Well it had to happen. I have been waiting for it. It has happened at the beginning of every year for the past few years since the word “Detox” has been applied to everything from shampoos to your thoughts and relationships. I opened my newspaper this morning to find an article claiming that New Year detox could be a waste of money. I wonder whose opinion they have quoted this year and why they use the word “could”?
Many Worthless Detox products
As I scour the article I discover that a number of young scientists have investigated 15 products from water to face scrub using the word detox in their marketing. As a result of their research they have decided to publish a leaflet debunking detox warning the public that they are being duped by unscrupulous manufacturers jumping on the detox diet bandwagon.
It was easy enough to find the research dossier online and it certainly made entertaining reading. It’s quite a eye opener to learn how little the people who manufacturer these products know about detox. And the scientists are quite right in their conclusions that the products they investigated are a waste of money. They are not the type of products that any serious practitioner would recommend to improve their clients health.
Detox is Easy!
But what is more controversial are the claims that your detox organs deal with all the toxic chemicals that enter your body. Sir Colin Berry, a professor of pathology at Queen Mary University of London has apparently said “it’s easy to detox: just let your body use the great systems it has evolved over thousands of years to get rid of whatever is harming you”. Well if that is true how come other researchers have discovered that we all have a cocktail of toxic chemicals stored in our bodies? Surely if our bodies do get rid of whatever is harming us then they would not have become toxic waste dumps.
The press release from Sense about Science states “When harmful chemicals do enter the body, the liver acts as an extraordinary chemical factory, usually combining them with its own chemicals to make a water soluble compound that can be excreted by the kidneys. The body thus detoxifies itself. These processes do not occur more effectively as a result of taking “detox” tablets……”
Detox can be improved.
They are quite wrong here. Researchers have developed scientific tests that can detect if your liver does detox well or not. And armed with more scientific knowledge about how specific nutrients from food and supplements can influence the liver detox systems researchers have shown that these detox pathways as they are called can be improved.
I agree that the majority of the detox nutritional supplements on the market do not contain significant amounts or enough of the specific nutrients needed to rev up the detox process but it can be done. Many people who have health problems related to slow or impaired detox pathways have had their symptoms improved by going on a carefully planned detox diet supported with high quality nutritional detox supplements.
Its true many of the over the counter 24 hour or 5 day detox supplements are not going to improve your detox pathways and are a waste of time and money but many do give some reasonable advice about diet. After a month of parties and holiday eating many people can do with cutting back on rich food an alcohol. It can often be a springboard for a much healthier diet which is always a good thing.
While the project may be educating the public about worthless supplements it does nothing to educate them about the benefits of a scientifically based detox. To learn more about detox get my new eBook The Definitive Detox Diet.
