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In this episode you’ll learn if detoxes are safe or bogus, and lots more:
1. Media coverage saying detoxes are full of s*%& [0:00]
2. Detoxes that may not be effective or safe [1:52]
3. Do toxins accumulate in the body? [3:29]
4. Can you make a healthy body work better? [6:34]
5. Science vs. The Food Babe [8:04]
6. Michelle’s struggle with IBS and anxiety [9:05]
7. How I chose a nutrition school [12:16]
8. Two main types of detoxes/cleanses [14:27
9. Winning retorts to the skeptics and naysayers [15:16]
10. What’s for dinner: Clean eating at restaurants [18:10]
11. Business tips for health coaches: Overcoming the fraud factor [20:35]
Mentioned/related links
– Article from The Guardian: You can’t detox your body. It’s a myth.
– Article from Scientific American: Tests Find More Than 200 Chemicals in Newborn Umbilical Cord Blood
– Food Babe backlash article
– Michelle’s Reinvent 21: Clean Living Immersion & Detox program
– The Institute for Integrative Nutrition
– For health coaches: Spring Power Sessions to Expand Your Audience
Transcript
Since about January I’ve been seeing a lot of media coverage on the idea that detoxes are a bunch of baloney. Have you seen these articles? They’re everywhere, I’m not sure why. The scientists behind these stories say that the body has built-in detoxification organs and they do the job just fine. I’m looking at a particular article in The Guardian right now where a professor is quoted as saying:
Detoxes are quote “being hijacked by entrepreneurs, quacks and charlatans to sell a bogus treatment”
Well, hmmm. That would be me he’s talking about there.
I’m Michelle Pfennighaus and you’re listening to Food Rant – a podcast that cuts to the chase and tells you what you need to hear about food and health – and even more importantly, who you need to listen to in order to understand any of it…this may come as a surprise but it’s not me or anyone else, it’s your own body. Hey, if you like what you’re hearing, subscribe and leave a review on iTunes! I’ll buy you a pony.
So here’s the rest of that quote:
Detoxes are being hijacked by entrepreneurs, quacks and charlatans to sell a bogus treatment that allegedly detoxifies your body of toxins you’re supposed to have accumulated.
If toxins did build up in a way your body couldn’t excrete, he says, you’d likely be dead or in need of serious medical intervention. “The healthy body has kidneys, a liver, skin, even lungs that are detoxifying as we speak,” he says. “There is no known way – certainly not through detox treatments – to make something that works perfectly well in a healthy body work better.”
Now, I think he’s talking about detox treatments like colon irrigation or seaweed baths or herbal pills or potions, that sort of thing. Juice cleanses perhaps. I’ve never done or recommended any of those things.
My feeling is that, at best, they might make you feel better. But then you’re going to go right back to how you were before. So why would you bother? And at worst, they do nothing, can be expensive and could even be harmful. There’s an old Ayurvedic detox technique of swallowing rags and then pulling them back out of your mouth.
I mean. Come on.
I’m sure you’ve heard of other crazy-sounding detox fads. But swallowing rags? That tops my list!
So I just want to go head-to-head today with this idea that detoxes, on the whole, are garbage. I’m annoyed because what I do with clients is getting lumped into the same category as less credible products and programs. Such is life in the holistic health world.
The first piece I want to address is the idea that toxins “supposedly” accumulate in our system. I like how he kind of laughs at that idea like it’s ridiculous. I mean, on one hand, he’s right. We DO have organs to detoxify our body. They work! Our colon eliminates waste, our kidneys filter our blood, it’s pretty amazing.
But yet I’m thinking about a study that was done awhile ago – there’s an article about it in Scientific American and it’s also written about on the Environmental Working Group’s website that says…
Tests Find Over 200 Chemicals in Newborn Umbilical Cord Blood
That’s like a mom’s nightmare. When my son was born, I mean, I would cross the street if someone was smoking. I considered him the most pure, perfect being. And he is, of course! But his system is NOT squeaky clean. It never was. A little second hand smoke is unfortunately NOT the first time his system encountered impurities. He was created amidst a body – ahem – that I hope is cleaner than most but still, is surely swimming with some level of chemicals found in the study.
And they include:
BPA, found in plastics, also 8 different likely-carcinogenic stain and oil repellants used in clothing and fast food…dozens of flame retardants with toxic by-products…and numerous pesticides.
So I have to question the notion that our body’s detoxification organs are working “perfectly well.” If they are, this stuff would have been filtered out, no? Not passed along to our babies?
I have a feeling that, as with any system, our body has a limit. Right? We can only process alcohol so fast – if we drink more, or faster, and our blood alcohol level rise and we’re drunk. If we never stopped drinking alcohol, well, we’d have a problem.
Our body has limits. We are surrounded by environmental toxins, toxins in our food, all the things found in that umbilical cord blood, you know? It seems very likely that we are overloading the system. And unlike alcohol, we never really…stop.
Which is where my work begins. Maybe the word detox just means…to stop. Let your body catch up.
I mean, your body is amazing! And when you allow it to do its job better… you feel the different. You can do this without any sort of procedure or rag swallowing, just simple diet and lifestyle changes. If you reduce the number of toxins that go in and support your body’s natural functions…it goes a long way.
Which brings me to the next idea in the professor’s quote. He says that “There is no known way to make something that works perfectly well in a healthy body work better.”
I’m going to have to disagree with that. I suffered for years with IBS. Gas, bloating, pain, constipation, diarrhea… My digestive system was working in so far as I wasn’t dead. My doctors weren’t particularly concerned. I was “healthy” by all accounts. Just very uncomfortable and tired.
Maybe you can relate to that? Like your digestive system just isn’t working that great? It’s having trouble?
Remember, your colon is one major way the body gets rid of waste. And you CAN make it work better. I changed my diet and slowly but surely, the gas and bloating went away. The constipation and diarrhea transformed into normal, regular bowel movements.
My clients are always telling me how much more comfortable their digestion is when they change their diets.
So can a healthy body work better? Um…yeah. You absolutely can support your body’s functions. Just like you can work against them.
But the message has been all over the media, like I said. Detoxes are junk! People who sell them are quacks! It reminds me very much of what just recently happend to the Food Babe. You know about this? She’s a food blogger who is best known for getting Subway to eliminate a certain ingredient in their bread – a chemical also used to make yoga mats. She’s getting blasted for not being a credible source of information. According to others, that chemical used to make yoga mats is perfectly safe and acceptable as a food ingredient.
They say she is fear-mongering. She’s full of it. Apparently she has her own sort of detox program in a book she’s just released. I haven’t read it so I can’t comment on it.
But I keep hearing people say that she has no business telling folks what to eat because she’s not a trained doctor, she’s not a chemist, she’s not well-versed in science.
I am not here to stand up for the Food Babe. I am here to question the notion that science always has the answer.
In my case, I was struggling with IBS and anxiety. Actually I was always having these fainting spells…which is highly inconvenient, particularly on the subway during rush hour. I was fatigued beyond belief. Miserable.
But my doctors told me my bloodwork was fine and shrugged as they sent me on their way. Time after time. They had no answers for why I was suffering. How could I be so “healthy” in their eyes and yet feel so terribly unhealthy?
I had to figure it out for myself and it had everything to do with food and lifestyle changes. I completely healed myself. I haven’t fainted in a decade, thank you…thank you very much.
People seem to think that holistic or alternative health views are rubbish because, well, science. Science is indisputable. It’s fact. If one questions science, if one doesn’t BELIEVE in science, they are just stupid. When did science become about belief? Religion is a belief. Faith. Unquestionable.
Science? It’s all about theories, testing, observing, questioning. It’s awesome. They used to think the world was flat. They used to think that a low-fat diet was the answer to heart disease, and now we know better because heart disease rates continue to rise and top doctors are coming out saying that it’s sugar and processed food that’s the real problem.
So here’s an idea. There’s no reason to take sides. In fact, it’s much more useful to find the places where opposing views overlap. And use some common sense.
So should we eat bread made with the same chemical found in yoga mats? I’m sure one sandwich isn’t going to kill you. But when we bake bread, the ingredients are really simple. Why is Subway’s bread different? Let’s ask that question and find out that – huh, maybe Subway advertising makes it appear really healthy but it is, in fact, highly processed food.
And then we can make our decisions from there.
You know, I found degree programs in nutrition to be exactly the kind of thing I was trying to get away from – pushing dietary guidelines that keep us stuck in a poor eating cycle. Did you know a hospital dietitian once told me that eating candy was the same as eating beans? They both have carbohydrates. Yes. I get that. But oh my. That’s not my idea of proper nutrition or responsible messaging around food.
If you’re wondering, I’m not a scientist. I went to college for art. Years later, I went to the Institute for Integrative Nutrition. I’ve studied food theories that range from macrobiotics to vegetarianism to paleo to raw vegan and back. And I’ve been helping people eat real food and walk away from processed stuff for the past – oh, 7 years.
Does that make me credible enough? Probably not in the eyes of some.
But I know what I’ve seen. You come alive when you change your food. You take responsibility for your health, empower yourself in the kitchen, stop grabbing things like Subway for lunch and actually eat real food. You’re happier, more energetic, less bloated….
I’ve even see people get off medications, coincidentally, for high blood pressure and heart burn – one couple I worked with had their pre-diabetes condition reversed after eating this way for several weeks.
I know this is anecdotal. It isn’t science.
But it’s a good reason to keep going after real food, regardless of what the media says. People like controversy. They like to take sides. But when you strip away the hyperbole, it really comes down to such basic ideas. Like eating more vegetables and less food from Subway or other chains.
In short, I see two kinds of detoxes. The first is a procedure, an event, or a special product that promises to remove toxins from the body.
The second is a diet and lifestyle change towards real food, lowering your toxic load naturally. Clearly I vote for the latter, and I think science would agree.
Now it’s time to take your questions…
I got this email from a guy named Matt and it was one of my favorites to read. I thought it made sense to with this podcast episode in particular…
He writes: Hi Michelle. You have no idea who I am, but my wife and I went to your sugar talk last year and then she signed up for your detox program, which I did with her. Changed our lives, and gave us all kinds of things to talk about at parties. Now we read everything you send out, with great interest.
How about writing something like “Winning Retorts to the Skeptics and Naysayers?” You could run with that, couldn’t you?
haha
Well, thanks Matt. You’re right, I often don’t know who else in the house is participating quietly along with my Reinvent 21 crowd, so it’s nice to hear from you.
Ahhh. Winning Retorts to the Skeptics and Naysayers….
Well, I’ll tell you, when I was reading some of the Food Babe backlash, I wasn’t surprised so much at what people were saying. But I was surprised at how much anger was coming out! Sure, maybe you think Food Babe is dumb. But why be angry about it? The author, the chemist now known as Science Babe, mentioned within her article that sugar is harmless, aside from its caloric content.
That made me understand.
She’s angry, like realllly angry. Because she’s probably had too much sugar!
Ok, I don’t know but honestly, I’ve found that the skeptics and naysayers, as you call them, who get really brutal and angry about food…they’re the ones who could probably MOST benefit from a change in diet. Ironic! But yeah, sugar, caffiene, processed food, it has an effect on people’s moods. So when someone is lashing out, I just kind of smile to myself and feel badly that they are feeling so badly.
Matt, that may not exactly the sarcastic retort you were hoping for! Haha But really, I try to say very little. If someone thinks my food is weird, I change the subject. Or I offer them one of my homemade, real food chocolate candies. That shuts ‘em right up.
I don’t really fight over food. I know without a shadow of a doubt that once people try a diet of clean, whole, real food, their outlook will change. Their life will change – just like you said happened with you and your wife. So thanks so much for saying hi and I hope to hear from you and your wife again soon! Sounds like you’re doing great!
This next segment is all about What’s for dinner. I mean, tonight. What’s really going on my table and into my mouth.
Actually, today is an interesting day for me to tell you about! We are in the middle of Reinvent 21, and I am very involved with these groups. I mean, I am there coaching everyone on, all day long, sometimes late at night. AND I do the program with them! The only times I haven’t done it is when I was pregnant.
So anyway, we’re eating really clean and making a lot of things from scratch. But every week I take my son to Tae Kwon Do and then we go out for dinner at this local Mexican restaurant because it’s kid’s night and there’s a guy making animal balloons. And I don’t have to do the dishes.
We’re gonna go tonight. Actually, Mexican is a pretty darn good bet when you’re trying to eat clean. My kids will get burritos, no complaints from them. I order a side of veggies and it’s so routine now that my 4 year old will remind me, Mom don’t forget the vegetables!
And for me? Sticking to the program will be easy. I’ll get a burrito bowl No cheese, and a side of guacamole. Beans, rice, veggies, guacamole – not bad at all.
I definitely prefer homemade food for myself and my family, of course. But I’m no purist. The trick is figuring out how to eat well AND live in the real world.
If you’re out and about, like I said, Mexican is a decent way to go. You could also look for an Italian restaurant, which might sound weird but they usually have a fish entree with vegetables and potato, something simple like that. Or…go out for sushi! That’s another way to eliminate most of the junk and eat real food at a restaurant.
But hey, only the Mexican place has balloon night and my son will be maaaaad if he doesn’t get his balloon animal. Actually, he’s planning on asking for a balloon Thundercats sword.
Whatever.
So, what’s for dinner at your house?
This last segment is dedicated to all the health coaches out there – all you wellness entrepreneurs actually.
This episode has largely been about dealing with the fraud factor! And that’s huge, especially when you’re starting out.
So there are a few big ways to overcome that. Because, no, you’re probably not a doctor or PhD, but that doesn’t mean you don’t have something valuable to share.
I know I help people. I know I am contributing something positive to the world. But when I just started out, I didn’t have this much confidence. So here’s what helped me:
First and foremost, I started working with private clients. Free, discounted, paid, whatever. I got experience however I could. I learned SO much this way. Because it’s not just about eating more of this food, or less of that food. It’s understanding how people work, what makes them tick. It’s taking information on the page and turning it into a reality for your clients. That’s the magic. Anyone can say “Eat more veggies” but NOT everyone can make it happen. So get out there and find people to work with, practice, practice, practice.
Then the other thing that helped me overcome that “fraud” factor was focusing on the topics I had personal experience with. I knew an awful lot about getting sugar out of my diet, and I knew a lot about cooking! So those were the topics I most often presented on. I didn’t go out there and try to talk about thyroid health, y’know? So do what you know best. Share what you live and breathe and know inside and out. And public speaking is the best way to establish yourself, establish an audience and grow your mailing list at the same time.
I actually see a lot of new coaches who are focusing on building their website or writing a book or creating a big program. And when it comes to marketing, everyone wants to know about social media. But live speaking events go a LONG way.
I’m hosting a group this May aimed at helping coaches build an audience and actually, there are so many ways to do it but we’re going to go into detail about these public speaking events. How to book them, how to not freak out about public speaking, and how to add names to your mailing list. So that’s happening, I’m looking forward to it! Maybe I’ll see you there?
That’s it for episode #4, thanks for listening. Obviously we’re still in the baby stage of making this thing but I have a few excellent guests lined up for the next few shows. I’m branching into having guests on the show, so that’s exciting! One is a naturopath, another is a chiropractor – not just any chiropractor but MY chiropractor who helped me deliver my VBAC baby successfully, and a few more. I think you’re going to love the evolution of what we’re doing over here – if you haven’t already listened to episodes 1, 2 and 3 – do that – and I’ll look forward to being here with you next time!