To cleanse or not to cleanse? That is a darn good question.

So my sweet Mommy friend, Robin, wanted to know my opinion on detox and weight loss cleanses - and not the spa, relaxing scrubby kind.

There are oodles of cleanse programs out there – celebrity cleanses, master cleanse, etc. They essentially include a period of time where you do not eat solid foods and replace meals with a fluid provided by the cleanse (for purchase) or a blend of things you make yourself. The master cleanse, for example, is a blend of water, honey and cayenne pepper three times a day for a few days.

The promise is that your body will be cleansed of all toxins, chemicals and foreign bodies. And generally there is some sort of weight loss promise or jump start to weight loss.

And in my opinion cleanses are not necessary and quite bad for you in the short-term.

This is my gut reaction to this, but wanted to substantiate my opinion with an expert. So, I consulted Ad Man’s Aunt Nancy, who has been a certified nutritionist for 25 years.

Over granola one morning…ok well actually we were eating BBQ, but that is irrelevant…we chatted about cleanses. And she agreed that cleanses are not the way to go for a couple reasons:

1) You are denying your body nutrition – Cutting nutrients out of your diet for any period of time is depriving your system of the necessary elements that create energy and keep things running smoothly. If you’ve ever skipped a meal and felt light-headed or energy sacked, this is what you will likely feel like for several days.

Additionally, your body could go into “starvation mode,” meaning that it begins to think that it will not receive fat and nutrition again. So when you do start eating again, it will hang on to the fat as storage should it be deprived of food again.

Which, holy moly, I don’t need any more fat stored anywhere!

2) Losing weight quickly is never what it seems – So remember the last time you had a stomach bug and you didn’t eat anything for a day or so. At first (after you feel better), you are like OMG I lost 3 pounds! Hooray! And then when you start eating normally you gain it back in no time? Well, that is true of a cleanse as well. You might have some initial weight loss because you aren’t eating anything (hello, of course) and then you gain it back.

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: The only way to lose weight is to balance calories in vs. calories out. If it seems easy and too good to be true, then it is.

3) Do you really know what’s in the product they ask you to drink? Some cleanses ask you to drink some specially blended concoction or shake to flush out your body and kick-start weight loss. I would be incredibly careful when reading a label for those things. Research the ingredients, study what you are putting in your body. Putting chemicals and man-made products in your body is sort of counter-intuitive when you are trying to flush toxins out. Ya know?

Now I haven’t tried a cleanse and haven’t reviewed the details of all the options out there. But my general feeling (and the recommendation of a nutrition expert) is to avoid anything that dramatically cuts calories and deprives your body of essentials foods. Instead, consider a healthy, natural food-based cleanse.

How does that work? Instead of depriving yourself of nutrition, try eating “clean” for a week. Completely clean. No processed foods, no unhealthy fats or oils, no unnecessary sugars or artificial flavors. And drink heaps of water. This will flush out toxins and junk out of your body.

To truly eat “clean” you also shouldn’t cook anything. So you eat raw fruits, vegetables, nuts, grains, etc. Obviously you don’t want to eat raw meat!

The first few days are the hardest as you cut all the things that our bodies have become addicted to – i.e., sugar and sodium. Then I can guarantee you will feel better and probably have some weight loss to show for it. This is the safest way to “cleanse” your system.

I would love to know if any of my Naked Stretchers have tried a cleanse product? What was your opinion? Did you lose weight? How did you feel? Would you do it again?

Thanks for the great question Robin!

Nakedly yours,

Meg