Why, you might reasonably ask, are we talking about detox drinks? Well, because it’s an inconvenient truth that as soon as the weather starts to warm, quick-fix solutions for health and weight loss will inevitably rocket.
You know - detox drinks promising everything from supercharged immunity to rapid weight loss; complicated diets that essentially dress up ‘massive calorie deficit’ in highly marketable language.
Solutions that are craftily designed and sold as clever new ways to circumvent the dreariest of realities when it comes to health, wellness and weight loss.
The reality in question being that, ultimately, the only real, sustainable, route to living your healthiest lifestyle is by doing the right things, regularly.
You know: eating a varied, balanced diet (lots of plants and fibre; ample protein; healthy fats) engaging in regular exercise (a mix of strength and cardio work that you love too much to quit) - plus, doing activities that support relaxation and good mental health. In other words: that there are no shortcuts when it comes to feeling and performing at your best.
Unpacking the health claims of Detox Teas & Detox Juices
Detox drinks come in various shapes but the most common one you are likely to come across are so-called detox teas and detoxing juices - both often sold as part of a week-long (or more) programme to help improve your body’s functioning and, invariably, lose weight.
Detoxing juice cleanses have had a resurgence of late. There are now millions of videos tagged #smoothiecleanse and #juicecleanse on TikTok.
Some digital detective work indicates that the pandemic has only lubricated this trend – online searches for ‘juice cleanse’ spiked in late June and early July 2020, just ahead of the pubs reopening, before reaching another peak in May 2021 - when many restrictions lifted and there was a sense of ‘reemerging’ into society, post months of bleak lockdowns.
You can do the blending or juicing yourself or you can pay a premium for someone else to do it, with companies charging up to £50 a day for the privilege of pre-made drinks delivered to your doorstep.
The exclusive vibe of the latter option is amped up by lifestyle photographs featuring dumbbells and jade rollers alongside endorsements from influencers and nutritionists.
(It feels important to flag here that the number of dietetics and nutrition professionals WH spoke to who would endorse detox drinks, such as juice cleanses, was…zero.)
Then there are detox teas: another of the most popular types of detox drinks for weight loss. Some detox tea product descriptions are vague, such as: ‘natural cleansing tea that will leave you feeling energised and motivated to reach your goals’.
While other product descriptions (see: ‘rid your body of harmful toxins and support your weight-loss efforts’) claim the ability to disrupt and optimise specific physiological processes.
But, what about detox drinks benefits?
'Detox' is a word that’s thrown around with abandon. And if you’re not quite sure what it means? Revealingly, neither do the manufacturers.
Researchers at the charity Sense About Science contacted manufacturers of 15 products that claimed to ‘detoxify’, but when quizzed on the claims, not a single manufacturer would (or maybe ‘could’) define what the term meant.
The lack of clarity makes sense when you consider that, by creating products specifically to ‘detox’ the body, manufacturers are presenting a solution where there’s no actual discernible need.
That’s because you already have a top-of-the-range, built-in toxin destroyer: it’s called your liver. It might not photograph as well as a perfectly packaged box of tea or juice cleanse package but, when it comes to clearing out booze, breaking down fat and stabilising your blood sugar levels, looks aren’t everything.
And, along with your kidneys, your liver already has the job of ridding toxins down pat. What’s more, without adequate fuel - which could happen if you are consuming detox drinks as part of a cleanse - these vital organs won’t be able to do their job.
Why Detox Drinks Won't Work for Weight Loss
The needless dent in your wallet and long list of potential undesirable side effects (we’ll get down to those, shortly) notwithstanding, the central paradox with these cleanses is that they often sabotage the very health goal they purport to help people attain.
Take the juice cleanse. While driving down daily calories to between 800 and 1,200 will indeed result in you losing pounds, it’s not a healthy or sustainable way to lose weight.
‘Your body goes into starvation mode through calorie restriction,’ explains dietician and British Dietetics Association spokesperson Marcela Fiuza (marcelanutrition.com) - adding that this is part of an evolutionary mechanism designed to protect you during periods of famine.
‘Your metabolism slows down in order to reduce the number of calories your body burns, causing weight loss to stall,’ she continues. ‘Then once you resume eating [normally], weight regain tends to occur.’
So, after you’ve completed what is essentially a crash diet by another name, your system will be actively working against your aim. Talk about an own goal.
Detox Drinks Could Have Dangerous Side Effects - Here’s Why Experts are Worried
Consume detox drinks as part of a cleanse and you could risk myriad physical and mental health side effects, according to experts consulted by Women's Health.
‘You risk nausea, tiredness, headaches, irritability…’ says Fiuza, reeling off the side effects you can expect to endure on a cleanse.
Not to mention, if you consume detox drinks like juices as substitutes for meals - especially long-term - you put your nutrition at risk.
As for those nightly ‘skinny’ or detox teas? If you are thinking about buying (to reiterate: don't) it really does pay to check the label.
Following continued pressure from nutrition professionals a few years back, medical-grade laxative ingredients, such as senna, have been removed from some of the biggest UK-based manufacturer’s ingredients lists.
But it’s still possible to order one of the most common types of detox drinks for weight loss - detox teas - containing laxative ingredients with a few clicks online.
And, when consumed for a sustained period - as you are often encouraged to on a detox tea programme - they can cause serious health issues.
‘Drinking tea containing senna will speed up the transit of the food in your intestine, meaning you’re less likely to absorb the energy,’ explains Dr Megan Rossi, King’s College London researcher and bestselling author, AKA the Gut Health Doctor.
Eat More, Live Well: Enjoy Your Favourite Food and Boost Your Gut Health with The Diversity Diet
‘Malabsorption of your food means you could end up with nutritional deficiencies, because although you’re eating a balanced diet, most of it is passing straight through your body and coming out into the toilet.’
And it’s important to emphasise that routinely drinking detox teas - and becoming far more au fait with your bathroom in the process - likely won’t deliver on all those de-bloating promises anyway.
‘Teas containing laxatives may relieve bloating in some, simply because they essentially drain your digestive system of food, but for others they can make bloating worse by drawing more fluid into the gut,’ adds Dr Rossi.
‘And depriving your body of nutrition while consuming teas that contain laxatives could trigger your body to go into starvation mode, leading to weight gain when you stop drinking the teas.’
It’s not only physical health that risks being jeopardised by regular consumption of detox drinks - especially detox drinks for weight loss.
Roslyn Gray - a registered dietitian who specialises in helping people with disordered eating - warns that detox drinks cleanses could exacerbate pre-existing conditions, like anorexia or bulimia - or provide a gateway into a problematic relationship with food.
Meanwhile the eating disorders charity Beat the has warned that weight loss and detox tea programmes can normalise the use of laxatives as a behavioural choice, as opposed to a medical need.
The Final Word (for now) on Detox Drinks
Look, no one is saying that enjoying a digestion-easing fennel tea after dinner or blitzing a lurid green, veg-dominant smoothie is somehow unhealthy. That would be silly.
Indeed an analysis by Harvard Medical School warned of the need to differentiate between drinking juice as part of a ‘cleanse’ and consuming now and then. A nice-to-have, nutritious and delicious addition to your daily fare, if you will, as opposed to a replacement.
So, if you enjoy a juice or smoothie now and again to help you along the way to your daily fruit and vegetable target, knock yourself out.
While we're on the subject of better blends, a recent Harvard study concluded that two fruit and three veg is the most longevity-boosting mix; blitzing your fruit and veg in a blender to create a smoothie is preferable to juicing (less faff, more fibre); and giving over 75% of your juice to veg, instead of fruit, will help keep a lid on the sugar content.
But steer well clear of anything that’s billed as a ‘quick fix’ or a ‘detox’ - especially anything that promises you’ll lose a certain amount of weight over a period of days or weeks.
That you can bypass sustained healthy habits via a detox tea or juice is, simply, little more than the stuff of (expensive) fantasy.
Forewarned is forearmed.
Lauren is a lifestyle journalist with digital and magazine experience. Find her covering all aspects of wellness - from fitness, nutrition and mental health, to beauty and travel. Morning HIIT, a lunchtime oat latte and evenings ensconced in a hyaluronic acid-infused sheet mask are her own personal feel-good pillars.
