No Regrets Fitness. Find the cause - Treat It - Strengthen: A look at a current dietary trend

Part of the assignment I was working on last week was to discuss a current dietary trend, discuss how it could help you lose weight along with it's pro's and con's.

Here is what I wrote.

The Detox Dietary Trend.

Detoxification is an alternative medicine approach that proponents claim rids the body of "toxins", accumulated harmful substances that are alleged to exert undesirable effects on individual health. (1)

Alternative medicine is any healing practice "that does not fall within the realm of conventional medicine. It is based on historical or cultural traditions, rather than on scientific evidence. (2)

I have chosen to discuss ‘detoxing’ as this trend has been in the mainstream media and fitness world for quite some time. Due to its societal nature there is a real possibility of misinformation. The variety of interpretations in the press could have both positive and negative impacts for the individual looking to lose weight, depending on the methods they choose to use.

The scientific study of toxins is known as toxicology which is the study of the effects, antidotes and detections of poisons in the environment around us and within us.

What I have found interesting and key whilst researching this topic is the lack of acceptance by the medical and scientific worlds that Detox practices are effective. The common reason given for this being that there is a lack of scientific evidence to prove current detox products do in fact do what they say on the label. The information I am about to provide you with will give you a better understanding on detoxing methods, whilst discussing the pro’s, con’s and grey areas in between so you are able to make an informed choice for yourself.

A look at how the body works.

The human body has the ability to detoxify itself and has been constantly evolving from the start of the human species. With the advances in technology and science there has been an increase in the amount of environmental toxins to which the human body is subjected.

Examples of external sources

- Medications
- drugs
- hormone enhancers
- food additives (see link in Further Reading- FR full a full list of current EU limits)
- agricultural chemicals
- air pollution

The list is more extensive than this but this gives you an idea.

Additionally the body produces its own toxins from naturally occurring chemical reactions.

Examples of internal sources of toxins that can be harmful come from,

- Burning sugars, fats and proteins.

The role of the detox diet is to try and eliminate these toxins that collect in our systems. According to a market leading detox know as ‘Master Cleanse’, (3) their detox will restore energy, make you lose weight, and relieve symptoms of chronic conditions like arthritis and fibromyalgia. Before we get more into the world of marketing and products it is important that we look at how your own body reacts to the toxins to which it is exposed.

There are four systems that are responsible for taking away these toxins. These consist of the liver, immune tissues of the intestinal tract, Kidneys and the skin. All toxins must travel around the body with the first step for detoxification starting in the liver. These toxins start life as fat soluble which means in effect that until they are broken down into water soluble solutions they cannot be expelled from the body.
The diagram below gives you a simplified visual process the liver takes to eliminate water soluble waste products.

Picture taken from http://valerietonnerhealthcoach.blogspot.co.uk (FR 5a)

A brief look at the remaining three detoxification processes;

The intestinal tract - generates about 70 percent of the body’s antibodies (FR-2a). ‘Antibodies attach themselves to many of the bacteria, toxins, and viruses that enter our bodies, inactivate them, and prevent many from being absorbed, helping to protect us against infection and illness’.

Kidneys - are a pair of vital organs that perform many functions to keep the blood clean and chemically balanced. The kidneys are sophisticated reprocessing machines. The wastes and extra water from them become your urine. If the kidneys did not remove your waste products, these wastes would build up in the blood and damage the body. (4)

The skin - Special fatty acids from glands and the secretions of certain bacteria within the skin inhibit the growth of fungi and bacteria. Certain enzymes present in sweat can destroy the cell walls of invading bacteria. (5)

What do the detox diets do?

The high majority of detox diets that you see in stores and online are in essence a dietary fast, whereby you limit the input of foods to deplete the body’s calorie intake, reduce the amount of processed foods eaten and starve the body of its raw materials. The theory behind this is that this cleans the body of toxins. In most cases the results are achieved by a diet based on high fluid intake and a laxative response which is ‘marketed’ as the toxins leaving the body. As you have previously read the body naturally excretes toxins by way of urine and faeces, so for the untrained eye seeing these results through a detox would more often than not confirm to a person that what they are doing is actually working. This may, however, not be the case.

This is where a person’s perception of obtaining results and being healthy get confused. As society is always looking for the quick fix, people get short sighted and do not research what they are about to do to themselves. You will no doubt know someone that has done a detox yet got the information from a friend. I will use the example of the ‘Master Cleanse’ detox.

Master Cleanse Detox - Dieters take 250ml – 500ml of warm salt water in the morning; consume a 60-ounce concoction of water, lemon juice, maple syrup, and cayenne pepper throughout the day; and finish with a cup of laxative tea in the evening. Some of the marketing suggests doing this between 3-10 days. I have interviewed one of my clients who tried this method for 10 days many years ago and she reported initial weight loss, total fatigue, skin complaints, headaches but ultimately no long term improvement in her health.

Unfortunately to date there is no data on this particular diet in medical literature. Much of the weight loss achieved through this diet results from fluid loss related to extremely low carbohydrate intake and frequent bowel movements/ induced diarrhoea produced by salt water and laxative tea. When the dieter resumes normal fluid intake, this weight is quickly regained.

What we do know is that by denying the body of the proteins, fatty acids and other nutrients through detox you will disrupt normal bowel function and weaken the immune system. The body would therefore not be working efficiently at getting rid of the unwanted toxins which could lead to auto immune or metabolic conditions.

What we get from the medical world is the case against the detox as the body can deal with the toxins it faces and the flip side from detox companies saying that their product is great and will make you drop the weight yet this is not backed up by any positive research.

There are elements of the detox trend that are positive in terms of eliminating processed foods, including more vegetables, fruits and increased hydration levels but you have to take samples of several strategies to get what I would call an effective plan which is misleading for the consumer as they generally do not know any better.

To bridge the gap between science and the detox products there needs to be more research into evidence based detoxing. If you look around the fitness world, supplementation is an emerging market that continues to evolve. Even though there is a current lack of science, this does not mean there is a lack of effect. If you take the Biosignature method from Charles Poliquin (FR 4a) for example, there are signs that his products can work yet reading the marketing on the bottles you frequently see the wording of ‘may work to’ which is neither here nor there at this current stage. It may take a market leader like Mr Poliquin to publish further research on his detox products so that it can be proved to work to the medical/science and marketing worlds which in turn would help to bridge the gap on ‘detox’ myths and facts.

My personal recommendation would be to take on the most current information from the medical world that the body can deal with toxins itself along with the aid of nutritional strategies which have you eating unprocessed foods, having optimum levels of sleep, nutrients, vitamins and hydration to maximise the efficiency of your natural detoxification pathways. This alongside regular exercise will boost your chances of living a less toxic life with a stronger immune system. Presently ‘detox’ is certainly more of a sales pitch than a science but has elements to it that need to be researched further. I would not advise my clients to use any of the commercial detox programmes. Instead, I would work with them on a whole life programme of exercise, nutrition, supplements and sleep. This way I would help them reassess this aspect of their lives and hopefully drive permanent improvement rather than short lived quick fixes of a commercial ‘detox’.