They promise to help you shed weight and purge your body of chemicals that are poisoning your body and mind. But the only thing that detox products will help you lose is money, a British researcher says.
From diets based on raw fruit and vegetables, to foot spas and colonic hydrotherapy, there are dozens of treatments and products that claim to boost health by cleansing the body of chemicals.
Marketing is likely to become particularly fierce in the next few weeks, as millions who over-indulge during the Christmas period make New Year's resolutions to be healthier. But detox diets and other treatments are not the answer.
David Bender, an emeritus professor of nutritional biochemistry, says the body is perfectly capable of detoxing itself without any extra help. He says the claims made about detoxing are at best unfounded and more likely undeniably false. He says some detox methods may even be dangerous.
In an article written in Society of Biology magazine The Biologist, he argues the term "detox" has gone from being applied to a chemical reaction involved in the production of urine, to "a meaningless marketing term".
