There’s the lemonade and cayenne pepper master cleanse, the juice fasts and liver flushes, the ionic foot baths and the cupping — so many methods claiming to eliminate toxins from our system and spring-clean our innards. But as detox kits fly off the shelves, some costing up to $90 each, questions start popping up: Just how toxic are we? And do our bowels really need to be so squeaky clean?
The folks at 889 Yonge, a new boutique yoga studio, spa and holistic health centre in Toronto, believe the detox trend will stick around as long as people live in smoggy cities, eat fast food and use chemical-based products.
And because it doesn’t look as if cars and McDonald’s are going anywhere anytime soon, Christine and Emily Russell — sisters and co-owners of 889 — went all the way with their venture, from reconstructing the building with LEED-certified plywood and recyclable carpet to offering organic cotton robes and locally developed essential oils.
They also interviewed about 80 naturopathic doctors before selecting two to work in-house, both of whom offer personalized detox programs. Also available are detoxifying massages, detox facials and detox yoga, which focuses on core twisting and is held in a warmer room so participants can sweat out as many cheeseburgers as possible.
“It involves a lot of decompression,” says Jen Findlay, who teaches the class, which is held, appropriately, on Monday mornings. “There’s lengthening of the body, compressing the organs, squeezing them together, bringing movement to the intestines, liver and kidneys, and really stimulating blood flow and oxygen levels.
“Afterwards, I think you’ll find that things will start flying through you — not to get too graphic.”
But even these women both agree that it’s possible to go a little overboard with the detoxing, and at times it can even get dangerous.
“The fad, unfortunately, tends to be taking something without proper recommendation, just buying a cookie-cutter detox kit off the shelf,” says Russell, “and, often, there’s a lot of laxatives in there, too — but you need nutrients and minerals. Plus, not everyone needs to stop eating gluten and wheat.”
The way to go about it, she says, is, rather than engage in one extreme purge every year, look for ways to keep your liver and colon happy all the time in various ways, whether it’s splurging on a holistic mud wrap every now and then or eating brown rice instead of french fries with dinner.
Catherine Farquharson (no relation to this reporter), a 30-year-old photographer based in Toronto, tried the Dr. Joshi Holistic Detox — one of the most popular ones in the UK–back in January, when she felt she had indulged in too many drinks and canapes over the Christmas holiday.
It was her first time doing any sort of cleanse and she wanted to ensure it wasn’t too extreme, didn’t require chugging supplement shakes all day, and that it would educate her about food and nutrition.
Dr. Joshi’s detox is a three-week eating plan that eliminates sugar, starches, gluten, yeast, caffeine, alcohol, fruit (except bananas), red meat and bot-tom-feeding fish.
“The most important aspect of it is to curb your addiction to sugar,” says Farquharson. “I bought his book and I liked that I could learn more about why my body craves what it does, what certain foods do.
“During the first week, I wasn’t as bloated, but I was also hungrier and more emotional. Then by the second and third week I felt great — in the mornings I was totally alert, no grogginess or anything, which was quite amazing, especially in January. “I also lost some weight, although that definitely wasn’t my reason for doing it.”
Farquharson says it helped that she had some friends detoxing with her. They’d create meals to share with one another and find restaurants that served healthier fare.
“The thing is, when you’re limiting what you eat, you tend to want to talk about it all the time and you do get kind of obsessive about it,” she says. “So it helps to detox with someone so you’re not the only one giving up coffee.”
The results were so satisfying for Farquharson and her friends that they decided to do the Dr. Joshi detox every six months, and are currently preparing for the second go-round.
“I really liked that it was a shift in diet as opposed to a random cayenne pepper shake thing,” she says. “You can buy all those kits and supplements but then you’re often disconnected to the whole experience that way, instead of understanding it.”
But not everyone has such success with detoxing. Dr. Rae Koffman, 28, who also lives in Toronto, attempted the Fat Flush detox last summer with her mother, but both decided to abandon it after five days.
“It had all these different categories of what you could and couldn’t eat, leading up to one day where you fast and only drink cranberry juice or something,” she says. “I think we got through five of the seven days and just said forget it. We were so tired and cranky. It was a pain in the butt.”
Koffman, who cooks healthy meals at home regularly, says she’d rather just stick to eating well.
“I think if you asked any of the G.I. specialists I know about colonics, they’d say it has no value,” she says. “In terms of the detox stuff, I would say it’s always good to eat a balanced diet, so if you have too many restrictions or if you’re fasting for any long stretch of time, well, it’s not recommended.
“If you’re liver is functioning, it’ll take the toxins out of your body — that’s what it’s there to do.”
Ultimately, Koffman says, it all depends on a variety of factors, from genetics to the food you eat to where you live and how you clean your house. To a certain extent, the human body does absorb the toxins in the environment, but what the impact is, scientifically speaking, nobody knows for sure.
“I think the best approach is to just be more mindful about the things you consume on a day-to-day basis,” she says. “For instance, I went and bought a crib mattress this afternoon and I wanted to make sure that it didn’t leak off-gas. I also try to store my food in glass jars as opposed to plastic. It just makes me feel better.
“But I don’t know,” she adds, “sometimes I think I’m nuts.”
vfarquharson@nationalpost.com
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