Detox Diets? Bah. Try the MeTox diet!

What do people mean when they say detox diet?

The term "Detox Diet" has more meanings than Paris Hilton has brain cells outfits.

I understand people wanting to get rid of toxins in their fat cells.
I understand people who want to avoid ingesting toxic fats, like Dr. Sears.
But when people say "Detox Diet" they seem to be referring to a different concept altogether. Usually it seems to be code for "another dramatic way to lose weight."

There are myriad stories on the web about people who spend several days doing things like eating bean sprout (yes, just the one) and drinking naught but lightly steamed water. It makes me wonder -- are they trying to imitate what celebrities do in fancy resorts, only without the high-priced tonic water and paparazzi?

Master Cleanse: More legal than LSD, but just as healthy

The most popular Detox Diet I've found out there is the Master Cleanse, wherein the victims dieters are required to subsist on water, lemons, maple syrup and cayenne pepper for days. They start hallucinating and rave about all the weight they lost. (Okay, not all of them hallucinate. Or at least, not all of them talk about it, like Gwyeth Paltrow.)

Sheesh. It would be much simpler to find a local friendly drug dealer and purchase some over-the-top hallucinogenic substances. You'd enjoy the process as much, if not more so, and hey! You might lose weight!

Oh wait, sorry, the phone's ringing...

What's that? Lawsuit? Oh, nobody's going to... Oh. All right. Fine.

Ahem. I have been reminded that it should be made clear that Cranky Fitness does not in any way endorse indulging in activities whose side effects might include getting arrested, roughed up, or mildly deceased. Please consult your physician, pastor, or parole officer before proceeding.

All the same, I think it makes as much sense to put illegal substances into your body as it does to try and get by, even for a few days, on a diet that provides one vitamin (vitamin C) in small doses and has no other nutritionally redeeming qualities.

What is up with people who insist on these extreme cleansing diets, but refuse to eat sensibly the rest of the time? A diet has to hurt, that's okay with them, but God forbid it should make sense?

The Perfect World Detox Diet

Though you'll never find it on the Internet under this name, there's also the "In a Perfect World" detox diet:

- Switch off the computer, television, blackberry or children* and get some sleep
- Drink unembellished spring water
- Wear only unbleached cotton
- Follow only organic vegetarian-based meal plans
- Rid your mind of all negative thoughts, anger, or resentment
[Brace yourself, here comes the tough part]
-Cut out all meat, dairy, alcohol, sugar and caffeine from your diet

(*And if you can manage that trick, please let the rest of the world know about it. You'll earn the gratitude of thousands and make millions.)

Y'know, if you follow this Perfect World diet, it really will help your liver, and your kidneys, and your waistline.

And afterwards, you can go on to solve Global Warming, eh?

I think the only way I would follow this diet with any degree of fidelity would be to move to a shack in the middle of the woods and become a hermit. And even then I'd probably find a way to cheat.

Sure, you probably should avoid all the bad stuff and subsist on lightly steamed bean sprout(s). But seriously -- are you going to do it? For more than a week or so? The Cranky Fitness philosophy is that exercising and eating healthy are both a pain sometimes. If too much of a pain, you probably won't do it, at least not for long.

So why not try a different approach?

The Cranky Fitness Metox Diet

- Switch off (if possible) the computer, television, blackberry or children and get some sleep.
- If you want to get toxins out of your body, then focus on not putting them in your mouth! Avoid meat or dairy that has been messed up with antibiotics or hormones; buy organic vegetables.
- Go work up a sweat with Manuel (Or whoever makes you hot and sweaty.)
-Rather than cut out all meat, dairy, alcohol, sugar and caffeine from your diet, try cutting out two or even three of the five. Leave yourself some leeway for the occasional 'bad' food.
- Avoid any food or drink with a long list of polysyllabic ingredients.
Note: sodas, even Weight Watchers soda, usually include wood ester. The people who make this stuff say the amount is too low to affect humans. The people who analyze this stuff say there are no long-term studies to verify one way or another. Me, I say if you have to add wood by-products to keep the soda stable, then I'll pass.

The Metox principle is to limit the bad stuff to a level that you and your liver can both accept. It's not as dramatic, but it is a lot more doable than some of the other DeTox diets out there. Plus, you don't have to send 3 simple installments of $24.99 to get the secret!

What's that? I supposed to charge people for this information? Oh crap.

Additives to 'flush' your liver? Flush the additives instead!

What really bothers me is when people want to 'flush' the liver with additives. The liver is not a sewer! If you want to flush, use a toilet. Any additive that claims to 'flush' things is definitely wandering into Ask Your Doctor territory. Especially if you're already losing weight.

Even people who advocate Caloric Restriction (severely limiting the number of calories you eat -- not as a short-term diet, but as a lifestyle) do not recommend losing a lot of weight in a hurry:

"Our foods contain various chemicals (e.g. pesticides) that are fat soluble.... losing fat (weight) too quickly will flush lots of toxic chemicals into our bloodstream -- too fast for our bodies to effectively eliminate."


A Detox Diet really should be a list of things not to eat or drink, plus some obvious injunctions to sleep more and exercise more. Things you already know, in other words.

If you want to do something exotic, go on a round-the-world cruise or climb to the top of a secluded Himalayan peak and consult with some ancient guru. But please don't go messing around with any additives that purport to 'flush' your liver without having a chat with your friendly local physician first.

I realize not all the people who advocate flushing your system are trying to scam you. Some really are trying to be helpful. But there are enough dangers inherent in the whole concept that it drives me into skeptical mode.

Here are some more views on detoxing:

Flush those toxins! Eh, not so fast

Woman left brain damaged by detox

'No proof' detoxing diets work

If I sound cranky, it's because it pisses me off to see people being taken advantage of by other 'experts' who claim to 'help' the patients while helping themselves to their cash.

Or else it's because I'm jealous that I'm not hanging out with Brittney and Paris by the pool.

Sears' Toxic Fat: The Man, the Diet, the Controversy

Who is Dr. Sears?

Okay, pop quiz time.

Two out of the following three statements apply to Barry Sears:

1 - He's got a Ph.D in biochemistry.
2 - He's the author of The Zone Diet.
3 - He's the star of a movie that just came out about teenage vampires who sparkle and have a lot of biochemistry.

Warning: if you flunked that quiz, you might be reading the wrong blog.

Barry Sears exemplifies the important role the preposition plays in the English language. People who've read his books either swear by him, or swear at him.

Unless you've been living in a chemically sterilized biosphere for the last 13 years and had earplugs on the whole time you were there, you've probably heard of Dr. Sears' book "The Zone Diet." He has a new book out, called Toxic Fat.

Seeing the word 'toxic' in a title makes me suspicious, simply because a lot of marketing folks have jumped on the bandwagon with this particular word. I know marketing sells books; I still object to it if the words they use have the effect of making the book's actual message unclear or inaccurate. I got so fed up with marketing claims that I wrote an overview of the biology behind the term 'Toxic Fat'.

In this case, I'm not sure if I agree with Dr. Sears' claim about fat itself being toxic. Which is a shame, because there are good points in this book.

Toxic Fat briefly mentions fat cells storing toxins, but that is not the main focus of the book. Not toxins from pollution, at any rate. What this book focuses on is the toxic effect of the 'bad' fatty acid Arachidonic acid (which I abbreviate ArA 'cause there's no way I'm typing that out over and over again).

You may not have heard of ArA, but you've heard of its rivals, the fatty acids that lead to Omega-3 fatty acids being produced in the body.

I've found this book difficult to review for two reasons. One, there's a lot of information in it, and it's hard to condense. I wrote a lengthy, detailed, highly erudite analysis -- you can thank me later for not posting it.

The other thing that made this book difficult to read, for me, was the fact that Dr. Sears' books are considered controversial, so I felt constrained to stop and analyze every sentence.

What is Sears' approach to Toxic Fat?

This is where it gets complicated. I also wrote a long, detailed description of the biochemical processes involved in the production of Omega-3 (good) and Prostaglandins (bad). You can thank me for not including it here.

Instead, here's the short version:


Alpha-linolenic acid is one of the omega-3 fatty acids. (Couldn't fit them all into the diagram.) Prostaglandins are bad. Prostaglandins are responsible for painful menstrual cramps. I do not like them.

I'm simplifying horribly but the main contentions are:

1 - Uncontrolled inflammation screws up the body.
2 - Diabetes, heart disease, obesity are all caused by inflammation.
3 - Arachidonic acid (ArA) plays a large part in the inflammation epidemic.
4 - According to Sears, the Zone Diet is the answer to this problem.

Dr. Sears vs. Cranky Fitness

Uncontrolled inflammation is on the rise
Sears Yes
Cranky Fitness Yes

High levels of ArA lead to high levels of inflammation
Sears Yes
Cranky Fitness Yes

Uncontrolled inflammation leads to heart disease, diabetes, obesity
Sears Yes
Cranky Fitness Yes*


The Zone Diet is the way to alleviate inflammation
Sears Yes
Cranky Fitness Read More

*I hesitated over his claim that inflammation is linked to obesity; a person can be 'fit but fat.' If he means (and he probably does) someone with a lot of abdominal fat has problems with inflammation, then yes.

It is really dangerous when you get so much fat in the abdominal area that the body starts storing fat in the liver. A fatty liver can kill you just as nastily as a liver soaked in vodka.

What's so controversial about Dr. Sears?

Sears' books are controversial because at the heart of all his books is the Zone Diet, and many nutritionists and doctors, such as Joel Fuhrman (Toxic Hunger), disagree stridently with Sears' conclusions.

When is a diet like a restroom?

There are lots of sites that explain the Zone Diet in detail. (The 20-second condensed version: you should eat fats, proteins, and carbohydrates in a precise ratio suited to your size.) In the Toxic Fat book, meal plans are separated by gender -- different ones for men and for women. (Essentially, men have larger portions.) Except that not all woman are small, and not all men are large, so I'm not sure if that works. Maybe he's basing this on the fact that men have more muscle mass?

I can't whole-heartedly endorse this diet, but I can't condemn it either, not 100%. I mean, anything that gets people to pay attention to what they eat, and that helps them lose weight, isn't all bad. (I just know someone will write in to say that this diet has helped them, and who am I to say that's a bad thing?) I will say that I don't think it's a long-term diet and I don't think long term it's healthy and sustainable.

My problems with the Zone diet are based on anthropology and psychology as much as biology. I don't see that the human body was designed/has evolved to a diet that is so precisely balanced.

The other problem is that there is no way that I could follow this diet. I know myself well enough to say that without someone else doing all the weighing and calculating, I'd give up the Zone diet in a day. All that math would drive me crazy. (I know people say "oh, it gets easier... you get used to it..." but in my case I doubt it. I had enough trouble trying to eat 4 or 5 servings of vegetables per day. Much much simpler to go all vegetarian with the occasional night out.)

Toxic Fat: The book

Good: There's a long bibliography listing his sources for the claims made in each chapter.
Bad: Many of the sources cited are from his previous books, which seems a kind of circular logic.
Ugly: The polysyllabic names of the many different fatty acids under discussion. It's like one of those Russian novels where all the characters have names that are twenty syllables long.

One thing about his diet argument that I can't agree with is the seeming contradiction between his claim that ArA is bad (which I agree with, or at least I agree that it's bad in high levels), and his insistence on eating lots of meat-based protein. Sears claims that the high-level of ArA in the typical diet is due to the cheap vegetable oil that is so readily available these days. I don't see that he proves this point. Other sources (here's one of them) claim that the major sources of ArA are meat, poultry, and eggs.

Instead of making sure your diet is a certain percentage of meat, I think it is more helpful to make sure your diet is 100% organic, and as Dr. Weil would say avoid food that has a long list of ingredients you can't pronounce. Avoid food with added hormones, antibiotics, or a long list of unpronounceable chemical preservatives.

To sum up, this book makes some good points as well as some not so good points (points that I don't agree with, I lump into the 'not so good' category automatically). I don't agree that the diet he suggests will help, but I completely agree with Sears' claim that we need to pay attention to inflammation and the dangers it presents.

Other reviews you might like

Diet Blog
Pasta Queen (Half of Me)

Has any one else read this book? Or tried the Zone Diet? If so, what did you think about it? I'd love to hear other people's viewpoint on this issue.

Diets & Cults: is there a difference?

I'm a bum.

I was going to post a long, incredibly well-written and irrefutably researched review of Barry Sears' book, Toxic Fat. But I'm going to put that off until next week so I can put this up today.

(Okay, also because I still want to tweak it a bit more. It's not quite right yet.)

I absolutely loved one thing I read in Sears's book. To quote:

"Three things in life are visceral because they are based on belief systems: Religion, politics, and nutrition."

Yep.

Emotions are closely tied in with food

You know how some people get a 'gut feeling'? The gut has such a high concentration of nerve cells that it has been called a second brain. The highest concentration is of course the brain.

No, I don't care what you've heard about some men, it really is in the head brain.

If there's a second brain in the gut, would that explain why people get so emotional about the favorite diet?

Whatever you do, don't disparage the diet

It looks like people develop an emotional attachment to a certain diet, or the philosophy behind it. As an example, take this review that Diet Blog did about Dr. Joel Fuhrman's diet book, Toxic Hunger. It's a pretty straightforward review, but what caught my attention were the comments. People got emotional over whether this diet was, or was not, a good idea.

Putting down a diet plan is a sure fire way to get a ton of comments on your blog. (Ah... the real reason for this post comes out.) The blog Starling Fitness averages a couple of comments on a post; when she wrote a mildly disapproving post about Weight Watchers and the points system, she got 95 comments. People are really into their particular diet.

If this blog were being written by Ms. Crabby, at this point there would be an insightful paragraph or two about why people defend their diet plans like a lioness defending her last cub. Since she ain't here, just imagine that something insightful was said at this point.

Deep, thoughtful moment

Okay, enough already.

Being me, I have to confess that I don't get why this is such an emotional issue. Being healthy is a good thing. Yeah, I got that part. But we're all different, right? So if diet A works for me, and diet B works for Crabby, why should the two of us have a huge argument about which is better?

I think diets are like cults in that people can get really obsessive about them both.

Weight watchers is evil!

It's tempting to disparage a whole lot of diet plans so that the post would get lots and lots of comments. (Weight Watchers is evil! The Zone Diet is followed by Terrorists! Hitler was a vegetarian!) But in all honesty, I don't get it. Why can't we all get along? Or agree to disagree, or something civilized like that?