Detox and Colonic irrigation does it work ?

[Barry Shnikov]

...anything that gets people rethinking all the crap they consume can't be a bad thing. She may not be a medical doctor but as a celebrity doctor and encouraging people to eat healthy can't be too much of a bad thing.

This isn't an either/or situation, you know. 'Either we have Gillian McKeith saying things which we know she doesn't know whether they are true or not, or we all eat unhealthily and get fat and slobby.'

First, many people seem to have bought into the idea that we have to eat weird and previously unheard of foods simply in order to be healthful, which all properly trained nutritionists will tell you is not true. All that is required is what has been known of for at least 50 years as 'a balanced diet'.

Second, many people also seem to have bought into the idea that a particular type of diet can stave off illness or help you deal with illness or even allow you to operate on some sort of forgotten inherent super-level not enjoyed since we stopped foraging in the forest outside the village walls for the miracle vegetation which produces these effects. Again, there isn't any proof that any of this is true.

The McKeith system is a sort of scienced-up sympathetic magic. "Chorophyll is what plants used to create oxygen out of water, CO2 and sunlight. So - if you eat - pure chlorophyll - er - it'll help you oxygenate your blood! Wow. Phew. Okay then, yay chlorophyll!"

The faintest knowledge of human biology will allow you to see that in the ferociously antagonistic environment of the mammalian gut chlorophyll is going to be chopped up and broken down into smaller, more manageable pieces.

Anything we eat contains cell tissue, which contains DNA. But we never find vegetable DNA accidentally incorporated into human cells because it is broken down by the gut.

She is on record as saying that seeds contain all the energy necessary to make a full grown plant. That's such a stupid misunderstanding of plant development that it doesn't need any explaining here - I hope.

Even if some bits of McKeith's recommendations make good sense (in several TV series it's a stochastic likelihood) the problem is that unless the viewer is more knowledgeable than her, he or she is not going to know which bits they are.

The simple fact is that this woman is on TV instead of someone else who would really know what they are talking about. But that hypothetical TV nutritionist would only be saying - Er, eat a balanced diet. Eat a balanced diet. Er, eat a balanced diet. Whereas what TV bosses want is something far more dramatic than that. Something like across between the Open University and Big Brother.

[Aleks]

Sorry, Aleks, but that's simply not true. It sounds plausible, but there's absolutely no evidence that the vast majority of herbs are capable of affecting the body as a medicine.

Maybe cos no-one is testing them? Pharma companies are far more interested in patenting something non-organic as it will make them more money.

My 'beliefs' aside, if you go back to my original post I said that quick fixes such as starvation detox diets and colonic irrigation are useless. Lifestyle change would be a better option and suggested cutting down or omitting totally things such as wheat, dairy, red meat, alcohol and caffeine would be a good start. I should also have mentioned sugar. You have jumped on two words (a name) I typed and made an issue of them and totally ignored the rest.

[Aleks]

Balanced diet is a highly debatable issue. The "5 a day' we are encouraged to eat was originally decided up on as 9 by the panel who advised the government. However, it was deemed most people would be demotivated by that number, so they lowered it to 5 which appeared more manageable.

There's also huge difference between balanced diet and balanced nutrition. There are six elements to nutrition, not just lipids/sterols (fats) and carbs which are generally those counted (or even calories). Proteins, vitamins, enzymes and minerals play their part, but apart from that woman alluding to them (quite possibly incorrectly) it is rare that I hear anyone mentioning them.

Oh, and quite probably I don't know all there is to know on this subject and am quite arrogantly assuming that the knowledge I do have is useful.

[Barry Shnikov]

Maybe cos no-one is testing them? Pharma companies are far more interested in patenting something non-organic as it will make them more money.

All I was saying is that however many herbs may be medically active, there are a great many that are not.

My 'beliefs' aside, if you go back to my original post I said that quick fixes such as starvation detox diets and colonic irrigation are useless. Lifestyle change would be a better option and suggested cutting down or omitting totally things such as wheat, dairy, red meat, alcohol and caffeine would be a good start. I should also have mentioned sugar. You have jumped on two words (a name) I typed and made an issue of them and totally ignored the rest.

I had no problem with the other things you wrote*, but your mention of GM indicated approval. People reading your post might take that as a recommendation. I wanted to make sure that anyone who was looking for advice would at least have an opportunity to see that there were authoritative opinions that GM is not a person to look to for dietary advice.

(*mostly...though AFAIK there's no evidence that wheat, dairy or red meat have adverse affects on any other than a highly restricted number of persons.)

[Barry Shnikov]

Balanced diet is a highly debatable issue. The "5 a day' we are encouraged to eat was originally decided up on as 9 by the panel who advised the government. However, it was deemed most people would be demotivated by that number, so they lowered it to 5 which appeared more manageable.

There's also huge difference between balanced diet and balanced nutrition. There are six elements to nutrition, not just lipids/sterols (fats) and carbs which are generally those counted (or even calories). Proteins, vitamins, enzymes and minerals play their part, but apart from that woman alluding to them (quite possibly incorrectly) it is rare that I hear anyone mentioning them.

Oh, and quite probably I don't know all there is to know on this subject and am quite arrogantly assuming that the knowledge I do have is useful.

I think on the whole a balanced diet is taken as one in which the appropriate vitamins and minerals will be found, as well as protein, fat and carbohydrates. Aren't enzymes just broken down in the stomach (except for the ones that are active in the gastric juices)?

I'm sure you know loads more about nutrition than most people, definitely more than me. But it isn't you I'm motivated against - it's GM.