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Why a detox diet is possibly the worst way to kick off the new year

Your liver and kidneys are a perfectly efficient system for filtering out the vast majority of the harmful substances we eat and drink.

EVER WISHED THERE was an easy, quick way to cleanse your body of all those 2016 toxins?

Turns out you’re already equipped with everything you need. They’re called your liver and kidneys.

Together, these two toxin-bashing organs act as a super-efficient system for filtering out the vast majority of the harmful substances we eat and drink.

In other words, you never need to detox. Not for New Year’s Day. Not after too much Christmas turkey. Not even because you spent most of last year subsisting on greasy takeaway from the “restaurant” next door.

Here’s how it works: While our kidneys filter our blood and remove any waste from our diet, our liver processes medications and detoxifies any chemicals we ingest. Together, these organs make our bodies natural cleansing powerhouses.

“Unless there’s a blockage in one of these organs that do it day and night, there’s absolutely no need to help the body get rid of toxins,” family physician Ranit Mishori of the Georgetown University School of Medicine told NPR. Mishori has spent years reviewing the medical literature on cleanses.

If detoxing is bogus, where did the idea come from?

Hungry for Supermarkets AP / Press Association Images AP / Press Association Images / Press Association Images

The original detox diet, called the Master Cleanse, was thought up in the 1940s by Stanley Burroughs as a “natural” way to treat stomach ulcers. The method was never substantiated by any research.

He published a book describing it, called “The Master Cleanser”. The cleanse consists of a daily regimen of six to 12 glasses of water mixed with lemon juice, cayenne pepper, and maple syrup, plus a laxative at bedtime.

Cleanse proponents like Peter Glickman, who helped resurrect the cleanse in 2004 with a book called “Lose Weight, Have More Energy and Be Happier in 10 Days: Take Charge of Your Health with the Master Cleanse,” say dieters begin to feel “euphoric” and “serene” after about a week of not eating.

We could think of better words to describe the sensations of incipient starvation.

Okay, so that detox is out. What about a juice cleanse?

Other less-extreme alternatives to Burroughs’ and Glickman’s self-deprivation plans exist, like swapping a few meals a day for a prepackaged bottle of green liquid, or juicing up a few bags of fresh fruit and veg at home each day.

Unlike the Master Cleanse, a juice diet won’t totally starve your body, but it will drain your wallet, and the benefits are dubious at best.

For starters, you have to practically buy out your grocery store’s grocery department for just a few days of juicing.

Take the list of ingredients for this three-day juice cleanse from the US Dr Oz Show: four carrots, four apples (type not specified), two golden delicious apples, two 1-inch pieces of ginger, three cucumbers, six celery stalks, 14 kale leaves, half a lemon, one lime, four plum tomatoes, two red bell peppers, one-fourth of a small red onion, two cups of parsley, one large sweet potato, two large red beets, one orange, eight Swiss chard leaves, and six clementines.

Juicing removes some of the healthiest parts of fresh produce

When you juice fresh fruits and vegetables, you remove all of their fibre, the key ingredient that keeps you feeling full and satisfied until your next meal.

What you keep is the natural sugar in the produce.

The immediate effects of a high-sugar, low-protein, low-fibre diet are felt almost immediately: You’re constantly hungry because there’s no fibre to fill you up.

Meanwhile, the sugar you’re consuming is temporarily raising your blood sugar, but with no protein to stabilise it, you’re on a roller-coaster ride of high and low energy.

The long-term effects are more severe. A lack of protein, when prolonged for even a few days, can cause you to lose muscle rather than fat, because protein is what your muscles feed on for energy.

Food-Healthy Fast Food Chains AP / Press Association Images AP / Press Association Images / Press Association Images

But there’s another reason juicing isn’t the best idea for some people that goes beyond depleting your body of muscle, and it has to do with behaviour.

Cleanses can mimic other dangerous eating habits

Cleanse advocates describe their plans as quick fixes that clean up the mess of processed carbs, sugar, and alcohol we throw in our bodies each day.

In reality, though, this type of eating pretty closely mimics the dangerous binge-and-purge style of eating recognised globally as indicative of an eating disorder.

For people who are prone to disordered eating, juice cleanses could serve as a gateway to bigger problems.

At one eating disorder treatment clinic in New York City, at least half the patients reported having tried a juice cleanse, Marie Claire reports.

“Maybe a patient tried it and became obsessed, or maybe the eating disorder was already there and the juicing became part of it,” the clinic’s director of nutrition services, Debbie Westerling, told the magazine.

Eating nothing but juice for several days can also cause eating problems from the past to resurface, Megan Holt, a registered dietitian, wrote about cleansing in a post on her clinic’s website.

“I tend to discourage fasting because it can reactivate disordered eating behaviours, whether that’s restriction or feeling out of control with food or feeling disconnected from hunger and fullness cues when one does start to eat again,” she wrote.

In other words, you can’t simply drink your way to health — even with hundreds of euro worth of freshly liquefied produce.

- Erin Brodwin for Business Insider 

Read: The country’s first floating hotel could be on its way to Cork >

Read: The Cliffs of Moher had record visitors last year – but facilities are barely coping in peak season >

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    Mute David F. Dwyer
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    Jan 31st 2022, 8:22 PM

    ‘The State shall, therefore, endeavour to ensure that mothers shall not be obliged by economic necessity to engage in labour to the neglect of their duties in the home.’

    When my grandfather died young, my Granny had to go out to work to keep food on the table and a roof over the heads of their seven children, the youngest of whom were 10 years of age. The state did sweet f.a. to ensure that she wasn’t obliged by economic necessity to engage in labour to the neglect of her duties in the home, in fact they took his medical card off her because it was in his name.

    Article 41.2 is sexist, mendacious, outdated rubbish that isn’t fit for purpose. Get rid of it.

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    Mute Thomas O' Donnell
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    Jan 31st 2022, 8:28 PM

    @David F. Dwyer: Not sure what getting rid of the article would do in that situation. In fact, if that article was followed, your grandmother would have been properly looked after?

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    Mute David F. Dwyer
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    Jan 31st 2022, 8:46 PM

    @Thomas O’ Donnell: It wasn’t followed. It never is, as this article elucidates. What is the point of having something in the constitution that serves no purpose beyond being a bit insulting and making false promises?

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    Mute Joseph Mc Dermott
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    Jan 31st 2022, 10:16 PM

    @David F. Dwyer: plenty of mothers out there that wish to stay at home to bring up their children. What your proposing is taking that right away. I believe it should be more gender neutral. It should apply to mums or dads and not be exclusive

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    Mute David F. Dwyer
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    Jan 31st 2022, 10:31 PM

    @Joseph Mc Dermott: The hell I am. Mothers would have the right to stay at home regardless. The article does protect them and never has. What’s the point of it if it isn’t enforced? And it won’t be either. If it hasn’t since it’s inception, it’s not going to now with the current shower.

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    Mute David F. Dwyer
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    Jan 31st 2022, 10:39 PM

    @David F. Dwyer: The article doesn’t protect them and never has*.

    17
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    Mute Fachtna Roe
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    Feb 1st 2022, 12:26 AM

    @David F. Dwyer: Your point is clearly and cogently made. The State for all it’s false Roman piety is hypocritical in it’s practical effect.

    22
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    Mute Dearbhla O Reilly
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    Jan 31st 2022, 8:35 PM

    Ahhh McQuaid. What a peach he was. Took on his role with gusto. His legacy and the church’s legacy lives on. Lucky us eh? Especially women.
    And thanks Dev too.

    112
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    Mute Benny McHale
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    Jan 31st 2022, 8:26 PM

    Just needs a tweak. Change “woman” to “A citizen”, and “her” to “his/her”

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    Mute The Bolt
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    Jan 31st 2022, 9:28 PM

    @Benny McHale: Isn’t it mad how something so simply solved, has people losing their brain over it. People are getting too touchy over terminology.

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    Mute David F. Dwyer
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    Jan 31st 2022, 9:47 PM

    @The Bolt: ‘People are getting too touchy over terminology.’

    The fact that it promises safeguards that it does not and never has delivered on is the problem. Terminology is the cherry on top. And to the OP, it needs more than a ‘tweak’, it needs enforcement or to be scrapped altogether. Obviously one is cheaper than the other.

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    Mute The Bolt
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    Jan 31st 2022, 10:00 PM

    @David F. Dwyer: Well scrapping it serves no one. As you say, enforcement is what people should be fighting for, not terminology. I read your point about your nan, and no doubt its happened to many others. The fight should be that this shouldn’t happen to anyone, and hopefully and amendment would ensure that.

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    Mute David F. Dwyer
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    Jan 31st 2022, 10:35 PM

    @The Bolt: Be realistic, enforcement has never happened and never will not happen. The state isn’t going to pay for anyone who wishes to be a homebody to do so. The article is a false promise. Better off without it if it can’t be fulfilled.

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    Mute Honeybee
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    Jan 31st 2022, 10:02 PM

    The state has never recognised the role of women in the home, first by having laws that on marriage a woman could not remain in employment / lost half her wages on marriage. The role of caring for children/elderly/infirm was never acknowledged, women in the home had no rights, they were not seen as contributing to the economy/commerce and they relied on handouts from their husbands, they didn’t even have entitlement to health care and still have no proper provision for pension entitlements. It was sickening recently to hear Michael Martin speak about how women are valued when our history of how women were and are treated is a different reality. Look at the provisions of Article 41.2 and know they looked the other way when women needed to have their rights addressed under this Act, imagine if any woman had brought a challenge to vindicate her rights under the Act why they would have thrown the might of the state at her as they did in recent actions by women in healthcare on their deathbeds.

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    Mute Dearbhla O Reilly
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    Jan 31st 2022, 11:25 PM

    @Honeybee: well said.

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    Mute Gavin Linden
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    Jan 31st 2022, 9:03 PM

    Maybe I see view this in the complete opposite it was intended but I think it should be viewed as a very positive article in the constitution to support those women (or indeed men) who choose to contribute to both their family and by extension the state by remaining at home full time at a certain period in their children’s life.
    Ok, words such as ‘duties’ are antiquated but it could be a tool to build a positive system for those such people.

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    Mute Anne-Marie Keane
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    Jan 31st 2022, 10:09 PM

    “endeavour to ensure that mothers shall not be obliged by economic necessity to engage in labour to the neglect of their duties in the home”

    Putting the misogynistic view/wording aside for a min, what did they do to ensure a mother didn’t have to work whilst trying to rear children & run a home? Was their monetary value/recognition for the woman? Entitled to a pension? No.

    There should be a vote to keep it but change the language so that it states parents and not mothers. Enforce it to ensure that parents are protected & allowed the time needed to run a home & rear kids without monetary stress/ loss of pensions.
    Childcare costs are so high and it’s women that mainly suffer when it comes to deciding who reduces/leaves their employment to have a quality family life.

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    Mute Neuville-Kepler62F
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    Jan 31st 2022, 9:00 PM

    Kick McQuaid’s can out the window, instead of down the road.

    Don’t miss this unique opportunity to express the positive contribution of equality in the home, care and work of all kinds .. and all the benefits it would deliver for all those currently undervalued by our society.

    Include “The Family Home” special status in the Referendum, to place Family Homes in their rightful place as primary and superior rights supporting primary constitutional values, in particular, human dignity (need for shelter / housing) and self-governance.

    General property rights would ONLY apply to the extent that the property interest immediately serves these primary constitutional values of human dignity (need for shelter / housing) and self-governance.

    https://www.change.org/p/irish-referendum-on-family-home-special-status

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    Mute Peter O'Muiri
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    Feb 2nd 2022, 10:45 AM

    @Neuville-Kepler62F: Few property owners (more than 50% of the population) would vote for what you suggest. They prefer the present arrangements whereby the state can only seize private property under very limited circumstances and subject to full compensation. Neither would foreign direct investment be attracted to a country that might seize or confiscate its property, willy-nilly. The housing crisis won’t be solved by stealing. It will be solved (slowly, because we don’t have sufficient building workers anyway)principally by investment and the taxation needed to fund it. These are matters for the legislature elected by the people.
    (This doesn’t mean that changes aren’t needed to discourage abuses like deliberate dereliction. But this can be achieved by targeted taxes)
    Enforceable property rights, like freedom of expression are fundamental to a functioning civilised society.

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    Mute Neuville-Kepler62F
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    Feb 5th 2022, 4:38 PM

    @Peter O’Muiri: .. good post.
    One couldn’t describe current Irish society as a functioning civilised society with a “locked generation”, rack rents by landlords (getting €7.4 billion of taxpayers money p.a. in HAP) and evictions.

    A referendum on housing was first called for in 1974 (Kenny Report) and if it was passed would have prevented the 2008 crash. We now know why FF & FG buried that one, representing the interests of Developers and Landlords, and the disaster it caused.
    A referendum has been called for again in 2014 by the Constitutional Convention. The German Constitution has such a provision to give special place to the Family home without adversely impacting on the German general property rights.

    We are waiting since 1974 for this Referendum on Housing after many less important referenda have been implemented to fix our badly defective Constitution.

    “All Irish citizens should be able to afford to own their own homes on average incomes in their own country” – NK62F

    Failing to permanently resolve housing by way of a Referendum will ultimately lead to civil unrest – one small spark!

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    Mute eitrebor
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    Jan 31st 2022, 11:45 PM

    Have never come across any instance of this being legally tested through the courts but would enjoy knowledge if it has – the language appears clear on ‘economic necessity’ & I genuinely have wondered to myself why women & their partners have not tested it where maternity benefit was not topped up by the state to the level of their wage/salary to allow them the first few months with newborns in particular where they may wish to but cannot stay with them due to their economic necessity, lack of funds, needing to return to work etc. Generally economic issues are non justiciable due to Art 45 but this is a clear statement signalling economic circumstance & a positive requirement on the state. Have thought about this aspect several times whilst noting the anachronistic nature of the text.

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    Mute Peter O'Muiri
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    Feb 2nd 2022, 10:15 AM

    @eitrebor: I witnessed one instance. At the end of a Circuit Circuit Court sentencing hearing of a woman convicted of defrauding pensioners in a scam which netted her almost €10K. The defence counsel pleaded that because she was mother of two children sending her to prison risked the children being taken into care, and this would , inter alia, be in contravention of the Article. In any case, the judge didn’t imprison her, but didn’t indicate whether this decision was influenced by Article 41.2, or just by the reluctance of Irish judges to lock up female criminals generally.
    Perhaps the present wording should be removed and replaced by one to compel gender-neutral sentencing!

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    Mute eitrebor
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    Feb 2nd 2022, 5:44 PM

    @Peter O’Muiri: thanks for the insight. I suppose in one sense given the interpretation/applicability of Art 34 a Circuit Court judge would correctly leave constitutional interpretation to the superior courts and not seek to advance new ground obiter in such a sentencing.

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    Mute Cian
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    Jan 31st 2022, 8:54 PM

    The only people I can see it insulting is men? How is it ensuring to women to get preferential treatment haha

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    Mute Tom Molloy
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    Jan 31st 2022, 11:21 PM

    @Cian: A positive take on it is needed. The father of the children is been exhorted to provide for his wife and his offspring. Maternity hospitals are stressing the benefits of breastfeeding, will that be next to be called sexist instead of the wonderful and healthy option. ?

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    Mute andrew
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    Jan 31st 2022, 11:30 PM

    Its all about having a conversation about what we want in and out of the constitution we took out articles 2 and 3 to agree to the Good Friday Agreement 1998 and their are those that would like a right to a home to be a constitutional right, its apalling we have such homelessness so it is welcome we are talking about changing the constitution.

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    Mute Dearbhla O Reilly
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    Jan 31st 2022, 11:49 PM

    @andrew: people have been asking for this particular change for decades. So I guess its a priority for a great many. As for changes and conversations, we have had 33 f them leading to amendments. It’s a well written document despite the church’s input. Robust and more democratic than many and more changes can still be made. The right to a home is a good debate to have on it. We are good at debate on constitutional issues. Bring it on.

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    Mute Peter O'Muiri
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    Feb 2nd 2022, 10:31 AM

    @andrew: Some people are under the illusion that creating ‘paper’ rights is the answer to all our problems. It isn’t. The present Russian constitution contains express rights to housing and free health-care. Visitors to Moscow will bear witness to the thousands sleeping on the streets (in spite of constant police harassment and violence). Russians also enjoy a life-expectancy almost 10 years less than we do in Ireland and Western Europe.
    Creation of social entitlements, and how they are to be paid for are best left to the legislature answerable to the people – and sackable by them. Like in Sweden and the other Nordic nations which have short constitutions which set out the organisation of the state, the balance and division of state power, and a few fundamental rights (such as freedom of expression and assembly)

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    Mute Lyn Brookes
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    Feb 1st 2022, 5:55 PM

    How many women have actually taken the state to court to in order to receive financial hep and benefits to raise their family rather than having to head out to work every day. How many women have to leave the family home due to having an abusive partner and have to fight tooth and nail to get housed and then live on the poverty line. Most women have to go out to work in order to provide the household with essentials, one wage is simply not enough any more. The constitution is quite clear, so why are women being forced to take jobs in order to provide heat and food.

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    Mute Máire Daly
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    Apr 5th 2022, 9:06 PM

    I was talking to a Community Welfare officer about this, he said ‘this clause in the constitution is the reason we don’t force lone parents to get a job, as if they were on the dole, it gives them space to raise their children’.

    So yeah, it’s a good clause, that has benefited lone (male) parents too.

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    Mute Peter O'Muiri
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    Feb 2nd 2022, 10:02 AM

    Remove it. Period. The creation of social entitlements, and how they are to be paid for, is properly a matter for the elected legislature.

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