Do Detoxes and Cleanses Really Work?

Whether it’s a juice cleanse, Whole30 or the master cleanse, detox diets have been popular for decades. These diets usually involve cutting out most types of food and replacing them with only fruits and vegetables, often mixed into smoothies or made into drinks.

On one hand, this seems great – eating more fruit and less fat is usually good – but the extreme nature of these diets often overshadows any short-term benefits. Here’s what you need to know.

What is a “Toxin” Anyway?

The biggest problem with detox or cleanse diets is simple: what are you removing, anyway?

The “toxins” being targeted are often not specified. While there are many groups of chemicals you could target, like persistent organic pollutants (POPs) or heavy metals, the industry operates on vague definitions.

As one paper puts it:

“The detox industry founds itself on the notion that chemicals can be neatly divided into ‘good’ and ‘bad’ categories.”

But no such distinction exists. “Bad” things in small quantities – like the formaldehyde in an apple – aren’t dangerous, and too much of a “good” thing can be. The good news is that your liver usually handles this just fine.

How the Evidence Stacks Up

Some papers are touted as showing benefits to detoxes, but the details cast doubt on that. This example involved less than 100 women, and most benefits were also seen in the group that restricted calories without detoxing.

Overall, evidence reviews [1] suggest that evidence is lacking for the claims made by detox diets. It’s likely that the extreme calorie reduction helps you lose weight, but like all such diets, they’re hard to maintain, and usually just lead to the short-term loss of water weight.

Studies of the “detoxification” effect are often not placebo-controlled, and levels of target “toxins” sometimes weren’t even checked.

The Downsides of Detoxes

Detoxes cut your calories, and your body starts to work through your fat stores. But studies have shown [1] that POPs stored in your fat cells may go into your bloodstream as a result, actually increasing toxin levels.

For weight loss, the problem is cortisol. The calorie deficit boosts this stress hormone, increasing your appetite and making the diet difficult to stick with. There may even be “rebound” weight gain after a successful cleanse.

Overall, detoxes and cleanses promise a lot, but deliver next-to-nothing.