Detox diet - fact or fad?

An Internet search for the phrase "detox diet" will throw up thousands of websites offering a plethora of dietary products and advice.

Cashing in on the belief that the body accumulates harmful toxins over time, the majority claim to be able to cleanse your system while promoting weight loss.

Such diets are now part of the growing multi-billion-dollar wellness industry worldwide. Many pharmacies and health-care providers here say their detox-related services and products are proving to be popular.

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Guardian Health & Beauty pharmacies said the chain has seen a "healthy growth" in sales of detox diet products like herbal supplement capsules and liquid formulas.

In March this year, Raffles Hospital began offering a four-week Weight Detox Programme to help patients eat right, lose weight and improve their overall health.

The programme has been seeing about three patients a month since it began, said a programme spokesman.

Players like slimming salons have joined in.

Ms Theresa Chew, chief executive officer of Expressions International, said that last year, at least 2,000 people here either signed up for her company's detox programme or bought one of its three-day detox diet starter kits.

She claimed that apart from reducing weight and cleansing the body of toxins, detox programmes help improve one's lifestyle.

"Most customers who detox for three to six months find that their appetite changes and their body no longer tolerates unhealthy food," she said.

What are detox diets and do they really work? Mind Your Body spoke to some advocates and critics.

What is a detox diet?

Diet detoxification is based on the idea that a change in one's diet can flush out the body's accumulated toxins.

Most detox diets involve increasing one's intake of fruit and vegetables, along with cutting out processed foods, red meat and reducing overall carbohydrate intake.

The increased fibre from such foods can supposedly improve a person's bowel movements, leading to the purging of waste from the digestive system.

Liquid meal replacements, or supplements, are often used in detox programmes. Some detox diets give instructions for meals that comprise only fruit and vegetables, or their juices, which a person is supposed to comply with ranging from a few days to a number of weeks.

Proponents say...

At the Nu.Reflections Medical Aesthetics clinic in Tanjong Pagar, Dr Ivan Tan offers a three-day detox diet programme that involves a low-calorie tea-syrup liquid formula as a meal replacement.

The formula, which has glucose and other nutrients like magnesium, sodium and potassium, is mixed with fresh lemon juice.

The lemon juice not only provides vitamin C but also serves as a mucolytic, that is, it helps break down stomach mucus and cleanses the intestines, he said.

"The intestine's mucus lining may be clogged up with a lot of toxins and impurities from the food we eat and the environment," he said.

"Once you cleanse your body of the toxins, you'll be healthier."

Dr Tan, who is in aesthetics practice, said that such low-calorie diets can help maintain a healthy weight. With the diet he promotes, a person's daily calorie intake is reduced to around 800 to 1,000 kilocalories, compared to the average person's daily caloric requirement of between 1,500 and 1,800 kilocalories.

He argued that while there are off-the-shelf detox diet kits, the success rate is much higher with professional counselling.

Ms Yondi Lee, a nutritionist with Ascension Healing, also advocates detox diet programmes for some of her clients. In the two years she has been running her business, she has helped about 100 clients with detox diet advice, the majority of whom are women aged between 30 and 60.

She tailors her programmes to the individual's needs, based on a diet and lifestyle assessment.

For elderly clients, or those with digestive problems, she advises against a rapid detox programme.

For most customers, she usually recommends a diet of fish, lots of fruit, vegetables and water, for about two weeks to a month. Nutritional supplements that support liver function, like vitamin B and C, can also be taken during this period, along with Western herbs like milk thistle and some amino acids.

"During this time of cleansing, it is important to make sure the liver is functioning well," she said.

Changing one's diet to a healthy one, she added, can help with health problems like high cholesterol, diabetes, insomnia and even stress.

Detractors say...

Doctors and dietitians contacted were all for a healthy diet. However, many were sceptical about the detoxifying claims of detox diets.

Dr Alexius Chee, a gastroenterologist in private practice, said: "There's no scientific evidence that these diets actually detoxify the system. It's a bit of pop science."

He said that while increasing your fibre intake can enhance your bowel movements and help clear your system, too much fibre can actually lead to constipation, especially if you don't consume enough liquids.

Drinking too much water as part of your detox diet can also cause water-intoxication and electrolyte imbalances, he said.

It can also cause your gut to become "lazy" and lose its tone through repeated liquid dieting.

"The human intestine is not like a pipe. It's always moving, secreting mucus and doing other things at the same time," he said.

"The idea that it can end up crusted and blocked is a myth."

Dietitian Nicola Porter, a consultant with Nutri-Style, a nutrition and image consultancy firm, is also critical of detox diets.

She pointed to how the human body already has its own system to detoxify itself.

"Our digestive system prevents bacteria and many toxins from entering the body and those that do enter are detoxified in our liver and excreted via our kidneys," she said.

She also said that detox diets tend to be very "nutrient and energy" restrictive and some are potentially unhealthy. She added that most of the weight lost from such diets is water and hence easily put back on once the diet is stopped.

Any sensible diet will promote the eating of more fruit and vegetables and the avoidance of unhealthy foods, alcohol and caffeine, she said. She also observed that many people think of detox diets around January, after they have indulged over the festive period.

"Some may find a detox diet useful to kick-start a healthy diet and to break the cycle of bad dietary habits. However, in reality, all you really need to feel better after a few weeks of heavy eating is a glass of tap water, a return to a healthy balanced diet and an early night," she said.