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Group 2 -- Nathan Aguilar, Clayton Baldwin, Chloe Chan, Daniel Dabreunoronha

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Group 2 -- Nathan Aguilar, Clayton Baldwin, Chloe Chan, Daniel Dabreunoronha

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https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/does-science-support-the-claims

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The promotion of diet plans as a way to detoxify the body is very common. These plans typically involve dietary restrictions and supplementation with various nutrients and herbs.

Even though detox diets are popular in the wellness world, most of these diets are unnecessary, and some can even be harmful to overall health.

In this Special Feature, we explain what detox diets are and see what the science says about whether they offer any health benefits.

As part of its constant work to stay healthy, the body continually removes potentially harmful substances through detoxification.

The body's detoxification system is complex and involves multiple organs, including the liver, kidneys, and skin.

Normal metabolic processes produce toxins endogenously, but the body also acquires them exogenously through exposure to medications and chemicals in food and the environment.

Detoxification involves metabolic processes called biotransformation, during which the alteration of the chemical structure of toxic substances renders them inactive. The body then excretes these substances.

The body's ability to detoxify depends on various factors, including age, sex, health conditions, genetics, medications, and diet.

For example, because most of the body's detoxification processes take place in the cells of the liver, liver disease can impair detoxification, which can lead to the buildup of harmful substances such as ammonia.

Even though the body can detoxify through biotransformation, people tout detox diets as a way to promote optimal toxin elimination, improve overall health, and encourage weight loss.

These programs commonly involve juice fasting, supplementation, strict vegan diets, liquid diets, fasting, or other methods that purportedly detoxify the body.

Detox programs can also encourage the use of potentially dangerous practices, such as coffee enemas, in which a person administers coffee through the rectum.

Researchers have linked self-administered coffee enemas to severe side effects, such as rectal burns, electrolyte imbalances, and rectal perforation. This practice can even be fatal.

Despite numerous claims of improved health by detox diet creators and proponents, most detox programs have no clinical evidence supporting their effectiveness or safety.

Additionally, detox diet programs can be costly, especially those that encourage the use of herbs and other dietary supplements.

A variety of detox diets is available online, including juice and smoothie detoxes and plant-based detoxes.

Many detox diets are not harmful because people usually only follow them for several days, and they typically comprise plant-based foods such as smoothies and juices.

However, detox diets that involve long periods of fasting or extreme calorie restriction, use of herbal supplements, or practices such as enemas can lead to dangerous side effects and potentially have long-term health consequences.

Even though most detox diets are unnecessary, this does not mean that the foods a person chooses to consume do not affect the body's detoxification system.

The body accumulates harmful substances from the environment. These include heavy metals, such as mercury, and persistent organic pollutants (POPs).

POPs are environmental contaminants that are present in foods, soil, and water. They accumulate in body fat, and research has linked them to chronic inflammation, oxidative stress, and an increased risk of .

Even though the body is equipped to detoxify itself, following a nutritious diet and limiting exposure to toxic substances in foods and the environment can help support the organs involved in biotransformation and, by extension, promote health.

However, this does not mean that a person should follow a detox program. Instead, they should support their body's ability to detoxify by eating a balanced diet.

For example, a diet deficient in protein will negatively affect the body's ability to detoxify because it needs protein for the enzymatic reactions that are critical to the detoxification process.

Unfortunately, most detox diet plans are lacking in protein, which may reduce the body's ability to detoxify properly.

Fiber is another important nutrient that can help improve the excretion of toxins through the feces. It can also enhance gut barrier function, which can help protect the organs involved in detoxification from proinflammatory bacteria.

Some evidence also suggests that fasting may help promote the health of the liver, which is the major site of detoxification, as well as improving the function of involved in detoxification.

Studies on detox diets

Even though it is clear that a healthy diet is important for the body's detoxification system, studies on commercial detox diets have not shown promising results.

Research in this area is lacking, with the current body of research limited to poorly designed studies.

A 2015 review noted that a small number of clinical studies investigating the effects of detox diets have found that some programs may enhance liver detoxification and reduce levels of POPs in the body. However, the authors highlight that these studies were flawed and had small sample sizes.

In a involving 84 women, researchers asked some participants to follow a low calorie lemon detox diet consisting of lemon juice and syrups and other participants to follow a low calorie placebo diet for 7 days. Both groups experienced weight loss and a reduction in insulin levels, suggesting that calorie restriction, not the detox diet itself, improved health.

Additionally, consumers should be wary of supplements that supposedly detoxify the body. These supplements often contain a blend of nutrients and herbs that may interact with commonly prescribed medications.

A involving 22 women found that consuming a detox supplement - containing 1,350 milligrams of a proprietary blend of papaya leaf, cascara sagrada bark, slippery elm bark, peppermint leaf, red raspberry leaf, fenugreek seed, ginger root, and senna leaf - for 4 weeks did not provide any health benefits.

Even though research shows that certain supplements, such as N-acetyl cysteine (NAC), and specific foods, including cruciferous vegetables, may benefit the body's natural detoxification system, the simplest way to promote overall health and support the organs involved in detoxification is to follow a nutrient-dense diet rich in protein, fruits, and vegetables.

Even though some detox programs may be harmless, there are safety concerns over detox programs that use extreme methods.

Fasting for long periods, restricting calories heavily, and taking certain dietary supplements can lead to adverse health effects, such as nutrient deficiencies, weakness, mood changes, dehydration, and more.

Certain groups of people should avoid detox diets because they are at higher risk of adverse effects. These people include:

individuals with chronic health conditions

anyone who is pregnant or breastfeeding

children and teenagers

people who are underweight

those with eating disorders or a history of these conditions

Before embarking on a detox diet, it is worth discussing plans with a healthcare professional, particularly if the person is taking any prescription medicine.

A balanced diet is important for health and the body's natural detoxification system, but it is not necessary to follow a special detox diet.

These programs are typically expensive and can lack nutrients that are essential for biotransformation, such as protein.

Even though diets that can supposedly help detoxify the body are popular, the scientific evidence supporting their effectiveness is lacking.

On the other hand, plenty of research supports the notion that following a balanced diet and avoiding drinking, smoking, and exposure to environmental toxins can support overall health, including the body's detoxification system.

According to currently available research, detox diets are unnecessary and unlikely to benefit health in any significant way. They may even be harmful in some cases.

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Detox diets: Good or bad for our health?

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The promotion of diet plans as a way to detoxify the body is very common. These plans typically involve dietary restrictions and supplementation with various nutrients and herbs. Even though detox diets are popular in the wellness world, most of these diets are unnecessary, and some can even be harmful to overall health.

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Group 3 - Cooper Glenn, Disha Garg, Connor Brady, Nick Carmichael

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Group 3 - Cooper Glenn, Disha Garg, Connor Brady, Nick Carmichael

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The Paleo Lifestyle
https://www.thepaleomom.com/start-here/the-paleo-lifestyle/

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The food you eat isn't the only important thing to address in order to get healthy, which is why the Paleo template includes equal focus on lifestyle choices.

Of course, food plays a huge role in our health. The Paleo diet 's nutrient-dense approach supplies all of the essential and non-essential nutrients needed by the human body. Paleo foods include: vegetables, fruits, nuts, seeds, herbs and spices in addition to healthy animal protein (grass-fed or pasture-raised meats, lean meats from conventional sources, fish, shellfish and eggs) and healthy fats (both animals fats like grass-fed tallow and plant fats like coconut oil and avocado oil). The Paleo diet also eliminates empty calories and potentially problematic foods, including: grains (like wheat, barley, rice, and corn), products (especially low fat conventional dairy; grass-fed dairy is sometimes included), legumes (like soy, peanuts, and kidney beans), refined sugars and oils, fast food, and junk foods of all kinds. You may have heard the Paleo diet described as the caveman diet or eating the way our paleolithic ancestors did. But, in actuality, this dietary framework is supported by contemporary biology and physiology and is far from a historical reenactment of the Stone Age. Clinical trials have proven that the Paleo diet restores insulin sensitivity in and promotes healthy weight loss while reducing risk for heart disease and cancer and helping to reduce symptoms of autoimmune disease (see Paleo Diet Clinical Trials and Studies). You can read more about the Paleo diet here, find lists of Paleo foods here, check out my awesome Paleo recipes here, and access meal plans here.

Although making better choices by choosing Paleo foods is important for supporting overall health, diet is only one aspect of the many elements that work together to support the numerous processes in our bodies. Various lifestyle components, including sleep, stress management, exercise and movement, nature, and social connection, play critical roles in thwarting disease, controlling hormone levels, stabilizing mood, regulating the immune system, and optimizing gut microbiome and overall gut health.

Even though these small lifestyle changes seem easy, we often put them off (and off, and off) because we don't realize the big impact they can have. If you aren't seeing the results you're hoping for with the Paleo diet, chances are one of these areas needs some work.

Sleep.

Studies show that adults need seven to nine hours of sleep every single night (See Sleep Requirements and Debt: How do you know how much sleep you need? and How Much Sleep Do We Need? Understanding the Hunter-Gatherer Evidence). Getting enough sleep reduces the effects of stress on our bodies and has a tremendous positive impact on our hormones, metabolisms, and insulin sensitivity (see 3 Ways to Regulate Insulin that Have Nothing to Do With Food). On the other hand, shortchanging your sleep by even a small amount, even a few times a week, can have terrible consequences for your health.

Not getting enough sleep increases the risk of all-cause mortality (your risk of dying, which is a pretty robust measure of overall health and longevity) comparably to being obese, living a sedentary lifestyle, and not eating many vegetables. There are strong causal links between inadequate sleep and cardiovascular disease, diabetes, obesity, autoimmune disease, cancer, inflammation, and susceptibility to infection. (See Sleep and Disease Risk: Scarier than Zombies! and The Link Between Sleep and Your Weight) These links are due to the relationship between sleep (or lack thereof) and immune function as well as the effect that sleep has on many key hormones (such as immune modulators and hunger hormones) and neurotransmitter regulation (including our reward circuitry). In fact, getting sufficient quality sleep may be the single best thing you can do to improve your health.

The importance of adequate and consistent sleep cannot be underestimated. And while seven hours may seem like a doable minimum, if you're battling a chronic illness, chances are your body needs more than that.

The single best thing that you can do to prioritize sleep is to have a regular bedtime-and make sure that bedtime is early enough that you can get at least eight hours of sleep (or more, if eight hours isn't enough for you to wake up feeling refreshed and energetic). Having a bedtime is such a simple thing, but it's one of the hardest things for adults to implement. Everything seems to be more important than sleep: going out with coworkers after work, watching that amazing new television show, checking Facebook, doing the laundry . . . . But sleep needs to come first, and not just in the initial healing phase of our health journeys but for the rest of our lives.

What else can you do to make sure you get good sleep? Spend some time outside during the day and keep your indoor lighting dim in the evenings-this helps maximize production of melatonin, the hormone that regulates sleep, in the evenings. Sleep in a cool, dark, quiet room. And avoiding anything stimulating (work, exhaustive exercise, arguments, and emotionally intense, scary, or suspenseful television shows and movies) in the last two hours before bed. (See 10 Tips to Improve Sleep Quality, 4 Biohacks for Better Sleep and 5 Ways to Improve Your Bedroom Environment for Sleep.) It can also be helpful to avoid evening snacking, eat a high-fiber and moderate-fat diet and enjoy some starchy carbs with dinner (see Because Fiber Wasn't Awesome Enough: New Science Suggests Fiber Improves Sleep Quality!).

Stress Management.

Chronic stress increases the risk of depression and anxiety, cardiovascular disease, obesity, diabetes, autoimmune diseases, chronic headaches, memory problems, digestive problems, and infections and is linked with poor wound healing. These effects are believed to be mediated by the activation of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis (HPA axis) and the impact that cortisol and other adrenal hormones have on immune function. Plus, chronic stress influences other behaviors, influencing our food choices (due to cravings for energy-dense foods and increased appetite) and making us more vulnerable to addiction. (See How Stress Undermines Health and How Chronic Stress Leads to Hormone Imbalance).

Stress has a direct impact on immune system function. Being under chronic stress (the kind that most of us struggle with) both increases inflammation and undermines the regulatory arm of the immune system. Stress is a major contributor to chronic illness, and when stress is out of control, it worsens your prognosis. See also Demystifying Adrenal Fatigue, Pt. 1: What Is Adrenal Fatigue?, Demystifying Adrenal Fatigue, Pt. 2: Testing Adrenal Glandular Function and Demystifying Adrenal Fatigue, Pt. 3: Nutrition & Lifestyle Support for the Adrenal Glands.

When it comes to stress management, there are two factors: stress reduction and resilience.

Reducing stress simply means removing things from your life that are causing stress. Even if individual responsibilities aren't causing undue stress on their own, the sheer number of them on your plate may be creating stress. Whenever you can, say no, or ask for help to help reduce stress. And there are as many ways to reduce stress as there are stressed people-it's up to you to figure out what works for you. Have a critical look at everything you do and how it impacts your stress level, and determine where you can small changes (or big ones!) to reduce stress.

Resilience refers to how your body responds to stressors in your life. This is different from reducing stress-instead, it's about implementing strategies so that the stressful aspects of your life just don't get to you as much. Activities that improve resilience include getting enough sleep, being active, meditating, social bonding, connecting with nature, laughing, and playing. Making time for these things can have a direct impact on both your health and your sense of well-being. (See Managing Stress and The Health Benefits of Nature.) Interestingly, boosting omega-3s and reducing caffeine can also make a big difference in terms of our resilience to stress.

Activity.

Exercise isn't just about burning calories for weight loss and looking toned in a bikini. Regular physical activity minimizes the risk of cardiovascular disease, obesity, diabetes, osteoporosis, and some cancers. These benefits are mediated by exercise's benefits to blood lipids, blood pressure, inflammation, insulin sensitivity, coronary blood flow, endothelial function, and oxidative stress. In fact, a sedentary lifestyle is one of the leading risk factors for chronic disease; for every hour of daily activity (even light) that replaces sedentary time, risk of all-cause mortality drops by an impressive 16%! Simply walking briskly for 30 minutes five times per week can reduce the incidence of coronary artery disease by 30% to 40% in women and about 25% in men.

We all know that we're supposed to exercise, but what is much less well-known is that gentle movement throughout the day and daily weight-bearing exercise (like walking!) has a bigger impact on your overall health than a sweaty session at the gym five times per week. Yes, building muscle has all kinds of health benefits, and including some exercise sessions in your week definitely has benefits, but when it comes to the immune system, it's most important to simply avoid being sedentary. That means not sitting all day! See The Benefits of Gentle Movement.

There are lots of ways to add movement to your day, but the simplest strategy is to set a timer to go off every twenty minutes during the part of your day where you typically sit (at work and in front of the television, for most of us) and then, whenever the timer goes off, get up and move around for two minutes. You can jump rope, do some push-ups, stand and stretch, or do some yoga poses-whatever works for you! Yes, studies show that just two minutes of movement for of every twenty that you're sitting is all it takes. Of course, you can ramp this up with treadmill desks and bicycle desks if you have access to those sorts of things.

There are also tremendous health advantages to one of the simplest and most accessible activities out there: walking. Walking helps build muscle, improves cardiovascular health, strengthens bones, helps improve resilience to stress, improves brain health (everything from mood to memory to cognition) and reduces risk of problems like dementia, improves hormone health, and can even help you sleep better! If all you do is make time for a thirty-minute walk every day (in addition to moving every twenty minutes throughout the day), you are doing great!See Why is Exercise so Important?

More intense activity is awesome, too. If you love to lift weights, participate in a sport, or get your groove on at the gym, those activities are all worthwhile. It's important to emphasize, though, that even the hardest workout can't make up for damage sitting all day does to your health. Even if you sweat up a storm for a couple of hours each day, moving around every twenty minutes is still essential for health. And another word of caution: exhaustive, strenuous, and overly intense exercise can actually undermine your health by harming your immune system, gut health, and hormone health (see Why Exercising Too Much Hurts Your Gut).

Connection.

An often-underrated lifestyle factor that directly impacts our health is community. Connecting with others, whether a spouse, child, friend, family member, or pet, helps regulate hormones and neurotransmitters that directly impact inflammation. Plus, this social bonding improves resilience to stress and generally improves mood, which makes every other change you're working on seem a bit easier. See The Health Benefits of Connection.

One meta-analysis of 148 different studies found that people with stronger social relationships had a 50% higher chance of survival than people with weaker social bonds, regardless of age, gender, cause of eventual death, length of follow-up period, or how healthy each person was at the beginning of the study. Another meta-analysis found that social isolation, loneliness, and solitary living raised the risk of death by 29%, 26%, and 32%, respectively. Additional research has shown that social isolation raises mortality risk independent of loneliness (and vice versa), meaning that even if we don't feel lonely, a lack of social support might still be harming our health. Conversely, if we feel lonely despite having plenty of social connections, we're still at risk of earlier death.

Humans are hardwired to be social creatures. In fact, our tight social bonds, cooperation and division of labor were key for our success as a species; paleolithic man and hunter-gatherers live(d) in close-knit family groups. Positive social interactions stimulate changes in hormones that affect nearly every system in the body. People who feel more connected to others have lower levels of anxiety and depression. Connection also improves self-esteem and causes greater empathy for others. Those who feel connected to others are more trusting and cooperative, and therefore others are more open to trusting and cooperating with them. Social connectedness creates a positive feedback loop of social, emotional, and physical well-being.

There's a practical aspect to connection as well. When we have people in our lives whom we can depend on and ask for help, we have resources to help us reduce stress and put other priorities, like getting enough physical activity and sleep, at the top of our to-do lists. And having a companion for your health journey, whether it's a walking buddy, a friend to meet up with at the farmers market, someone to watch your kids while you do whatever it is you need to do, or a family member to batch cook with on weekends, having support while you tackle the job of healing is better than Mary Poppins's spoonful of sugar.

For some people, making community a priority requires effort and dedication. It can be easy to let social media sites provide us with the illusion of connection without having actual meaningful interactions with our friends and family. It also can be easy to let every other item on our to-do lists supplant quality time with the people we care about. If you're struggling to find time for connection, see where you can combine social interaction with other activities, like exercise, play, shopping, and even cooking!

The Link Between Lifestyle and Diet

One could argue that lifestyle is an even more important contributor to long-term health than diet. For example, a recent study in dogs showed that a single night of sleep deprivation caused a greater increase in insulin resistance than 6 months of a high-fat Western-style diet. Insulin sensitivity declined by 33% after sleep deprivation but only 21% after 6 months of a poor diet. See 3 Ways to Regulate Insulin that Have Nothing to Do With Food. However, it's important to understand that our efforts with regards to lifestyle and diet are inextricably linked.

Focusing on lifestyle can make a huge difference in terms of the ease of transition to a Paleo diet because lifestyle factors affect our food choices and behaviors. For example, when we get adequate sleep and manage stress, we're less likely to crave sugar and overeat. Getting enough sleep not only makes us more likely to choose vegetables and fruit (and less likely to choose fast food and junk food), but it also regulates hunger so we snack less and consume fewer overall calories (without trying!). Getting enough sleep even helps us make better choices in the grocery store. Stress tends to make us crave energy-dense (high-sugar and/or high-fat foods) while depleting our bodies of important nutrients like vitamin C and magnesium. When we engage in gentle movement throughout the day, our insulin sensitivity improves and we can better handle Paleo-friendly carbohydrates. When we focus on lifestyle, it's much easier to make major or difficult changes to our diet.

The converse is also true: focusing on diet can help us dial in lifestyle factors. For example, habitually drinking too much coffee can magnify cortisol release in response to psychological stressors. Likewise, studies have shown that a deficiency in omega-3 fats exaggerates stress responses and that supplementing with fish oil reduces cortisol secretion in response to stress. Studies also show that consuming a serving of slow-burning carbohydrates with dinner can improve sleep quality, as can eating a high-fiber diet in general and moderating saturated fat intake. Consuming adequate amounts of quality protein aids in muscle recovery after workouts and helps preserve muscle mass while losing weight. Dietary polyphenols can also improve muscle recovery post-exercise and help return cortisol levels to normal more quickly after physical activity (see Polyphenols: Magic Bullet or Health Hype? and Olive Oil Redemption: Yes, It's a Great Cooking Oil!).

All this is to say that if you're struggling to implement some facet of the Paleo template, be it sticking with the dietary guidelines, getting enough sleep, managing stress, or getting enough activity, think about the challenge in a holistic way. You may find that improving another aspect of the Paleo template is the key to overcoming your challenge.

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Food isn't the only important thing to address in order to get healthy, which is why the Paleo template includes equal focus on the Paleo lifestyle choices.

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Group 5 — Sparsh Garg, Alan Dinh, Charlotte Finn

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Group 5 — Sparsh Garg, Alan Dinh, Charlotte Finn

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https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2014/dec/05/detox-myth-health-diet-science-ignorance

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Dara Mohammadi is a freelance writer on science and health. He tweets as @Dara_Mo

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Group 1- Abby Bulich, Abby Deorsey, Carla Alvarez, Eric Birdthistle

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Group 1- Abby Bulich, Abby Deorsey, Carla Alvarez, Eric Birdthistle

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The Unbearable Weight of Diet Culture
https://www.goodhousekeeping.com/health/diet-nutrition/a35036808/what-is-diet-culture/

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Throughout 2021, Good Housekeeping will be exploring how we think about weight, the way we eat, and how we try to control or change our bodies in our quest to be happier and healthier. While GH also publishes weight loss content and endeavors to do so in a responsible, science-backed way, we think it's important to present a broad perspective that allows for a fuller understanding of the complex thinking about health and body weight. Our goal here is not to tell you how to think, eat, or live - nor is to to pass judgment on how you choose to nourish your body - but rather to start a conversation about diet culture, its impact, and how we might challenge the messages we are given about what makes us attractive, successful, and healthy.

The dawn of a new year is when many scramble to make resolutions, and in the U.S., these are often earnest pledges to shrink, tone, chisel or otherwise alter our bodies. Like years before, in the first weeks of 2021, new signups for virtual workout subscriptions and searches for "diet" on Google are spiking, because after all, every January we're flooded with urgent broadcasts from every societal megaphone reminding us that it's time to detox our poor, puffy bodies of the bad food choices we made over the holidays-

Wait. Stop. Just there.
"...detox our bodies of the bad food choices we made..."
This language - and the entire concept - implies that our bodies have been poisoned by peppermint bark, cookies, latkes, and eggnog, and that an antidote must be administered urgently, or else. It assumes that certain foods are "bad" and what's more, we are bad for eating them, when in reality, this moralization of food and our collective desire to "fix" any perceived wrongdoings is a prime example of diet culture and just how easily it can sneak in under the radar. We can even fall into that trap here at Good Housekeeping, despite our best efforts, when we describe desserts as "sinful" or "no-guilt." ( Editor's note: Now that the brand is becoming more aware of diet culture and its effects, we are actively looking for ways to be more careful with our language choices.)

"There's a whole lexicon," says Claire Mysko, CEO of National Eating Disorders Association (NEDA). When we say we need to "burn off" or "make up for" the cheeseboard we shared with friends; when we skip the dessert we want and ponder if even snagging a bite of our partner's dessert is " worth it"; whenever we ascribe virtue to our food choices, giggling that it's naughty when we choose to eat what we crave or what comforts us, or good when we opt for low-calorie, low-carb, or other foods diet culture has deemed healthy. "All of that talk is part of diet culture," says Mysko. And it is so inextricably woven into the fabric of our culture that many people aren't even consciously aware of the daily inundation.
So what is "diet culture"?
Diet culture has many definitions and facets but, in a nutshell, it's a set of beliefs that worships thinness and equates it with health and moral virtue, according to anti-diet dietitian, Christy Harrison, M.P.H., R.D., C.D.N., author of and host of the Food Psych podcast. And it has become our dominant culture - often in ways we don't even notice since it's the water in which we swim.

Think of diet culture as the lens through which most of us in this country view beauty, health, and our own bodies; a lens that colors your judgments and decisions about how you feel about and treat yourself. Diet culture places thinness as the pinnacle of success and beauty, and "in diet culture, there is a conferred status to people who are thinner, and it assumes that eating in a certain way will result in the right body size - the 'correct' body size - and good health, and that it's attainable for anybody who has the 'right' willpower, the 'right' determination," says therapist Judith Matz, L.C.S.W., author of The Body Positivity Card Deck and Diet Survivor's Handbook.

In actual fact, there is no "right" body size, and even if there were, it's not attainable to whomever does the "right" thing (or whatever weight loss trend may be viewed as "right" at the moment), as evidenced by the 98% failure rate of diets. This stat alone is proof of the no-win norm that we, as a society, have been groomed to abide by. In one fell swoop, diet culture sets us up to feel bad about ourselves - and judge other people, too - while also suggesting that losing weight will help us feel better.

Urging people to examine, question, and ultimately reject diet culture is at the heart of the anti-diet movement, whose prominent voices include Harrison, NEDA, a crowd of activists in the Health at Any Size movement, the body positivity movement, and many others. The anti-diet movement is, in part, working to debunk the diet culture myth that thinness equals health and raising awareness of and helping to end fat phobia and discrimination against people in larger bodies. And because a tenet of diet culture is, well, endlessly dieting to be thinner no matter the mental and physical cost, the anti-diet movement rejects diets for the purposes of weight loss.

Anti-diet does not mean anti-health.

And here's the thing: We are all products of diet culture, so it's understandable why roughly half of adults have been on a weight loss diet in the last year alone. Dieters are just doing what we've always been told is the best thing for our health and appearance, and by implication, will bring us the perceived shiny futures of the people in the "after" photos. To be clear, "the anti-diet movement [is not] anti-dieter," says Harrison. Rather, the anti-diet movement challenges diet culture and, as result, takes issue with the many restrictive diets that are scientifically proven to have a negative impact on cognitive function, heart health, and mortality, while contributing to social injustice and weight prejudice.

Even if you're not consciously trying to lose weight per se, diet culture often crops up in choices we think we're making for health, to feel or look good, fit in, or even just make conversation amongst friends over dinner ("oh, I know, I feel this cake making my hips bigger as I eat it," or, "ugh, we need to go to the gym after this"). But subconsciously, diet culture "creates this idea - and reinforces it at every turn - that you have to be thin in order to be successful, accepted, loved, healthy: All of these things that we want for ourselves that are just understandable human desire," saysHarrison. "It tells us that weight loss is the secret to that. It tells us that weight loss is a way to attain those things." And it's a house of cards, because it's not.

What are some more examples of diet culture?

Diet culture can be found in Barbie's thigh gap and 18-inch waist, which influences perceptions of what an "ideal" body should look like. It's Lululemon's founder saying publicly that it's a problem when women's thighs touch. It's Kim Kardashian explaining how "necessary" it is to squeeze into shapewear beneath a dress, saying, "without shapewear, you'd see cellulite and I just wouldn't feel as confident." (Also, that her shapewear brand, SKIMS, allegedly sold $2 million of product in minutes when it launched.) It's the fact that you may have been told (or recited!) that at the first sign of hunger, instead of giving your body the food it's asking for, you should delay and drink a glass of no-calorie water first in case you're "actually just thirsty." Even Good Housekeeping's own article on 1,200-calorie diets is a tricky juxtaposition: The article aims to serve the approximately 40,500 people who search for 1,200-calorie meal plans on Google every month despite a 2015 study that shows this number of calories falls within the realm of clinical starvation. Although GH strives to provide safe, nutritionist-backed advice, we also realize how this can contribute to the bigger problem.

As anyone who's ever looked into the mirror and wished for a flatter this or a bigger that can likely attest, there's an unattainable and rigidly narrow Western, white beauty ideal to which many of us often compare ourselves, and to which many of us are held by other people. "Nobody ever wakes up in the morning and says, 'Gosh, I look terrific. I feel so healthy, I'm so attractive: I think I'll go on a diet,'" Matz points out. "It always starts with negative thoughts."

Instagram influencer culture, movies, runways, fashion ads, and media outlets including magazines are rife with one type of person: A normatively feminine, usually white woman who is slim and tall and seemingly living fabulously. Could their charmed lives be because of those "perfect" bodies? The sample size for many designers is 0-2, while a 2018 study by National Health Statistics Reports published by the CDC places the average American adult woman in a size 18-20, and teen girls in a size 12.

While what is truly "average" varies greatly on genetics, family history, race, ethnicity, age, and much more, size and weight are actually not good indicators of health in the first place - you can be smaller-bodied and unhealthy, or larger-bodied and fit. Even so, "we're exposed to the steady stream of images and messages that reinforce diet culture and reinforce the idea that to be happy and successful and well-liked ... you have to look a certain way, have a certain body, and follow a certain fitness or meal plan or diet," says Mysko, which keeps people unhappy in their bodies, chasing something they can't ever catch, and spending loads of money to do so.

Why is diet culture harmful?

Anti-diet advocates argue that diet culture harms everyone with a body, particularly (but certainly not limited to) people who are in larger bodies. Though healthy bodies come at every size and shape, our societal experiences vary greatly depending on a given person's size - weight stigma and thin privilege are both very real - and no one is safe from feeling othered by diet culture. Even those in "average" or slender bodies can feel that they're not thin enough in the exact right places. This all "leads to people feeling a lot of shame about their body and feeling that being thinner is worth pursuing at all costs," says Matz.

The result: "People choose from hundreds, if not thousands, of diet plans or restrictive food plans." In November 2020, the CDC reported that more people are actually dieting now compared to 10 years ago. Part of the problem is that the term "wellness" is often now used as a euphemism for "diet." But understanding diet culture and how it impacts us isn't only about how any given individual responds to it: It's about recognizing that diet culture is baked directly into American culture and is intrinsically linked with racism and patriarchy. "What constitutes 'good' behavior is going to be far more accessible to white persons, to men, to wealthy persons, than people who do not fit into those categories," says Sabrina Strings, Ph.D., associate professor of sociology at the University of California at Irvine and the author of Fearing the Black Body: The Racial Origins of Fat Phobia. This includes conventional thinness.

"When you have been told that you should only have [a certain number of] calories or that you must keep your BMI here, you will always feel like you are doing either good or bad, right or wrong by sticking to these dictates," Strings adds. "Unfortunately, there are a lot of myths, [including the concept that] if you just restrict your food, then you'll be able to attain that weight," says Matz. What's more, says Strings, "Whenever we create standards about how we all should live, these norms always benefit those individuals who are already in power." Here are some key issues with diet culture:

1. It promotes discrimination. Whether it's Bill Maher pleading for fat shaming to "make a comeback"or kids being teased in school because of their weight, the mocking and bullying of people because they're fat is a part of diet culture that is both common and harmful. But beyond that, weight-based discrimination actually impacts access to jobs, healthcare, and more. In 2012, a found that fat people are regularly discriminated against in "employment settings, healthcare facilities, and educational institutions," making it difficult for people in larger bodies to live functionally or fruitfully in our society.

And according to a , "stigma and discrimination toward obese persons are pervasive" which threatens their psychological and physical health, creates health disparities, and contributes to a looming social injustice issue that goes widely ignored. Then, in an attempt to gain equal access, fat people are led to diets that further harm them physically and mentally: Consider that one study showed the calorie intake for many popular diets is "comparable to that of the most undernourished global regions, where severe hunger interferes with individuals' ability to thrive and make meaningful contributions to society."

2. It fuels a business designed to take your money. Americans spend billions of dollars annually trying to attain what diet culture promises, almost always to no avail. According to Market Research, the total U.S. weight loss market grew at an estimated 4.1% in 2018 to $72.7 billion and is forecasted to grow 2.6% annually through 2023. "With that kind of money, with that kind of industry at stake, it's really hard to get that to go away - even with a growing and powerful movement like anti-diet," says Harrison.

3. It's a setup for feeling like a failure. Scientifically speaking, weight loss diets don't work. "There is zero research out there that shows any weight loss plan or product helps people achieve weight loss [and maintain it] over a two to five year period," says Matz. "If there was something that was sustainable for the majority of people, we would all know about it." (There isn't, so we don't: Instead, we get a new diet every month that fades away when the next glittery "fix" comes along.) Even doctors often prescribe weight loss as a cure to many medical maladies despite the fact that dieting is biologically set up to fail. "Up to 98% of people, according to research, regain all the weight that they lost within five years, and up to two-thirds of people end up regaining more weight than they lost," says Harrison, and that's because "our bodies are really designed to protect us against famine."

Matz agrees: "Our weight regulation system is beyond our conscious control." This is evidenced by a 2010 F1000 Medicine Report that shows there is an active, biological control of body weight at a given set point in a 10-20 pound range. "The message this culture gets is that you can decide what weight you want to be with enough willpower, but it's just not true," says Matz. So, Harrison wonders, "Why do 100% of dieters think they're going to be in the 2%?" Perhaps the larger problem is that because of diet culture, when we do gain weight back post-diet, we have learned to internalize it as a failure of self instead of accepting that it is ultimately a success for evolution and our bodies' way of protecting us from starvation.

98% of diets fail - Why do 100% of dieters think they'll be in the 2%?

4. It distracts from a larger societal issue. Our individualistic culture says that if you're not thin, not only is it your "problem," but it's your fault. Being in a large body is actually not a problem, but diet culture says it is because that's easier than investing money and energy in giving everyone access to fresh food and ample outdoor space in which to move, connect, and enjoy nature. "If you've ever visited a community that only has a convenience store as a local means of any type of nutrition, then you will know that people often don't even have fruit in their neighborhoods ... in a low income area," says Strings. These "food deserts," as they're called, are partially to blame for what a found: "The most poverty-dense counties are those most prone to obesity." The issue with this finding isn't obesity, which isn't an accurate indicator of health, but rather the fact that our society lacks adequate resources to foster health separate from weight across socioeconomic lines.

"If we lived in a society where neighborhoods were walkable and people could get access to clean drinking water and plenty of sleep, people would already be far healthier than they are now," says Strings. But, she continues, diet culture gives a permission structure for the finger to be pointed elsewhere. "Rather than focusing on these larger structural issues that could have a global impact on a population, we want to target individuals and tell them to change their bodies in ways that are unrealistic and unproductive."

5. It normalizes disordered eating. An eating disorder is a clinically diagnosable condition. But if you were to ask 100 people a series of questions that indicate disordered eating (per NEDA's screening tool: How afraid are you of gaining three pounds? Do you ever feel fat? Compared to other things in your life, how important is your weight to you? Do you consume a small amount of food on a regular basis to influence your shape or weight?), it would become clear that the issue is far more pervasive than you think.

A 2008 survey sponsored by the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill showed that a whopping 75% of women reported disordered eating behaviors that "cut across racial and ethnic lines," and occurred in "women in their 30s and 40s ... at the same rate as women in their 20s." That means disordered eating is the norm in the U.S. for women of all ages and race. It's a staggering statistic, and one that goes under reported since a lot of these behaviors support the very underpinnings of diet culture itself.

6. It's self-perpetuating. Imagine if your vacuum had a 98% failure rate. You likely wouldn't blame yourself for the ensuing mess that grew each time the vacuum didn't start. You'd blame the machine (and you'd also presumably trade it in for a more reliable model pretty quickly). But when we diet and, later, gain the weight back, as 98% of people will, we instead berate ourselves. Dieters "do what diet culture teaches them to do by dieting," says Matz, "but then, when it doesn't work, they blame themselves rather than the diet." And then we restart the cycle instead of just buying a new damn vacuum.

How can I resist diet culture?
Diet culture can foster a toxic way of living for many people, but because of its pervasiveness, it can feel intimidating and deeply personal to pick it apart. Anti-diet culture aims to "dismantle this oppressive system of beliefs ... so that people have the chance and the choice to be able to be free of those stigmatizing and body shaming beliefs," says Harrison.

Being resistant to diet culture is also not anti-health or anti-nutrition: It's quite the opposite. With this movement, "It's absolutely possible that we can encourage and also give people the resources to eat healthy and to move their bodies in a healthy way without having to be the disciplinarians that tell people they must weigh a certain amount," says Strings. The anti-diet movement advocates for evidence-backed measures of health that are not about body weight, and there are even anti-diet dietitians and health professionals, like Harrison, who help guide patients out of diet culture and into decisions that are healthy for body and mind - and that don't aim to modify the body's appearance.

Anti-diet aims to free people from spending every waking moment policing their bodies, wasting precious time and energy obsessing over food choices, calories, macros, and the like. It aims to help people fill their bellies with the food they want and need, and without the distraction of constant hunger, allow their minds to see issues that are much bigger and more important than the way we look and how we eat. It helps us realize that the secret to happiness and freedom is not, in fact, locked within a smaller body requiring a "willpower" key, as diet culture has long made us believe.

Here are some aspects of anti-diet culture that can actionably put an end to the restriction and guilt cycle of diet culture:

Consider intuitive eating, an approach that was created in 1995 by registered dietitians Evelyn Tribole and Elyse Resch. It is based on 10 core principles - like honoring your hunger, challenging the food police, and coping with your emotions with kindness - by which you let your body guide you in what and how much to eat.

"With intuitive eating, instead of eating from the outside in, instead of following rules from a diet, people learn to use their internal physical cues to decide when, what, and how much to eat," says Matz. By destigmatizing food choices, intuitive eating steers you back into your own body. Most people have "gotten so used to eating what they should and shouldn't eat, what's 'good' and 'bad', they've really lost touch with 'What do I want? What would satisfy me?,'" says Matz. There are a host of professionals trained and certified in intuitive eating standards, from counselors to psychotherapists to registered dietitians, who can help guide you through the process too.

Getting reacquainted with your body's natural hunger cues, cravings, and needs can take time, but can ultimately free you from the learned shoulds of diet culture. The irony: Most find that once you grant yourself permission to eat the things you want when you want, your "fear foods" (you know, the things you declare you "cannot have in the house or I'll eat the whole bag!") have less of a siren song. When the scarcity mindset drops, so does the need to overeat out of fear of never having it again. "Remember that we come into this world born knowing how to do this," says Matz. "Babies, when they're hungry, cry. So really, we're going back to the way we were born: Eating."
Anyone feeling like they are suffering from disordered eating or an eating disorder can and should reach out for help immediately. The Note: This article was originally published on January 23, 2021, and edited on January 29, 2021 to offer clarification on the anti-diet movement. NEDA helpline at (800) 931-2237 is available daily via call or text, and officials also are on standby in digital chats, ready to help you find resources in your area. If you are concerned about a loved one, learn more about how you can help.
Look into the Health at Every Size (HAES), a movement that recognizes "that health outcomes are primarily driven by social, economic, and environmental factors," not weight, to encourage the pursuit of health without a focus on weight loss. is built on pillars of weight inclusivity, health enhancement, respectful care, eating for well-being, and life-enhancing movement, all with the ultimate goal of tuning into your body's innate guidance to make food and movement choices that help you feel confident, nourished, fulfilled, and healthy inside your body without trying to change its appearance. "It looks at people's health status, separate from weight," says Matz, and it's "really doing a great job of giving people information that ... you can be healthy regardless of your size," says Strings.

Strings adds that HAES is built upon the belief that you are worthy of love and respect, regardless of your size. In a society that demonizes fatness, it's a simple but novel concept. As Strings says: "Just to love yourself and to know that you can be healthy regardless of your weight is really a revelation to probably most Americans."

Read More From Our Anti-Diet Series

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Jessica Teich, Good Housekeeping Institute

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Throughout 2021, Good Housekeeping will be exploring how we think about weight, the way we eat, and how we try to control or change our bodies in our quest to be happier and healthier.

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Group 4 - Joshua Nola, Barbara Chen, Lily Green, Amaya

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Group 4 - Joshua Nola, Barbara Chen, Lily Green, Amaya

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Do Detox Diets and Cleanses Really Work?

https://www.healthline.com/nutrition/detox-diets-101

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Detoxification (detox) diets are more popular than ever.

These diets claim to clean your blood and eliminate harmful toxins from your body.

However, it is not entirely clear how they do this, what specific compounds they're supposed to eliminate, and if they even work.

This is a detailed review of detox diets and their health effects.

Detox diets are generally short-term dietary interventions designed to eliminate toxins from your body.

A typical detox diet involves a period of fasting, followed by a strict diet of fruit, vegetables, fruit juices, and water. Sometimes a detox also includes herbs, teas, supplements, and colon cleanses or enemas.

This is claimed to:

Rest your organs by fasting

Stimulate your liver to get rid of toxins

Promote toxin elimination through feces, urine, and sweat

Improve circulation

Provide your body with healthy nutrients

Detox therapies are most commonly recommended because of potential exposure to toxic chemicals in the environment or your diet. These include pollutants, synthetic chemicals, heavy metals, and other harmful compounds.

These diets are also claimed to help with various health problems, including obesity, digestive issues, autoimmune diseases, inflammation, allergies, bloating, and chronic fatigue ().

However, human research on detox diets is lacking, and the handful of studies that exist are significantly flawed (, 3).

SUMMARY
Detoxes are short-term interventions designed to eliminate toxins from your body. They're claimed to aid various health problems.

There are many ways to do a detox diet - ranging from total starvation fasts to simpler food modifications.

Most detox diets involve at least one of the following ():

Fasting for 1-3 days.

Drinking fresh fruit and vegetable juices, smoothies, water, and tea.

Drinking only specific liquids, such as salted water or lemon juice.

Eliminating foods high in heavy metals, contaminants, and allergens.

Taking supplements or herbs.

Avoiding all allergenic foods, then slowly reintroducing them.

Using laxatives, colon cleanses, or enemas.

Exercising regularly.

Completely eliminating alcohol, coffee, cigarettes, and refined sugar.

Detox diets vary in intensity and duration.

SUMMARY
There are many kinds of detoxes. They almost always involve fasting, eating specific foods, avoiding harmful ingredients, and/or taking supplements.

Detox diets rarely identify the specific toxins they aim to remove. The mechanisms by which they work are also unclear.

In fact, there is little to no evidence that detox diets remove any toxins from your body.

What's more, your body is capable of cleansing itself through the liver, feces, urine, and sweat. Your liver makes toxic substances harmless, then ensures that they're released from your body ( 3, , , , ).

Despite this, there are a few chemicals that may not be as easily removed by these processes, including persistent organic pollutants (POPs), phthalates, bisphenol A (BPA), and heavy metals ( 3, , , , ).

These tend to accumulate in fat tissue or blood and can take a very long time - even years - for your body to flush (, , ).

However, these compounds generally are removed from or limited in commercial products today ().

Overall, there is little evidence that detox diets help eliminate any of these compounds.

SUMMARY
Detox diets rarely identify the specific toxins they're claimed to remove, and evidence that they remove toxins at all is lacking. Your body can clear itself of most toxins through the liver, feces, urine, and sweat.

Some people report feeling more focused and energetic during and after detox diets.

However, this improved well-being may simply be due to eliminating processed foods, alcohol, and other unhealthy substances from your diet.

You may also be getting vitamins and minerals that were lacking before.

That said, many people also report feeling very unwell during the detox period.

Effects on Weight Loss

Very few scientific studies have investigated how detox diets impact weight loss ().

While some people may lose a lot of weight quickly, this effect seems to be due to loss of fluid and carb stores rather than fat. This weight is usually regained quickly once you go off the cleanse.

One study in overweight Korean women examined the lemon detox diet, which limits you to a mixture of organic maple or palm syrups and lemon juice for seven days.

This diet significantly reduced body weight, BMI, body fat percentage, waist-to-hip ratio, waist circumference, markers of inflammation, insulin resistance, and circulating leptin levels ().

If a detox diet involves severe calorie restriction, it will most certainly cause weight loss and improvements in metabolic health - but it's unlikely to help you keep weight off in the long term.

Detox Diets, Short-Term Fasting, and Stress

Several varieties of detox diets may have effects similar to those of short-term or intermittent fasting.

Short-term fasting may improve various disease markers in some people, including improved leptin and insulin sensitivity (, ).

However, these effects do not apply to everyone. Studies in women show that both a 48-hour fast and a 3-week period of reduced calorie intake may increase your stress hormone levels (, ).

On top of that, crash diets can be a stressful experience, as they involve resisting temptations and feeling extreme hunger (, ).

SUMMARY
Detox diets may help with short-term weight loss, though more studies are needed. Some detox diets may resemble intermittent fasting regimes, which can improve some biomarkers of health.

A few aspects of detox diets may have health benefits, such as ():

Avoiding dietary sources of heavy metals and POPs

Losing excessive fat

Exercising and sweating regularly

Eating whole, nutritious, healthy foods

Avoiding processed foods

Drinking water and green tea

Limiting stress, relaxing, and getting good sleep

Following these guidelines is generally linked to improved health - regardless of whether you're on a detox diet.

SUMMARY
Several aspects of detox diets may aid your health. These include avoiding environmental toxins, exercising, eating nutritious food, drinking water, limiting stress, and relaxing.

Before doing any sort of detox, it is important to consider possible side effects.

Severe Calorie Restriction

Several detox diets recommend fasting or severe calorie restriction. Short-term fasting and limited calorie intake can result in fatigue, irritability, and bad breath.

Long-term fasting can result in energy, vitamin, and mineral deficiencies, as well as electrolyte imbalance and even death ().

Furthermore, colon cleansing methods, which are sometimes recommended during detoxes, can cause dehydration, cramping, bloating, nausea, and vomiting ().

Overdosing

Some detox diets may pose the risk of overdosing on supplements, laxatives, diuretics, and even water.

There is a lack of regulation and monitoring in the detox industry, and many detox foods and supplements may not have any scientific basis.

In the worst cases, the ingredient labels of detox products may be inaccurate. This can increase your risk of overdosing, potentially resulting in serious - and even fatal - effects ().

At-Risk Populations

Certain people should not start any detox or calorie-restricting regimens without consulting a doctor first.

At-risk populations include children, adolescents, older adults, those who are malnourished, pregnant or lactating women, and people who have blood sugar issues, such as diabetes or an eating disorder.

SUMMARY
Detox diets may severely limit energy and nutrient intake, posing various risks to your health. Some groups of people should never do detox diets.

Your body is frequently exposed to toxic substances. However, most of the time, it can remove them without additional help.

While detox diets may seem tempting, their benefits likely have nothing to do with vanquishing toxins, but rather with eliminating various unhealthy foods.

A much smarter approach is to eat healthier and improve your lifestyle rather than go on a potentially dangerous cleanse.

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Do Detox Diets and Cleanses Really Work?

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Detoxification (detox) diets are more popular than ever. These diets claim to clean your blood and eliminate harmful toxins from your body. However, it is not entirely clear how they do this, what specific compounds they're supposed to eliminate, and if they even work. This is a detailed review of detox diets and their health effects.