The holidays have come and gone. You’ve indulged in your favorite meals, guzzled down delicious cocktails and now feel the need to detoxify and start fresh. Instead of trying unsafe plans which drastically cut calories, promote enemas and diuretics, and make you feel sick—how about a simple (and safe) detox plan instead?
The Purpose of Detox
Detox plans promise to defeat inflammation, boost fat-burning and eliminate toxins from your body. There’s limited research behind many of these claims and most are dangerous — especially if followed for a prolonged period of time. The purpose of our organs like the skin, kidneys, intestines, liver and lymphatic system are to naturally detoxify your body. As such, there’s no need to drop lots of dough on potentially dangerous cleanses, pills or teas.
I recently had a conversation with friend who does a popular detox plan. He claimed (as many of my clients do), that he wasn’t sure it really detoxed his body but it was more of a mental and psychological overhaul for him. It’s a way to gain control of what you eat and perhaps even gain control over other aspects of your life. If you feel the need to detox, then do so safely. Here are three suggestions:
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It seems like every day a different celebrity is touting the benefits of the juice cleanse du jour. This ever-popular diet fad just won’t seem to go away. Are juice cleanses a smart choice?
What is a Juice Cleanse?
There are dozens of brands out there but the basic concept is the same: skipping solid foods while drinking large volumes of fruit and/or vegetable juices for days or even weeks.
These beverage-based programs promise to promote everything from weight loss to detox to whole body rejuvenation.
Once only found at gyms and juice bars, you can now purchase bottled cleanses online and at high-end grocery stores (for an pretty penny!).
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Sure, it’s tempting to try a detox or cleanse diet after all that Thanksgiving turkey, but are they safe? Here’s what experts at the American Dietetic Association’s recent Food and Nutrition Expo had to say about these controversial diets.
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In this week’s nutrition news: Restaurants offer smaller, cheaper meals, Mario Batali greens up his restaurants and Chicago farmers’ markets are set to start taking food stamps.
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In this week’s nutrition news: How to detox safely, the story behind Kellogg’s tainted waffles and new reports show up to 10% of college students have high cholesterol.
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Every day, our readers pose smart questions about nutrition and healthy eating in our article comments and on our Facebook page and Twitter feed. We try to answer as much as we can, but some questions are too important for just a short reply back. Many of the same questions crop up a lot, too. “Do cleanses and/or detox diets work?” is a popular one — especially this time of year when people are looking to rejuvenate and lose the added post-holiday weight.
Curious if a detox diet is the way to go? Here’s what we think.
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In this week’s nutrition news: New shocking results on the calories in popcorn, tortilla company linked to school food poisoning outbreaks and a new study shows how you prepare your fish may benefit your heart.
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In this week’s nutrition headlines: why you should eat more flaxseed, experts question the value of detoxing and do you really need specialty food washes?
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Many celebs praise miracle cleanses for keeping them slim. One popular detox, the Master Cleanse, has been around for decades and is a perennial Hollywood favorite. Is it a safe choice for the diet-minded? Not necessarily.
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I hear people talking about these new cleansing diets everywhere I go — on the train, in the elevator and even in the maternity ward just before giving birth to my daughter (seriously). Not all detox diets are what they claim and most you should stay away from. Here is the lowdown on a few of the more popular ones.
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