Once Detox diets have gained tremendous attention, people used it as the miracle pill. It does seem to be more an empirical practice than an evidence-based nutritional intervention for weight loss. I found in the majority of published studies, researches that administered a toxic substance, not a diet for desintoxication in healthy subjects. In almost all cases of Detox diets, the subject is not poisoned or intoxicated for following such a diet.
What does the scientific studies shows? Is there a scientific base in this type of diet?
Hope to hear your comments.
Giuseppe PS
Dear Stefani
The attached review emphasizes specifically this, the lack of studies in humans involving detox diets, good methodological approaches (including ideal sample sizes) and real beneficials to the health.
Att,
I ran a search on this topic last year. The problem is that the search terms are not very uniform, so how do you get a consensus to perform a systematic review of the literature? Is an elimination and reintroduction diet a detox? Is a juice fast a detox diet? Some writers use foods that mimic an anti-inflammatory diet. Some clinicians use Chlorella, NAC, EDTA, and cruciferae. These studies are considered "supplementation." You would have to code for type of diet and look at effect sizes of each outcome. What are you detoxing...metals, free radicals, or pesticides? I finally gave up!
such a loaded word. 'detox'. The trouble is people think a detoxing diet will cure all their ails when in most cases, it merely calms down the inflammatory and regulatory responses in the body to their usually poor diet. No surprise, they feel better.
Back in the day the rx for hypertriglyceridemia was NPO for a week in the hospital and the numbers all calmed down. Unfortunately, that led people (and the docs) to believe everything was better, except that the body is a biological system and once they resumed their poor eating habits, their body exhibited the metabolic impact of both starvation and refeeding. Bad news.
I'm not surprised a literature review is impossible. In good health, the body's natural mechanisms detoxifies itself from the metabolites of normal metabolic processes. But today all living creatures have to contend with an assault of persistent and not so persistent endocrine disruptors and other industrial contaminants that bioaccumulate and contribute to a body burden. I'd like to see a detox diet for that.
Dear Juliano Boufleur,
Thank your for sharing this article.
It reinforces my point that whenever there is no intoxication, it seems not a robust practice for weight loss.
Best regards,
Giuseppe PS
Detoxication in the sense of broad public information is the the great nonsense used only for marketing of some diets or nutrition supplements. It is behind of evidence based medicine.
In principle it is necessary to define what is considered as a toxin in a healthy individual and a good nutritional plan led by nutritionist can help lower what you consider toxins, I agree it's a marketing strategy not based on evidence
Toxin and detoxication are well known conception in toxicology and clinical medicine. Some bad nutritionists abuse it.
Toxins are the main cause of diseases in the modern world because what we eat today is almost intoxicated with insecticides or pesticides. So detoxification is main thing we have to consider in treating the chronic diseaes like Ulcerative Colitis, Chron's Disease, even HTN and some type of cancer i think.
Yes, there are many references to a "detox diet" in the literature, but I am having trouble finding clinical trials. Even n-of-one studies would be helpful with an adequate description of the protocol.
Refer this articles:
https://www.verywellfit.com/what-is-a-detox-diet-88245
https://www.bbcgoodfood.com/howto/guide/what-detox-diet
It would appear that either researchers are not interested or funding is scarce.
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