Oh boy. Your friend has a giant mixer bottle of unidentifiable greenish liquid again, claiming they are on another vague cleanse. Are dietary detoxes or cleanses actually doing people any good, or are they yet another dangerous diet scam? Healthline weighs in for their article “Weight Loss Cleanses: Do They Work?

The theory behind a cleanse implies that there are impurities within our bodies that require cleansing. There isn’t a standard for what constitutes a legitimate weight loss cleanse, but in general, the idea is to remove something from a diet or lifestyle to encourage health or weight loss. Typically, cleanses are short and follow a set of instructions for dietary changes to facilitate specified goals. Usually, a cleanse or detox lasts between one-to-30 days.

One type might focus on reducing weight, while another claims to promote fat loss in target body areas. The methods are widely varied. Some suggest herbal supplements or dictate exercises, while others only home in on food types consumed. Cleanses and detoxes are similar diet plans with some overlap, especially as there isn’t a scientific standard to follow. The main difference can be found in the motivation behind the diet type.

Detox or detoxification diets rely on the premise that your body needs help to eliminate harmful substances or toxins from your system in order to achieve optimize health. The referenced toxins could be any dietary or environmental substance that might cause harm, such as pollutants, heavy metals, industrial chemicals, pesticides or allergens. A detox diet might ask you to fast; take herbal supplements or laxatives; eliminate many foods; or use a sauna. Some are said to be detoxing specific organs, like the liver, kidneys or colon. Weight loss is a common goal of detoxes, but they can often be said to address a wide range of physical ails, such as allergies, headaches, migraines, fatigue, digestive trouble, nausea, hormone imbalance, acne and skin rashes. Yet, as detoxes grow in popularity, there is no scientific evidence to back up the true effectiveness of these regimens.

Cleanse diets on the other hand emphasize healthy and nutrient-dense whole foods to replace unhealthy or allergenic goods in an effort to support health overall. Cleanse dieting is thought by some to promote weight loss and alleviate digestive issues or food cravings. Foods often eliminated in a cleanse diet are sugar, processed foods, dairy, soy, corn, wheat and gluten.

Popular Programs on the Market

 Another day, another new diet that pops up in a Google search. Here are a few you might have heard of or tried:

  • Juice Cleanses: This is usually three-to-seven day’s worth of only consuming juice and water. Often there is a specified order of fruits and vegetables to be consumed, in juice form.
  • 10-Day Green Smoothie Cleanse: Instead of meals, participants consume green smoothies made from various fruits and veggies. An unlimited amount of non-starchy vegetables is also allowed during this time.
  • BeachBody Ultimate Reset: A commercial 21-day diet that seeks to eliminate dairy, eggs, sugar and processed food while including nutritional supplements, probiotics and herbal laxatives.
  • Master Cleanse: Aka the Lemonade diet; this diet cleanse only allows a mixture of lemon juice, water, cayenne pepper and maple syrup for 10 days.

What Science Has to Say

When making major dietary decisions, ideally there should be some solid research basis behind making any sort of drastic changes in what is or is not consumed in a healthy diet. Unfortunately, there have not been any scientific studies published on any public weight loss cleanse or detox, so claims of health benefits do not yet have quantifiable evidence to back them up. The closest parallel that can be drawn in terms of a similar diet with researched benefits is a short-term, very-low-calorie diet (VLCD).

A VLCD is often used for obese people and several studies have shown significant weight loss, as well as other possible benefits like lowering cholesterol and blood pressure. A VLCD is a diet of 450-800 daily calories, but they are more strategic than weight loss cleanses in that they are closely monitored by healthcare professionals and take special care to preserve nutritional balance. Weight loss cleanses do not seem to be as concerned with maintaining vital nutrients, such as protein.

Most notably, these diets are short-term fixes that might help someone look and feel good in the very immediate short-term, but they offer no plan for long-term health or healthy eating habits.

 Possible Dietary Dangers

The U.S Department of Health and Human Services published an article titled “’Detoxes’ and ‘Cleanses’: What You Need To Know” that brings special attention to the misinformation and riskiness of this segment of the diet industry complex. There have been multiple incidences where the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) have had to step in and act against multiple companies found to be selling detox/cleansing products containing illegal or possibly dangerous ingredients, marketed with unsubstantiated claims that the products could treat serious diseases and other shocking violations.

Beware of what may be contained in prepackaged juice cleanses or detoxes. They may not be properly pasteurized or processed to kill harmful bacteria that can cause sickness, which puts the elderly and those with weakened immune systems at the most risk. Juices can sometimes be made from foods high in oxolate, such as spinach and beets. Large quantities of high-oxalate juice can increase risk for kidney complications. Not to mention, drinking lots of water, juice or herbal tea without any food for days on end can lead to dangerous electrolyte imbalances.

Final thoughts

The internet is truly the new wild west, and you just can’t believe everything you read, especially when it comes to what to put into your body. Whether or not a dietary plan is right for you needs to be discussed thoroughly with your primary health professionals, especially if it is a drastic change. Detoxes and cleanses appear to share a fair amount of concerning similarities to disordered eating, so a safer bet is to try a more gradual and balanced diet and exercise plan.

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