I often hear people say they are doing a "cleanse" and cutting out things like dairy or whole grains or only eating fruits or vegetables or drinking  juices. Improving your eating habits is a good thing, but excluding foods or food groups that provide important nutrients is not a good thing.  Drastically limiting calories by doing a cleanse or fast deprives your body of calories.  In the short term you may lose water weight,  but the tradeoff will be several days of being “hangry,” light-headed and irritable. Stick with washing  your hands or your face if you want to do a cleanse!

Detox -  As in “You need this tea to do a detox.”  The only thing healthy people need to detoxify their bodies is already there, your kidneys and liver.  If those organs aren’t working correctly you would most likely be in the hospital having various machines and medications helping you “detox.” There are times when people are inadvertently exposed to poisons, drugs, or chemical toxins that they may need to seek medical assistance to detoxify from these agents.

Leah McGrath, RDN, LDN

Ingles Markets Corporate Dietitian

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