"Detox" products sell a story: toxins build up, and a tea or a juice cleanse flushes them out. Your body already has organs for that job. MedlinePlus describes the liver as helping your body digest food, store energy and remove poisons, and the US NIDDK says your kidneys remove wastes and extra fluid from your body.
As for the products themselves, a critical review in the Journal of Human Nutrition and Dietetics (Klein and Kiat, 2015) found very little clinical evidence for detox diets. The handful of clinical studies reporting benefits were hampered by flawed methods and small sample sizes, and the authors knew of no randomised controlled trials of commercial detox diets in humans.
What is actually in a cleanse
The US National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health (NCCIH) lists the forms these programmes take, from fasting and drinking only juices to commercial supplements, herbs, and cleansing the colon with enemas, laxatives or colon hydrotherapy. Two ingredient names worth recognising on a label are psyllium and senna.
MedlinePlus calls psyllium a common fibre supplement, a source of soluble fibre, the kind that attracts water and turns to gel during digestion. Senna is a different thing altogether. The NHS describes it as a stimulant laxative that works by triggering your bowel muscles to push poo out, taking around 8 to 12 hours. Its listed side effects include stomach pain, cramps or discomfort, and diarrhoea. So if a cleanse with senna in it sends you to the toilet, that is the laxative doing what a laxative does. Nothing on the label tells you a toxin has gone with it.
Foods that give you the fibre without the kit
The NHS says choosing foods with fibre can help with your digestion and prevent constipation, and it counts foods with 6g or more of fibre per 100g as high-fibre. Kurma is one of the practical options. USDA FoodData Central lists Deglet Noor dates at 8.0g of fibre and 656mg of potassium per 100g, and Medjool at 6.7g of fibre and 696mg of potassium. Varieties differ, which is why there are two numbers.
The same NHS page points to porridge oats, beans, lentils and chickpeas, plenty of vegetables, and potatoes with their skins on. It also has one practical note for kurma: dried fruit is sticky and can increase the risk of tooth decay, so it is better eaten as part of a meal than as a between-meal snack. None of this is a "cleanse". It is ordinary fibre.
The NHS pairs fibre with two habits. Its constipation advice is to increase fibre gradually and drink plenty of water and other fluids, and to add a daily walk or run, which can help you poo more regularly.
See also Kurma Bam Wholesale.
A simpler standard to judge products by
- If a product's main ingredient is a fibre such as psyllium, compare it with the fibre you could get from kurma, oats or vegetables before paying for the kit.
- If it claims to remove "toxins" without naming which ones, treat that as marketing language, not a mechanism. NCCIH notes that the US FDA and FTC have acted against several companies selling detox and cleansing products that contained hidden ingredients or were marketed with false claims about treating serious diseases.
- If it contains senna and tells you to keep using it, check how long it tells you to take it against NHS advice: do not take senna for more than 7 days unless a doctor or pharmacist has advised you to. The NHS laxatives page says laxatives used too often or for too long can cause problems such as dehydration and low potassium in your blood.
- If you're constipated, the NHS says that for most adults it's usually recommended to try lifestyle changes first, before laxatives.
Read more
See our healthy food posts for other whole-food swaps, or check how to store kurma properly so it stays fresh longer. More about the kurma this site covers is on our home page, and questions go through contact us.
The NHS says to see a GP if you have blood in your poo, tummy pain, weight loss without trying, sudden changes in your bowel habits, or constipation that isn't getting better with treatment. That needs a doctor, not a product review.
This article is general information, not medical advice. NCCIH notes that harmful effects of colon cleansing are more likely in people with a history of gastrointestinal disease, colon surgery, severe haemorrhoids, kidney disease or heart disease, and that people with diabetes should talk to their health care providers before making major changes to how they eat.
References
- MedlinePlus. Liver Diseases. medlineplus.gov
- National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases. Your Kidneys & How They Work. niddk.nih.gov
- Klein AV, Kiat H. Detox diets for toxin elimination and weight management: a critical review of the evidence. J Hum Nutr Diet. 2015;28(6):675-86. PMID 25522674
- National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health. "Detoxes" and "Cleanses": What You Need To Know. nccih.nih.gov
- MedlinePlus Medical Encyclopedia. Soluble vs. insoluble fiber. medlineplus.gov
- NHS. Senna. nhs.uk
- NHS. How to get more fibre into your diet. nhs.uk
- USDA FoodData Central. Dates, deglet noor (FDC ID 171726). fdc.nal.usda.gov
- USDA FoodData Central. Dates, medjool (FDC ID 168191). fdc.nal.usda.gov
- NHS. Constipation. nhs.uk
- NHS. Laxatives. nhs.uk