Do Detox Diets And Cleanses Work?

The term “detox” has become a popular healthy lifestyle buzzword. Why? We all want to find an easy solution to bloating, cleansing our gut, and feeling comfortable in our body. Every day, you’re exposed to dangerous toxins in our food, water, household products, environment and more. Exposure to environmental toxins can impact how you feel and your health long-term. Impacts to immune function, digestion, and much more have been linked to these daily exposures to heavy metals, pesticides and numerous other environmental toxin exposures.^1-4

Eliminating toxins from your body is important, but how you cleanse matters for a safe and successful detox.  

From detox drinks, detox diets, and juicing to supplements and liquid chlorophyll, total body cleansing has become the go-to for de-bloating, weight loss, anti-aging and simply feeling your best. However, not all cleanses are created equally, and in order for detoxing to safely and effectively work, it depends on what type of detox you choose. A healthy cleanse and detoxification program can be your door to optimal vitality, but it hinges on how you open that door. If you’re not careful, a poorly planned detox can drain your energy and redistribute toxins (such as heavy metals and pesticides) throughout your body to vital organs.  

Unfortunately, many detoxes and cleanses promise a quick fix, and that can be damaging to your body. A three-day cleanse or juice fast simply can’t “scrub clean” your body effectively, and won’t provide the long-term benefits you need.   

For successful and safe detox, you’ll want a gradual and gentle approach for natural toxin removal. A detox diet often consists of nutritious whole foods that are free of processed ingredients.  

Keys to a successful detox diet:  

• Eat gut healthy, unprocessed foods 
• Eliminate sugars  
• Decrease salt intake  
• Limit alcohol  
• Water and rest  

This detox diet approach is very different than the calorie-restricting juice fasts or “master cleanse” fasting programs that can severely deplete you of nutrients and the energy your body actually needs to thoroughly detoxify itself. Adequate hydration with water or an herbal tea are also recommended for supporting your body as you cleanse.  

Adding natural supplements that support safe toxin removal, and regular exercise helps to ensure your body is cleansing without depleting it of what it needs. With this type of gradual momentum, you can reduce your toxic body burden while enhancing your natural detox functions, setting your gut up for greater health and vitality long-term.  

Many integrative health experts believe that if done correctly, a gentle detox program can potentially benefit anyone, regardless of their health status. A gentle detox done over time can support numerous areas of health that may be related to toxic body burden: 

• Brain function  
• Digestion and metabolism  
• Immunity and inflammation response  
• Hormone balance  

A gentle cleanse can be as short as 1-2 weeks, but many people find that it’s easy to continue for the long-term and achieve even greater benefits. The beauty of this gentle approach is that it can be easily incorporated into your daily health ritual, or your current cleanse program. 

There are a number of misconceptions about detoxing and the best way to do a detox. 

Detox Myth: Detox is a “scam”

Critics state that your body has sufficient detox mechanisms already in place, mainly within your liver and kidneys, and that these natural detox functions are enough to remove toxins from the body.  

Detox Truth: While many parts of your body like the liver, kidney, lungs, and GI tract work to keep toxins out, research shows that these systems need help, especially in today’s environments, where high levels of health-robbing pollutants like heavy metals, plastics, and other “everyday toxins” continuously accumulate in the body.^5-9 

For you to feel your best and reach optimal health, these toxins need to be safely removed.  

Detox Myth: You should detox with prescription pharmaceutical drugs that are proven to remove heavy metals  

Detox Truth: Unfortunately, these conventional detox methods come with significant side effects.  

Certain pharmaceutical compounds used for detoxification such as dimercaprol, EDTA, DMSA, DMPS, have been used to chelate (ie. bind and remove) heavy metals and toxins from the body. However, these chelation compounds can generate dangerous side effects such as flu symptoms, rashes, irregular heartbeat, low blood sugar, and more serious impacts such as organ damage and kidney failure. They also deplete your body from essential minerals such as calcium, zinc magnesium, etc. 

Detox Myth: No detox programs or supplements have been proven to remove toxins from the body.  

Detox Truth: While it’s true that there are many detox programs sold today that are not backed by clinical—or ANY—research, there are a handful of highly effective and safe detoxification formulas that continue to be proven in published clinical studies to safely remove toxins from the body, and support long-term health.^10-13 These safe and clinically-proven detox solutions help to eliminate toxins from your body without harming your body.

Detox Myth: When detoxing, you have to feel worse before you can feel better  

Detox truth: A “Detox Crisis” or “Healing Crisis” isn’t a good sign. You may have heard people who start to detoxify mention side-effects like headaches, constipation, brain fog, or worse. Many people will tell you it’s a good sign that your program is working. It’s not. What’s happening in these cases is that toxins are being released too quickly —via aggressive methods like fasting that causes fat cells to dump stored toxins into your circulation. As a result, your body can’t handle the sudden load of pollutants in the blood stream. It’s like a spring thaw: if the snow melts too quickly, the river floods, leaving debris and destruction on its banks.   

That’s why gradually transition to a cleansing diet is recommended, and incorporating natural toxin binding supplements—like PectaClear—that help cleanse the circulation and digestive tract first, so you can prepare for a deeper, more thorough detoxification processes. This way, we can avoid uncomfortable reactions and optimize our long-term health.

Effective detox binding formulas help prepare the circulation and digestion system with natural ingredients that bind toxins and allow the body to safely remove them.  

ecoNugenics is proud to be a leader in clinically researched detox formulas such as PectaClear Toxic Metal Cleanse, proven in multiple peer-reviewed human studies to safely remove toxic metals including lead, mercury, arsenic and others from the body, without causing side effects.^10-13 Importantly, this advanced detox formula actually helps reduce the possible side effects that can happen as result of aggressive or harsh detox methods, the “detox crisis”.

For more thorough detoxification as a complement to PectaClear, ecoNugenics recommends the total-body liver detox formula, ecoDetox. This targeted liver support formula promotes the natural detox functions of the liver, kidneys and other organs of elimination and helps boost vital energy needed during a cleanse. ecoDetox is a comprehensive blend of milk thistle, dandelion, garlic, and other powerful botanicals, antioxidants and nutrients for in-depth toxin removal.

Together, these two formulas work to help the body release and metabolize stored toxins (ecoDetox), and bind and eliminate them safely from the body via the urine and stool (PectaClear).*  

Anyone can benefit from these simple, pain-free strategies to defend against everyday toxin exposure, and keep heavy metals and other toxins from accumulating in your body. Greater energy, immune balance, digestion and mental wellbeing are all powerful benefits of a safe and gentle, clinically researched detox approach. Start yours today.

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