Truth Or Myth: A Detox Diet Can Cleanse Your Body System
Drinking a juice made of certain special green vegetables for ten days will flush out all toxins from your system and “cleanse” it. Sounds convincing? Oh yes, it sure does! And that is precisely why a countless number of detox diets have become so popular. However, the whole idea of being able to cleanse your system with vegetable juices alone is a terrible medical myth.
Why myth?
Our body has a very well designed system for regular, non-stop detoxification. The liver and the kidney work continuously to get rid of all that is not needed by the body or is not good for it. The detox juices can do nothing extraordinary to make your body’s natural detoxification mechanism more efficient.
What to do?
If you are interested in reducing the “toxin” load in your body, you should consider imbibing healthy lifestyle habits, such as quit smoking, cut down alcohol, and minimize eating processed foods. Surviving on vegetable juice and herbs for a few days might reduce the guilt of overindulgence and cause some short-term weight loss, but don’t expect anything more out of it. In fact, you should watch out for some potential bad effects like excessive weakness, fatigue, dizziness, and nausea. If you are experiencing any of these, it’s time to go back to your regular diet.
Moreover, people with diabetes or other medical conditions must not try extreme diets such as juice-based detox without their doctor’s consent.
Tips to ‘detox’ body
A stomach stuffed with food and a heart full of guilt – this is more common than you think. While occasional overeating is okay for someone who has overall good eating habits and maintains a healthy weight, it is surely unhealthy if becomes frequent. Moreover, detoxing can be very frustrating for those who are trying to lose weight.
Here are 5 simple tips to ‘detox’ and feel satisfied with a smaller, healthier meal:
1. Eat a full breakfast: Skipping breakfast or having too less for breakfast can make you overeat during the day. An entirely carbohydrate-based breakfast such as toast and juice can also lead to quick and repeated hunger pangs during the day. A full breakfast with balanced amounts of protein, fat, and carbohydrates prepares your body to feel happy with small, balanced meals throughout the day.
2. Eat at regular intervals: Have your meals and snacks at a defined time and stick to the schedule as far as possible. Avoid the urge to skip or postpone a meal till you are starving, because when you hit the dining table all famished, you will overeat, and most likely overeat the unhealthiest foods.
3. Eat slowly: This good old advice has some serious scientific reason behind it. We feel satisfied and stop eating when signals are sent to our brain from our stomach. But it can take anything from twelve to twenty minutes for your brain to receive these signals and respond. When you eat too fast, by the time your brain receives the direction to stop eating, you have already eaten more than your body actually wanted you to.
4. Eat mindfully: Do not multitask while eating. When you are doing multiple things at the same time, the entire mechanism that makes you feel satisfied with the food that you are eating goes haywire. As a result, you feel dissatisfied with what you have already eaten and end up eating more.
5. Eat filling foods first: Foods that have a lot of fiber and water fill up your stomach fast and help you avoid overeating. Salads and fruits are a good example of such food. Having generous portions of such foods at the beginning of your meal can help you avoid overeating.
A ‘detox’ diet is not synonymous with cleansing our bodies anymore. While overeating is extremely common, in some cases it could be the sign of a more serious eating disorder. The binge-eating episode is followed by a deep feeling of guilt and shame. Focus on detoxing your body naturally through healthy habits than depriving yourselves of food.
For any query related to diet plans and healthy eating tips, consult an Internal Medicine Specialist at www.healthcaremagic.com
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