The name sounds reassuring — everyone knows that anything toxic is bad for you. Plus these diets encourage you to eat natural foods and involve lots of water and veggies — all stuff you know is good for you. You hear about celebrities going on detox diets, and people who go into drug or alcohol rehabs are said to be detoxing. So shouldn't a detox diet be a good bet?

Not really. Like many other fad diets, detox diets can have harmful side effects, especially for teens.

First, let's look at the lingo. A toxin is a chemical or poison that is known to have harmful effects on the body. Toxins can come from food or water, from chemicals used to grow or prepare food, and even from the air that we breathe. Our bodies bring in toxins and then process those toxins through organs like the liver and kidneys and eliminate them in the form of sweat, urine, and feces.

What Is a Detox Diet?

Although detox diet theories have not been proven scientifically, the people who support detox diets believe that toxins don't always leave our bodies properly during the elimination of waste. Instead, they say toxins hang around in our digestive, lymph, and gastrointestinal systems as well as in our skin and hair. According to proponents of detox diets, these toxins can cause all kinds of problems, like tiredness, headaches, and nausea.

So the basic idea behind detox diets is to temporarily give up certain kinds of foods that are thought to contain toxins. The idea is to purify and purge the body of all the "bad" stuff.

Although detox diets vary, most of them involve some version of a fast: that is, giving up food for a couple of days and then gradually reintroducing certain foods into the diet. Many of these diets also encourage you to undergo colonic irrigation, otherwise known as giving yourself enemas to "clean out" your colon. (An enema flushes out the rectum and colon using water.) Still others recommend that you take herbal supplements to help the "purification" process.

There are tons of detox diets out there. Typically they involve 1 or 2 days on a completely liquid diet and another 4 or 5 days adding brown rice, fruit, and steamed vegetables to the diet. After a week of eating only these foods, you gradually reintroduce other foods — except for red meat, wheat, sugar, eggs, and all prepackaged or junk foods — into your diet.

Lots of claims are made about what a detox diet can do, from preventing and curing disease to giving people more energy to making them more focused and clearheaded. Of course, eating a diet lower in fat and higher in fiber can help many people feel more healthy, but proponents of detox diets claim that this is because of the elimination of toxins. However, there's no scientific proof that these diets help rid the body of toxins faster or that the elimination of toxins will make you a healthier, more energetic person.

What Should You Watch Out For?

If detox diets appeal to you, there are a couple of things to keep in mind. For starters, detox diets are intended for short-term purposes only. And these diets are usually recommended not as a way to lose weight, but to help "clean out the system."

Because normal teenagers need lots of nutritional goodies, like enough calories and protein to support rapid growth and development, diets that involve fasting and severe restriction of food are not a good idea. For teens who are involved in sports and physical activities that require ample food, fasting does not provide enough fuel to support these activities. For these reasons, detox diets can be especially risky for teenagers.

It is not recommended that people with diabetes, low blood sugar, or eating disorders go on detox diets.

You should also know that this type of diet can be addicting. That's because there's a certain feeling that comes from going without food or having an enema — almost like the high other people get from nicotine or alcohol. This can become a dangerous addiction that leads to health problems, including serious eating disorders and even death.

In addition, many of the supplements used during detox diets are actually laxatives, which are designed to make people go to the bathroom more often. Laxative supplements are never a good idea because they can cause dehydration, mineral imbalances, and problems with the digestive system.

Finally, people who fast for several days may drop pounds, but most of it will be water and some of it may be muscle. Fasting for longer periods can also slow down a person's metabolism, making it harder to keep the weight off or to lose weight later.

We're not telling you that eating lots of veggies and fiber and drinking lots of water is a bad idea. But you do need to make sure you're getting all of the nutrients you need from other foods, including protein from lean meats, eggs, beans, or peas and calcium from low-fat or fat-free milk or yogurt. You definitely shouldn't start a detox diet or stop eating from any major food group without talking to your doctor or a registered dietitian.

The human body is designed to purify itself. Your liver and kidneys will do the job they're supposed to do if you eat a healthy diet that includes fiber, fruits, veggies, and plenty of water. If you're feeling tired or run down, or if you're concerned that you're overweight, talk with a doctor who can help you determine the cause and recommend ways to address the problem.

Reviewed by: Steven Dowshen, MD
Date reviewed: October 2006
Originally reviewed by: Jessica Donze Black, RD, CDE, MPH