The new year is an inspiring time, and it gives us an excuse to reflect and make changes. Among those changes, many people feel the need to change or renew their diet. To achieve quick results and begin anew as fast as possible, dieters switch to an extreme detoxification or detox diet starting in the new year, which replaces many of the foods they normally eat with herbs, supplements, and health foods.
Common detox diet features include:
- Vitamin supplements
- Herbal supplements
- Herbal teas
- Excessive water
- Detox pills
However, shocking the body too quickly and withholding the nutrition that your body needs to function have the potential to cause effects that are vastly more dangerous than any detox diet benefits.
Possible Conditions Caused by Detox Diets
Your body does not receive the nutrition to which it has become accustomed when you suddenly switch to a detox diet on New Year’s Day. While herbs provide a small amount of nutrition and are believed to have restorative properties, they are not a healthy source of nutrition on their own. Similarly, large amounts of tea or water without nutrient-dense food is likely to rob the body of essential vitamins and minerals. Poor nutrition from diets can lead to dangerous medical problems. The following are some of the most common:
- Low Sodium - Sodium is an essential mineral, but it is harmful when your body absorbs either too little or too much. Attempting to perform a New Year’s “cleanse” diet on your system without restoring essential amounts of salt can lead to dizziness, lethargy, malaise, thirst, headache, confusion, nausea, vomiting, and in severe cases can cause seizures.
- Low Potassium - Potassium aids in many bodily functions, and when your body can’t supply it, those functions tend to fail. Detox diets flush waste as well as nutrition from your body, which lowers potassium levels. When you reach low potassium, you will likely feel palpitations, fatigue, weakness, spasms, numbness, and suffer from muscle damage.
- Over-hydration - Water is essential to life, and our water requirements are high, but New Years detox diets often take water consumption to dangerous extremes. When the body takes in more water than it can handle, you tend to feel confusion and nausea and may experience vomiting while your body attempts to level out your hydration. If you consume an inordinate amount of water, it could also lead to seizures, coma, and even death.
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| Ingesting too much herbal tea, vitamins, and water can cause dehydration. |
- Dehydration - Herbal teas, vitamins, and excessive water can help push waste out of your body, but waste can’t leave without some of your body’s water. If you’re pushing out more waste than normal, you’re also losing lots of water, and your intake of water may not be able to catch up with your output. Dehydration can cause thirst, dry mouth, sleepiness, headache, dizziness, and can lead to seizures, shock, lethargy, coma, blood pressure drops, and increased heart rate.
- Stomach Problems - New Year detox diets may also include colon cleanses, which are direct attempts to wash out the waste from the colon. Cleansing the colon also washes out helpful bacteria and natural colonies of flora that enable digestion. Those who undergo the procedure can usually expect nausea, vomiting, bloating, and cramping afterward.
Detox Doesn’t Do Much Good, Anyway
In addition to being a potentially dangerous diet method, detoxing is largely unnecessary. The liver, kidneys, and other organs, as well as regular bodily processes, constantly detoxify. While detox diets do help eliminate processed, high-calorie foods, eliminating such foods on a regular basis instead of once a year will have more permanent and impactful health benefits.
Consider the dangers of detoxing before committing to a detox diet this New Years, and be sure to research as much as you can to find out if the benefits outweigh the risks for you.
