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Curious about the health benefits of a detox diet? You may have heard people talking about detox diet plans in the media or at your local health club.
Detox diet plans are not normally kept up over the long term, but are instead an opportunity for the body to flush out toxins over a period of a couple of days.
Many people swear by them, but will a detox diet plan work for you? What health benefits can you expect? And are detox diet plans safe?
Most of these eating plans claim to work on the basis of eliminating certain foods and drinks from your daily intake. Some of the prominent forms of this eating plan include general fasting, water fasting, juice fasting, increasing your intake of fish, combining foods in particular ways, decreasing your calorie intake, making use of particular combinations of herbs, and a particularly well known plan alternately called the Master Cleanse or the lemonade fast.
These plans usually call for the elimination of most animal products in favour of fruits and vegetables, particularly non-processed, organic, non-GM variety. The idea is that after several days of this sort of plan, your body will begin to release toxins that are normally stored in fat. These toxins are released into the blood stream where they will be flushed from the body.
Critics of these plans site that the liver, kidneys, lungs and skin are perfectly capable of managing the release of toxins without outside intervention. It has also been pointed out that frequently fruits, vegetables and fish contain a higher concentration of natural toxins than meat or dairy products. Also, low blood sugar levels brought on by undernourishment cause the body to switch to metabolising large quantities of fat all at once, and the surplus of toxins released into the blood stream usually results in headaches, muscle soreness or weakness, sleep interruption and irritability. In the worst case scenarios it may also result in fainting and a condition that results from the pollution of the body called Herxheimer reaction.
Lastly, these eating plans don't often result in permanent weight loss due to their extreme nature and short duration. If you are considering trying one of these cleasing eating plans it's a good idea to consult your doctor.
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