Do you have an authoritive cite? The website you linked to sells “detoxifying” products and obviously is not a trusted source.
Let me clarify. I am asking for a cite which has evidence for the following assertions:
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“our bodies are not capable of eliminating all the different toxins and chemicals we inhale and ingest every day. They simply accumulate in our cells”
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There are methods or products that can remove such toxins
The only toxins that site mentions are lead and heavy metals. Unless you are also suggesting chelation therapy, I doubt that good water and a balanced diet are going to remove lead and heavy metals.
I think part of the idea is to also reset your dietary habits. My fiancee and I jut did a “cleanse” but it was more about kicking the caffeine addiction, no alcohol for a bit to give the liver a well-deserved break, and eating simple meals of fresh fruit and vegetables with no added sugar or salt.
What we found as that it sort of retrained our palates. You realize how good food tastes on its own. You start to appreciated the variety of textures that good, fresh, non-processed foods can offer. And now I get a coffee because I want one and ont because I need one.
But no, other than scraping out my colon with all the roughage, there is no “detox” happening. It’s more about resetting your eating habits, getting rid of some of the really bad ones, and giving your liver and kidneys a bit of a break. (Man, you stay so well-hydrated when you’re not sucking back espresso.)
An exclusion diet can also help you figure out dietary allergies or intolerances. My sister discovered her lactose intolerance this way. After a week of no dairy, once she reintroduced it with a glass of milk… well, it was messy.
There are- lead, mercury, strontium-90, and DDT are examples of toxins that accumulate in the body. There are methods (such as chelation therapy) that can remove lead or mercury.
Here’s what I’m skeptical of:
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You are likely to ingest a significant amount of toxins that accumulate in the body by eating things commonly sold as food or beverages (however unhealthy they may be), excluding one-time instances of contamination
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Fasting, dietary changes, or anything that is not a scientifically proven treatment administered by a physician can remove these toxins from the body.
You are aware that you may be missing out on a significant source of important nutrients such as calcium by drinking only distilled water?
This will make your bowels happier, which could save you from colon cancer, and it will make you feel better. But it is not really “detoxing”. Chelation therapy is the only true detox and it is rarely used and only for the most serious cases.
That being said, any MD will tell you that Americans don’t get enough fiber or drink enough water, and that for most of us, doing more of both is a GOOD thing for your health. Toxins or no toxins. :rolleyes:
I got into this thread looking for this kind of insight. I am contemplating some sort of cleansing fast, but I am NOT focused on losing weight, per se (incidental side benefit I won’t complain about? Sure) - nor am I looking to rid myself of “toxins” - but I do like the thought of taking a break and see if it gives me any different insights about my body. I assume that simply by briefly changing the inputs I provide it, my body will react and I will learn.
But what about “feelings of energy” that I hear about when folks do this? A friend of mine has done the Master Cleanse/Lemonade fast and, in the middle of the 10-day period, did Bikram (hot) yoga - and said it was amazing. I have heard stories like this before.
My question: putting aside weight loss and toxin removal, when folks participate in this sort of fast feel that level of invigoration while taking in minimal calories and nutrients, what is going on? Is it purely psychosomatic/positive thinking, or is there a physiological mechanism taking place that provides that sense of invigoration?
Thanks!
Yes, it’s called starving, and it is bad for you: "Famine response - Wikipedia
*After 2-3 days of starvation, the liver begins to synthesize ketone bodies from precursors obtained from fatty acid breakdown. The brain uses these ketone bodies as fuel, thus cutting its requirement for glucose. After fasting for 3 days, the brain gets 30% of its energy from ketone bodies. After 4 days, this goes up to 70%.
The consumption of ketone bodies by the brain relieves some of the glucose requirement but does not abolish it altogether. The brain retains some need for glucose, because ketone bodies can be broken down for energy only in the mitochondria, and mitochondria are often too big to travel down the long thin processes of neurons to reach the synapses.
In fact, the production of ketone bodies cuts the brain’s glucose requirement from 120 g per day to about 30 g per day. Of the remaining 30 g requirement, 20 g per day can be produced by the liver from glycerol (itself a product of fat breakdown). But this still leaves a deficit of about 10 g of glucose per day that must be supplied from some other source. This other source will be the body’s own proteins.
After several days of fasting, all cells in the body begin to break down protein. This releases amino acids into the bloodstream, which can be converted into glucose by the liver. Since much of our muscle mass is protein, this phenomenon is responsible for the wasting away of muscle mass seen in starvation.
However, the body is not able to selectively decide which cells will break down protein and which will not. In effect, all cells will break down protein, and essential cells (such as lung cells) are just as likely to be broken down as nonessential cells (such as muscle cells). The problem is that proteins are essential to the structure and metabolism of the cell. Most cells can not tolerate the loss of very much protein. Furthermore, about 2-3 g of protein has to be broken down to synthesise 1 g of glucose - so to make 10 g of glucose, about 20-30 g of protein is broken down each day to keep the brain alive.
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http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/sites/entrez?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&list_uids=2356851&dopt=Books
The effects of nutritional manipulation on immune function have been extensively studied in animals, but few studies have examined dietary restriction in humans. Obese patients enrolled in a protein-sparing, calorically restricted diet were monitored over a 3-month period with in vitro examination of mitogen- and antigen-induced lymphocyte blastogenesis. The sera from these patients were evaluated for effects on neutrophil chemotaxis, phagocytosis and microbial killing. Significant changes in body weight, triglycerides and glucose occurred during the diet, and most patients exhibited urinary ketosis. The diet was associated with increased blastogenesis in unstimulated cultures and in varicella and candida antigen-stimulated cultures, but blastogenesis was unchanged for phytohemagglutinin, concanavalin A, SK-SD and histoplasma. In assays of serum effects on neutrophil function, patients with urinary ketosis had depression of chemotaxis and microbial killing but not phagocytosis when compared to baseline or nonketotic patients. This study indicates that long-term caloric restriction is associated with significant effects on in vitro lymphocyte stimulation and with significant serum effects on normal neutrophil function.
Of course, fasting for a day or two should be OK, and in fact dudes often have to do this before some tests or procedures. And, going on a 'Fast" for one item in your diet- like “no booze for a month” or “no caffience for a week” is a good way to see how deeply these habits are ingrained.
I’d assume that the reports of such feelings of energy are similar to the mania and feelings of euphoria that some anorexics report. I don’t think it has anything to do with cleansing–it’s just a side-effect of low-level starvation, which is what burning massive amounts of calories while eating nothing but lemonade would likely translate into.
This article from New York magazine makes mention of it, as does this piece on eating disorders. I’d say the evidence is pretty strong that restricting your caloric intake can, in some people, result in feeling really good in the short term. But feeling good obviously doesn’t mean that it is good.
On preview, what DrDeth said.
Meh, I didn’t feel any particular “feeling of energy”. I 've heard that too, “Yeah, on the fourth day you really feel this great energy”. From where? I didn’t feel bad, but there was none of that “invigorated” stuff.
In fact, I was going to go to GQ and ask if this “energy” would be explained as a result of their caloric intake being so low that their bodies are starting to use their fat stores for energy.
My fiancee and I are both vegetarians who are generally pretty careful about combining our foods. So while are menu was small, our caloric intake wasn’t that much lower than usual (it was lower, to be sure, but not drastically lower). If anything, I did feel a kind of muscle fatigue from the lower amounts of protein, and while working out there was a definite lack of zip in my muscle response.
It also makes you stupid. Jeebus, did we get stupid. Like, I would lose my wallet and find it in the fridge. That kind of stupid.
I found it to be a great exercise in discipline and will power. It had its Zen-moments. It was a good culinary experience, because now, honestly everything seems to have more taste and texture because my tongue goes “Yowza! Nutrition!”. I no longer get headaches from caffeeine deprivation. My colon is quite a bit tidier. And I realized that throughout this experiment I seemed much more acutely aware of my body, its needs, and its functions. That was probably one of the most interesting parts: I became aware of how my body processed the fuel that is food.
We’re both hobbiest athletes, so pushing our bodies this way was interesting, but I would not want to push it much farther. It seemed like it would be easy to take it too far and make ourselves sick.
It’s also made setting up a new menu a lot easier. Right now anything looks pretty good to me, so really healthy food choices are looking exciting. I’m also drinking a lot more water for some reason.
ETA: Ah, after posting it seems that DrDeth answered my question regarding the “energy” being a result of starving. That’s what I figured. The “energy” just didn’t sound right to me. My fiancee and I were eating fewer caloreis than normal, but it was not much of a reduction at all, given our usual diets. (We probably ate 200 Kal less than usual, but we were also exercising a lot less.)
Hi Quadgop, would you mind heading to my thread on Paris Hilton here?
We were wondering about your opinion on things from a Prison Doctor point of view
Merkwurdigliebe, we have private messaging now; it would be better to contact users directly rather than posting in unrelated threads.
This is all very helpful - thanks!
I take calcium pills and I drink milk. I’m not lacking in calcium.
Was the milk made with distilled water?
NO, duh. It was made by a cow.
You ever seen a dairy cow? Nasty, mud-covered things.
Not to mention the cleaning products used on the milking machines, and of course, the fact that cows don’t go on a detox diet, so anything they eat or drink might turn up in the milk. We could always tell when the cows had been eating a lot of clover instead of grass, you can taste it. But I’m sure you can’t taste the hidden cow toxins!
So… you’re taking artificial chemical calcium supplements while making sure your water is free of chemicals (including calcium)… Fascinating… :dubious: