The Controversies Involved With Detoxification Diets

Detoxification or starvation?

Diets for detoxification have come under immense scrutiny over the months that have passed. There are numerous claims that only weight that can be lost is the weight of water from the start of the fasting period and the subsequent loss of weight due to the reduction of caloric intake. A detoxification diet can be quite restrictive, and can go as far as being called as a starvation diet. A lot of articles made by "experts" explain that a detoxification diet is hazardous to people, saying that it is just a "yo-yo" diet, creates a wrong impression on many food groups and can even lead to some eating disorders.

We are also aware of the fact that most of these "experts" making these articles are working or are related in the field of health and weight loss which are people like health program supervisors, nutritionists, weight loss counselors, and common people who have great interest and knowledge on fitness and health. Although I am not saying that anyone of these people are just making up their statements or may be fabricating the truth regarding this matter, I am just saying that usually a person of this education level will have a hard time seeing things on a different perspective. This may be because they only believe in what they have learned or experienced, and may not be ready to accept facts other than what they had. Like for example, when a nutritionist enters college and has been educated with the teaching that green beans can cause cancer, this same person will finish college with the belief that this food is bad for people's health. This will also cause him to share this information with his clients and other people he comes in contact with. And when after a few years, a particular person gets in the picture and debates that green beans does not cause cancer, do you think it is possible for the nutritionist to believe what this current person is stating?

This kind of anomaly is not only related to nutritionists and other related fields in health and fitness. It can happen in other fields as well. Being a writer, I learned that you must never communicate in double negatives. It is just a simple ethical consideration I apply each and every day. If someone would approach me and did everything to convince me that what I have learned before is now different, whether right or wrong, I always see to it that I don't speak in double negatives. And if I make criticisms on this current idea without first making my own investigation and revisiting my knowledge of basic English and grammar, then I am simply only just depending on my former knowledge to debate on this issue.

So why don't we deviate away from conventional nutritionists and just discover what detoxification diets have to offer from a completely blank slate. No, I am not a nutritionist, I'm just a writer who is curious and wants to learn if a detoxification diet really is a healthy method of body cleansing, or is it just a kind of starvation diet that does no good for the body besides just losing some water while making people believe that it makes them feel better. I have gathered 3 people who have undergone a detoxification diet and another 3 who did not. This population may not comprise a huge percentage, but I am not getting these people as guinea

pigs, I just want to get information based on their experience in order for me to confirm or negate the detoxification diet statements from both dieticians and those who are subjects of a detoxification diet.

Fasting and purity

People have relied on fasting for centuries in order to be purified. If we backtrack through ancient writings, we will discover that fasting was not only done as a means of purification of the spirit, but also for physical purification. Those fasting for purity experienced significant loss of energy, but regains strength after the period of fasting, usually within a period of 36 hours. This statement can easily be debated upon, since those people might have felt that their body has been cleansed because of their spiritual inspiration from the fasting process. The three persons I have invited to undergo fasting were not looking to be spiritually enlightened, and stated that they felt very weak after being deprived of food for a while, although they began to feel better and cleaner before the second day ended. Also, none of the three said they experienced starvation, but instead felt the fasting process did give them some level of physical purity.

In the science of medicine, there are instances wherein physicians will advise you to fast. Setting aside pre-surgical procedures, most fasting methods are done in order to prepare or cleanse the body for something. Take the case of people taking diets like the ketogenic diet, which requires a period of fasting prior to starting it in order to better treat illnesses.

Those criticizing the detoxification diet plan state that headaches and other undesirable symptoms show up on the first stage of the diet program due to the food deprivation. But advocates of the detoxification diet program argue that the headaches and other symptoms are only temporary and due to the body being accustomed to the new process it is going through. The three persons I invited to undergo a detoxification diet program all had the same result in the quality of their urine and bowel excretions; they look clearer and had less odor. And although they did feel some level of headaches and fatigue, they did not attribute this to the fasting process.

I also did some research online and found 11 dieticians who disagreed undergoing a detoxification diet. Each individual debated that headaches were due to the fasting process, but in essence, they are also recommending some form of detoxification diet. Interesting enough, their versions of special diets included some form of fasting as well. Their version was just different in a few things, like just eating only some varieties of fruits and yogurt. Most detoxification diets actually don't have a complete fasting period.

People who don't agree with getting into a detoxification diet are not really happy with the weight loss results that it offers. They argue that it is only the weight of the water lost during fasting, and will easily get back to what it originally was the moment normal eating regimen is resumed. The weight loss benefits of detoxification diets actually come from different sources. Like when you are undergoing an overall body detoxification, some of the weight lost from the body has already been flushed down the toilet (if you know what I'm talking about that is). You might be surprised to know that two of the people I invited to take a detoxification program even called for a plumber because of the surplus waste they excreted. The weight they lost in the process has been maintained as well, and two of these individuals have started with the program more than 6 months before this article was even written. The weight they lost has been maintained simply because they made smarter eating choices. Although they resumed with their normal eating routine, they did not go back with consuming lots of junk and processed foods. They all stated that they have learned how to keep their body's toxin levels low after undergoing the detoxification diet and it has gave them a better overall health.

So is this just another diet craze?

Critics of the detoxification diet that this new trend in dieting, similar to others that had the "diet" word with them, is no different than its predecessors, particularly in its effectiveness. Every time a new diet craze comes in the market, a lot of people rush to the scene, saying that it does them no good. In reality, not all diet programs are suitable for everyone. I myself have tried Atkins diet for quite some time and my efforts proved to be futile, although a friend of mine swore that it worked wonders for him. Apparently, the Atkins diet is not made for those who are not significantly overweight, as most critics say, and my own body as well. So can we now conclude that the detoxification diet is beyond everyone's standards of a regular diet craze, or is it just a hyped-up failure just like everyone claims it to be? Of the 3 individuals who had undergone detoxification, 2 state that it is not a diet craze. They say that is an effective procedure of cleansing the body, in which most diet programs fail to do. The third person states that it is just a trend in diet, but since it is effective for him, then he does not really care about it.

Diet crazes and trends usually do not really have much inside them. They are actually just ideas made to convince you that this particular diet trend is the best and most effective, and they can allow you to lose weight and keep it from coming back. Detoxification diets aims for something beyond all this, which is why I really exerted some effort to find out the truth about this diet program. I simply had to find out.

There is a huge amount of data that proves that Americans and Canadians have the worst health condition in general, considering the health support readily available. The health support available in our area is supposed to make us one of the most physically fit and healthiest countries in the world, but unfortunately it is the opposite. A lot of doctors state that this can be attributed to the kind of food people take in nowadays, which are usually filled with toxic substances from too much processing. And even with the wide range of healthy options available to us, we are still at the top of the list on cancer rates, including diabetes and cardiovascular diseases. Not surprisingly, we also rank high on the list of countries with the most number of overweight and obese people.

The detoxification diet intends to address the growing problems regarding the overall health of American citizens, which will go beyond just their waistlines. The diet trends that we have seen in the past have only focused on shrinking people's waistlines, but did not even touch how to improve overall health. So is this detoxification diet just another trend in dieting? Technically speaking, a diet trend simply means any new program introduced in the market, which promises a lot of good stuff and gains a lot of new followers as well. If this is how we define it, then yes. But by another standard, this may also not be considered a diet trend. This is because this was not designed like the usual diet trends that came before it.

Both overweight and slim people can benefit from undergoing a detoxification diet. In fact we can say that everyone can enjoy the benefits that this diet program has to offer. This program was not made to induce weight loss; it was made in order to encourage people to live a healthier lifestyle. Losing weight is just a side effect of the program. This diet program strives to achieve a long-term optimum health condition. After being cleansed and detoxified, your body will surely feel a lot better, more energized and rejuvenated. It will also help you keep you in the right track and you will find out that you never want to get back to your unhealthy lifestyle again.   

Beyonce Knowles recently announced on the Oprah Winfrey talk show that she had lost a massive 20 pounds on the Master Cleanse detox diet! Compare the best detox diets used by the Hollywood's superstars!

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By Holly Vera

You Should Know How Your Diet is Supposed to Work

The vast majority of people start dieting in order to lose weight. Losing weight can be accomplished in a number of ways. A diet is simply a specific method for accomplishing that task.

When one decides that they need to lose weight, the first thing that must be considered is the reason for wanting to lose weight. Is the weight loss going to be directed at a way to gain better health or is it more of a vanity reason? The reason for dieting is as important as the method used to lose the weight.

If attaining a more healthy lifestyle and striving for better health is the reason, it should not be of any concern how long the dieting takes to achieve the weight loss goal, if in fact there is a goal. If good health is the main objective, length of time should not be an issue because the diet should simply be a part of a life-style change in which the dieting change would be a long-term part of the life-style anyway.

If, on the other hand, vanity is the reason and the dieting person is hell bent on losing a significant amount of weight in a short period of time in order to fit into an object of clothing or simply to look great at the class reunion in a month, the method chosen for dieting will be completely different and, most likely, quite unhealthy.

Long term lifestyle type diets are usually of the type that occur in small increments of weight loss and continue as exercise is slowly increased and more healthy food, in smaller portions is consumed. These are usually quite simple diets that don't cause a significant amount of suffering as long as the dieting person is committed to the long-term goals.

The vanity type diet is usually a quick but very self-denying diet in which the dieting person eats very little or eats foods that do not tempt the pallet as far as taste or attractiveness go. Often, very large amounts of water are incorporated into these diets and most people do not drink enough water to begin with. When they are confronted with the need to increase their water intake significantly, they hesitate or they are not very compliant. Water, when one is not thirsty, simply does not taste very good.

The vanity diet also usually requires a substantial increase in activity in the form of exercise and most people have a strong aversion to that form of activity.

There are also diets that are not in either the lifestyle change nor the vanity dieting lists but are really a forced lifestyle change that is completely necessary for the dieting person to continue to live. Once such diet is the diabetic diet. If one ignores their diabetes and continues to eat large amounts of carbohydrates, as most Americans do, they will eventually suffer serious health deterioration. So, the necessary-for-life diets are not the ones we are really concerned with in this article.

There are a number of different diets available for each of the non-necessity diets. The basic lifestyle change diet has already been described though some of the latter day fad diets are also appropriate for long-term dieting if the person doing the dieting is indeed dedicated to the lifestyle change. Some specific fad diets that would work for this person are the Atkins or low-carb diet, The Zone diet or the South Beach diet.

The extreme vanity diet person can also use the low carb diet for fast weight loss or they can try starvation or if they really want to lose weight fast and suffer a bit more but at least retain some type of decent health, they can attempt the Lemonade Diet.

The lemonade diet is highly effective but is more a fast than a diet and a special mixture of water, cayenne pepper, lemon juice and syrup are required. One must be highly dedicated to losing weight for this diet to work as no food is allowed for a period of at least ten days and the Lemonade dieter will feel worse before they feel like a million dollars. The diet is extremely effective for losing ten pounds or more in ten days though. The added benefit of this diet is that it does a thorough job of cleaning the colon.

Each one of the above mentioned diets should be highly suspect and not just accepted for it's reputation or the current fad. One who is considering dieting should, at the very least, buy the book that is written about the diet in order to learn how the diet works with the body and effects the different body systems. Each of the authors has a lot of information included in their book about these concerns.

The main point of this article is to point out to anyone who is considering dieting that they should be very careful and choose a diet that meets their goals and health concerns. Don't blindly go into any diet without knowing how it's supposed to effect you, what you're supposed to eat while on the diet, how much weight you are expected to lose in a specific period of time and what are the benefits and health concerns that attach to that diet.

In fact, it is a very good idea to discuss any diet plans with your health care professional prior to starting or even considering one of the above diets.

Gary Vaughn is a Masters level RN and has studied and written about nutrition and dieting for quite some time. He has been published both professionally and online. He is the owner of Repair My Weight Loss, an information rich website about popular diets, diet myths, diet solutions and diet reality. The website can be found at [http://www.repairmyweightloss.com]

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By Gary Vaughn