Detox

Detox

While nutritional medicine has enjoyed growing acceptance among doctors over the last decade or so, factions in the medical establishment remain sceptical about the health benefits of naturally oriented approaches. In 'Detox Diets Provide Empty Promises', an article in last month's Food Technology, a doctor and a scientist from the US take a cynical view of the notion that detox diets can enhance health and well-being. They argue that such diets are irrational and unscientific, and leave us with the impression that those touting such internal cleansing methods are engaged in what amounts to a dirty business.
While there is a lack of scientific evidence for detox diets, this comes as no surprise, as such diets have not been subjected to formal study. They are based on the principle that the body can suffer from excesses of internal pollution, the sources of which include the breakdown products of food and toxins that are ingested, inhaled and absorbed through the skin. The conventional view, and the stance taken in the Food Technology article, is that within hours of gaining access to the body, toxic substances are neutralised through the lungs, liver and kidneys.

This theory assumes that the body has unlimited capacity to cope with pollutants. Yet if this were the case, we could all quaff arsenic. The fact is that there is potential for levels of toxic substances to exceed the body's ability to deal with them. This opens up the possibility that we may harbour levels of toxic substances which compromise well-being. In practice, excesses of internal toxicity seem to manifest as issues such as fatigue, spots and bad breath.

Diets designed to deal with toxicity emphasise nutritious foods believed to be easily assimilated by the body (eg fruit and vegetables, preferably organic), coupled with plenty of water. Over the years, I have heard countless glowing reports of the well-being improvements such diets seem to induce. Curiously, the detox-diet detractors writing in Food Technology do not dispute these benefits, but attempt to explain them through alternative mechanisms including improved hydration and a reduced intake of alcohol and caffeine - all things that would be expected to assist the detoxification process.

Also, while they condemn detox diets as unscientific, they do not quote one single piece of evidence from the scientific literature that supports their views. One wonders where the science is in that.