Feb 11, 2009 7:13 pm US/Eastern
HealthWatch: Detoxification Diet
NEW YORK (CBS) ―
The latest Hollywood fad being touted by holistic healers and self-styled diet gurus are detox or cleansing diets that purport to help purge our bodies of poisons and lose weight fast. But, do they work and are they safe?
Gwyneth Paltrow supposedly uses a cleansing diet to maintain her svelte figure. And Beyonce has admitted using a concoction of salt water, lemon juice, maple syrup, cayenne pepper and laxative tea to lose weight for her role in "Dream Girls."
Experts say you will lose weight with that approach, but not as much as you may expect. "You really don't loose very much weight at all, maybe a pound or two, it's going to depend on how much stool you have in your colon," said Dr. David Markowitz from New York Presbyterian-Columbia.
In other words, it's a dressed up version of what people dislike most about colonoscopies.
The real weight loss comes from the fact that these diets are extremely restricted in calories, so the weight you lose isn't fat.
In a fast, the body burns its own lean muscle mass, what you don't want to lose.
Aside from watery bowel movements, frequent purging can lead to dehydration, electrolyte imbalance, and vitamin deficiency. "In patients on diuretics, patients with heart disease, patients with kidney disease or elderly patients, the risk can be serious," Markowitz said.
Proponents claim that "detoxification should be included as part of a healthy routine because again of all the heavy metals, because of the pollution of our environment," said Sylvie Beljanski from the Beljanski Wellness Center.
However, Dr. Markowitz said, "there are components in stool that may be toxic, but once they're in our colon, our body is protected from those toxins and we will in time get rid of them."
(© MMX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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