detox diets cons

Are they safe and effective? Elizabeth Somer, M.A., R.D., author of Nutrition for Women (Owl Books, 2003) responds: There is little scientific evidence that the body needs cleansing from detox diets, since it already has systems for breaking down and ridding itself of most harmful things, says C. Wayne Callaway, M.D., an endocrinologist in Washington, D.C..

Ironically, fasting generates toxins. As protein in your muscles and organs is broken down for energy around day two, toxic nitrogen substances such as uric acid are formed; these can tax the kidneys and increase risk for gout.

Detox diets also deplete glucose, the No. 1 fuel for your brain. Even a juice fast doesn't supply enough glucose to meet these needs, so the body first turns to stored glucose, called glycogen, in the liver. By the middle of the first fasting day, that resource is exhausted, leaving you lightheaded, hungry, tired, and unable to concentrate. By day two or three, you lose your appetite and even feel slightly euphoric - not a result of toxins being released from tissues, but because of a rise in fat fragments, called ketones.

In essence, your body is literally consuming itself as it strives to provide energy for the brain and tissues, while metabolism has slowed in an attempt to conserve energy. "The weight you lose in the first two or three days of a fast is water and muscle, not fat," says Callaway, who adds that pounds quickly return.

Well look what I came across in my notes. To think I had plans to do a fast next week the day before my weigh-in. I sure talked myself out that one of course, unless I find the "pros advocate" notes to refute the "cons," which I can always count on scientists and researchers or any well educated authority on such matters to always disagree to a certain level. I've come to the conclusion that the only sure answer is the equation of a mathamatical problem.