The Detox Diet: Harmful or Helpful?

What, exactly, is a detox diet? As described by several sources, a detox diet is a nutritional regimen that involves changing bad eating and drinking habits in order to cleanse the body of toxins and other contaminants. A detox has become quite the thing to do these days, and many claim that completing a detox can improve overall health and digestion as well as to heighten resistance to illness and help in weight control. All of the above can be accomplished with good, nutritious eating habits and healthy living styles, but we seem to want to do everything the hard way; hence a detox diet becomes necessary to bring us back to the point where we should have been anyway.

A detox diet can be comprised of many different methodologies. Some people prefer to fast, and only drink water or juice for a certain period of time. Others prefer to increase the amount of fish they eat. Others restrict the amount of calories they consume while others resort to bottled methods like an herbal detox diet. Some even go on a lemonade diet that is more commonly known as the Master Cleanse detox diet.

It stands to reason that any detox diet must be carefully monitored to ensure proper ingestion of nutritious foods, and many merely suggest that a person add more fruits and vegetables to their diet. Of course, staying away from fast food and soda, cigarettes and alcohol is a given. A detox diet is all about changing eating habits and adopting healthy and nutritiously balanced diets and foregoing McDonald's and Taco Bell offerings. It has become a fad to call anything that offers such a drastic change in eating or drinking habits a detox diet.

Still, some argue that the body is already more than capable of ridding itself of toxic wastes and that a detox diet is not only unnecessary but can also be dangerous. Our bodies are meant to contain a certain amount of fats and sugars, and to try to rid the body of these items with a detox diet can cause medical problems such as anemia, low blood sugar and lethargy and weakness. The balance of electrolytes, fats, enzymes, proteins, and carbohydrates in the body are finely tuned and shouldn't be tampered with. A detox diet that allows only liquid is not to be considered a safe alternative to exercise and a normal, well balanced diet. Studies have shown that the lack of protein in most of the more common types of detox diet decreases muscle mass in individuals. With less muscle mass, the metabolism automatically slows down, which will threaten most well-intentioned weight loss diets regardless of what you do.

Call it what you will. While a detox diet can help people learn new and better eating habits, as with everything, a detox diet should be done using caution and good judgment. Perhaps we could avoid all this unnecessary detox diet stuff by just eating better and exercising more in the first place.

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