Do detox diets work?
Are we what we eat? It’s a question we put to the test with the help of the UK’s leading scientists, setting up a number of experiments using the latest research techniques. To assess the effectiveness – or not – of detoxing, we took ten female volunteers between the ages of 19 and 33, who had been partying hard at a rock festival, and whisked them away to country cottages in Devon. Five were put on a detox regime designed by a group of eminent dieticians, including Nigel Denby from Hammersmith and Queen Charlotte’s Hospitals in London. The other five acted as “controls” and followed a normal, healthy diet. The detox diet rules included: no processed food – everything to be made from scratch; no added salt or sugar; no tea or coffee; no wheat, red meat, dairy produce, alcohol, squash or fizzy drinks; and organic produce wherever possible. Two toxicology experts from Imperial College, London, and nutritionist Professor Gary Frost from the University of Surrey checked over what we were f
