French Detox Diet

Advocates of detoxifying your body claim that it is a holistic way to rid yourself of toxins from such things as processed foods, chemicals, sugars and alcohol. In their eyes, cleansing the body is often the first step toward embarking on a weight-loss regimen that leads to a healthier wellness, and preventive-oriented lifestyle.
With so many detox diets on the market, it is often difficult to assess whether one is right for you. As with many alternative medical choices, there are pros and cons as to the efficacy, safety and reliability of detoxification. Debate on the more radical procedures has been ongoing for many years, and recommendations are mixed.
The leading French Detox Diets, as advocated by Mirielle Guiliano in her book, "French Women Don't Get Fat" and Dr. Pierre Dukan's four-step plan toward healthy lifetime eating incorporate only brief detoxification periods designed to "kick-start" their new weight loss programs. These programs aid the transition to a healthy lifestyle with a focus on healthy, organic ingredients and foods, leading to lifelong changes in eating habits and relationships to food.

Detox Regimens

Detoxing is meant to cleanse the body of negative substances and cleanse the palate to incorporate new eating habits and aid in weight loss. The methods claim to do everything from making your hair shinier, reducing your cellulite and helping your liver function better. According to these advocates, the liver will be able to metabolize food faster and clean toxins more quickly since it will have gotten rid of the substances stored during the cleanse.
Experts warn, however, that these claims may be quite misleading and allowing a harsh cleanse may be detrimental to a person's well-being. There are scores of diets that advocate harsh methods of cleansing, including drinking nothing but lemon juice mixed with maple syrup, water and cayenne pepper, as well as salt water and a laxative tea for 10 days. These fasts are harmful and may cause drops in potassium levels, vitamin deficiencies and other health problems. This is in direct contrast with their claims of better health and more efficient bodies.

The "French Women Don't Get Fat" Detox and Diet

Mirelle Guiliano in her book, "French Women Don’t Get Fat," talks about using a short-term, 48-hour method to initiate her eating plan. This plan does not call for radical periods of fasting or quick weight loss to cleanse the body. Instead she suggests a two-day consumption of leek soup. To assuage hunger, she claims you can also eat the greens with some olive oil and lemon between drinking the leek broth every two to three hours. Guiliano even provides for alternative recipes for the broth, incorporating more vegetables that are ingested during the cleanse as well so the dieter has an option of eating these one cup at a time. The rationale behind this modified detox is to rid the body of the stored processed foods and chemicals and, in addition, get the dieter used to the smaller portions that are an important component to the new habits touted by the weight loss and healthy lifestyle eating plan.

Dukan's French Detox Diet Plan

Dukan's plan tries to wean dieters off food addictions such as sugar and excessive carbohydrates by cleansing them out of the body, advocating an initial stage of protein consumption with a lot of water -- at least 1.5 liters per day. This attack stage acts as the detoxification stage, but unlike other harsher methods, he encourages food intake, but only from a specific list of 100 foods and for a period of only five to 10 days. After this time frame, other foods are added, including vegetables, some extra foods containing carbohydrates, and fruits. Dukan's detox calls for lifestyle and eating changes to incorporate his four steps to a healthy eating lifestyle. Instead of focusing on only detoxification, Dukan incorporates three other steps: cruise, consolidation and stabilization. Each step is accompanied by an intake of oat bran or wheat bran to continually provide the cleansing needed throughout the diet and lifestyle eating process.

Grape Cure

A more stringent method of detoxification that is advocated by many cleansing gurus in France involves the grape cure. This detoxification consists of consuming only grapes and water. The properties of grapes include polyphenols, resveratrol, potassium, vitamin C and glucose. While eating the grapes over a three-day period might trigger the cleanse and detoxify the body, it would take many more pounds of grapes to produce beneficial polyphenols than could be eaten during this time period. When this diet was attempted by an "Elle" magazine reporter, she found that a detox consisting solely of grapes triggered her hunger and by the end of her "grapes-only fast" she had lost water weight, along with muscle weight and a minimal amount of fat. This was in exchange for subsisting on grapes for days and binges of carbohydrates when she could no longer eat the grapes. Like so many detox diets, the initial results seem to indicate weight loss, but unless dietary habits are changed, the weight returns, and harsh aftereffects may continue for a long time.

Moving on to the New Eating Habits

Each detox procedure is advocated by many in the alternative medical community. More traditional practitioners have found that the body cleanses itself quite adequately and there is no need for harsh measures. In both Dukan and Guiliano's take on detoxification, the authors believe it is a short-term means leading to a more positive healthy pattern of eating.
The French Detox Diet plans are more on the order of behavior modification that uses a short cleansing to assist in achieving long-term results. Unlike the other types of cleanses that promise fast weight loss, the French detoxification regimes advocate a retraining of a person's relationship with food -- smaller portions, organic healthy foods and attention paid to what is put into the body and how it's put there.