Beyonce, Sarah Jessica Parker and especially Gwyneth Paltrow all swear by detox cleanses. But the Today Health show has questioned whether they’re safe and as healthy as they claim to be or not.

Dr Ian Smith, author of The 4 Day Diet, and Heidi Skolnik, a nutritionist to the New York Giants, went on to the morning chat show to discuss the pros and cons to these sometimes extreme eating programs.

Watch the video above for the answers…

Gwyneth Paltrow has just finished yet another detox program. The 36-year-old actress, who has been practising yoga for 20 years and loves Tracy Anderson’s dance workout, is still on a mission to share her healthy-living lifestyle with her fans through her website, GOOP.

In her latest GOOP newsletter she wrote:

“Designed by New York cardiologist and detoxification specialist Dr. Alejandro Junger, this program allowed me to work and exercise regularly, something I cannot do if I am on a liquid-only detox. I followed it to the letter and I can report that it worked wonders. I feel pure and happy and much lighter (I dropped the extra pounds that I had gained during a majorly fun and delicious ‘relax and enjoy life phase’ about a month ago). I also really enjoyed learning about the incredible health benefits of resting your digestive system.”

According to Junger, the program was designed to “restore the body’s own natural ability to heal itself” by means of a juice fasting detox program. The detoxer is allowed two liquid meals every day and one solid meal in between, and has to avoid allergenic and mucus-forming food.

In the newsletter, Junger also includes a few tips for living a more ‘Clean’ lifestyle:
* Avoid processed foods.
* Buy organic food whenever you can.
* Reduce the amount of bad bacteria in your intestines with antimicrobials such as garlic, lemon, olive oil, thyme and cayenne pepper.
* Try to spend 15 minutes in the sun every day – it sustains vitamin D levels.
* Improve circulation with regular massages, brushing your skin and taking hot and cold baths.

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One would think that the lovely Anne Hathaway doesn’t even need to do a detox diet.  She always looks picture-perfect any time we see here whether on the big screen or parading across the red carpet.  She does workout regularly, but according to People Magazine she will still do the occasional detox when preparing for a big event such as the Golden Globes.  

David Kirsch, her New York based trainer, will have her do a 48-hour detox that involves drinking his own LemonAid recipe.  The concoction consists of a concentrate of lemon, maple syrup and cayenne pepper and a person is to drink it four times a day and consume absolutely nothing else.  According to David it helps to,

“lighten it up a little bit.  Her arms were so well-sculpted, she wore a sleeveless dress that night.”

Celebrity Diet Doctor Weigh In…
Don’t do this at home. This lemonade recipe sounds awfully similar to the Master Cleanse and any benefits are an illusion. This supposed detox diet will actually increase toxins as well as cause you to be “skinny fat.”  You lose a lot of muscle on a very calorie restricted diet crashing your metabolism setting you up for weight gain when you’re off the detox. Frankly, it’s amazing a lot of celebrities fall for this nonsense…

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It was just a month ago that the media reported Angelina Jolie was on a special diet in order to prepare for yet another pregnancy.  It seems now that has all changed as she is currently trying to lose 21 pounds in 21 days to prepare for her role in the upcoming film, Salt.  In the movie she plays a woman CIA assassin who is forced to disguise herself as a man.  A source said,

“To play a man convincingly Angelina is adamant she needs to lose her curves.”

Some friends are saying that Angelina wants to lose these 21 pounds so quickly that she is sticking to the Martha’s Vineyard Detox Diet where practitioners are encouraged to drink liquids every two hours to cleanse the body and not even a morsel of solid food is allowed.  In Grazia magazine, one source reported,

“She has been trying to go for the full 21 days but it’s tough. She’s lost around eight pounds but is now introducing a couple of small meals in between shakes as she was starting to feel weak.”

Obviously, she looks too thin and it’s sad to think that Angelina Jolie, just like Katie Holmes, is jumping on the detox bandwagon which makes one look as gaunt and ghostly as possible. However, husband Brad Pitt isn’t taking the matter as lightly as Katie’s husband, Tom.  One source said that Brad was so upset about it over the weekend that he stormed out of the house.  A supposed friend said,

“Brad told her that if she was staying on the diet, he was getting out of the way. Then she started screaming at him about a chore.  He felt that what he did or said would be wrong, so he went to Los Angeles to let off steam with some buddies. He thinks the diet is dangerous and unnecessary.”

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It seems that actress Katie Holmes is featured in the tabloids every couple of days.  One day it’s healthful yoga, another day it’s skinny and stressed out, and now it’s all about detox with some unsightly side effects.  Over the weekend she was seen going out for dinner with husband Tom and daughter Suri and to say she looked frail is an understatement.  

Katie is currently filming the movie The Extra Man and she again blames the demands of movie making that is leaving her so lethargic and thin.  This is what she also said while she was on Broadway in the play All My Sons.

Apart from all of the work, she is also in the middle of a strenuous detox diet as she is in preparation for having another baby.  A source tells the Daily Mail that Katie is practicing the teachings of the Scientology Second Dynamic, a book that advises on conception and marriage.  Accordingly, husband Tom is encouraging her to stick to the detox diet as he too hopes to have another baby with Katie.  According to a source at the Daily Mail,

‘Tom’s encouraging her to stick to the diet because they are hoping to conceive baby number two.”

The detox diet that Katie is following consists of herbal drinks and a purification procedure to eliminate toxic substances.  This detox diet plan can make one rather listless and this is why she supposedly didn’t go to the Oscars ceremony a couple of weeks ago.

“Katie has almost rid her body of toxins but sometimes it makes her lethargic,” a source told the Daily Mail.

However, when you consider the weeks and months that this has been going on, something just doesn’t add up.  Detox diets don’t last that long and I’m wondering why all of the other Hollywood celebrities don’t get tired and lethargic when they are in the midst of making a film.

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Gwyneth Paltrow started off 2009 by starting a post-holiday cleanse diet, for which she shares instructions, complete with menus and recipes, on her website GOOP.com.

“I need to lose a few pounds of holiday excess,” Gwyneth wrote to subscribers. “Anyone else? I like to do fasts and detoxes a couple of times during the year, the most hardcore one being the Master Cleanse I did last spring. It was not what you would characterize as pretty. Or easy. It did work, however.”

Paltrow is doing an easier cleanse this time around. “As I do not wish to subsist on lemon water in the middle of winter, I asked my doctor, a detox diet specialist, for the guidelines he uses to achieve a good detox.”

The cleanse menu includes items such as smoothies and oatmeal for breakfast, chicken teriyaki and steamed salmon for dinner, and plenty of fruit.  Fans of  gluten, dairy, processed foods, shellfish, condiments, and sugar will be hard pressed to find their favorite foods on this plan though.  Day One starts off with lemon water and herbal tea, then it’s on to a Blueberry Almond Smoothie for breakfast and Carrot Salad with Ginger Dressing for lunch.  Don’t like carrots?  Well eat up anyway because a snack of pumpkin and sunflower seeds is all you’ll get to hold you over until a dinner of Broccoli and Arugula soup.

“I created this menu plan for a seven-day elimination diet. The shakes and juices are meant to be liquid meals that help decrease the amount of work your digestive system has to do. I will be suffering along with you to kick start my year a bit lighter. Good luck to us all!”

Paltrow uses the book Clean, by Dr. Alejandro Junger, to share some basic principles of detoxification.  Dr. Junger, whose book will be published in May is her “Detox Specialist”.  Here’s what he has to say about getting started on a detox diet……………

• Do deep breathing or gentle yoga.
• Take a couple of spoonfuls of extra virgin olive oil at night to help stimulate your liver to eliminate bile and keep its circulation flowing. If your bowel movements get sluggish, you can accelerate things by drinking half a cup of castor oil or using a mild herbal laxative. Bowel elimination is paramount for correct detoxification.
• The skin gets rid of many toxins so it is important to sweat, either by exercising or taking a sauna.
• Finally, make sure you eat whole organic foods, which have the best chance of having all the nutrients needed for liver and general detoxification.

The academy award winner even gives some advice on bowel movements on the site: “If your bowel movements get sluggish, you can accelerate things by drinking half a cup of castor oil or using a mild herbal laxative.  Bowel elimination is paramount for correct detoxification.”

Other celebrities that use detoxification diets as a way to jump start weight loss are Victoria Beckham and Oprah Winfrey.

Celeb Diet Doctor Weigh in..
I’ve discussed the dangers of the Master Cleanse and despite claims to the contrary the Master Cleanse will cause a build up of toxins. If you want to “detox” your body it’s really quite simple; eat more unprocessed fruits and veggies. The most potent detoxifying foods you can eat are cruciferous veggies such as broccoli, arugula, cabbage, bok choy, radish, etc. That peppery taste you find in these veggies are the good stuff, namely the organosulfur compounds that help rev up your liver. Other foods that also contain these beneficial compounds include oninons and garlic. These compounds help create the most important antioxidant in your body, glutathione. It is this super antioxidant that is responsible for the major liver de-toxification duties. So remember the best way to detox and cleanse is to eat more veggies and fruits. Save your bowels and use the cayenne pepper and lemon juice for your next recipe.

http://goop.com/

Developed by naturopath and nurse, Roni Deluz, the Martha’s Vineyard Diet Detox plan is a fasting-type diet that claims you’ll lose 21 lbs in 21 days. The diet consists of a 21 day detox (recommended once a year), and shorter versions including a 7 day and a 2 day weekend detox.

The Martha’s Vineyard Diet Detox Plan
It is a 21 day “detox” where you consume primarily soups and juices. During the course of the diet, you gradually add solid foods such as oatmeal for breakfast and stir-fried veggies for dinner.

The author makes many valid arguments including the health benefits of organic fruits and veggies, and the negative health consequences of processed foods that contain high fructose corn syrup, trans fats and artificial sweeteners. However the premise for this diet is flawed and will not result in any sustainable weight loss.

Weight Loss Claims
The author claims that “many people’s bodies become so overloaded with toxins that it is physically impossible for them to lose weight by using traditional dieting methods.” Although implicating “toxins” as the cause for obesity, the Martha Vineyard diet detox is actually a very low calorie diet. Consisting primarily of juices and soups over the course of 21 days, you can lose a substantial amount of weight, but it is a result of severe calorie restriction and not the result of “detoxing.” This type of diet will send your body into “starvation mode” where your body will not only use fat as fuel but also a substantial amount of metabolically active muscle tissue. While all diets will cause your metabolism to slow, very low calorie diets are particularly damaging to your metabolism. Once over, your resting metabolism is significantly slower because of the loss of muscle tissue, and you become prone to regaining the weight and then some.

Health Claims
The author talks about how the diet temporarily makes you feel “sick” as a result of your body dumping “toxic residues that have built up in its cells- free radicals, hard minerals, oxidized pollutants from smoke and fumes, herbicides, insecticides, food additives, and even cholesterol, for example – into the bloodstream and organs.” These symptoms are not from “detoxing” impurities as the author claims. These crash diets make you feel sick, because your metabolism is shutting down as your body goes into starvation mode. She calls this a “healing crisis” and acknowledges that clients may experience “acne, rashes, nausea, headaches, sleepiness, fatigue, constipation, diarrhea, runny nose, ear problems, and body aches.”

The author claims that one should drink fresh juice because processing kills “enzymes” found in store bought juices. While I agree that fresh-squeezed juice is healthier, it is not because of “enzymes.” Any enzymes found in juice will be quickly degraded by the stomach, making any potential benefits highly unlikely. Rather, fresh juices are healthier because extraction methods and heating will lower the antioxidant content of many store-bought juices.

The health and weight loss claims made by the author concerning colon cleansing and coffee enemas, that are part of her diet, have no scientific basis.

The Bottom Line
I would not recommend this diet, or any very low calorie diet, as it will promote a yo-yo pattern of weight loss and weight gain.