I’m going to be honest here, I’ve always believed in the detox and that detoxing the body is good for you. I like the idea that I can get rid of all the badness I’ve done to my body, whether that’s over the Christmas period or a heavy weekend of eating and drinking.
I attended a talk at the UTS on nutrition and the detoxing myth was one of the first subjects they covered off. It was the perfect topic for January as this is the time of year when everyone, me included is looking for the quick fix, a way to get rid of that bloated feeling, from totally over indulging over the Christmas period. January’s all about the new start, the new you, and getting ready for the New Year. January is the detox month, everywhere you go you see detox diets being splashed across magazine covers and you buy into it, you want to buy into it. It was quite a shock to learn the truth about the detox myth...
Detoxing doesn’t exist, it’s made up, it’s a scam!
Edzard’ Ernst, emeritus professor of complementary medicine at Exeter University, says “there are two types of detox: one is respectable and the other isn’t.” The respectable one, is the medical treatment of people with life-threatening drug addictions.
“The other is the word being hijacked by entrepreneurs, quacks and charlatans to sell a bogus treatment that allegedly detoxifies your body of toxins you’re supposed to have accumulated.”
The more I started to read about detoxing, the more information I found to confirm detoxing is a myth. The human body is an amazing machine and we don’t need to do anything to help it detox that’s why we have the liver!
As much as I like the quick fixes I think you come to realise, quicker is not necessarily better. There’s no quick way of getting rid of all the abuse and badness you’ve done to your body over the years.
What you need to do, is eat healthily (cut the CRAP) and do regular exercise. Those are the only two things that are going to get you fit and healthy.
“The ultimate lifestyle ‘detox’ is not smoking, exercising and enjoying a healthy balanced diet like the Mediterranean diet.”
Catherine Collins NHS Dietician.