"I eliminate toxins from my body in order to lose weight", "drinking tea contributes to my detox diet", detox diets are all the rage, and their precepts are spreading to the world of tea. But what exactly is "detox"? Does it apply to tea?
Detoxification, a biological process more than a trend
We are also facing a rise in environmental pollution. It has many consequences, including exposure to toxic chemicals and metals. Pollution is not the only source of toxins, as some drugs are poorly degraded by the body and can accumulate. These different forms of contamination can disrupt all biological functions of the body in the short and long term.
To eliminate these contaminants, the body's cells naturally deploy detoxification mechanisms. Toxins can be rejected and captured by immune cells or blocked by enzymes such as cytochrome P450. The liver plays a major role in the detoxification mechanisms because the liver cells secrete the most of this type of enzymes.
Detoxification can also be medicated, deployed in the clinic when the individual is not able to eliminate the toxins by himself (dialysis, heavy metal contamination, etc.)
When amalgams end up becoming false truths
For a few years now, detoxification, shortened to "detox", has been used a lot in the media and in certain businesses to designate slimming diets based on the elimination of excesses (alcohol, a meal too rich in processed foods, etc).
The mechanism of weight loss does not involve the detoxification mechanism but the deficiency in micronutrients, macronutrients, and the body's ability to adapt to these decreases.
In fact, research conducted on people who have undergone stomach surgery to lose weight (sleeve, bypass) seems to show that it is the reduction in food intake that causes weight loss. Moreover, research has also shown that the entire digestive tract undergoes major changes: more regular renewal of intestinal cells, decrease in hunger signals, changes in hormonal secretions (in favour of insulin, satiety hormones and against GIP, one of the hormones involved in the conversion of sugar into fat stored in adipose tissue).
A cruel lack of scientific information
By looking for information in the scientific literature, it seems that there are no studies done on tea used in detox diets. I could stop here but it is important to understand why "detox diet" is an ambiguous term.
The popular name "detox diet" associates weight loss and the elimination of toxins but represents above all a particular and generally hypocaloric diet. For this reason, a scientific publication by Klein and Kiat in 2015 looked at work on the impact of diets based on foods with detoxifying potential (fruits, herbal infusions including tea, etc) on weight control and detoxification. Among the American programs followed by the volunteers (high fiber diet, liquid diet, herbal infusions, gluten exclusion, etc.), the longest was 21 days.
The first thing to note is that not all detox diets combined weight loss and detoxification. The second thing to consider is that these studies were not conducted long enough to observe the rebound phenomenon (cravings, chronic stress due to decreases in food intake, deficiencies, etc). This is a natural sign that the body is no longer able to adapt to this lifestyle. The effects could therefore be transitory, which has already been shown in vivo in many animals such as mice and rats.
More worryingly, taking products labelled "detox" could also represent a risk depending on the person's medical history. For example, a 60-year-old woman with high blood pressure started a Yogi Tea treatment (contrary to the name, there is no tea but a mixture of plants) at a rate of 3 cups per day. Fourteen days later, she developed lethargy and hepatic necrosis even though the designated plants are known to stimulate cellular detoxification.
For several years, the meaning of the term "detox" has been completely diverted from its original meaning, the elimination of toxic substances, to associate it with weight loss. Current studies show no correlation between detox diet, detoxification, and long-term weight loss. Finally, it is amusing to note the absence of information on tea in "detox". How can we say that tea is "detox / slimming" when there is nothing to prove it?