A fairly sophisticated colleague just completed a five-day water fast, something he does two-three times a year to “purge his body of toxins.” A Harvard-educated client of mine keeps going on fruit-juice-based fasts–again to purge the toxins. And an old friend from grad school is now engaged in a very expensive round of “chelation” to push the toxins out of her body. Me? I’ve always thought that this is what we have a liver and two kidneys for. So, here are my questions: (1) What the heck are these toxins anyway? (2) Can they be measured? (3) Where do they come from? (4) How do we get rid of them? –Thomas B. Siegman, New York, New York
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Oh, there are lots of toxins. Ethanol, now. Toss back a shooter or six at your brother’s bachelor party and chances are next morning you won’t be saying, Whoa, it’s great to be alive. Nicotine’s another. Ozone, carbon monoxide, and other compounds derived from auto exhaust. Fat in foods isn’t a toxin in the strict sense, but consume it in excess and from the standpoint of long-term health effects you’re slowly poisoning yourself.
The thing is, even if we concede for the sake of argument that obscure toxins are a threat, there’s no reason to think that detox therapies offer any protection. Examples:
In short, you’re quite right–the human body has its own highly evolved mechanisms for eliminating toxins that, under normal circumstances, you don’t need to enhance with anything more elaborate than indoor plumbing and a good magazine. By the same token, if you’re overtaxing your liver and kidneys, you don’t need a water diet, you need to rethink your life.
