The truth about so called ‘Detoxing Products’.


Many companies have produced so called detox products with classic phrases to capture its target market such as ‘9 day cleanse’ and ‘accelerate your weight loss’. The marketing model  also allows for mass marketing of these products and is  based upon non qualified individuals who can ‘own their own business’ promoting how you can dramatically improve your health and wellbeing by solely taking this product. There is always one question I ask distributors boasting such claims, how? 

I'm always open minded and in the time I have spent in the health and fitness industry I have been proven wrong with industry break throughs for example functional training, generally thought it was a fad but turns out it's good stuff.  However these detox products are purely taking advantage of the insecurities of its mainly female based target market offering them a quick fix solution for all their body issues, smart marketing granted! 

The science behind the claim.
So many detox programmes replace 2 meals a day with shakes normally breakfast and dinner with a low GI lunch midday. This will be for a handful of days with a further calorie restricted couple of days to help ‘clean the liver’. Now in theory the distributors will claim that this is to encourage all the ‘toxins’ in the body to be filtered through the liver and to aid the removal of fatty tissue around vital organs such as the liver and kidneys, which granted is important and vital for optimal health and the prevention of disease. This all sounds great and to top it off it will also help you shift a few pounds as well. Normally to Joe public this would be enough to get the sale, a random bit of scientific waffle and no more questions asked. 

The truth 
Ok so let's face facts! Our bodies are walking rubbish bins being exposed to a huge amounts of toxins everyday. The air we breath is polluted, the tap water we drink is unclean, the food we eat is processed, our stress levels are the through the roof and to top it off we sit down all day and don't even flex a muscle. So how do we survive?
The truth is our bodies are very good at filtering these toxins out of our system through self regulating mechanisms such as the liver, the kidneys, colon and even our skin. If the toxic build in the body builds up to much then the overloaded toxins are stored in the bodies connective tissue including the muscular and nervous systems. Remember how if you go through a phase of eating crappy food or through times of high stress you get spots? That's due to the skin which is the largest detoxifying organ in the body pushing out these toxins through our pores. The liver works by filtering substances such food additives, excessive hormones, toxic medications and drugs such as alcohol. The kidneys work by filtering harmful substances out of the blood and into urine. Your body already has the A Team of detoxifying organs in place to remove the everyday rubbish!

So based on this actually ask yourself what is your £50 detoxing pack actually going to do that your body isn't already taking care of? The weight loss will come from the severe lack of glycogen you have eaten over the last 9 days leaving your body depleted of energy which is why exercise is not recommended. Not to mention the loss of water which would be responsible for a high percentage of that weight loss.

So before investing your hopes, money and dreams into a fool proof weight loss solution please always do your research and ask yourself if the individual selling you the product is actually concerned about your health or are they just trying to take your money. 

Fitness Essex Personal Training 
info@fitnessessex.com 
07718976794