Detox programs have been sprouting crazily on the horizon throughout the years, all with one aim: to cleanse the body of harmful toxins. These plans entail discipline from participants who must follow the wellness scheme strictly. This year, Gwyneth Paltrow’s Goop introduced a detox plan that spans for five days and basically prohibits tons of food like caffeine, gluten, dairy, refined sugar, white rice, eggs, nightshades, soy, and many more. Sounds horrendous, right? Let’s see if it worked wonders for a person who tried it.
Goop | Gwyneth Paltrow’s Goop has a five-day detox plan
First-Hand Experience
People Associate Editor Ana Calderone volunteered to take on the detox plan and laid out her experience. As for the preparation, the program requires a multitude of ingredients for the meals for the whole week amounting to about $300, which may be too much for some of us. Plus, she noted how she returned a couple of times within the week to the grocery store because not everything was available during her first trip at the shop.
The first day saw a cranky Ana because she is a coffee person who couldn’t get her caffeine fix. As expected, it is the adjustment period because it is the first time, perhaps in a long time for some, that your body has to stomach food you’re not used to. The meals are as follow: grain-free granola, borscht, brown rice cake with avocado, and salmon patties with cauliflower rice. For day two, the volunteer felt body pain and intense headache. For breakfast, consume a blueberry coconut chia; lunch, leftover salmon; snack, apple, and almond butter; dinner, beans, and greens soup.
Goop | Some of the dishes for the plan, like the date balls, are repeated in other days
For the third day, meals are grain-free granola, leftover beans and greens soup, date balls, and roasted chicken and cauliflower with herb salad. Ana explained that on the fourth day, the meal prep has eaten a lot of her time in the morning. Food for that day was cauliflower with bean scramble, kale caesar with chicken and chickpeas, and Tom Yum soup, which she said was too salty.
On the last day, Ana explained she felt more energetic than the first few days of the detox plan. For breakfast, you need to gulp a blueberry coconut chia smoothie; lunch, detox bun salad; snack, date balls; and dinner, blackened trout with sweet roasted potatoes and arugula salad.
The Verdicts
In the end, Ana revealed she lost 3 pounds over the course, but be that as it may, she’s unsure if she would suggest it to other people. Sara Hendricks of thisisinsider.com also tried the detox program and said she would never do it again after feeling hungry by the end of the week. She did feel lighter, her tummy flatter, cheekbones even more visible, but she’s willing to welcome some of the recipes for good in her life.
Is There Such Thing as Detoxing?
Exeter University emeritus professor Edzard Ernst explained that there are two types of toxins: one, those that are used for medical treatments, while the other kind is blown out of proportion by entrepreneurs and big companies that make money by launching detoxifying treatments that allegedly flush out the bad chemicals out of your body. If our bodies have accumulated tons of toxins that we couldn’t excrete, it would have manifested, we would have been dead, or be in need of serious medical attention, he pointed out.
Deposit Photos | Some experts say these detox plans and treatments are fake
What’s worse, experts said some of the detox programs can potentially harm us. Typical detoxing would entail little to no solid food at all, only liquids. That’s why doctors and other experts are alarmed by the steadily growing popularity of these trends. American Dietetic Association spokesperson Lona Sandon said that our body could have a shortage of vitamins and minerals from food, which could lead to the vulnerability of our body to infections and diseases.
