{"id":4215,"date":"2021-04-06T09:02:58","date_gmt":"2021-04-06T09:02:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dev.centaxpharma.com\/do-detox-cures-detoxify-your-body\/"},"modified":"2021-04-06T09:02:58","modified_gmt":"2021-04-06T09:02:58","slug":"do-detox-cures-detoxify-your-body","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/centaxpharma.com\/en\/do-detox-cures-detoxify-your-body\/","title":{"rendered":"Do detox cures detoxify your body?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\u201cDo you feel tired and listless? Then there may be too many toxins stored in your body. […] A detox cure frees the body from harmful residues.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is more or less how the large number of detox programmes<\/strong> are promoted. As a consumer you are given the impression that such cures are urgently needed to heal your body.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

But here we have to say quite clearly: No! Detox cures are a construct with no scientific background that is used to make money.<\/strong> Unfortunately, you are doing your body absolutely no good with them.<\/strong> Below, as part of our series “Nutrition myths uncovered”, we explain where this nutrition myth comes from and show that there is no scientific basis for it whatsoever.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How does a detox cure work?<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\"Juice<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

The detox trend originally comes from America, and that is where the term comes from too. \u201cDetox\u201d is short for \u201cdetoxification\u201d, i.e. the removal of toxins<\/strong>. The inventors of these cures claim that our body becomes weaker and sicker because of all the \u201ctoxins<\/strong>\u201d in food, stress and environmental pollutants. The \u201ctoxins\u201d they name include additives, a lot of fat and sugar, nicotine and alcohol.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to these inventors, consuming them makes us feel listless and tired and makes us ill more often<\/strong>. As the solution<\/strong> to this problem, various companies now offer detox cures<\/strong>. The toxins that are said to build up in our body in the form of \u201cwaste deposits\u201d are supposed to be excreted again through these cures.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There is not one specific detox cure, but many different kinds<\/strong>. One form that is very common is the juice cleanse<\/strong>. Here you go without any kind of solid food for several days. Instead you drink fruit and vegetable juices to cover your nutrient requirements. According to the manufacturers, digestion can come to rest and the body thus has enough time to detoxify itself. It should be said straight away that you may cover the essential vitamins and minerals with the juices, but vital proteins and fats fall by the wayside.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another form of detoxification is so-called alkaline fasting<\/strong>. In this detox cure, only alkaline foods are consumed for 5-14 days in order to avoid or reduce over-acidification of the body. Solid food may therefore be eaten, but only selected foods. These are mainly plant-based foods. Animal products, on the other hand, should not be consumed because, according to the inventors, they lead to over-acidification of the body.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How does our body actually detoxify?<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Despite all the great advertising promises made by the sellers of these detox cures, our body does not need a special diet to detoxify itself<\/strong>. Our body is wonderfully capable of excreting metabolic waste products and toxins as long as we have two healthy, functioning kidneys<\/strong>. Our liver, skin, gut and airways also help to excrete unwanted substances. If our body could not do this on its own, we would all end up in intensive care very quickly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Exactly the same applies to detox cures such as alkaline fasting. Our body has highly specialised systems (buffer systems) to set the right pH value in our blood at all times<\/strong>. The system has to be this sophisticated because a blood pH that is too high or too low is life-threatening. With these ingenious systems, the body has therefore already built in its own protection against over-acidification<\/strong>. So if you really do have a dysregulation of your acid-base balance, you should not try alkaline fasting first, but go straight to hospital.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So do we really need detox cures to detoxify?<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\"Lemon<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Scientists have looked into this question and at the few studies on it. Because we have to make one thing clear right at the start: there is simply next to no scientific work on these so-called detox cures.<\/strong> Nor are there any of those evil \u201cwaste deposits\u201d in our body. That is simply made up.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

One study<\/a> was carried out after all, on the so-called \u201clemon detox program\u201d<\/strong>. Three groups were examined: the first group did this lemon juice cure, the second group a normal juice cleanse, and the third group ate normally as a control group. What was found? The participants who followed the \u201clemon detox program\u201d lost the most weight<\/strong>, and their insulin resistance and inflammatory markers also fell the most<\/strong>. That is great news! But wait: the reason for these positive changes was not the detox cure, but simply calorie restriction<\/strong> from going without food. So this study was not able to show that detox brings any benefits either.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So how sensible is detox from a nutritional science point of view?<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n\n\n

Overall we can say that such detox cures are not necessary<\/strong> to free the body from harmful substances. Our organs already perform this function<\/strong>. Nevertheless, more vegetables and fruit are often eaten during such cures, and that is certainly beneficial for health.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Apart from that, however, these cures<\/strong> are definitely not to be recommended, and if you do want to do one, then only under medical supervision!<\/strong> We strongly advise against it, though. It makes much more sense to make your diet healthier overall<\/strong> instead of doing radical detox cures.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pregnant women, breastfeeding women, adolescents and children should never do anything like this, because the lack of essential fats and proteins can also lead to health problems!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So instead of buying these expensive detox cures, you would do better to save the money and enjoy something nice with your family or friends.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cDo you feel tired and listless? Then there may be too many toxins stored in your body. […] A detox cure frees the body from harmful residues.\u201d This is more or less how the large number of detox programmes are promoted. As a consumer you are given the impression that such cures are urgently needed […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":859,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[50],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4215","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nutrition"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/centaxpharma.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4215","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/centaxpharma.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/centaxpharma.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/centaxpharma.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/centaxpharma.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4215"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/centaxpharma.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4215\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/centaxpharma.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/859"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/centaxpharma.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4215"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/centaxpharma.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4215"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/centaxpharma.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4215"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}