seven days to four weeks What is detox tea? While the ingredients vary from brand to brand, boxes tend to be sold as programmes – lasting anything from seven days to four weeks – with some recommending you drink a daytime and night-time tea for best results.
Maybe it’s all Jack’s fault. After all, being raised on the idea that a few measly beans are all you need to make your dreams come true sets you up to be somewhat open to ideas based more on BS than science. Which is perhaps why so many women are necking so-called detox tea with abandon.
Teatoxing, to give it its proper moniker, has taken to Instagram like a digestive to a cup of English Breakfast – largely down to claims that they double up as slimming aid. An Insta search for #teatox throws up more than 700,000 results, mostly comprising of shots of a toned tum alongside a box of tea (#weightloss #wellness #ad).
What is detox tea?
While the ingredients vary from brand to brand, boxes tend to be sold as programmes – lasting anything from seven days to four weeks – with some recommending you drink a daytime and night-time tea for best results.
One of the biggest brands describes its teatox as ‘a natural cleansing tea that will leave you feeling energised and motivated to reach your goals’, while another frontrunner claims its 14-day teatox package will ‘rid your body of harmful toxins and support your weight-loss efforts’. Bold claims. Really bold.
And presumably, it’s on these promises that the price is based, because teatoxing doesn’t come cheap. The average teatox teabag costs around 42p, whereas a bag of supermarket-branded English Breakfast works out at around 3p. So what gives?
How detox tea works
At first glance, the average ingredients list of a teatox looks pretty harmless: Chinese oolong tea, ginger, ginseng – all above board, and known to aid a healthy stomach and bowels. Then there’s a little-known ingredient called senna. You probably won’t have heard of it unless you’ve visited your doctor complaining of a problem in the pipes department. It’s a herb containing chemicals called sennosides, which irritate the lining of the bowels, triggering a laxative effect, medically approved for treating constipation and emptying the bowels before surgery.
It’s the prevalence of this in detox teas that has medical experts and nutritional advisers concerned. ‘Walk into a chemist and buy several packets of laxatives and you’re likely to be questioned by the person behind the counter,’ says nutrition consultant Dr Lauretta Ihonor. ‘But when I walked into a reputable high street store and bought a teatox programme, the sales assistant tried to sell me more as part of a special offer. She was clearly unaware of the dangers of taking laxatives long-term.’ And it’s likely the majority of women stocking up on tea in the hope of a flatter tum are, too.
Aside from the obvious inconvenience of spending more time on the loo (that to-do list won’t tick itself), unprescribed laxatives will almost certainly render your general wellness goals redundant. ‘Drinking tea containing senna will speed up the transit of the food in your intestine, meaning you’re less likely to absorb the energy,’ explains Dr Megan Rossi, a research associate at King’s College London who specialises in gut health. ‘Malabsorption of your food means you could end up with nutritional deficiencies, because although you’re eating a balanced diet, most of it is passing straight through your body and coming out into the toilet.’
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And, unfortunately, becoming far more au fait with your bathroom isn’t set to deliver on all those debloating promises anyway. ‘Laxative teas may relieve a bloated tummy in some, simply because they essentially drain your digestive system of food, but for others they can make bloating worse by drawing more fluid into the gut,’ adds Dr Rossi. ‘And depriving your body of nutrition by taking laxatives could trigger your body to go into starvation mode, leading to weight gain when you stop drinking the teas.’
The effects of unprescribed laxatives aren’t confined to the digestive system – you can also become dehydrated and even develop food issues. Indeed, the eating disorder charity Beat has warned that teatoxes can normalise the use of laxatives as a behavioural choice, as opposed to a medical need, leaving users vulnerable to developing a full-blown eating disorder.
Why can shops retail cleansing tea?
So far, so scary. Which begs the question: why aren’t these products better regulated? ‘In the UK, health supplements and weight loss products are treated as foods, rather than medicines,’ says Dr Ihonor. ‘While the tablets you buy from the chemist undergo years of clinical testing and trials, teatox products can be thrown together without a shred of scientific or medical knowledge because their claims are only scrutinised by the Advertising Standards Agency if or when a significant number of people complain.’
So complain she did. Dr Ihonor was so concerned about the senna content in detox teas that she petitioned for its removal. After she secured 28,656 signatures, last September saw one company agree to remove senna from its formulation, while another market leader changed its labeling to make the laxative effect clear, and even introduced a senna-free version of its 28-day teatox, too.
But considering that a worrying amount of women are still shelling out, what are they actually paying for (save for the laxatives)? ‘Herbal teas have always been popular,’ says dietitian and spokesperson for the British Dietetic Association Aisling Pigott. ‘There may not be a strong body of evidence to suggest their benefits health-wise, but they’re not harmful and some people may find them useful and enjoyable.’
So is it worth splashing out on a senna-free option, or should you just stick to the tea aisle in Tesco? ‘It’s unlikely you’ll get the variety of herbs and spices in the cheaper stuff, so that will depend on your taste. But from a health perspective, you won’t gain any benefits from drinking more expensive tea.’
The truth about 'detox'
Teatoxes aren’t the only means by which well-intentioned women are parting with their cash in search of a quick fix. Researchers at the charity Sense About Science contacted manufacturers of 15 products that claimed to ‘detoxify’, but when quizzed on the claims, not a single manufacturer would (or is that could?) define what the term meant.
When it comes to getting rid of nasties, the good news is that you already have a top-of-the-range built-in toxin destroyer: it’s called your liver. It might not photograph as well as a perfectly packaged box of tea but, when it comes to clearing out booze, breaking down fat and stabilising your blood sugar levels, looks aren’t everything. If you have tried a teatox, don’t panic.
‘If you’ve fallen foul of any laxative effects or loose stool, give your gut time to recover, keep caffeine intake low and stay hydrated,’ says Pigott. ‘Some people also use probiotics to restore gut health, but contact your GP if symptoms don’t improve.’
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And if you are going to buy the pricier stuff? ‘Make sure you check the labels and read all the ingredients listed. If in doubt, check with your doctor,’ she adds. And remember, there’s no such thing as magic beans.
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Chloe Chiddle, 21, a student living in Cardiff, was left in agony after she tried a teatox.
‘I heard about teatoxing from a friend, who told me it had helped her drop 5lbs. With a holiday on the horizon, I thought I’d give it a go. At £20 a box, it was pricier than I’d expected, but the packaging assured me I’d lose weight. I didn’t have much time before my holiday, so I thought the larger price tag would be worth it.
'I started drinking one cup in the morning and one at night – it tasted no different from other herbal teas and I had no idea the reason I was guaranteed to lose weight was because it contained laxatives. It wasn’t long before I found out the hard way. I’d be stuck on the toilet for an hour every morning, with diarrhea during the rest of the day and painful, period-like cramps each night. I bought the teas as part of a 21-day programme but, after a week, I couldn’t bear the side effects any longer and stopped drinking them.
'Looking back now, I feel cheated to think that I bought into the clever marketing. Had I read the list of ingredients properly, I would have known what I was putting in my body – though I still wouldn’t have realised senna is a laxative. Now that some companies have improved their labelling, I hope that anyone who decides to do a teatox will know exactly what they’re putting their body through.’
Want to ease a bloated tummy without a teatox? Make one of these 12 healthy smoothies and read up on the widely publicised ketogenic diet.
Smoothy Slim
Photo: Anna Shvets
