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A matter of good health

It's that time of year when people start thinking about their health and lamenting the excess of summer.

It's that time of year when people start thinking about their health and lamenting the excess of summer. The burgers, the beer, the oceans of Palm Bay (the sophisticated vodka cooler) - they tend to catch up with us at the same time, resulting in a little extra flab or just an overall sense of heaviness as we move into autumn. And because we're human (read: impatient) we jump at the chance to reverse the situation as fast as possible. But is the urge to cleanse just another way for humans to avoid having to sacrifice the good life? Is it the health version of a get-rich-quick scheme, where long years of improper self-care can be compensated for in a matter of weeks?

Supplement companies count on this trait, evident in the rash of advertisements for cleanses and detox programs popping up in prominent locations at drug and health food stores.

By definition, a detox or cleanse means "to make clean," or "to remove by or as if by cleaning." If bodies are cleansable by this method is another question.

"With cleanses I think that they're over-marketed in the sense of a too-good-to-be-true sales pitch - the big reason people do them is for weight loss and they think that it can often kick start things so that a big shift in weight can happen," said naturopathic doctor Ashely Gordon. "It can do that for some specific types of people who are determined to carry on with the healthy eating, but for a majority of people they give it all they have for a week or 10 days but then not only do they go back to eating poorly, they end the cleanse in the worst way possible by going for pizza or to McDonald's."

Especially for first timers, Gordon recommends those pursuing a detox program to do so under the supervision of a health care professional.

"They're hard to do if you've never done something like that before...a lot of things can come up that weren't expected - like having to rush to the bathroom or maybe the opposite, where people are completely constipated and they have nobody to ask if it's normal," she continued. "I think people think because you can buy it in a health food store it has to be safe and okay to use and that's not necessarily the case - it comes with side effects that can be dangerous for some people. They might be on certain medications that can interact with certain herbs or maybe they're diabetic and need to eat more frequently."

Gordon isn't against cleanses, but would rather see people adopt better eating habits overall instead of looking for a quick fix.

Having lived in Nelson for three years, where cleansing is as normal and ritualistic as changing your car's oil a few times per year, I've done my share of them. In a nutshell, cleanses typically require a cull of drinking (booze, juice), dairy, sugar, processed foods of any kind and a reduction of many items that have committed the offense of say, being fermented, being white, or growing in tropical climates (like bananas). That part isn't so bad - you end up eating loads of brown rice, oatmeal, quinoa, certain fruits, almonds and dark leafy greens. The questionable part involve the supplements sold as part of cleansing kits - handfuls of enormous pills containing laxatives, among other things, that proponents claim are necessary to restore the body's vitality and help "flush" your intestinal track of all kinds of build up.

Here's the thing: the human body is designed to process and eliminate the food and drink it consumes, no matter how bad it is for you. In fact, companies that promote detox supplements count on a limited collective public understanding of colons and intestines to sell their (not inexpensive) products. It's much easier to sell a cleansing program if you think that beer and ketchup chips have morphed into gunk and are hiding in the crevasses of your lower intestine where they'll sit for months if you don't take an aggressive approach. Alas, as any medical doctor (and many a licensed naturopath) will tell you - that's not the way things work.

Like so many other products on the market, cleansing products offer a magic fix that allow their users to think they're making changes without any major lifestyle commitment. Here's the thing - if the damage is done, a cleanse isn't going to reverse it. Healthy eating over time will. Exercise over time will. Plenty of water over time will. A regiment of pills and pages of off-limits food, or a diet of water, cayenne, syrup and lemonade will not. They may give you a feeling of control. They will ensure you can't socialize or work too far from a bathroom. They may cause you lose a few pounds, but you're more likely than not to gain it back in a few weeks.

"I think a lot of those cleanses can be done without the herbs just with the basic diet, a clean, whole foods diet with lots of vegetables and fruits and clean, complex grains, limiting sugar and bad fats," said Gordon. "Generally people are going to feel better if they take that approach in their daily eating life."

Bodies are like cars - they need to be fed regularly with good fuel to run at optimal standards. Starving them only triggers emergency alarms in your metabolism and stresses your system. If you're ignorant to the results you'll end up spending more money on the anti-stress supplement sold beside the herbal detox kit you just bought.