While were on our January health kicks, detox and flat tummy products are being widely promoted by influencers and celebrities. Can they really help you to achieve yourgoals or are they, at best, a waste of money?
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While the nation is set on achieving their diet related New Years resolutions, the diet industry is collectively rubbing their hands together. Just this week, Khlo Kardashain has posted to her millions of followers about her love of the supplements from Flat Tummy Co. This has led to outcry from the scientific and medical community warning people that the use of these products is at best unnecessary and at worst harmful. Detoxing in the medical sense is only used to refer to the detoxification process that victims of substance abuse must endure. Any other use of the term detox is not legitimate.
So here are three good reasons to never buy a detox product:
Your liver and your kidneys are detoxing your body every second of everyday. Adding artificial detox supplements into your system actually makes your detoxifying organs work harder and some will dehydrate you which makes them work less effectively. Drink plenty of water and eat plenty of brightly coloured fruit and veg to support your natural detoxification processes. They also wont work for weight loss. Remember, if there was a drink or a supplement you could take that worked safely and effectively for weight loss, we wouldnt have an obesity epidemic. Speaking as someone with 14 years experience as a dietitian...there are no secret formulas or supplements. Sorry about that.
Many of the detox products contain known laxatives. Taking laxatives is a method of purging used by people with eating disorders. It is not safe or ethical to sell laxatives for weight loss. In addition to the ethical issues, laxatives cause oral contraceptive failure and there have been a number of unwanted pregnancies associated with detox and skinny tea products. Despite this, they are heavily marketed at teenage girls and young women even in reputable high street pharmacies and health food shops. Actress Jameela Jamil has been using her social media platform to speak out against this.
As well as the risks associated with diarrhoea and dehydration, because detox isn't a recognised claim, you could be buying anything. The market is not well regulated, particularly for the products sold via social media. This means that the products you buy could have banned substances in them including ingredients that interact with prescribed medications and other supplements and they arent necessarily clearly labelled. There have been multiple cases of serious harm associated with detox products including (ironically) liver and kidney injuries.
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So remember, no credible company or individual would sell you a detox product or use the term detox in their marketing. It is synonymous with scams and is an expensive solution to a made up problem.
