Detox the Right Way

Extreme cleanses can deplete your body. Here are three safer ways to lose weight, gain energy, and flush out toxins.


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Raise your hand if you’ve ever dreamed of using a juice fast to lose your love handles or compensate for holiday excesses. You’re not alone. Between October 2008 and October 2009, Americans spent more than $100 million on cleansing and detoxifying products in an effort to lose weight, gain energy, or purify themselves of harmful toxins, according to market research firm Spins. The appeal is obvious: Multiday detoxes are advertised as if they were shops where you send your dinged-up old body to be detailed. When you get it back, it’s so clean and shiny, it might as well be brand-new. If only it were that simple.

Prolonged fasting can do more harm than good by slowing your metabolism, depleting your body of essential nutrients, and, ironically, recirculating toxins into your system, says Gaetano Morello, ND, a detox specialist in West Vancouver, British Columbia, and author of Whole Body Cleansing (Active Interest Media, 2009). Plus, many popular detox regimens, such as the Master Cleanse—a 10- to 20-day fast during which you subsist on a mix of lemon juice, maple syrup, and water—are so extreme that weight loss is nearly impossible to maintain once you go back to eating solid food. So far, no science shows that fasting or subsisting on liquids for any amount of time will scrub a lifetime’s worth of toxins from your cells. (For more on fasting, see “Top 5 Cleansing Questions”.)

“There’s no such thing as a quick fix,” says Patricia Fitzgerald, DOM, a homeopath and nutritionist in Santa Monica, California, and author of The Detox Solution (Illumination Press, 2001). “The safest detox is lifestyle.” By committing to a healthy diet, supporting your body’s natural detoxifying systems with food and supplements, and reducing your exposure to harmful chemicals, you’ll trim fat, boost energy, and lessen your body’s toxic burden. The following plans can be revisited several times a year.

Detox Goal #1 Lose Fat

Toxins and fat go hand in hand. According to a 2002 article in the Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine, synthetic chemicals, heavy metals, solvents, and the plastic additive bisphenol-A (BPA) disrupt the body’s natural weight-controlling hormones, interfere with metabolism, and change your appetite. Because most toxins are stored in the body’s fat cells, dropping unwanted pounds will help you start whittling away at metabolism-thwarting chemical reserves too.

Start by eliminating the top calorie- and chemical-packed diet pitfalls—sugar, processed foods, and red meat. Aim for 1,200 to 1,500 calories per day primarily from organic produce, grains, and some protein. Think of it as training your body to run more efficiently on cleaner foods.

“Once you start feeling better, you’ll tend to want keep feeling better,” says Morello, who recommends doing a two-week detox three to four times a year, when seasons shift—a natural time to reevaluate your lifestyle and diet. “You’ve got to program yourself to change.” When the detox period is over, gradually increase your energy intake to about 2,200 calories per day from foods like lean protein and high-fiber fruits and vegetables, which will fill you up without piling on the pounds.

Detox Goal #2 Relieve Body Burden

The human body detoxifies itself naturally in two stages, Phase I and II, which occur in the GI tract and liver. In Phase I, digestive enzymes convert toxins into forms that amino acids and glutathione can neutralize in Phase II, making them water soluble. At this point, the toxins get absorbed into bile and are transported out of the body. Morello likens the complex physiological process to working with oil-based paints. “You can’t wash oil paint off with water,” he explains. “You need to transform it and bind it and then get it off. The first step is taking the turpentine and binding it to the paint. The second step is taking the cloth and rubbing the paint off.”

The two-phase process works well to remove some toxins, but our exposure to industrial compounds, environmental pollutants, and chemicals is at an all-time high, and our bodies need extra help getting rid of them. Toxins are in the foods we eat, the air we breathe, the water we drink, and the household products we touch, and have been linked to cancer, birth defects, and hormonal and fertility problems. “Every single cell is always detoxing,” explains Fitzgerald. “The question is how efficiently?” To give your liver and GI tract some much-needed support, reduce your exposure to chemicals, clean up your diet, and work in cleansing supplements and therapies.

Detox Goal #3: Increase Energy

Sad but true, the American diet’s cornerstones—wheat, dairy, sugar, and red meat—wreak havoc on our bodies, often without us knowing it. These foods are inherently difficult to digest, causing your GI tract to attack the proteins as though they were foreign antigens, wasting a whole lot of energy in the process, Lipman says. And because 70 percent to 80 percent of your immune system thrives in your digestive tract in the form of beneficial gut flora, poor digestion puts unnecessary wear and tear on your body’s basic defenses.

“Many of us have become used to mild indigestion, irritated bowels, bloating, and gas, and think they are normal parts of aging,” Lipman says. In reality, these symptoms are signs that your digestive system is out of whack. “No matter how healthily you eat, if your digestive system does not work well, your food does not nourish you well,” he says. And without proper nourishment, it’s almost impossible to fire on all cylinders. During this detox, you’ll reboot with quality sleep, energizing herbs, and foods that won’t sap your strength.