Hi, all
As summer approaches, one sees increasingly more ads for various ‘detoxification” practices and products, to prepare the body for a healthier season. Claims are made that certain toxins accumulate in the body, negatively affecting health, and special diets or actions are necessary to remove the “poisons” endangering our health.
Bah, humbug!
One example of a faddist diet is the Fit for Life diet, which has been in circulation for ages. The Association for Dietetics in South Africa (ADSA) as well as the American Medical Association both issued warnings regarding the grave health risks that can result from following this diet plan. Biologically unfounded gimmicks offered are notions such as the body undergoing three distinct cycles daily, the appropriation one in which food is eaten and digested (noon until 20.00), the assimilation one (20.00 to 04.00), when the body absorbs and utilizes food, and the final elimination cycle during which the body rids itself of waste (04.00 to 12.00).This detox. diet suggests eating only fruit before noon each day so that ‘toxic wastes’ are eliminated. The plan seems to be based on the crude notion of the human body as a shift-factory and large sewage system combined!
While fruit is a good source of dietary fibre and micronutrients (vitamins and minerals), it has no magical powers to lower weight or shift mythical clogging poisons from the body. To eat only fruit until noon is to interfere with the energy requirements of the body. Blood-sugar levels are at their lowest on awakening. A balanced breakfast of complex, starchy carbohydrates (e.g. oats) will raise the blood-sugar energy levels in a controlled manner and give you a steady supply of fuel to cope with the activities of the day, whereas an apple or handful of grapes will provide insufficient kilojoules for the most productive part of your day.
The body is not a crude cistern, eliminating toxic wastes during special shifts (most of our foods contain minute levels of toxins unharmful to us, and the organs of the body, such as the liver, kidneys, lungs, intestines, are constantly dedicated to the removal of waste products from the body. We have no need to undergo quasi-religious elimination rituals (no ridiculous colonic irrigation, special herbs, or home enemas); the colon doesn’t become clogged with rotting, poisonous waste; the natural process of elimination will move the waste products of food digestion regularly, without human interference. The digestive process occurs continuously, not during one period, from the time food touches the mouth, and then moves through the alimentary canal. Faddists insist that food types be separated, that carbohydrates, proteins and fats should be eaten separately at carefully controlled times.
The human digestive system is the most sophisticated on the planet. Nearly all foods in their natural state are combinations of the three macronutrients (e.g. a potato contains both protein and carbohydrate) and we have no difficulties in handling mixed meals, which approximate our complex nutritional needs.
Certain sensible nutritional practices will enhance the detoxification processes of the body. We drink sufficient fluids to keep all systems functioning, we ingest sufficient dietary fibre to encourage regular elimination, we increase activity levels to stimulate circulation and perspiration, and thus the lungs remove excess CO2, the kidneys remove ammonia and uric acid, etc. etc. The body naturally maintains itself, the organs cleanse the blood and potential toxic by-products are efficiently eliminated, so ridiculous diets, or even worse, strict fasting regimes, will merely interrupt the natural processes and often do more harm than good.
So, advance into the summer with sensible, balanced nutritional practices, ignore the detox therapies advertised in the magazines, and enjoy the good months to come!