Faddy trends including detox

At around this time of year, nearly every single woman’s health magazine will for the umpteenth year be full of faddy trends and telling us to detox and cleanse our systems for a new brilliant body in 2016.

Excuse my cynicism but having done my job for the best part of eighteen years, I’ve read this just as many times. Most of these articles have no scientific basis and are at best ludicrous and worst dangerous.

Raw, detox, cleanse, alkaline, juice. These words whispered their way round the health farms and spas of the 1980‘s, now they have crept their way into our daily food phrases as something to aspire to on a weekly basis. Added to this the notion that we now have to be sponsored to give up alcohol for a month! I’m sorry but we may have all got slightly mad! The whole point of health in my mind, and how I work with my clients is to set them on a path that they can continue for the rest of their lives. Now, don’t misunderstand me, I have very fine athlete friends who will Nutri bullet (I believe that’s a verb now!) I’m sure for the rest of the their lives quite happily, but for the 90% of us that’s left it’s not going to happen. We dip into these fads for a few weeks, kid ourselves we have done our bodies good and back we go to where we were before, possibly full of failure and self loathing.

Let’s start with DETOX. A very powerful word. Ironically the most healthy people I see whose diet is great feel they need a detox. Why? What are they are detoxing from – a plate of alfalfa sprouts and mashed yeast (thanks to Woody Allen for that one). I have seen people “detoxing” from a diet of primarily herbal tea, no alcohol and no processed food.

Detox worshippers will tell you that detoxing will rid your body of toxins that have accumulated and are leading to all sorts of health problems from fatigue to weight gain etc. However the liver has evolved to process a stack of toxins and excrete these through sweat, urine and stool quite well. The liver is incredibly efficient and hard working. So unless you have serious liver issues, green liquids and potions will do little to enhance its action. If you “detox” you tend to drink more liquid and eat less, so you may very well lose weight and feel a bit perkier, but the whole aspect of this is sold on quacky science.

A few years ago we had detox socks – do you remember those? it’s laughable. If you want to detox, let’s change the wording slightly. Your body needs consistency not shock treatment. Removing sugar for one month, alcohol for one month, whilst I salute you, is just trying to prove to yourself that you can actually survive without it. You know I’m right really! Anything you can’t stick to long term I wouldn’t even attempt to start in the first place. Essentially we have become bad at balance.

If you wish to cut down your alcohol from seven bottles a week to a more manageable one or two glasses a night, remove processed foods from your diet and drink enough liquid until your urine is pale, that’s great, just don’t call it a detox. Many of my patients who are eating really well take milk thistle – “Why?” I ask them, “because it’s good for my liver”, they say. “But you’re not doing anything to harm your liver”, I reply.

I know by writing this some of you will say “but Kate I feel fabulous and I juice and live on smoothies”. Well that’s great but I’m telling you unless you are an athlete or have no health issues at all at best this will be a very quick fix. A lovely lady recently came to see me and she was carrying four huge pots, (they were like beer barrels they were so large) of super greens. Her diet was better than mine. We get sold into concepts and lifestyles that often we need to ignore.
Ok let’s get onto to RAW diets. I feel I may start losing some readers here, but onwards I must. The theory behind this is that heating and cooking food depletes nutrient levels and can lessen their potency. This is nonsense and not even scientifically correct. Cooking saved man from extinction, and changes the nature of some proteins to make them edible and kills bacteria that quite frankly might kill us. If you are interested in this subject more I would suggest reading Michael Pollen’s great book Cooked. Look at Chinese cuisine – food cooked on extreme heats for seconds – and you are telling me they are unhealthy? What we are not talking about here is cooking sprouts for hours until yes there is little nutrient value left, but we don’t do that anymore, we’ve learned now that al dente is better when it comes to cooking vegetables. In freezing temperatures it is crazy to eat raw food, the body needs to be warmed. I have a client who has “cured” herself of ulcerative colitis by eating only raw foods and it’s fantastic, and I have another client who did the same who ended up in hospital as it made them very ill.

‘If you look at the true health leaders and inspirers, they do not use these faddy terms. Sadly, in the last ten years, no matter how pretty and lovely, and how clever the food photography, there are a host of so called health gurus with no qualifications who are teaching us how to eat raw carob balls in coconut! As delicious as these are, and that the books sell well, and are often linked with celebrities, I am still concerned that deep down the unwell patient does not really know what they are doing. Not everyone can eat the same foods and get away with it – everyone is so different.’I’m not saying the occasional smoothie, juice or raw food is bad for you – far from it, what I’m saying is buying into faddy terms needs to be taken with a pinch of salt! Raw foods in summer – gorgeous lovely salads fantastic, but do you want them now in freezing temperatures, possibly not? Methinks time for root vegetables, roasts and casseroles. Oh darling lets go out for a five mile ramble with the dogs and come back to a raw salad. Most people want to come back to soup, roast chicken, foods that for want of a better expression feed the soul.

I’ve noticed that all the new health gurus, (mostly very young pretty women by the way) have similar books, almost using the same photographer and format. Jamie Oliver does not come into this category, nor does Hugh Fernley Whittingstall or Michael Pollen or lets go back a bit to Keith Floyd. This may well be a wave of young pretty things seducing potentially unhealthy young girls to get a bit cultish in their food choices.

I may have to reintroduce my pet hate phrase ‘moderation in all things’. I shudder as I type this – a term which I find so annoying as you cannot calculate one persons moderation, and in my mind some foods should not be eaten at all. Being mindful about what you eat is so important, and a good food diary really is an eye opener and there are many apps that will calculate your intake to the last calorie.

If you want to “detox” I would start with awareness; ten coffees a day, perhaps cut down to two, not drinking enough water, try a bit harder, read labels to try and reduce your added sugar intake, drinking a bottle of wine a night, try for 1-2 glasses. That might not be a detox to you, but its more manageable longer term, rather than engaging in a shock tactic month of deprivation. The long term goal is what we want, think of yourself as a marathon runner not a sprinter. So when you next see a celebrity usually a woman, usually in Hollywood and usually leaving their yoga/gym class drinking their liquidised Kermit coloured juice, they are hardly doing this because they are short in greens, they have nutritionists and trainers and chefs on hand to teach them and cook for them. It’s a trend, and next year there will be new one like the iphone 7 or is it iphone 8 I forget?

One final point, another lady came to see me recently with her new fancy blender, and she was fainting mid morning. I asked her to take her blood sugar just before she felt wobbly and it was 3.0 mg/dl. She had low blood sugar on blending grapes, bananas, maple syrup and goji berries. Now I know that most of you aren’t doing that; you’ll spin up some avocado and kale, but you get the point I’m sure. Now on scrambled eggs on toast, she is back to normal, blender firmly in the back of the cupboard.

If you want to overhaul your diet and lifestyle Kate offers a two hour consultation that reviews every part of your health. Perfect for those with multiple symptoms like headaches, fatigue, bowel issues etc. Kate will work closely with your GP and may suggest further tests if necessary. Markers like homocysteine, salivary cortisol, female hormone panels as well as stool testing can also be used. For more information regarding this please call 01323 737814/310532 www.katearnoldnutrition.co.uk