What the Heck Is a Cleansing Diet?

Cleansing diets are all the rage. Dr. Oz has been shamelessly promoting the “Oz 3-Day Detox Cleanse” for years, unfettered by any burden of evidence for a benefit that outweighs any risks. Defending Oz’s use of hyperbolic language — like “miracle in a bottle” — a spokesman says:

Our audience are not scientists, and the show needs to be more lively than a dry scientific discussion.

We’re not über scientists, but we do understand the language of consumer promotion. And all this language of cleansing and detoxification is a bogus promise of redemption from unhealthy habits. It taps into guilt, and in some people, susceptibility to an eating disorder.

With the recent, sudden, and unexplained death of British model Peaches Geldof last week, more attention is turning to the hazards of extreme dieting in the form of juice cleanses. Geldof’s cause of death is so far undetermined. In 2011, she told a UK celebrity magazine:

I have no willpower, but with the juicing I’m like: “I have to do it because I have to lose this extra 10 pounds.” I’ll lose it, and then I’m back going mental for the chips. I juice, and then I eat chips.

Such a restrictive diet for more than a few days can create imbalances in essential nutrients and electrolytes and create the risk of refeeding syndrome and death when a normal diet is suddenly resumed. Super-thin individuals who turn juicing into an eating disorder have sparked the term “juicerexia” to describe this phenomenon. Weight management expert Judith Wurtman asked recently:

Will substituting lemon juice and pepper for meals lead not to a “purified” body but rather one that in the future is so frail, it must reside in a wheelchair?

Many doctors will tolerate cleansing or detox diets, offering caution that they are only harmless when followed for a short time. Others, like Oz, exploit them and then express shock when the danger of an eating disorder crops up. Meanwhile every healthy food or recipe is casually labeled as having “cleansing” or “detox” properties because it seems trendy.

All of this is nonsense. None of these foods or diets are backed by any evidence that they do anything to cleanse toxins from the body. Soap and water are good for cleaning the outside of your body. Your liver and kidneys remove any toxins within. An extreme cleansing diet offers little potential for benefit and if taken to an extreme, can harm those organs that really do have a detox function for your body.

Good wholesome food is just that. It’s not cleansing or detoxifying. The best strategy for good health is a sustainable diet of good, wholesome food in moderation that you’ll enjoy for a lifetime.

Click here to read more from Women’s Health, here to read more from the Huffington Post, here to read more from CBC and here to read more from ConscienHealth.

Wash, photograph © Andreas Levers / flickr

Subscribe by email to follow the accumulating evidence and observations that shape our view of health, obesity, and policy.