Why January Detox Diets Don’t Work (& What Actually Does)

Dr. Ruth Machin busts some myths:

Hold the celery juice

Let’s get right down to it: post-holiday guilt and the promise of “purifying” your body are powerful selling points for a multitrillion-dollar wellness industry that benefits from framing indulgence as moral failure. However, in reality, a January detox is unnecessary, unsupported by science, and largely driven by marketing alone.

People also are often a little hazy about what a “toxin” is. Consider the following items, and see if you can spot what’s safe and what’s toxic:

• Sugar
• Alcohol
• Water
• Botulinum toxin

Did you get it right? Sugar, alcohol, water, and Botulinum toxin (Botox) are all dangerously toxic above a certain dose, and safe beneath that dose.

Yes, the World Health Organization has said that “the only safe amount of alcohol is zero“, but that’s based on number of drinks. If you use hand sanitizer (or estradiol gel!) then some alcohol will enter your bloodstream via transdermal infusion, but the amount of alcohol entering your bloodstream is so tiny (most of the alcohol evaporates off your skin), that you’d have to bathe in it to get toxic effects.

So the moral of the story here is: the dose makes the poison.

In the case of sugar, completely “banning” sugar often increases cravings and binge behavior, whereas reducing added sugar—especially sugary drinks—while allowing flexibility is more realistic and sustainable.

Writer’s example: I consider myself someone who, broadly speaking, “doesn’t eat sugar”. But I’ll use some teriyaki sauce in cooking (contains sugar), or even disregard the small amount of unavoidable added sugar in my annual healthy tiramisu.

Back to Dr. Machin, she also wants us to know that broadly speaking, your liver and kidneys do not need cleansing. They already detoxify themselves efficiently, regenerate when damaged (especially the liver, which is exceptionally good at this; kidneys are much slow to regain function if damaged), and generally function well if just left to do their thing and not actively sabotaged.

On which note, you may be wondering what actually supports detox organs: staying well hydrated, limiting alcohol, avoiding excess abdominal fat*, and eating a balanced diet do far more for liver and kidney health than any cleanse.

^{*which is also, happily, a consequence of looking after your liver in particular—the healthier your liver is, the less abdominal fat you will tend to accumulate, unless there is something unusual going on (i.e. you have some uncommon health condition unrelated your liver).}

Juice cleanses miss the point so badly that it’s basically a “friendly fire” situation: your body already removes waste through your bowel, lungs, liver, and kidneys, and eating whole fruits and vegetables provides fiber and micronutrients which help with this, but juice? That provides mostly sugar with practically no fiber, and actively sabotages your metabolic health, including putting a lot of pressure on your liver, and potentially (due to the osmotic gradient) doing more harm than gut for your kidneys.

Also very bad are detoxes as crash diets: many cleanses are very low-calorie diets that cause mostly water loss, reduce muscle mass, slow metabolism, increase hunger hormones, and almost always lead to weight regain. So, we recommend to skip those.

One last warning: coffee enemas are dangerous! They can cause burns, intestinal perforation, infections, and microbiome disruption, and have sometimes caused death. Coffee is great for your gut, iff you drink it. Please don’t put it up your butt.

And finally, what works instead: establish (or return to) normal healthy routines, eat nutritious foods at least most of the time, move plenty daily, and prioritize adequate sleep—even though these approaches are boring and not marketable, they do have the benefit of actually working.

For more on all of this, enjoy:

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Want to learn more?

You might also like:

Detox: What’s Real, What’s Not, What’s Useful, What’s Dangerous?

Take care!