Detox diets: Flushing toxins or good sense?

Tammy Koby, 44, hadn’t felt healthy in a long time. She was bogged down and overweight. Within a period of just a few years, doctors diagnosed irritable bowel syndrome, allergies, liver problems, and Type 2 diabetes.

She wanted a holistic solution, but the Main Line resident said her doctors focused solely on treating her individual symptoms.

Then a friend through MySpace recommended the Master Cleanse diet. After doing her own research, Koby decided to try it.

It would require a 10-day regimen of nothing but nightly laxative teas, morning cups of Epsom salts, and glasses of a lemon-juice, cayenne-pepper and maple-syrup mixture.

Three weeks later, she can’t wait to do it again.

The Master Cleanse diet – developed in the 1940s by Stanley Burroughs – is one of many detoxification regimens on the market. While each has different dietary requirements, all promise to improve health, increase vitality, and help you lose weight by removing impurities from your lungs, skin and colon.

And they’re increasingly popular.

Svelte celebrities such as Beyoncé Knowles and Gwyneth Paltrow are said to detox-diet. Alumni, such as Koby, experience an “indescribable increase in energy” after the diet. And many books feature pictures (yes, pictures) of what can be eliminated from your colon – everything from sludge to parasites.

At the extreme end of the detoxification diet continuum are water diets and the Master Cleanse. On the other side: diets based on vegetable juice or raw foods.

Ultimately, these all are designed to expunge toxins from the body and give the colon a break from the prepackaged foods that make up the typical American diet, writes Roni DeLuz, author of 21 Pounds in 21 Days.

But some dietitians say the body doesn’t need a break.

“I think a lot of people are on these diets because of the media exposure,” said Stella Volpe, associate professor at the University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing. “People are hearing that they need to cleanse, but ironically, our bodies do that on their own. That is the primary function of our liver and kidneys.”

Amy Virus, registered dietitian and president of the Pennsylvania Dietetic Association, agreed.

“You don’t have to clean your digestive tract like you clean your carburetor,” Virus said.

But the devotees – those who have a stake in the success of the detox market – say mainstream medicine pooh-poohs practices that follow untraditional methods.

Tom Woloshyn, author of The Complete Master Cleanse, tells his readers to distrust advice from the medical community. Peter Glickman, author of Lose Weight, Have More Energy, & Be Happier in 10 Days, says physicians aren’t receptive to New Age healing methods. And DeLuz believes a sick clientele is economically fruitful for doctors.

So whom should you trust?

There have been no reputable medical studies on detoxification diets. For the most part, the detox dieting books root evidence in testimonials.

For example, Glickman writes that parasites are “more widespread than most people know.”

“When did we all get parasites in our intestines?” Volpe said. “Those claims are not true.”

Detox diets, she said, “go against everything we know to be healthy. We really need to be nourishing ourselves with food, not without.”

Of course, most people associate diets with denial, and nothing achieves rapid weight loss like laying off solid food. That means people looking to drop a few fast pounds flock to diets like these.

But when the body is deprived of energy, it goes into starvation mode and breaks down muscle and fat tissue, Virus said. Because muscle is more metabolically active than fat, this type of diet actually hurts long-term weight-loss goals.

“A lot of us want to see rapid changes and immediate progress,” Volpe said. “People are forgetting how long it took them to gain the weight in the first place.”

Glenn Staub started doing the Master Cleanse 30 years ago and averages three a year. While some see the diet as a fad, he believes it helps people rethink their approach to food.

“The weight loss can be an incentive to improve your diet, but not the sole motivator,” Staub said. “People who do the Master Cleanse to lose weight either don’t finish or get discouraged when they regain some of the weight after the diet.”

Ultimately, Volpe said, “any diet that says you should stop eating anything should be avoided” because a strict, unvaried diet does not provide the spectrum of nutrients and vitamins necessary for various metabolic processes.

The bottom line: The choice is yours. But if you still want to clear your colon, first consult a registered dietitian and a physician.