Are cleansing diets any good? Should you follow a cleansing diet?

There are hundreds if not thousands of cleansing diets out there. There is the lemon detox diet or the parsley detox diet. If you have problems with your liver you can opt for the liver cleansing diet. At first sight many of these diets seen good. But are they really beneficial for your health?

If you don’t inform yourself about what cleaning your body means you might create all sorts of problems for you. A bad cleansing diet can slow down your metabolism and affect the health of your colon, liver and lymph system. Does your body really need to be squeaky clean and free of toxins? Even if you need to detox your body you should also ask yourself the following question: Am I trying to lose weight too by following this cleansing diet?

If the answer is yes, you are also trying to lose weight using the cleansing diet, you shouldn’t do it. Almost all nutritionists concur on the fact that you should use cleansing diets not too frequently. Once a year is enough and the cleansing diet should not last more than 3 days. If you don’t respect their advice you might end up hurting your health instead of strengthening it.

If you decide to follow a cleansing diet you should obey all its rules to the letter. Many detox diets are centered around eating only certain fruits and vegetables. You might even stumble upon a cleansing diet that includes the usage of diuretic pills and enemas. To get the maximum effect you will have to use them but only under the supervision of a doctor. If the cleansing diet also promises that you will lose weight you should probably find another one. A weight loss/detox diet usually doesn’t work at all.

It is true that all cleansing diets give your body few calorie to burn daily. So you will lose weight. I’m not saying you won’t lose weight after a detox diet. But this shouldn’t lift your hopes up. You won’t lose only fat, you will also lose proteins and important bodily fluids.

Cleansing diets are usually very restrictive. All you can drink is water or unsweetened tea. If you don’t want to harm your body you should avoid diuretic and laxative teas. Drinking coffee, green tea, black tea or any alcoholic beverage is forbidden during the detoxification diet.

If you get down to it a diet centered on eating lots of fruits and vegetables is quite healthy. But most cleansing diets push your body to its limits. Think about it. For example your colon has a special environment that makes him as efficient as it is, and a cleansing diet can disturb the delicate balance found in your colon. All sorts of unexpected health problems can be created by an unbalanced detox diet.

You have to monitor very closely how many liquids you are losing form your body during the cleansing diet. If you notice you are losing an increasing amount of fluids through urine or perspiration you must stop the detox diet fast. The main risk you have to avoid during any cleansing diet is dehydration. Besides becoming dehydrated you can also start having bad headaches and chronic tiredness.

Another risk of cleansing diets is the lowering of your metabolic rate. You will burn less fats and calories daily which will speed up considerably weight gaining. If after the detox diet, when you go back to your normal eating habits, you start gaining weight fast or you are having troubles losing a couple of pounds your metabolism got sucker punched by the detox diet. You will have to start exercising more to increase your metabolic rate and bring it back up.

Considering all the risks that a cleansing diet implies I don’t recommend you use one. Always check with your doctor if you want to detox your body. Medical supervision is a must during any cleansing diet.

Besides the best way to detox and clean your body of all its toxins is to cut down on all the junk food you eat. This way your body will be able to slowly but surely to eliminate all the toxins piled up in it. If you also eat some foods that improve the functioning of your liver and kidneys the more efficient the detoxing will be. Your kidneys and liver are responsible with the elimination of toxins form your body.

To take care of your kidneys and liver you should eat watermelons, drink lots of water and other liquids, avoid fried food, chocolate and any food that makes you constipated. If you want to eliminate the water retained by your body you can do it naturally by eating red beets, celery, cabbage, carrots, onions and garlic. You should eat them raw in salads. You can even make a healthy juice from them. That way you will get all the health benefits.

Be very careful is you decide to follow a cleansing diet. As you can see it can do more damage than good if done blindly. Monitor your health at all times and take good care of it. Always consult a specialist or doctor because he will give you a personalized cleansing diet.

I wish you good luck detoxing your body. If you have ever done a detox diet tell me how it went. I am curios of your results. Be healthy, stay healthy.