Are you really Detoxing?

Detoxing… how we love the word!

Nothing beats loading your body with highly processed junk food and alcohol during the festive season all the while justifying your actions with the promise of detoxing come January.

So what exactly is a Detox?

Why are people so obsessed with detoxing?

Do cleanses and detox drinks live up to their promises?

From my understanding, a detox is basically a drink, diet or cleanse that rids the body of accumulated toxins and pollutants.

Or so they claim.

Basically, meals are reduced to drinking some concoction or eating certain fruits and vegetables everyday for a week or couple of weeks.

I’ll just call a spade a spade.

This is Torture.

Drinking some nasty tasting green juice for 2 weeks in hopes of cleansing our bodies of pollutants… really?

What most people don’t understand is how efficient the body is. If we really needed cleanses to rid our bodies of pollutants and toxins every time we got “polluted” we’d all be long dead!

The kidneys, liver and skin are organs tasked with the job of detoxifying noxious substances and eliminating waste products.

Besides, these cleanses and drinks never say exactly what toxins they’re flushing out. Just that they flush toxins.

The truth is, your body detoxes itself everyday! And if you really wanted to kick things up a notch, then fasting for an extended period of time is the way to go.

Fasting, when done right, is an excellent way to reset the body and break eating addictions.

Whereas, loading your body with fructose (fruit sugar), eating little to no fiber and avoiding macro nutrients for weeks is really not detoxing but self-inflicted punishment for dietary excess.

If we’re really honest, like really, really honest, the reason we engage in these cleanses is to punish ourselves for an extended period of over indulgence and not necessarily to cleanse our gut.

“Punish” seems like such an extreme word to describe the act of detoxing. Probably because nobody really wants to punish themselves deliberately except say for religious reasons (religious fasting and abstinence) or they have an undiagnosed eating disorder.

Yet, we often unconsciously punish our bodies for decisions we made solely on our own. Read post on how to take back control of your life.The secret allure of detoxing is its ability to cause significant weight loss. In fact, many detoxes promise to banish bloat and help you shed weight.

While it is true that most detoxes result in rapid weight loss, this drop in weight is usually from water loss which occurs when glycogen stores are depleted and not actual fat loss.

Sometimes, you’re even advised not to exercise because you might pass out! (Hmmm… a diet that doesn’t have any major macronutrients in it, coupled with the fact that I can’t exercise…. hmmm… it smells like a crash diet, looks like a crash diet and tastes like a crash diet. Conclusion: its definitely a crash diet!)

And as is the case with all crash diets, when you eventually end the cleanse and resume your eating habits, you gain the weight right back….then you decide it’s time for another detox and the cycle goes on and on and on….

Another reason why people detox is to “reset” the body. Especially for those who are health conscious or struggling with their weight.

Going on extreme cleanses is a way of restoring the body to “factory settings” and breaking the junk food habit.

Perfectly understandable but highly unnecessary.

Your body does not need to be sentenced to detox jail because you ate too many pizzas over the holidays. (Common! Live a little)

We need to understand that punishing our bodies is not the way to establish a healthy relationship with food.

By replacing highly processed meals with wholesome, minimally processed foods, we can gradually re-condition our bodies to tolerate and even enjoy the subtle flavors of real food.

Okay, so we get that detoxing is unnecessary, but is it really that bad…dangerous even?

Nope.

If anything, you get to choke down loads of antioxidants, phytonutrients and minerals.

Am I totally against detox waters, teas and the rest of em’?

Nope.

In fact, I absolutely enjoy my lemon-apple cider drink every morning. But I don’t drink this the entire day for weeks; it’s more about wanting to give my body an early morning boost.

In conclusion, a healthy lifestyle is a cumulation of healthy behaviors and habits practiced over time and not frequent crash dieting or cleansing.

There you have it folks! The scoop on detoxing.