Detoxification Benefits:

Detoxification Benefits:

Detoxification can have positive effects on many health challenges, such as allergies, weight gain, digestion, and any sort of inflammatory situation. Unfortunately, there is a lot of snake oil out there claiming detoxification.

Mucoid Plaque

The number one myth of detoxification is "mucoid plaque" in the colon or large intestine. This is a myth perpetrated because of what people pass from their bowels doing a colon cleanse; but it is in fact an artifact of the clay and psyllium fiber that is a big component of these cleanses.

Keep in mind that clay is a proven topical detoxifier, so having clay pass through your intestines could have a positive benefit regardless of the lack of mucoid plaque. More on this later.

Many of the benefits of detoxification come from severe reduction of caloric intake, giving the body a break from the task of processing all these calories, allowing it to use those enzymatic resources to "clean house" so to speak.

Unscientific Detoxification Methods:

Water Fasting

The ultimate detoxification using the caloric restriction idea is the water fast. It's most famous promoter was Arnold Ehret, who conducted public water fasts as long as 49 days, and claimed many benefits including strength and endurance. He once rode his bicycle 800 miles from Algiers to Tunis to prove his point. I am not a fan of water fasting for more than a day or two. I have noticed that it's proponents tend to look prematurely aged, with early white and grey hair, which to me indicates mineral deficiency.

Juice Fasting

Another approach to detoxification is juice fasting. I am not a fan of fruit and carrot juice fasting because removing all the fiber from your fruit increases the rate at which the sugars enter the bloodstream, and you miss out on fiber's many proven health benefits. Definitely a bad idea if you have blood sugar or insulin issues. Dr. Joe Mercola recommends using a masticating juicer that maintains the fiber content on green vegetables (not fruits) and eating the resulting puree. This makes a lot more sense to me.

Fruit Fasting

A healthier variation of the fruit juice fast is to only eat fruit for a period