Cleaning out your insides should never feel like a punishment, which is probably how most would describe some of the trending detoxes cleanse diets they’ve tried.
Juice cleanses may be the least revolting one for most to try, but by the third day, people tend to give up, as the lack of sustenance isn’t anything to sneeze at.
Detox quickly became much more important than building up immunity in recent years, and that may just be where we went wrong in terms of alternate medicine.
While detox cleansing can be effective to some degree, some diets aren’t for everyone, and seeing as the majority of these are found online, a lot of people commit to a cleanse without ever consulting with their physician, leading to a number of complications.
Instead, what they should’ve done is simply worked on building their immunity to a point where their struggles were gone.
What is detox?
In a way, detox is a means of cleansing your organism of any harmful substances or toxins, as the name would imply, often used in connotation with alternative medicine.
This dietary intervention is usually hailed as the be-all-end-all solution to all of your bodily issues, and there’s probably a detox for every issue out there, ranging from back pain to anxiety.
Usually, it involves fasting for one to three days and relying on a single source of nutrients for the entire duration of the treatment, with the point being the elimination of an entire food group that is perceived as threatening in the given situation.
At times, it also includes taking excessive doses of diuretics, laxatives, or other cleansing medication, which can take a toll on one’s health over the course of three days.
Colon cleanses aren’t uncommon either, although they’re relegated to much more profound and complex detox strategies.
Does it work at all though
Despite all of its proponents, detox cleanses have little to no evidence of being particularly effective, and this is even more true for chemicals that can’t be removed from the body as easily as detox propagators claim.
Heavy metals, organic pollutants, and BPA remain in our bodies for extended periods of time, and going on a detox can only make their effects worse, as one’s immune system usually takes a hit during this time, and it’s paired with electrolyte imbalance, severe fatigue, and even anemia.
On top of this, further research found that detox diets have no effect when it comes to weight loss or eliminating any toxins from the body, completely discrediting those that were promoting them to unsuspecting internet users.
In fact, juice diets only lead to initial weight loss, which is quickly followed by weight gain once a person resumes their normal dietary habits.
The alternatives
Instead of relying on dodgy detox diets, we could move on to much more concrete solutions to existing problems, including making a shift to much more natural, wholesome foods rather than binging on whatever’s easiest to get on Doordash.
Additional fluid intake never hurt anyone either, and it’s often the problem that goes unnoticed, as we focus on much more complex explanations rather than it being a simple case of dehydration.
Regular exercising and sufficient sleep are only some of the things you could implement in order to improve your health just as much if not more than a detox cleanse ever could, and reducing alcohol intake may just be the most effective one of them all.
Cleaning out your insides should feel like introducing love to your body, not torturing yourself from the inside.
What to avoid
Usually, people jump on these detox trends upon seeing them online, and their widespread influence on social media like Facebook, TikTok, or Instagram is what’s pushing the trend’s popularity into such high numbers.
Juice cleanses or colon cleanses are about as effective as anything a chiropractor would recommend you do, and you should try to take all of your advice from a licensed physician rather than some hack trying to turn a quick buck online.
Stick to what’s been tried and tested, and if that’s not working, try shifting your diet around a bit, but never too much, as giving up on the majority of the food you normally consume just to drink fruit juices for 3-4 days can’t possibly have a good effect on your body.
Final word
Don’t trust everything you read online, especially if it’s regarding your own health, and instead, do sufficient research on something before trying it for yourself.
Your body will be thanking you in the long run, and if you manage to find an actual solution to what you were trying to deal with through a detox cleanse, you’ve only gained knowledge about your body and what you can do to keep it running at an optimal pace.
Stay away from suspicious health alternatives that seem like they’ll do more damage than good and you’ll be just fine.