Muscle for Life with Mike Matthews - This Is Why You Should Stop Drinking Detox Teas

Episode Date: October 6, 2017

If you spend any time on Instagram, you can’t help but run into pretty girls promoting the miracles of “detox” teas. You know… Effortless weight loss Appetite suppression Improved digestion More energy Reduced bloating Improved complexion And more… In fact, many of these fitnessistas swear that they’ve never looked or felt better since starting their detox tea regimens. They’re not alone, either. Celebrity endorsements abound, and they’re flanked by countless before-and-after shots of everyday folk losing 20, 30, even 40+ pounds in just a matter of months. Thus, it’s no surprise that detox teas are more popular than ever. The promise of losing fat, looking sexier, and feeling better by just gulping down some mildly appetizing liquids is just too alluring for many to resist. It also smacks of “too good to be true,” and as you’re going to learn in this episode, there’s more to the detox tea story. A lot more. The reality is detox tea “cleanses” can help you lose weight, but not because of the tea, and not not safely and healthily. In fact, you’d be better off just starving yourself and drinking plenty of water. Ironically, the name “detox tea” is itself misleading because not a single one of these beverages “detox” your body. In this episode, you’ll learn what detox tea really is, why “teatoxing” is an unhealthy way to lose weight and what you should do instead. 3:18 - What is detox tea? 4:36 - Can you lose weight with detox teas? 10:16 - What are toxins and how does our body process them? 12:39 - What else can assist your body's natural detoxification? Want to get my best advice on how to gain muscle and strength and lose fat faster? Sign up for my free newsletter! Click here: https://www.muscleforlife.com/signup/

If you spend any time on Instagram these days, you can't help but run into pretty girls promoting the miracles of quote-unquote detox teas. You know, stuff like effortless weight loss, appetite suppression, improved digestion, more energy, reduced bloating, better complexion, and on and on. In fact, many of these fitnessistas swear that they've never looked or felt better since starting their detox tea regimens. And they're not alone either. endorsements are everywhere and those are flanked by countless before and after shots of everyday folk like you and me losing 20, 30, and even 40 plus pounds in just a matter of months. And thus, it's no surprise that these detox teas are hugely popular. It does seem like the fad is starting to wane. It seems like the wave has crested and it's probably on its way down,

the wave has crested and it's probably on its way down, but nevertheless, they're still definitely a thing. The promise of losing fat, looking sexier and feeling better by just gulping down some mildly appetizing liquids is really just too alluring for many people to resist. It also smacks of too good to be true, of course. And as you're going to learn in this podcast, to be true, of course. And as you're going to learn in this podcast, there is a lot more to the detox story than you are being told. Because the reality is, these detox quote-unquote cleanses, yeah, they can help you lose weight, but not because of the tea and not safely and healthily. In fact, you would really just be better off starving yourself and drinking plenty of water and just leaving the tea out of it. Furthermore, and rather ironically, the name detox tea is itself misleading because not

a single one of these beverages is going to do anything in the way of detoxing your body. So if you want to learn what detox tea really is, why quote unquote, tea toxing is just an unhealthy way to lose weight and what you should do instead, then you want to listen to this podcast. Now, before we dive into this episode, I have to shill for something to pay the bills, right? No, I'm just kidding.

I'm not big on promoting stuff that I don't personally use and really believe in. So instead, I am going to just quickly tell you about something of mine, specifically my fitness book for women, thinner, leaner, stronger. Now this book has sold over 150,000 copies in the last several years and helped thousands of women build their best bodies ever, which is why it currently has over 1200 reviews on Amazon with a four and a half star average. So if you want to know the biggest lies and myths that keep women from ever achieving the lean,

sexy, strong, and healthy bodies they truly desire, and if you want to learn the simple science of building the ultimate female body, then you want to read or listen to Thinner, Leaner, Stronger, which you can find on all major online retailers like Audible, Amazon, iTunes, Kobo, and Google Play. All right, that's it for the shameless plugging. Let's get to the show. All right, so let's start this discussion at the top and answer the question, what is detox tea? So most of these teas are really just blends of various herbal teas like green tea or Ramate and Oolong. And some also contain so-called superfoods like goji berries, milk thistle, and ginseng. In other words,

these are just your basic bitch teas that cost very little to produce, leaving piles of cash to spend on marketing, which is why you see so many people, including very high profile celebrities, promoting these types of products. The bigger companies in the space are spending millions and millions of dollars per year on this online boosterism. And when you are willing to pay up to a quarter million dollars for a single Instagram post. And yes, that has happened more than once in the detox tea game. You'll never lack shills that will promote for you. So keep that in mind the next time you see these gals with large followings gushing about how much tea toxing helps them look and feel great. You should also know that many of the often startling success stories that you see promoted by

these companies are simply fake because with a little Google Foo and Photoshop, you can put together all the testimonials you could ever want to sell anything. That isn't to say all the success stories are fake, but many of them are. Now, as I mentioned earlier, you can lose weight with detox teas, but that doesn't mean that you should. You see, because there's a missing component here. You don't lose weight by just drinking the detox tea. You lose weight by drinking the detox tea and heavily restricting your calories. So yes, if you do that, you absolutely can lose a lot of weight. But the question is, what is driving the weight loss here? Is it the magical molecules in the tea that program your body to burn fat? Or is it just eating way less food than usual?

Eating way less energy, way fewer calories than you're burning. Now, if you're a regular here or on my websites, you know the answer. If you want to lose fat, you must eat less energy than you burn. And no amount of pills, powders, or teas can change this. So if you're not regularly eating fewer calories energy than you're burning, no meaningful weight loss can occur regardless of all the tea that you might be drinking. Now, if that is news to you, or if you're not quite sure where you stand on the calories in versus calories out debate, consider this. Why do you think that every single controlled weight loss study conducted in the last

hundred years, including countless meta-analyses and systematic reviews, has concluded that meaningful weight loss requires energy expenditure to exceed energy intake? There's complete consensus here, scientifically speaking. Furthermore, why have bodybuilders dating back really just as far from Sandow to Reeves and all the way up the line, why have they been using and continue to use this simple knowledge to systematically and routinely reduce and increase body fat levels? And why do new brands of calorie denying come and go every year, failing to gain acceptance in the weight loss literature?

Well, the answer to all these questions is very simple. A century now of metabolic research has conclusively proven beyond the shadow of any doubt that energy balance, which operates according to the first law of thermodynamics, is the basic mechanism that regulates body weight. If you want to dive into that, head over to muscleforlife.com, search for energy balance, and you can read an in-depth article that I wrote on it. Maybe I'll also record a podcast just so it's out there. Now, this is why detoxing for weight loss always involves drastically reducing your calorie intake as well, usually just through food restriction, you know, no longer being able to eat certain types of foods that you would normally eat and replacing them with foods that maybe you wouldn't

normally eat, but that are always low calorie. When you do that, yes, you can lose weight very quickly, regardless of whether you drink tea or not. And I would say you'll lose weight even faster. If you reduce your carbohydrate intake, you won't lose fat faster, but you will lose weight faster because you're also going to shed water and glycogen. And that also makes people excited when they look at the scale every day. So in other words, this detox tea phenomenon is really just another health-washed starvation diet with all the downsides that you expect that come with severe caloric restriction, including muscle loss, which leads to the dreaded skinny fat look, intense hunger and cravings, mood swings, and more. Moreover, as it goes with very low calorie

dieting, a lot of the weight that you initially lose is water, which of course returns rapidly once you start eating more food again. Many of these teas also contain laxatives, which can absolutely accelerate weight loss, but it can also impair your body's ability to absorb key nutrients from your food, which is particularly bad when you are restricting your calories because you are already eating less food in general, which means your body is getting less nutrition than it's used to. And laxatives can also cause dehydration, electrolyte depletion, and gut dysbiosis, which is a harmful imbalance of bacteria in your gut. So the bottom line here is detox teas are nothing more than weight loss gimmicks designed to give you short-term gratification with zero regard for your long-term

health, physique, or lifestyle habits. So if you were considering buying some detox tea because you want to lose weight faster, don't bother. What you should do instead is you should use an aggressive but not reckless calorie deficit. You should eat a high protein diet and you should do a lot of heavy compound weightlifting. You can also include cardio in your regimen. You don't have to, but it can help speed up the process. And if you're going to, I recommend that you use high intensity interval training for maximum fat loss. But if that doesn't work for you, then I'd recommend you go to the other end of the spectrum and just include several hours of walking per week in your exercise routine. If you want to learn more about all that, Google Legion Athletics, lose muscle and not fat.

And you will see an article that I wrote that breaks it all down. Hey, quickly, before we carry on, if you are liking my podcast, would you please help spread the word about it? Because no amount of marketing or advertising gimmicks can match the power of word of mouth. So if you are enjoying this episode and you think of someone else who might enjoy it as well, please do tell them about it. It really helps me. And if you are going to post about it on social media, definitely tag me so I can say thank you. You can find me on Instagram at muscle for life fitness, Twitter at MuscleForLife, and Facebook at MuscleForLifeFitness. All right, so that is detox teas in the context of weight loss. Let's now talk about them in the context of detoxing. So let's start with a question. What are toxins and how does our

body process them? And the answer is toxins are simply poisonous substances that we ingest or inhale. Plenty of these are man-made and out in the environment, but nature is also overflowing with them as well. For example, caffeine and alcohol are toxins. The atmosphere contains toxins like ozone and nitrogen dioxide, and natural sources of water contain a whole host of dangerous contaminants like arsenic, fluoride, mercury, and cyanide. So the reality here is, yes, modern living bombards your body with toxins every day, and if it didn't have an effective way to dispose of them, you really wouldn't last long. Fortunately, our bodies are up to the task thanks to the complex

organic and chemical systems that eliminate harmful substances and thus protect against disease and dysfunction. The liver, for example, is the first line of defense because one of its primary jobs is transforming harmful chemicals in the body into harmless ones that can be excreted through urine, sweat, and feces. The kidneys also help the body remove toxins and waste products in a similar fashion. Now, detox tea hucksters like to play on these facts by claiming that their products help quote-unquote cleanse the liver and kidneys, but this simply isn't true. The first thing you need to know here is the liver and kidneys don't store toxins like a sponge. They're

not waiting for a good squeeze. Instead, what they do is they turn toxic chemicals and waste products into molecules that can be safely removed from the body. And the second thing here is you can't just boost your liver and kidney function with teas or supplements. Instead, you can make it easier for them to do their jobs by eating a healthy diet, exercising regularly, and limiting your consumption of toxins. Now, another claim that is often made to sell detox teas is that they cleanse your colon of toxic sludge that's lodged in your intestinal walls. And while this may sound healthy, it's just not true. it's just not true. The laxatives in many of these teas can absolutely make you poop a lot, which can bring your weight down, but they're definitely not ridding you of noxious toxic waste buildup. It's just poop and it would come out anyway. So yes, pooping is great,

but there's no scientific evidence that forcing yourself to poop a lot is going to confer any health benefits. Okay. So if detox teas can't help your body detox, is there anything you can do to at least assist your body's natural detoxification mechanisms? And the answer is yes, absolutely. Unfortunately, there are no weird tricks or simple shortcuts to getting and staying healthy. You really can't erase or even counterbalance the damage of an unhealthy lifestyle by drinking detox teas or taking supplements. The reality is if you want to live a long, healthy, and vital life, then healthy habits are the name of the game. And the big ones are one, exercise regularly. Exercising at least two or three times per week is the hands-down easiest way to improve more or less every aspect of your health.

Research shows it lowers your risk of basically every major chronic disease. It prevents cognitive decline during aging. It improves general mood and quality of life. It helps you maintain a healthy weight. It increases longevity. The benefits just go on and on. And if you want bonus points, then do a combination of resistance training and cardiovascular exercise. And if you want bonus points, then do a combination of resistance training and cardiovascular exercise. And if you want even more credit, then I would say include some mobility work in your routine too. My personal favorite choice these days is yoga. Okay, so the next thing you can do to not only help your body detoxify itself, but also just to improve your overall health and well-being is, you guessed it, eat plenty of fruits and vegetables. Just because you can eat a nutritionally bankrupt diet and be lean and muscular doesn't mean that you should. There are very good reasons why people that eat higher

amounts of fruits and vegetables are, on the whole, healthier and more likely to live longer disease-free lives than those who don't eat enough. These plant-based foods provide your body with the essential vitamins and minerals, as well as other phytonutrients that confer a variety of health benefits. Two good examples of this are sulforaphane and anthocyanins, which are found mainly in broccoli and blueberries, respectively. These molecules can benefit your body in many ways, but are not found on food labels because the food labels only focus on essential nutrients. It's non-vital nutrients like these, though, that help explain why you can't replace a fruit and vegetable rich diet with a multivitamin and see the same results.

And it's also why the first commandment of healthy dieting is eating a variety of fruits and vegetables ranging from dark leafy greens to onion and garlic, colorful fruits, berries in particular, cruciferous vegetables, mushrooms, and more. Now, some people do argue that being lean and muscular and exercising regularly just negates many of the harmful effects of a nutritionally weak diet. But I mean, I say, why use that as an excuse to just eat poorly when you can have the best of both worlds? In other words, why not reap the immense benefits from both healthy dieting and exercise? That's why I recommend that you get at least 80% of your

daily calories from relatively unprocessed nutritious foods that you prepare yourself and no more than 20% from more processed, maybe prepackaged treats. For example, I myself get the majority of my calories from foods like these avocados, various types of greens, bell peppers, Brussels sprouts, cauliflower, white potatoes, sweet potato, bananas, and berries in particular. My favorite fruits, low-fat yogurt, eggs, various seeds and nuts, beans. My personal favorite are black beans. Pinto beans are good though too in terms of nuts. My personal favorite is the walnut. I like the taste and it also happens to be the most nutritious nut. Various fish like halibut, cod, tilapia, sometimes tuna, lean beef sometimes, a lot of chicken and turkey. And yeah, that's pretty much most of my calories every day. I'd say about 25 to 2600 of my daily calories come from those types of foods. And in terms of treats, my personal go-to is dark

chocolate. I know it's not very indulgent of me, but that's just what I like. And sometimes I'll swap that with some pistachio halo top ice cream instead. So the next healthy habit that also helps your body with detoxification is not smoking and not abusing alcohol. And the reasons here are known to most. Smoking weakens your immune system and increases your risk of cancer, heart disease, liver disease, and just about every other type of illness you can think of. It also just dramatically increases your risk of death at every age, not just when you're old. Now, alcohol isn't as dangerous, of course, unless it is abused, but it's also far from being healthy. People that like to drink alcohol also like to believe that moderate alcohol intake is perfectly safe and even beneficial, but research shows that's not quite true, and what many people want to think is moderate alcohol consumption is more like alcoholism.

And this is why studies show that minimizing your alcohol intake is associated with a lower risk of death and disease. intake is associated with a lower risk of death and disease. So the bottom line here is if you want to keep your body as clean and functional as possible, then you definitely want to limit your use of cigarettes and alcohol, or even better, just avoid them altogether. And the last healthy habit here is getting enough high quality sleep. Because if you sleep poorly for too long, the consequences can be pretty dire. On the other hand, if you sleep well, the benefits can be surprisingly far-reaching. You see, when you give your body enough high-quality sleep, many very welcome things happen. Your memory improves, you enjoy lower levels of systemic inflammation, you become a better learner and problem solver,

you'll find that you can stick to your diets easier. Your immune system is going to function better. Your mood is going to be generally better. Your athletic performance improves and you are likely to live longer. The bottom line here is good sleep hygiene is like a good exercise routine. It just improves your life in just about every way you can imagine. So the bottom line with this whole discussion on detox tea is that these teas have become very popular because people love to believe in magic bullets and especially magic bullets that help you lose weight and get healthy. Unfortunately though, detoxing doesn't help you lose weight for any reason other than it just

involves starving yourself. And these teas do nothing for your body's natural detoxification systems, which are primarily your liver and kidneys. In short, the whole kit and caboodle is really just a smoke and mirrors scam that may or may not go away. Who knows? The good news though, is that you absolutely can lose weight quickly, safely, and healthily. All you have to do is follow the advice that I gave earlier, which again, you can find if you Google Legion lose fat, not muscle. Hey there, it is Mike again. I hope you enjoyed this episode and found it interesting and helpful. And if you did, and don't mind doing me a favor and want to help me make this the most popular health and fitness podcast on the internet, then please leave a quick review of it on iTunes or wherever you're listening from. This not only convinces people that they should check the show

out, it also increases its search visibility and thus helps more people find their way to me and learn how to build their best bodies ever too. And of course, if you want to be notified when the next episode goes live, then just subscribe to the podcast and you won't miss out on any of the new goodies. Lastly, if you didn't like something about the show, then definitely shoot me an email at mike at muscleforlife.com and share your thoughts on how you think it could be better. I read everything myself and I'm always looking for constructive feedback, so please do reach out. All right, that's it. Thanks again for listening to this episode and I hope to hear from you soon. And lastly, this episode is brought to

you by me. Seriously though, I'm not big on promoting stuff that I don't personally use and believe in. So instead I'm going to just quickly tell you about something of mine, specifically my fitness book for women, thinner, leaner, stronger. Now this book has sold over 150,000 copies in the last several years and helped thousands of women build their best bodies ever, which is why it currently has over 1200 reviews on Amazon with a four and a half star average. So if you want to know the biggest lies and myths that keep women from ever achieving the lean, sexy, strong, and healthy bodies they truly desire. And if you want to learn the simple science of building the ultimate female body, then you want to read or listen to

thinner, leaner, stronger, which you can find on all major online retailers like Audible, Amazon, iTunes, Kobo, and Google Play.