To Cleanse or to Detox?

That is the question...

As I sit here sipping a fresh glass of fresh-pressed celery and cucumber juice, I can't help but remember the first, and only, time I did a cleanse.

It was a juice cleanse, which as the name states, consists of sipping juices for a specific number of days.

I had found a Groupon for a 5 day juice cleanse that had you sipping juice every three hours for 5 days straight.

At the time, all I knew was that I wanted some sort of cleanse, not really knowing the benefits of a cleanse and if I really needed one or not.

This, along with a conversation with one of my local Starbucks baristas at the time, convinced me to try it out. The barista had been on a juice cleanse for 7 days, and she was loving it. Her skin had cleared up, she was thinking more clearly, and she said that she was loving the fact that she wasn’t as bloated as she used to be.

As I jumped on the juice cleanse bandwagon, eager and enthusiastic with the delicious names of all the juices I would drink over the next 5 days, I didn’t think about what the cleanse was actually helping with.

Cleanse or Detox?

A cleanse, is just that. A cleanse of your intestines and digestive tract, usually with the added benefits of weight loss and some sort of detoxification. Advocates of juice cleanses also cite the added benefits of drinking fruit and veggie juices which are high in vitamins and minerals, as many people are deficient in both.

A detox, on the other hand, is way more. A detox, as its name suggests, is supposed to help detoxify the body, and specifically, the liver. Because we are surrounded by toxins on a daily basis, our liver is hard at work helping to remove those toxins every minute of every day.

Benefits of detoxing are numerous and can also include weight loss, improved blood sugar regulation, improved sleep, and one of my favorites, a decrease in inflammation in the body.

A good functional medicine detox will help support your liver by opening up the liver detox pathways and will provide the necessary ingredients to help with not just phase 1 liver detoxification, but phase 2 as well.

What is Phase 1 Liver Detoxification?

Glad you asked!

Phase 1 liver detoxification is essentially the first line of defense against toxins. Specifically, there is a group of enzymes called the cytochrome P450 family which help to neutralize substances, such as caffeine and alcohol (yes these are toxins) and convert these toxins into less harmful substances.

These less harmful substances can still be toxic to the body, especially if they stay in the liver and continue to build up, which is where Phase 2 liver detoxification comes into play.

What is Phase 2 Liver Detoxification?

Phase 2 liver detoxification is the process of making these substances water-soluble so that they can be removed from the body.

Since this is a critical component of detoxification, it is critical to ensure that any detox, any true detox, supports both Phase 1 and Phase 2 liver detoxification.

Which is better?

While both can have potential benefits, a juice cleanse can assist in weight loss since people are eliminating calories and also removing many inflammatory foods that they would normally eat on a regular basis, this allows for weight loss and for inflammation levels to go down as well.

The same can also be said for a liver detox, which also eliminates many of the foods that cause inflammation in the body while supporting the liver’s ability to remove toxins from the body to a greater degree.

During my one and only cleanse attempt, I only made it through one day before I passed out on my bed, rather, I think I fainted from the combination of low calories and the headache I had from not eating. Yes, this juice cleanse was years ago, and yes, I remember it precisely.

While detoxing and cleansing should be done with careful consideration, after personally completing numerous detoxes, I always feel so much better after giving my liver the added assist. The liver is essentially a filter, and even though it continues to work, the more we gum it up with, the less optimally it can function.

Giving the body what it needs to be able to perform optimally is what In The Name of Wellness is all about.