For the longest time and like many people, celebrities continue to promote healthy living and eating. In fact, they encourage their viewers, followers to try or experiment with certain detox branded solutions that are known to change your lifestyle. On Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and various other social media networks, celebrities promote a healthy life and longer life. Who wouldn’t want to be apart of that? Or purchase the product right away? Then I began to wonder, if detoxing is so great for the body, how come majority of people are not willing to do it? Is it really good for you? My former manager at my internship two years ago was on a detox diet. I remember suggesting we get lunch, and she would always claim she was full from her shake she drank earlier. Granted, her specific diet, allowed her to eat regular foods also, she was not just drinking shakes everyday, but it was interesting to me. I never thought about how common detox diets can be in major cities such as New York, or Los Angeles and how quickly people are willing to try something new to improve their lifestyle. Many truly believe if you eat healthier foods, you will feel better, have more energy, and live longer. However, is this just a normal belief or are there facts to back this up?

Therefore, I was interested and decided to do some research, and began to see mixed opinions about whether detox diets are a positive thing to do, or negative.

http://www.mindbodygreen.com/0-8404/top-10-reasons-to-detox-when-you-do-it-right.html

According to the Mind Body Green article, there are ten positive reasons why detoxing could be good for you.

1. Remove toxins from the body: In fact, long term exposure to toxins can affect our immune system, metabolism, behavior and even lead to disease (MindBodyGreen).
2. Prevent chronic disease: Our bodies have a built-in detox function to deal with the danger of toxins, but sometimes those systems are overloaded. Detoxing improves what our bodies are trying to do naturally (MindBodyGreen).
3. Enhance immune system function: Regular detoxing helps strengthen the immune system so we aren’t susceptible to colds and flus or able to fight off infections (MindBodyGreen).
4. Lose weight: As many know, diabetes, heart disease, and high blood pressure are directly linked to weight issues. When choosing the detox, it gets rid of the body’s toxins stored in fat cells and increases metabolism; therefore the body loses weight (MindBodyGreen).
5. Slow premature aging: Detoxing gets rid of the body’s free radicals and heavy metals responsible for aging (MindBodyGreen).
6. Improve quality of life: Detoxing, reduces the amount of toxins in our body, allowing our body to improve its functionality (MindBodyGreen).
7. Increase energy: After detoxing, you will have more mental, physical and emotional energy (MindBodyGreen).
8. Improve skin quality: Detoxing improves acne, strengthens hair and nails, and give a healthy natural glow (MindBodyGreen).
9. Mental and emotional clarity: Able to make better decisions, analyze accurately and see things differently (MindBodyGreen).
10. Restore balance to our body’s systems: When our bodies are overloaded with toxins- our digestive, nervous and hormonal systems were designed to work together to achieve optimum health (MindBodyGreen).

After performing additional research and referring to another article by MayoClinic, detoxification diets are popular but it is not known that they eliminate toxins from your body (MayoClinicOrg). It truly depends on the specific detox diet you choose to do. For instance some diets require raw vegetables, fruit, juices and water; while others would like herbs and additional supplements. The reason many believe they feel better, healthier and have more energy after detoxing could be because majority of detox diets will eliminate highly processed foods (MayoClinicOrg). After looking at two different articles, one that stressed how beneficial detoxing could be on your body, and another that is opposed to detoxing, I have concluded there is not enough evidence to suggest everyone should do it. This also explains why the majority of the population is not involved in a detoxing diet, they mainly express how great it would be but are not willing to commit to a diet that may not change anything. According to a Science Based Medicine article, detoxing is not real and is just a medical term that has been manipulated and changed into a marketing strategy (ScienceBasedMedicine). This article made the most sense to me, because if you think about it, people on social media suggest healthy living and detoxing but it’s all to sell that idea of healthy living. Do we really know that detoxing creates that sense of healthy living, and removes toxins from the body? No, there is not enough evidence to suggest this. Therefore, the best thing if curious about this like I am would be to consult a doctor, they know the body more than most and can advise you to do the best thing for your body without a biased opinion.