Doctors say 'detox' diets are worthless - are they right?

While nutritional medicine has enjoyed growing acceptance amongst doctors over the last decade or so, certain factions within the medical establishment remain somewhat sceptical about the health benefits naturally-oriented approaches may offer. An example of this appeared in last month’s edition of the title Food Technology, in the form of an article entitled ‘Detox Diets Provide Empty Promises’. In it, a doctor and a scientist from the USA take a cynical view of the notion that detoxification diets can enhance health and well-being. The authors make the case that such diets are irrational and unscientific, and leave us with the impression that those touting the benefits of such internal cleansing methods are engaged in what amounts to a dirty business.

While there is a lack of scientific evidence for detoxification diets, this comes as no real surprise when one considers that such diets have not been subjected to formal study. Detox diets are, however, based on the principle that the body can suffer as a result of excesses of internal pollution, the sources of which include the breakdown products of food, and toxins that may be ingested, inhaled and absorbed through the skin. The conventional view, and the one that underpins the stance taken in the Food Technology article, is that within hours of gaining access to the body, toxic substances are effectively neutralised through the actions of organ systems including the lungs, liver and kidneys, and therefore pose no threat to health.

This often-quoted theory assumes that the body has unlimited capacity to cope with whatever type and level of pollutant it is exposed to. However, if this were really the case, then we could all quaff arsenic or cyanide without fear of ill-effect. The plain fact of the matter is there is the potential for levels of toxic substances to exceed the body’s ability to deal with them. This opens up the possibility that we may indeed harbour levels of toxic substances within the body that, whilst not life-threatening, may nonetheless compromise well-being.

In practice, excesses of internal toxicity seem to have the capacity to manifest as one or more of a range of issues including fatigue, spots and bad breath. Diets designed to deal with toxicity usually emphasise nutritious foods believed to be relatively easily assimilated by the body such as fruit and vegetables (preferably organic), coupled with plenty of water to assist the cleansing process. Over the years, I have witnessed countless glowing first-hand reports of the well-being improvements such diets so-often 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, by the way, that would be expected to assist the detoxification process. Also, while they condemn detoxification diets as unscientific, they themselves do not quote one single piece of evidence from the scientific literature that supports the views and beliefs they express. One wonders where the science is in that.