Fruit Flush do anything more than lead to unpleasant, unhealthy side effects.
That has not stopped these programs from flying off the shelves. Removing unwanted chemicals is not a new idea, it is something that is well established but it becomes the thing to do for a short period of time. There are no hard numbers on how many people have tried the latest fashionable plans, much less stuck with them, but dozens of new do-it-yourself fasting books are glutting bookstore shelves.
There has been research done, but it is still unclear how much damage a person is doing to their body by using a detox plan repeatedly. Vitamin deficiencies, muscle breakdown and blood-sugar problems not to mention frequent liquid bowel movements are some of the seriously unpleasant drawbacks to these plans, which are skimpy on solid foods and often call for laxatives. The lack of the nutrients may allow a person to be more susceptible to many other conditions that could make them sick or worse.
The scores of detox diet books and kits out there each have their own take on how to cleanse the body, one calls for spices and fruit juices, another for only vegetable purees, and many of them claim to help a person lose fat naturally, but most of them boil down to extremely low-calorie, primarily liquid diets.
The idea behind a detox diet, which can last anywhere from three days to about a month, is to rid the body of toxins absorbed from the environment and the less than healthy foods we eat, and this cleansing is supposed to leave you feeling energized.
There are several detox plans that have a person live on only a liquid diet that does not provide them with any other types of food. Many intestinal experts say we don’t need an extreme diet to cleanse our insides. We have a way to flush these poisons out of us through our waste and sweat that does not require a person to do anything special unless these are stopped by something else that is wrong. When you attempt to remove the unwanted chemicals by using a cleansing system, you often also remove things that your body needs to stay healthy.
There are also many other aches and pains that a person might have to deal with when following these programs.
When the programs include all liquid or things to help with your bowel movement, they will not always be pleasant to endure. Constant bouts of diarrhea will lead a person to many other unpleasant symptoms that might not be worth the effort.
While believers claim they feel lighter and more energetic this is not necessarily the case. What research has proven is that by depriving your body of the nutrition that it requires for more than a few days can lead to someone actually being less energetic and less mentally alert. Because most of these diets contain very little protein, it can be difficult for the body to rebuild lost muscle tissue.
The restrictive nature of these programs will cause a person to shed some pounds in a hurry, however, the pounds will be put back on easily once the program is over. This is especially true for the highly restrictive varieties. There is no replacement for a healthy eating plan, although it is possible to give your body a push by following one of these cleansing systems.
It may sound great that you can change the way you look overnight if you follow one of these cleansing systems, and the advertising makes it look attractive, but in the end it is better for a person to learn how to make the right food choices and get regular physical activity if they want to get healthy and stay that way.
