Part 13 - To Detox or Not?
Every year when December comes around we all promise ourselves that we will take it easy on the food, drink and parties that pop up during the holiday season. However, what tends to follow is a month of complete and utter gluttony. Millions wake up on January 1, a little groggy and worse for wear, swearing that from then on things will be different and that they’ll drink less, eat sensibly and be healthy. One of the first steps often taken is the “detox.”
This strategy usually involves some tabloid magazine or celebrity endorsed plan to eat a very strict diet and live a lifestyle that’s really pretty boring. Each plan has its own limitations and grand promises, whether it’s no meat, no dairy, no alcohol, no sugar or just no fun, they all promise to eliminate the toxins we’ve been overloading our body with during the festive period and indeed the rest of year.
So is there any truth in the grand claims made by these dieting plans, that more often than not leave you cranky, tired and searching shops for something you are allowed to eat? Well like many things in the health and fitness industry (especially those that can be mass marketed and sold using famous people) there is some validity but mostly its small truths and exaggeration.
Eliminating many things from our diet can certainly improve our health and we are bound to eventually feel better if we reduce the over produced and sugary foods we tend to consume on a regular basis. However a sensible eating plan is a better alternative than simply removing things from what we eat.
Many detox programs also require you consume their products, however all the fancy marketing and packaging is used simply to sell you something that your body does a pretty good job of doing itself. The human body and our filtration and purification systems are quite good at keeping the body clean from the toxins that we have rightfully become afraid of. The stomach, kidney and liver all function to “detoxify” ourselves on a regular basis. With the proper consumption of water and a good diet, the build up of toxins is not an issue.
Despite the faults in these products and plans, the notion that you should consume less toxins, processed food products and items which change our body chemistry is a good one. It isn’t so important how you detox but rather that you take in less toxins than before.
It isn’t very sensible to detox these chemicals out of our body one month (which, let's be honest, you probably shouldn't have been putting into your body in the first place) if you're going to reintroduce them again the next month. There's a danger with detoxing and retoxing, as it shocks your body and might leave you in a worse state than before. Detoxing has to be done with the intention of staying detoxed and help your body by doing more than just house cleaning as exercise.
Experts say there's no scientific proof that these diets help rid the body of toxins faster or more effectively, but limiting what we put into our body that is negative, whatever the means, is certainly something positive. So after you've detoxed in line with one of the million detox plans out there or you’ve simply cleaned up your act, where do you go next? Well with regard to food, you should continue to explore the brave new world of delightful, delicious, clean foods. Introduce as much organic produce as you can, try to consume as much water as possible and have fun with the new healthy body you’ve established.
If there are any topics on nutrition and fitness you’d like to see addressed or if you have any questions, please contact me at Healthy.Living@St-Christophers.co.uk.
- James
James McDonald is a St. Christopher’s Manager and a fully certified personal trainer in Edinburgh. He can be reached for any questions on Health and Fitness and Personal Training consultation in Edinburgh.
