SIRC Media Watch Archive
Comment and Opinion – November 2002

Sin, Salvation and Celery Juice. The detox revolution has attracted much criticism from the medical establishment. Much of this is targeted at the vagueness of our understanding of the meaning, and indeed the benefits, of detox…So why do people have faith in the power of detox? Eating and drinking to excess is one of the things that humans, and especially rich, western humans, do best. So it is understandable that we would want to spring clean now and then, to eat lightly but well for a while and perhaps take some exercise for the sake of our health. This would be equivalent of dusting the house and hovering. In comparison, a full-on detox, with or without the helpful assistance of a course of colonic irrigation, would be like stripping up the carpets and throwing out the furniture. There is a kind of puritanical zeal about the detoxing process, reminiscent of monks fasting or flaggelating themselves for their sins. Which of course is not to be condemned, but is hardly the basis of balanced, empirically tested nutritional advice. Full article