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Plans for detox diet? Think again
Healthy eating
'Tis the season to be healthy, but scientists have dismissed detox benefits
"Healthy eating, enough sleep, exercise and water is more beneficial than detox diets which, at worst, could have dangerous consequences"
Scientists have today warned that there is no real evidence to suggest that products claiming to help the body “detox” actually work.
Sense About Science reviewed a total of 15 products varying from bottled water to facial scrubs to vitamin supplements, but found many of the claims made by the products to be “meaningless”. The charitable trust found that eating healthily and getting plenty of sleep were just as - and in some cases more - beneficial than special detox regimes.
Research was conducted by members of the Voice of Young Science network, who wanted to investigate “dodgy” science claims made by companies who advertise themselves using scientific words that essentially don’t mean anything.
Detox as defined by the Oxford English Dictionary is “the removal of toxic substances or qualities”, but companies featured in the study were found to simply change words such as “cleaning” or “brushing” to “detoxing”, to boost sales during the post-festive health kick.
One chemist who took part in the research, Tom Wells, said:
"The minimum sellers of detox products should be able to offer is a clear understanding of what detox is and proof that their product actually works… The people we contacted could do neither."
One product in question was a Garnier face wash which claimed to detoxify the skin by removing “toxins”. The "toxins" were in fact dirt, make-up and skin oils that any cleanser would be expected to remove.
Alice Tuff of Sense About Science commented:
"It is ridiculous that we're seeing a return to mystical properties being claimed for products in the 21st Century and I'm really pleased that young scientists are sharing their concerns about this with the public."
Research concluded that healthy eating, enough sleep, exercise and water was more beneficial than strict detox diets which, at worst, could have dangerous consequences and, at best, were a waste of money.
