There’s No Such Thing As Detox

Many people feel a great sense of accomplishment when hitting the bottom of their Kermit-coloured “detoxifying” blend of wheat-grass, kale and cucumber juice, patting themselves on the back for “treating their body so kindly” and are sure to feel “cleansed of toxins” afterwards.

But to these people, I’m very sorry to have to tell you this: there’s no such thing as a “detox”.

Medically-speaking – there are two definitions of a “detox”. One is addressing life-affecting and life-threatening drug use in people with substance addictions. One is a term used when claiming a food, product or process allegedly “rids your body of toxins”. The former is perfectly respectable. The latter is absolutely bogus.

Leading emeritus professor of complementary medicine at Exeter University, Edzard Ernst, states the word “detox” has been hijacked by entrepreneurs, quacks and charlatans seeking to profit from our fears that bad toxins accumulate in our bodies and need to be removed to experience full health. As Ernst sums up:

“The healthy body has kidneys, a liver, skin, even lungs that are detoxifying as we speak. There is no known way certainly not through detox treatments to make something that works perfectly well in a healthy body work better.”

He suggests that if toxins did indeed accumulate in the body in such a way your body couldn’t excrete them on its own, you’d likely be either dead already or in serious need of immediate medical intervention.

Many products, fads and dieting grapevines purport that “toxins” – either ingested or inhaled – build up in the body, and that certain foods or natural products can be used to eliminate them. However in 2009, an extensive study carried out by “Sense about Science” entitled “The Detox Dossier”, researchers contacted the manufacturers of detoxification products – from smoothies, to shampoos, to supplements – quizzing them as to “what these toxins were”. Not one single manufacturer was able to even define what a “toxin” was, let alone name it, nor provide any scientific evidence demonstrating they had any benefit of use.

Yet somehow our chemists, supermarkets, recipe books, social media and conversations with friends and colleagues still frequently drop “the D-bomb”.

But the truth? The truth is as such. “Detox Foot Pads” don’t “draw toxins out through your feet”. They turn gross brown because they mix with your sweat. “Colon-cleansing tablets” don’t “shift the toxin-filled faeces impacted for months in your bowel”. They often just contain a polymer that turns your poo into a plastic-poo-hybrid so when you have a “massive result” so impressive you’re convinced it’s done you good. “Colonic irrigation” won’t “rid your bowel of stubborn plaque” because there’s no such thing. It is, however, more likely to perforate your bowel than do you any good.

Are you a detox fan?