Detox, Toxin Removal, Restricted Diets

The Wall Street Journal—Some drink only vegetable juice. Others soak in Epsom salts. It’s all in the pursuit of ridding the body of months or years of accumulated toxins, said to be the cause of fat, fatigue, diabetes, memory problems and countless other conditions. The promises of liquid cleanses and other techniques have attracted legions of followers, celebrity endorsers and millions in venture capital funds. The trend has helped supercharge the U.S. diet industry, which passed $60 billion in sales last year. It has also made carrying gunky green juice a status symbol in fitness circles.

Detox proponents define toxins very broadly. Mark Hyman, a physician and author of six best-selling diet books, says the biggest toxic threats come from the American diet itself. “We are eating pharmaceutical doses of sugar and flour,” which have overwhelmed the liver’s ability to cope, says Dr. Hyman. He points to the overabundance of Americans with fatty liver disease, which leads to obesity, insulin resistance and other metabolic disorders. He says Americans are also being assaulted by heavy metals (including mercury from large fish and old dental fillings) and endocrine-disrupting chemicals (including Bisphenol A in makeup and credit-card receipts) as well as “spiritual toxins,” such as loneliness and hostility. But he says people reduce their exposure and enhance their ability to excrete such toxins with the right balance of foods, vitamins and minerals.

Liver specialists say that up to 20% of adults have some form of fatty liver disease, in which excess fat in the liver leads to inflammation, scar tissue and eventually liver failure. Some cases are due to alcohol abuse. Genetics, hepatitis, autoimmune disease and medication use also play a role. It isn’t clear whether fatty liver causes obesity or vice versa.

But some cleanses are often little more than fasting regimens. The “master cleanse,” devised to treat ulcers in the 1940s, consists of six to 12 glasses of water mixed with lemon juice, cayenne pepper and maple syrup, with a laxative at bedtime but no other food for up to 10 days. It leaves many nutrition experts scratching their heads. Dr. Saltzman says a variety of medicinal properties have been linked with lemon juice and that cayenne can help soothe lingering pain from shingles. “The real puzzler is the maple syrup,” he says.

Peter Glickman, who helped revive the cleanse in a 2004 book, writes that the first three days are the hardest and that serenity, euphoria and mental clarity set in after about Day Eight.

The Mayo Clinic’s Dr. Hensrud says it could be incipient starvation instead. “But once you reintroduce a normal diet, everything goes back to normal,” he says.

The bevy of prepackaged juice cleanses that have burst on the market in recent years incorporate fruits, vegetables and protein into their detox regimens. BluePrintCleanse’s program, for example, consists of six 16-ounce drinks a day, in precise order, for three days.

Keeping the digestive tract moving normally is another reason many experts say simply eating more fruit and vegetables makes more sense than a drastic temporary regimen. New York nutritionist Bonnie Taub-Dix calls it “clean eating.” She advises: “Skip the cleanse. Have your green smoothie as a snack in the afternoon and then skip the vending machine.”