Detoxes Have Been Debunked Many Times Yet the Trend Continues
In the past few months alone, I have seen a slew of “detox” recipes and diet plans coming from prominent vegan websites and food bloggers. It’s upsetting to me because the whole detox fad is pseudo-scientific junk, and members of the vegan community, especially well-known vegan bloggers, should know better. It is yet another example of click-driven content – in my opinion.
They craft these potions, publish them, and spread them across social media because they are trying to capitalize on a trend that appeals to their health conscious demographic – or they honestly have no clue that detoxes are not backed by legitimate science. Even if the latter is the case, it is somewhat irksome because it only takes a modicum of researching to find out detoxes are a longstanding but thoroughly studied and debunked fad.
The sad truth is – or maybe not-so-sad, depending on how you look at it – detoxes don’t work. They are a waste of time, effort, and more often than not, money. In truth, your body already possesses the most effective detoxification system the Earth has ever seen: your liver and your kidneys. You can ingest almost anything – within reason of course – and these organs will do a great job expelling the toxins. They don’t need any help doing their job. And if they’re not doing their job, you should probably see a doctor. Now.
What the detoxification gurus never tell you is that nothing you swallow can be detoxified without being filtered by your liver and kidneys. Furthermore, they also don’t tell you that everything you eat and ingest is toxic. Even the “detoxes” and “cleanses” they sell you have to be detoxed by your liver and kidneys.
Did you know broccoli contains cyanide? It does. Even worse, oxygen is poisonous and can kill you. These facts sound more absurd than any claim you might read in a detox advert, but they are completely true; they just sound ridiculous because most people don’t know this stuff or talk about it. Granted, you’d have to consume an absurd amount of broccoli and/or pure oxygen to truly poison yourself, but that doesn’t mean they aren’t poisonous – it’s all about moderation, just like with drugs and alcohol. You could even drink enough water to kill yourself if you were determined enough. It’s actually a real thing that people die from called, “water intoxication.”
With all that in mind, how could drinking a glass of mysterious green goo and herbs detoxify you?
Since I am not actually a scientist, I’ll go ahead and let the real science experts expound. Just watch the video below for a more in-depth, albeit brief, explanation of why detoxes don’t work. Or check out these links:
http://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2012/02/15/146927835/can-a-diet-clean-out-toxins-in-the-body
https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2014/dec/05/detox-myth-health-diet-science-ignorance
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xIUOREAiddI
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