Detox Diets: The Hype and the Facts
There is a lot of hype surrounding detox diets, which can range from mild to extreme depending on the diet.
What makes an extreme detox diet extreme?
- Length: five days or more of a juice-only detox diet can throw blood sugar levels into chaos, weaken your immune system, diminish electrolyte balance or harm your health in other ways too numerous to mention.
- Lack of protein: detox diets that do not emphasize some type of protein can be dangerous and increase negative detox side effects.
- Lack of variety: mono-food detox diets, such as the Cabbage Soup diet, the grape diet or the brown rice diet, are fine for a day or two but not for days and certainly not weeks.
- Expense: no detox diet should drain the wallet. If you’re being sold an expensive diet plan or detox diet kit, just say no and read on.
Some health professionals believe that detox diets offer no benefit, but we disagree. The average person’s diet is laden with chemicals, additives, flavor enhancers, trans fats and other non-nutritive, toxic ingredients. We all would do well to take time now and then to really clean up our diet, even if just for a day.
What we advocate is two approaches:
- Do shorter, more frequent detox diets that are on the mild side of the detox diet spectrum, and
- Adopting long-term dietary habits that emphasize the central elements of a clean, nutrient-dense and nutritionally balanced diet.
Here are some well-know detox diets we recommend: (note that we have listed Liquid Diets; these should only be undertaken with the supervision of a doctor or health care professional, and for a limited time duration.)
Lemon Detox Recipe
Raw Food Diet
Liquid Diets
How We Lose Weight
Detox Therapies
Related information:
Intestinal CleansingDetox Foot Pads
Purging
Fasting
Fasting with Vegetable Juices
Juice Fasting: Treatment of Diseases
Liver Lymph Cleanse