Round about now is when we really start to regret all the chocolate, booze and oddly-named cheese that was consumed with such wild abandon over the last two weeks. Christmas may be long gone but the guilt and hangover can contrive to make you feel like half a chestnut-stuffed turkey is still churning around your insides. This is why detox manufacturers do so well in January; they promise to make us all shiny and squeaky-clean again, cleansed of all our glutinous sins.
However, if you are one of thousands balefully contemplating a week spent imbibing nothing but seaweed, water and dandelion extract, it might be wise to think again. New research has just revealed that actually, the majority of detox products and programs clean out nothing but your wallet. A group of biologists, chemists and physicists representing the Voice of Young Scientists, a organisation made up of younger scientists, researched the properties of products and treatments that use the word ‘detox’. These can range from dietary supplements to body creams that all promise to wash out toxins from the body.
The group found that companies were unable to provide a reliable or proven definition of what ‘detox’ means, with no two companies having the same definition. Helen Berry, one of the report’s authors, said: “'Detox is marketed as the idea that modern living fills us with invisible nasties our bodies can't cope with unless we buy the latest jargon-filled remedy. Our investigation has convinced us there is little or no proof these products work.”
A leaflet published alongside the study pointed out that the body’s natural mechanisms, mainly the function of the kidneys and liver, were designed to rid the body of toxins naturally, without any outside assistance. The research is one of a few recent studies that have shown companies are manipulating consumers into believing that foods and creams can be a magical solution to their weight and health problems, with no clinical tests backing up their extravagant claims. We have already written about the recent editorial in the British Medical Journal that was heavily critical of the food manufacturers claiming their products could assist with weight loss. It is to be hoped that the more publicity such studies receive, the wiser customers will become to such marketing tactics.