Lemon Detox Diet

What is the Lemon Detox Diet?

Detox and Body Clense (2015) describes the Lemon detox diet as a cleansing program that aims to flush out toxins and free radicals that kill healthy cells, out of the body. With the hype and focus being on the rapid reduction in body weight, which is identified as an added bonus to expelling toxins and cleansing the body.

The drink consists of “a mix of 20mls of syrup, 20mls of lemon juice, a pinch of cayenne pepper and 250ml of water” (Health Direct Australia, 2013). Throughout each day an individual will drink six to nine glasses each day, consume a laxative senna tea at night and a sea salt drink in the morning. In addition to this, participants are advised to accompany this with the consumption of 2 litres of water a day, as identified by Health Direct Australia (2013). 

Does it meet the Australian Dietary Guidelines? 

Guideline 1: Achieve and Maintain a healthy weight, be physically active and choose amounts of nutritious foods and drinks to meet your energy needs. (National Health and Medical Research Council, 2013)

“No other meals, snacks or foods are allowed, and the general suggestion is that exercise should be avoided.” (Health Direct Australia, 2013). Without any extra foods being consumed to accompany this detox, participants would not be able to attain the recommended dietary intake of some nutrients. Also, if exercise is discouraged from this detox as well, it obviously shows that it is not promoting physical activity among people. As outlined above, this lemon detox predominately consists of drinking liquids that do not contain a  vast majority of carbohydrates or proteins. Berry (2013) reports that this lemon detox cuts outs all the core nutrients.

Guideline 2: Enjoy a variety of nutritious foods from these 5 food groups every day (National Health and Medical Research Council, 2013)

The only food group being addressed with this detox diet is fruit. There is no variety in this diet that lasts approximately 2 weeks. The guideline recommended to eat a range of foods from 5 food groups, whilst this diet only pertains to 1.

Guideline 3: Limit intake of foods containing saturated fat, added salt, added sugar and alcohol (National Health and Medical Research Council, 2013)

The lemon detox diet does follow this guideline. It does not involve any added salts or sugars and does not state that alcohol is to be consumed in accompany with it. 

Therefore, the lemon detox diet abides to 1 out of 3 Australian Dietary guidelines. 

Recommendations about the Lemon Detox Diet

Personally, I would make the focus of the diet about getting rid of the toxins in the body. There has been a lot of hype about rapid weight loss in regards to taking part in the lemon detox diet however, the weight loss has been said to be short-lived. Health Australia Direct note that the weight loss is through the lack of carbohydrates, thus it is likely to be gained again once your normal diet commences. the downfalls evidently outweigh the benefits. Without the consumption of a sufficient amount of carbohydrate and proteins, the body may slowly begin to function less efficiently. "the body will go into starvation mode stripping your carbohydrate and fluid stores, and stripping muscle" (Health Australia Direct, 2013)

References

Berry, S. (2013, January 10). What made these three diets the biggest lemons of the year, according to dietitians around Australia? The Sydney Morning Herld [Sydney]. Retrieved from http://www.smh.com.au/lifestyle/diet-and-fitness/worst-diets-of-2012-20130110-2cidk.html

Detox and Body Clense. (2015). Lemon detox diet recipe | Detox & Body Cleanse. Retrieved from http://www.detoxandbodycleanse.com/detox-diets/lemon-detox-diet-recipe/

Health Direct Australia. (2013, February). healthdirect | Healthdirect. Retrieved from http://www.healthdirect.gov.au/diet-reviews

National Health and Medical Research Council. (2013). Australian Dietary Guideline Summary [PDF]. Retrieved from https://www.nhmrc.gov.au/_files_nhmrc/publications/attachments/n55a_australian_dietary_guidelines_summary_131014.pdf