41 | The Detox Myth: Exploring the Truth Behind Toxins and Wellness Trends

Are you tired of detox fads that promise the world but deliver disappointment?

In this episode 41 " The Detox Myth: Exploring the truth behind toxins and wellness trends " of the How to Fitness Podcast, we dive deep into the murky waters of detox diets, cleanses, and the buzzwords that often mislead us.

Tune in to learn how to spot misinformation and protect yourself from false promises circulating on social media. This is a critical episode to help you understand why you don't need those expensive detox teas or cleanses and what genuine steps you can take to maintain your health.

TIMESTAMPS:

00:00 Introduction to Toxins
04:17 The Myth of Detoxing
13:02 How Our Bodies Detox Naturally
20:33 Debunking Juice Cleanses
22:42 The Myth of Detox Diets for Weight Loss
26:34 The Truth About Detox Teas and Supplements
27:54 The Dangers of Colon Cleanses and Enemas
31:19 Activated Charcoal: Risks and Realities
32:44 Natural Ways to Support Detoxification
36:39 Final Thoughts and Recommendations

RESOURCES MENTIONED:

🟡 2020 Systematic Review on Coffee Enemas
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32899046/

🟡 Do detoxes work?
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/25522674/

🟡 Ep. 20 - Why Sleep Isn’t Boring: What We Don’t Know About Sleep
https://howtofitness.buzzsprout.com/2171581/episodes/13654757-20-why-sleep-isn-t-boring-what-we-don-t-know-about-sleep

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🟡 Michael Ulloa: https://www.michaelulloa.com/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/michaelulloapt

🟡 Kate Lyman: https://www.katelymannutrition.com/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/klnutrition/

Thank You for Listening to How to Fitness Podcast with Michael Ulloa and Kate Lyman!

Transcript

0:00

Toxins isn't a new thing. It's The category of what we are exposed to today is different than yes, decades ago, but the idea that we're exposed to harmful chemicals or what have you, it's not new. And our bodies have evolved to take care of us. Even though we are exposed to potentially more, it's actually better managed now than it maybe was a few decades ago, so it's just silly to assume that suddenly, like, everything's getting worse and worse and worse and worse, because it's not. It's just really not. Hello, and welcome back to the how to fitness podcast. I'm Kate Lyman and I'm Michael Ejoa. And we're here a new season, season three. Michael, did you ever think we'd be here? No, I didn't. But I, I also, I would say, even though we've done this for a while now, I'm feeling quite nervous every time we do our first episode back. And it's been a little while since you've recorded. I've got those usual podcast butterflies in my stomach, but. On steroids today. All right. Well, I'm sure it's going to be great if we, for anyone new listening. I just want to remind you that about two years ago, Michael reached out to me and he's like, Hey, I know you had a baby like a month ago. Me too. Do you want to start a podcast? I think you had had a baby a month ago. I had a baby two months ago. and for whatever reason, I was like, Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Let's do that. And here we are. Yeah. we don't like to make things easy for ourselves. It's that whole saying, isn't it? Like if you want something done, ask a busy person. So I thought I want to get a podcast done. let's ask Kate. She's got too much to do already, but I love it. I mean, every time the season's over, like, are we doing this again? Yes. We love it so much. Okay. Tell us. Yes. Yes. What's new since our last season, because you have some news. Oh yeah, this, we haven't spoken about this on the podcast. That's how long it's been since we've recorded. Isn't it, Kate? So yeah, exciting news. Emma, my wife is pregnant again. She is due May the 23rd, 2025. So yeah, I'm exhausted all of the time and we're going again. That when you say it now, now that we're like in the new year, this, that feels soon. Yeah, it's really soon. Yeah, it's like that soon. We've got this little app that tells you how big the baby is as you go, as it's kind of growing, and it's like the size of a mango, and that's quite big. That feels Yeah, that's like a baby. Yeah, yeah, that's like a proper baby now. It's really exciting. Once the initial, like, logistics part in my head was sorted out I'm really excited. I'm a bit scared about the lack of sleep again, but we'll be fine. We'll be fine. We've got coffee, right? Yeah, and you can do hard things. And do you know what? Because Jude hasn't been the best sleeper, let's say, I feel like you're due for a good sleeper. Yeah. I said this to Emma yesterday and she was like, well, he's not been that bad. So I think she's, she's like trying to wipe it from her brain about how awful it has been. But yeah, it's, he's not been the best sleeper. So hopefully we'll get lucky the second time round and we'll have a baby that just sleeps great and does everything we want it to do. Easy. We'll see. I have no news like that. I don't know what I've done since our last episode. Worked. Yeah. It worked. Yeah. But it's good. Like it's exciting, right? Like business is going great with you. Like we, me and Kate, outside of this podcast, we chat the chat quite often about business and life and it's, things are going well for you and I'm very, very happy for you, Kate. I'm excited. I mean, that's my other kid, right? Isn't your business also a child, like literally requires so much. Yeah, it's true. I was telling someone, I was at like a business retreat just a few weeks ago and I people hate when I compare my business to a baby, but at this point in time, I've still put a lot more work into the business than this almost two year old. Yeah. Yeah. How, how many years have you been in business now? Like it's been a while. 10 years, 10 years this year, 2025 is 10 years. It's like a little bit longer before this evens out still Yeah, it's true. It's exciting kid I will say I think i've mentioned this a couple times in podcasts in the past But I I am always very inspired by uk and you actually make me a better worker and practitioner and business owner Watching you work away and grow your team and just keep smashing it is, it's inspiring. So keep that shit up, Kate. Thank you. Thank you. I needed to hear that today on a Monday. I'm like, oh my gosh, I'm drowning. All right. What are we talking about today, Michael? Okay, so this is a big topic because it's something that is always on social media. We always get asked about it and we call it out a lot on social media because there's a lot of nonsense within this space and today we're chatting about detoxing. In short, we're going to kind of unpack the myth of detoxing and potentially why we don't need to do it. think this is probably the topic on social media that I do the most videos on just because it is still so prevalent despite the issues around it, which we'll delve into throughout this episode today. I'm excited. And also this feels like very timely for the new year. Because I think whether people are talking about an actual detox like a tea detox or juice or whatever there. There's a lot of talk In other ways around like detoxing from the holidays and now i'm going to cut out sugar and now i'm doing this and this So it feels very timely as well Yeah, so if we can prevent one person from going down a dodgy detox route kate then this episode will be a huge success Worth it Yeah, teach me, Michael. Okay, here we go. First of all what is a detox is one of those words we see thrown around a lot, but a lot of people don't really know what it means, especially the people that are selling you the detox. And so even though the wellness world has packaged detoxes as usually like a short term dietary intervention, which is designed to speed up or aid the elimination of it. toxins. I'm using air quotes again. I'll probably use air quotes a lot in this episode, so I will highlight it as I go. But yeah, helping kind of eliminate toxins from our bodies. and often detoxes involve like a period of fasting followed by a protocol of eating different foods, different spices, in short to kind of maximize Removing toxins from your system. I always laugh saying this because I feel like i'm kind of selling detoxes with all the buzzwords that i'm using with this But I promise you i'm not but it can come in so many different forms I came up with not a complex list There's a lot more of all the things online people claim that their detoxes Can help with i'm just going to quickly fire through a few of these It's like rest your organs stimulate your liver to get rid of toxins improve hormone balance improve sex drive You Promote toxin elimination through feces, urine, and sweat, improve circulation, cure cancer, reverse type 1 diabetes, fix autoimmune diseases, help you get taller. This is definitely one that I saw recently. no joke. I posted on Instagram saying the detox helped you get taller. There was many, many more to this, but the claims around detoxes are ridiculous, but also pretty vast. So it's, difficult to know. What's right and what's wrong because of all the nonsense around this kind of thing. And it's predatory, right? A lot of those things, someone vertically challenged, let's say, may really want a detox to help them get taller if they feel desperate enough. Right. I, I'm not the tallest bloke. I'm not a short bloke. I'm pretty average height. But yeah, if I could like to eat a few different certain vegetables to gain an inch or two, I'm taking it Kate. So I can see, I can see the allure. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, there we go. I didn't look into what the claims were, like, how this detox was gonna help you grow. purported mechanism. I know. Because it's always something that doesn't make sense, like physiologically, but this like really doesn't make sense. So I'd like to hear what they have going. It's so true. And you touched on that, like these people, like they exploit people that are desperate. And that is the issue with a lot of these things on social media is like claiming that your detox can cure cancer is just insane. There's absolutely no research prove that. But people know that certain individuals in certain scenarios are desperate and are looking for anything to latch on to. Therefore, they're more than happy to exploit it and make money from selling it. And that's the bit that's just really gross and icky. Yeah, it's so icky. So one of the main reasons that different wellness influencers or self proclaimed detox specialists, once again, in air quotes, encourage detoxes is because the world we live in is becoming increasingly toxic and environmental pollutants, heavy metals, synthetic materials. Like food quality varying food quality depending on which country you're in, amongst many other factors. And our bodies are now kind of apparently unable to deal with the barrage of toxins that are thrown at them. So we need something, whether that is a diet or a supplement or a protocol to help support our bodies to detox effectively. and this is where I wanted to put in like a little bit of a disclaimer as well, because this might surprise people to hear me say, cause I do bash detoxes a lot online, but I'm not going to completely disregard someone for highlighting that like we live in a more toxic society now, right? like air pollution, microplastics, the rise of ultra processed food, like questionable food practices. there are arguably, more hurdles for our bodies to maintain homeostasis, so I don't think there's an issue in highlighting that. However, just because our environment is changing, it doesn't mean that someone gets a free pass to then sell utter nonsense that has no evidence based behind it. And that is the main issue that I have with all of these diets. I've been quite vocal about my dislike for these detoxes on social media. yes, there are things that we can do to give our bodies the best fighting chance to thrive. But if you are an evidence based practitioner or you're sensible and you actually want to help the people you're claiming to want to help, you need to stick to the evidence base and there just isn't anything around that at all to support the claims. Yeah. I love that you bring that up because I think if someone is too dismissive of someone fearing toxins, it's kind of, you've swung the other way. And lot of times people cling on to these promises of health because they're not feeling well, or they have fear around. environmental toxins and the microplastics and all these things. And I, feel like those fears are really valid. So kind of saying, Hey, you're stupid. Don't believe that is it's the opposite of helpful. It's just kind of swinging the other way and, disregarding the person and what they care about in a different manner, I guess. It's so true. Like maybe we even know just from the episodes that we don't care, like the differences between the U S and UK and some food practices, whereas our pre Brexit, who knows what that would be like in a few more years time, but like our food. safety practices may be a little bit more kind of structured, a little bit safer than some parts of the US. So I don't think there's an issue with people being a little bit apprehensive or slightly nervous about certain things. but it's then what you do with that information that is, the kicker, right? We can limit things or be selective, but then telling people that a certain protocol or supplement is going to help. that's the bit that we're going to kind of hopefully tear apart today, you know? Let's do it. Yeah. Also, I guess like we've always been quite honest about our mistakes as coaches, Kate I mean, you used to do CrossFit and that's quite embarrassing. So if we, I love everyone who does CrossFit, I'm joking. I'm joking. Um, like, have you ever done a detox? Like, have you ever followed a detox protocol? Oh, for sure. Okay. Actually, I was like, I remember multiple times. I have done the juice cleanse, where you're supposed to not eat, classic, classic juice cleanse. I remember, I can't tell you if this was late high school or early college, but one of those, they literally sold these at Costco. And I bought a juice cleanse from Costco. And then in college, I distinctly remember also doing a juice cleanse with my roommate. We went to the store, we bought all the veggies and all the things because someone had gifted her a juicer. I think that's what the situation was. it on the internet, printed it out, made our first juice, gagged it down, literally didn't eat for a whole day. Like did our first day. I remember like sitting in my. What was it? American Heritage History class. Just feeling like I was so hungry I wanted to pass away. at the end of the first day, I was like, Uh, are we going to do this for a few more days? And she was like, no, I can't either. So that one we quit. I did not have the fortitude to not eat and only drink really disgusting juice, for a few days. But obviously the allure was there. And that was my second time trying it. See, and that's the issue, isn't it? Like all of this stuff is so accessible. Like it's not even behind like a huge paywall for people to follow. These it's funny. Go. Exactly. Like Costco, like all like those who are UK based like places like Holland and Barrett like all these popular supplement stores around you can buy multiple detox products. And also it's funny like doing the research for this episode was kind of making sure that everything I was doing was evidence based as always. It was really difficult to find, simply because of the amount of detox and cleanse stuff online, that even though I was searching for specific terms, it was just throwing up, this is why you should detox, here's how to detox, here's this product. Like it was, compared to any other topic that I've discussed on here, it was the hardest to research because of that. It just seemed to be hidden behind a barrage of absolute nonsense. Yeah, and there's so much for profit that it's hard to get down to the science, I'm sure. Yeah, and also because the science, which we will touch on in a minute, is just so sparse. So I'm trying to find like a needle in a haystack when you're trying to find this stuff. my adverts over the last few days after doing all this research have just been horrific. And I'm sure you're getting the new year, like the new year kind of predatory detox. Yeah. Commentary now too, oof. Yep, uh, that's right. I just report them all, it's great. I just report them for misinformation. Nothing will ever happen, but it makes me feel good. So first of all, now I want to touch on, how our body actually detoxes. I'll go through a few of the popular approaches as well, like you mentioned the juice cleansing. but first of all, I just wanted to talk through how our body actually detoxes itself. so hopefully by Understanding this, we can then much more easily pull apart the ridiculousness of some of these detox diets and then we can hopefully spot the misinformation a little bit more easily. Although the wellness world has adopted the term detoxing is the body's natural way of removing harmful substances and maintaining balance. So while detox products and cleansers are often marketed as quick fixes, the truth is that your body is constantly detoxing on its own to keep you alive and healthy all of the time. this process happens automatically without the need for expensive supplements or restrictive diets. I just want to emphasize that so your liver and kidneys are the primary detoxification powerhouses working literally around the clock to filter and eliminate the toxins but they're not working alone I mean like what? are we detoxing from? First of all, so let's look at this. there are many factors that our bodies are fighting against, or maybe a better way is not fighting, like resisting against maybe to make it sound a bit less threatening. I'm going to list a few things which sound a bit scaremongering, and like I'm trying to sell a detox plan again, but I just want to reassure everyone that our bodies deal with these things so damn well, depending on the dose of course, that It's almost worth not stressing about a lot of the time. for example, the air around us is full of pollutants like cigarette smoke, industrial emissions, car fumes, mold, drinking water, although very closely monitored in a lot of places, it does have some levels of pollutants that our bodies will just deal with. Our foods occasionally contain chemicals in really small doses, such as pesticides from fruit and vegetables or preservatives used in food processing. alcohol is a toxin as well, chemicals used in brutal products, like household cleaning chemicals, like all of this stuff is around us all of the time. we've not just suddenly got really bad at it Like we've been around these things for a long period of time and we deal with them incredibly well whether it's the air we breathe, the food we eat, or the products we use These substances are foreign to our bodies and can potentially impact our health in a variety of ways. so let's talk through how our bodies deal with them. So first of all is the liver. one of the most important functions of the liver is to clean and remove harmful substances from the blood. I know this is like a slightly more boring part of the episode because I just want everyone to know like what each aspect does very quickly because I just want to show that there are so many things going on all of the time that stop us needing all of this other crap that people are trying to sell us. so almost everything we eat. Breathe in or put in our body has to be removed or cleaned and that is always by the liver it basically breaks down these toxic byproducts so they can then be processed down by the kidneys and then the kilties acts as a filter for waste products and help us to get rid of them from our bodies healthy kidneys filter about half a cup of blood every single minute removing waste and extra water your kidneys then remove waste and extra fluid from your body and they also remove Acid that is produced from the cells of your body and to help you maintain a healthy balance. And then there are also other bits which I won't go into detail here, but like our digestive system helps, the skin acts as a barrier against so many toxins, the lungs, like the little hairs on the inside of our nostrils, like the mucus in our lungs, all of these things are so good. I hope I'm getting this point across that these things work so efficiently. It's almost silly to assume that one tiny supplement is suddenly going to help our detox effectively. because it won't. I love that you say that because something that just popped in my head as you're talking through this is thinking, okay, let's go back a hundred years or so when working conditions were full of not just, you know, air quote toxins, but literally like Carcinogens, chemicals, like things we know to be poisonous. We had lead paint. We've got asbestos in the roof, whatever, all these things. It's not new that we're surrounded by harmful chemicals or toxins or, you know, substances. And so often we give ourselves our bodies so much less credit than they deserve, but they are so capable and so smart and so efficient. And Toxins isn't a new thing. It's The category of what we are exposed to today is different than yes, decades ago, but the idea that we're exposed to harmful chemicals or what have you, it's not new. And our bodies have. evolved to take care of us. Yeah, and I would also argue as well on that, like even though we're maybe exposed to more nowadays, I would also say like the rules and regulations about how we are exposed to these toxins is really strangely managed as well. Like the pesticides that we put on the food, they don't just spray anything, this is all rigorously tested. Despite what a lot of people will say on social media, like drinking water, there's a lot of people scaremongering around drinking water now, like the testing around drinking water safety is huge. Even though we are exposed to potentially more, it's actually better managed now than it maybe was a few decades ago, so it's just silly to assume that suddenly, like, everything's getting worse and worse and worse and worse, because it's not. It's just really not. When you see me picking up my phone, it's me making notes of all these great things you're saying. Perfect. No worries, Kate. Kate's going to do some bedtime reading and some more research. You know me. so what does the research say all about all of this? as you know, me and Kate are research nerds and everything we do is either kind of evidence based or evidence led. and if I'm completely honest, this is a very short section of the podcast episode simply because the research in support of detoxing, or actually kind of delving into detoxing in any way, is pretty non existent. I will Put links in the show notes of the few research papers that I think are quite good to analyze a lot of the data around detoxes and why we shouldn't really do them. but overall detox diets should 100 percent not to be recommended simply because the evidence base isn't there. if you only listen to one part of the podcast episode, just listen to that sentence. There is no research to prove that it works. so if you have a conscience. You shouldn't be recommending it. and it is funny though because one of the biggest issues I have with this on social media people who encourage those to follow alternative routes is I don't think all detoxes are bad in their entirety, right? I'm trying to wear this in a way that doesn't make me sound slightly unhinged. Like there's some good elements to some of these diets that people are recommending, but then there's also a lot of bad that usually accompanies them. and one, as you highlighted before, Kate, like if you speak in an entirety of like, this is bad, don't do this, whereas you can actually like take parts of different diets, which I will talk about in a bit more detail in a second that you can implement into your lifestyle that can help enhance your health, hopefully, and help you to detox and equates more effectively. Right. I hope you'll give some examples of what detox diet protocols even look like, because I don't know that I know, like you, Spend so much time kind of dissecting this stuff on the internet and I live like blinders up just ignore I know what I gotta send to a video To an extent like I'm not I'm like in the know a little bit But I'm curious what some of those protocols even look like because you're right. It's probably like promoting more Hydration and micronutrient dense foods and like that's a good Thing. Exactly, that's my point. That's kind of what it all is like. Yeah, that's it. Like in a snapshot. So I did. I guess when you, you asked about my history, I was thinking of like the juice cleanse, The juicing detox, whatever. But I've never, followed back in my like dieting days, my chronic dieting days, my chronic restriction days. I never followed like, this is a detox diet protocol. Yeah. But you know, they're probably not very different at all. Like I think they are pretty much the same. They're simply just. like different vegetables because they can package it in a different way or taking certain supplements because They have discount codes and can make money off those supplements because to support your detoxification Pathways like there are certain things within our diets that help to amplify or make these things run efficiently But you're much better off actually just consuming the entire vegetable rather than highlighting the one specific molecule from that food that's going to help with that detox pathway, right? that's the crazy thing about it. What this is episode 41 we've recorded and I feel like that sentiment is true across like pretty much some extent across every episode we do. Yeah, I think it is sadly. Let's start there on juice cleanses because that is the first diet that I thought i'd kind of delve into And seeing as you're the resident juice cleanse expert, okay, please feel free feel free to jump in to kind of take over if i'm going wrong, but As we said like this is your pretty bog standard detox approach that you will see plastered all over social media and sold usually by kind of alternative medicine accounts often. and kind of off the bat here, there is zero evidence to support doing juice cleanses for toxin elimination. The theory here is as I said, you eat very specific fruits and vegetables to support a certain part of a detox pathway, especially if someone's maybe having health issues. You'll have an alternative medicine account be like, Oh, this health issue is because of this pathway. Therefore, this thing helps improve that pathway. Therefore, have this supplement rather than just, Oh, actually, like if you eat more fruits and vegetables, you'd probably feel a lot better. Yeah. I'm being very overly simplistic there, but that's kind of what it comes down to. Um, as I said, like that will help enhance your body's detoxification pathways and help get rid of. All the badness that is inside of you. have many people who have followed these diets short term and claim that they feel so much better. So the detox diet must have worked. But I just want to like break down why this happens. So usually someone feels a bit gross. so they reach out to a detox specialist, air quotes again, and they tell you that you need to avoid ultra processed foods. You should drink more water. You should prioritize eating more fruits and vegetables. is there any surprise that you start to feel a little bit better from doing all of those things? it's just a no brainer. Like if you're someone who maybe their diet isn't very fine tuned and you suddenly stop. eating lots of nutrient dense foods, there's going to be some benefit there. you're probably cutting out things you shouldn't do, but there's going to be some initial benefit when you're giving the body what it has been missing for some period of time. So how about instead of doing that, like going to the extreme, as I mentioned, you just incorporate all of these positive health behaviors, eat more vegetables, drink more water, avoid ultra processed foods, and Hate what you're saying. Yeah, and you'll feel better. Too boring. Yeah, really dull. So me and Kate struggle to grow huge followings on social media. What you're saying is boring. I don't like it. Package it and put it in juice form. we'll work on that. We'll brainstorm. Kate, the how to detox supplement. I don't know. There we go. So this next one's a really popular one, but it kind of goes in and out of fashion. and it's the detox diets for toxin elimination to aid weight loss. So as I said, it goes through waves on social media, but it was always kind of lurking there in the shadows, and now and again it will kind of pop up in popularity. And just to highlight, like, weight gain and weight loss comes down to calorie balance. Like, we've spoken about this many times before. Yes, there is some nuance around this, but Calorie balance is what drives our body weight changes. it's fact, it's proven, however there are many people that still argue that this isn't the case and one of the many reasons people argue against it is because they think that toxins are to blame. the theory here is that when we come into contact with all of these toxins and pollutants that I mentioned a few minutes ago, our bodies struggle to process all of them and then we store them within our body and then this accumulation of toxins, which is usually stored in our fat cells occasionally, there's only specific ones that are, but they're sometimes stored in our fat cells, this then prevents us from losing body fat. some people will then claim that the body also makes extra fat cells to store toxins, but. If you know anything about kind of like biochemistry, it just isn't possible. There's just no evidence that this happens. but don't worry. Like anyone who claims that this is the case, has a perfect program for you to purchase to help you clear the toxins out that luckily, luckily for you. having worked in the nutrition space for a long time now, and I do work with a lot of individuals, weight loss goals. Like I see. Just how predatory that is because there's such a permeating belief that You can't lose body fat because XYZ is wrong, right? we always want to find some Alternative option for why we can't reach this body composition goal. We have now my saying body composition goals are the only goals. Absolutely not nothing like that, but a lot of people do have weight loss goals. And so when we fear monger into thinking that there's reasons why the law of thermodynamics does not apply to them, then it's really easy to latch onto that. And honestly, if I think back to my college days, I literally felt that way. Then I was in nutrition. courses, learning about energy balance and thinking that there has to be an exception, because for me, I was doing all the things, the keto, the juice cleanse, the vegetarian, all, you know, and not seeing these body composition changes I wanted. And so like, hence you do a juice cleanse because it's definitely the toxins in the fat cells that's inhibiting this from happening. And then when you do a juice cleanse and you don't eat for three days, cause you only drank really nasty juice and the scale goes down, you're like, Talk sense. Toxins, you know, and I'm not making fun of anyone in that headspace because I've been there and I get it and it's just so to come out on the other side and recognize how predatory evil that is is Frustrating to no end to me and I mean to you too, but to anyone who knows It just shows that no one's immune to it too, and that's the scary thing, like, someone who is, intelligent enough to get onto one of these courses is studying nutrition, who knows the biochemistry to some level, the fact that, kind of, well educated, smart people can be easily duped by this, like, none of us are safe, and it's the bit that always, you know, It frustrates me, like it's snake oil salesman 101 once again, isn't it? Like yes we do sometimes store toxins in our fat cells ready to be processed, but it's such a small amount that it's not worth worrying about, but the fact that this does happen then opens up the potential for someone to come along and be like, look, we saw toxins in our fat cells, therefore you can't lose weight, but don't worry, like here's my special protocol to help you release the toxins, blah, blah, blah. Like it just isn't true. And you'll have many people, as you said, that follow a detox protocol and say they lost weight. So. Causes the toxins. How did I not think of this before? Yeah. Yeah. I get it. And it's frustrating and it's angering. And I look back to myself at 18 or whatever. And I'm like, I'm sorry that, you know, that got you too. Yeah But it's fine, we can help others see the light, Kate. We'll, we're plugging away. And then just a quick word once again, like detox teas and detox specific supplements. I know I've touched on them a little bit already, but just kind of like point blank, detox teas are a scam. There's no evidence that they boost detoxification at all. a lot of the time they are simply like a glorified tea bag with some sort of either laxative or diuretic or both in the same one. for example, like if anyone listening to this has a detox tea, I know some people. Like, the taste of certain ones or whatever. Like, look at the ingredients list and they'll sometimes use things like licorice root, for example, which is a natural laxative. so people will often drink these teas, they think that something magical is happening, and then the tea gets all the glory when, in reality, they just drank a tea that encouraged them to poop. And, That's all it was, you know, and in terms of detox supplements, they will often claim to contain ingredients that promote or enhance detoxification pathways. But once again, you're just better off consuming the entire kind of fruits, vegetables, or the foods that these certain things actually contain. So please do not waste your money on kind of detox teas or detox supplements It's just not worth it. Not worth Not worth it at all. I'm going to call my mum out on this one. She has a tea that she really likes to drink and it is called like detox or something. I think it literally is just called like detox tea. And every time I go down, I have this conversation with her. I'm like, this is literally just filled with a laxative. but there we go. I'm hoping, I'm going to send this to my mum once it goes live. Does she say that, does, I like the taste. Yeah, literally that's it. I like the taste. Yeah. Stop lying to yourself, Alison. going to send this to her. she's, she's got it. Be named and So then onto one that's kind of a little bit more serious if you will and that's colon cleanses and enemas. so for those listening that follow me on social media You'll know that i've done a few posts on this recently. It seems to be growing, in resurgence There's a company I'm going to call them out actually because they're one of kind of the worst people on social media. They're called like the Happy Bum Company, I think they're called. Oh, even I know. Even I know what that is. And they're just constantly churning out content of like 10 reasons why you should do a coffee enema. And like, you go to the bottom of their website, there's always like a little disclaimer of like, this is not medical information, blah, blah, blah. Like just to cover their asses, ironically. Um, because, because they can get away with it just with that little disclaimer. especially on kind of coffee enemas, I cannot express how dangerous this is and how much I want everyone listening to stay the F away from doing a coffee enema or from anyone telling you that it's a good idea. I know of the happy bum company. What, like, what's the purported mechanism? What are they? saying is the purpose of, or the mechanism of putting coffee up your bum to help with detoxing. you know what? That's a very good question. I, I remember looking this up a long time ago, and it was very, very difficult to find anything because usually what will happen is they'll be like, This is why we do it and then it links to like a random blog that they wrote themselves of reasons why we need to do these things and it's just complete nonsense. So yeah, seeing as what we know about how detoxification works in our bodies like it just doesn't make any sense, especially there's been so many different reports about people being seriously injured and worse. from following coffee enemas. So once again, just like, please, please, please do not follow any of these protocols because they have no evidence behind them and they are incredibly dangerous. Yeah, I think you can't say that enough. And again, it comes to a lot of desperation, right? My younger sister has Crohn's disease and she has very severe Crohn's disease. And I know she's in like certain groups that are people just trying to manage their disease, whatever dietary medical way they can. And I know she's told me about people being like, here's what to do the coffee enema, and she's not done this, she knows, right? But again, it makes sense why you would say, oh my gosh, I'm miserable. this is promising this thing that I can't get through my medical team through my diet through whatever So I understand the desperation, but you have to remember what you said. It's dangerous It's very very dangerous and there's zero evidence to support this process that honestly makes no physiological sense either. Yeah it's just a, once again, just exploiting, people isn't it, that are desperate. And the adverts are always like, slim, white, happy woman doing a coffee enema, and it's just easy to fall for this crap and just, , please, please do not. There was actually a systematic review done into coffee enemas in 2020, which as I said, I'll link below in the show notes. it was conducted to investigate the safety and effectiveness of Self administered coffee enemas in multiple settings. I'll just read the results out quickly. So, nine case reports that describe adverse events were identified and included in the analysis. Seven recent ones reported colitis after self administration, mentioning that the most plausible cause assumed was the coffee fluid itself, which contained numerous chemical substances. Two others reported more critical adverse events. All nine case reports were acceptable. Quality of evidence warned against the self administration of the procedure. No study that reports the effectiveness of coffee enemas was found. Signed, sealed, done. Like just, there is no evidence. Do not follow it. No, but that's a lot of being found in just one study, or I guess it's a systematic review in several studies, but yeah, it's just, it's pretty, it's pretty terrifying. Please do not follow them. And then the final one that I wanted to just get a quick mention was activated charcoal and like special detox kits that you can buy. and they say that you kind of consume this and it absorbs the toxins and cleanses the gut. But the main reason I would recommend people do not follow this one is because it can interfere with nutrient absorption and can mess up with any medication absorption too. so it can cause like severe gastrointestinal distress and potentially malnutrition. and then whatever other issues will occur from you not taking medicine that your body needs. So please do not do those either. Is there specific dose that makes that? More harmful because I see like activated charcoal toothpaste or activated charcoal lemonade. I went to this little vegan spot and there's activated charcoal in the lemonade. I was like, no, thank you. It makes your teeth black. Is there a little bit like Echinacea, for example, you know, where it's like one part Echinacea, it's like a million parts water. A million parts, yeah. Yeah, exactly. I mean, the lemonade was black. Oh, okay. So I didn't get it. I just saw someone have it. But, I'm just wondering like what the dose is that makes it so like there's kind of interference. I'm afraid I don't know, but what I would say though is you could not pay me to drink black lemonade. I know! I have this perfectly refreshing drink. I will take it without the murky black sludge in it. Lemonade is one of life's gifts. Why would you ruin it? By introducing charcoal. No thank you. Precisely. Precisely. Noted. No activated charcoal. So I think kind of like in a little bit of a summary of all of those, it's no surprise that we're very much against doing a detox. We do not encourage them and we strongly recommend not taking advice from anyone who tells you that you should do them. But what can we do? Do to actually help, I guess is, it's kind of the next important part for us to focus on. I was here, I was going to say like the natural way is to detox. But once again, that feels a little bit, like I'm trying to scam you all as well. So. how can we support our bodies to naturally detox and encourage natural detoxification pathways? and this is the part, sorry Kate, where we have to put on like our really boring hats on the end of every episode, where we tell people like the really unsexy things. Drink water. Yeah, literally the first point here. Oh, I know. Yeah, so I mean, as I said, like, I talked through like what Organs are needed to encourage detoxification to happen effectively and the kidneys need to function optimally and the way that we support Kind of good kidney health is by staying well hydrated And they are the body's filtration system and require enough water to kind of secrete urine and it's urine is the primary waste product that allows the body to excrete kind of unwanted substances. So as kate boringly said please drink some water. Cause I kind of just to highlight like a low urine output may lead to kidney dysfunction, kidney stones like UTIs. so don't let that happen. I don't know how many times I've said this in the podcast so far, but I say it all of the time to my clients. Like we are always looking for a quick fix for a magic pill for the solution. I literally believe water is the closest we're gonna get. Drinking enough water. Water and walking. Like those two things. I mean in every episode, I think in every episode we talk about drinking water and like we can call it boring and stuff but you want a magic fix? There isn't one, but the closest we can get is water. Yeah, it's true. And on that, like walking a kind of regular exercise, improved circulation, lymphatic drainage and everything. So like walking and water is, is there we go. That's really, really, really important. I kind of mentioned like our digestive systems are important in the detoxification pathways as well. Of course, like good fruit and vegetable intake to encourage good digestion especially fiber intake, to really make sure that everything is flowing as smoothly as possible, including foods within your diet that are rich in antioxidants. And I'm always a little bit wary to talk about antioxidants because it kind of once again has become one of those little buzzwords that people encourage people to supplement with. So antioxidants are kind of molecules that can help your body fight off harmful free radicals. And they've been linked to certain health conditions like diabetes and cancer. And antioxidants, once again, are found within plant based foods. So people will encourage you to supplement with antioxidants. It's pretty inefficient. You should just be consuming the plant based foods to give your body everything that it needs to help kind of fight off harmful free radicals. That's really important. Also getting enough sleep. Once again, very boring. I would say, I think our sleep episode was very good. Kate, a good episode on why we need to sleep and encourage like regeneration and recovery. So that helps with the detoxification pathways within the body as well. So yeah. That's how you support your body to naturally detox. So if anyone tries to sell you it, yeah, it does. Yeah, it's very simple. it's incredibly frustrating the amount of people that latch onto this buzzword and exploit people. but hopefully now people are armed with, you know, Why it's complete crap, basically. I hope so. Drink your water. Mm hmm. Walk your walks. Move around. If you work at a desk all day, like you and I do, get up and move. Get a walking pad like Michael has. I still don't have one. Yeah. But to be fair, you live in like a beautifully warm country where you can go and walk. I live in a walkable city, right? Yeah, yeah. I walk a lot. And I think maybe we have to stop calling them boring, maybe we call them exciting. Yeah, go for your exciting walks. Here's, no, no, but here's like the exciting things you get to do. Okay, yeah, That you have access to already. Yeah, yeah. That can help you, streamline your detox processes. You are clearly a better salesperson than I am. I'm working on it. I mean, no, yes and no. I love this, Michael. This is great. I think it's an important episode that just sheds light on kind of what we're up against when we see these products thrown our way with big promises or big, solutions given to us that really touch on pain points that someone may be dealing with. And remembering like that emotional appeal, like that, it makes sense why people opt for these solutions, but we also have to remember. science wins out and yeah, and they're not an actual solution for everybody to, you know, create instant health or else there'd be recommendations for them. it's so true. And I mean, an easy way to get around this or to know if someone knows what they're talking about is if someone tries to sell you a detox or cleanse, like a toxin elimination protocol, whatever it is, like ask them, what toxins are you speaking about? Like toxins is a popular buzzword and it's something that just gets thrown around by a lot of people. It's like, I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. The large majority of people that use it don't know what it actually is. So ask them, like, what toxins am I having issues with? And what toxins am I eliminating by following your special protocol? And I bet you a very large amount of money that they will have no idea. What you are talking about or what they are talking about either so detoxing it's a marketing myth. It's not a medical necessity if you are Having issues detoxing then you need a hospital and a doctor You do not need an influencer selling you a green juice on instagram and that's really really important. There are certain medical procedures that involve detoxing, but they are done within a hospital setting. yes, detoxes are a thing, but they're not a, kind of an Instagram wellness page telling you to eat specific supplements or certain foods. it's just bonkers. Mike drop. There we go. Good job. Thank you very much. Thank you. Some good things. All right. Thank you guys for listening. As always, we'd love to hear any feedback you have, any questions, send them to Michael. This is his deep dive. I'll be back in two weeks with one on. Ozempik. Yeah. Follow up on Ozempik. I'm really excited. I'm really excited for this episode. I also just want to do that kind of polite, annoying podcast thing where we say, like, if anyone enjoyed this episode, please share it with people that you know. Um, please subscribe, leave us a review, follow us on other platforms, like if you can help spread the word of this podcast, we would really appreciate it because we enjoy doing it and we hope it can help as many people as possible. Talk soon. See ya.