Monday, January 5 2009
Tox Talks
Just looking at this picture makes me want to take up smoking and drinking bourbon.
I love modern journalism. So much of it has been streamlined to make way for more advertising and less budgets for research, follow-up and analysis that the most errant nonsense shows up as gospel, and gets recirculated by other news services eager for cheap and usually sensational pronouncements that sell papers (or increasingly, pixels).
Note that I'm not bragging myself up: I'm not even remotely a journalist and barely qualify as a columnist (which is a journalist so freed from the fetters of good reporting that they just get to make stuff up). But I do my best to keep my science right, and my heart skeptical. Which is why I found the juxtaposition of two articles this morning so very amusing.
The first, in the New York Times online edition, touts Here's to Your Health: Detox Drinking, and merrily reassures bloated and liverish holiday revellers that by loading up their consumption with 'healthy' fruits and vegetables they can promote health through food.
The second, in the BBC News Online notes that 'Scientists Dismiss Detox Myth'. They lead with a considerably more skeptical paragraph:
The charitable trust Sense About Science reviewed 15 products, from bottled water to face scrub, and found many detox claims were "meaningless".
I think that's wonderful, but a big bag of 'duh'. Putting an additional substance in your body to 'detoxify' you from other things you put in is like the old lady who swallowed a spider to get a fly, etcetera. The article goes on to sum up
Anyone worried about the after-effects of Christmas overindulgence would get the same benefits from eating healthily and getting plenty of sleep, they said.
If you're like me, you found excuses to indulge or over-indulge as the case may be, during the holiday season. My own cure falls back to getting more sleep and exercise, and less fat, starch and alcohol and more vegetables and water. Will that detox me? Sort of, but only because I'll be stressing my body less and letting it get on with the business of metabolism and maintenance. Milkweed thistle, liver supplements and ancient secret herbs?
Ground control to Major Tom: take your protein pills and put your helmet on.
Like phrenology, radium tonic, anti-comet pills and tying an onion to your belt before crossing water, detox cures have their moments of fashion and hysteria. I think it's probably driven by people's desire to cure their ills with a pill or a single treatment that makes it all better.
That's the problem with moderation: actually behaving yourself is not much fun. Of course neither is paying for it later, so I'll see you all in the gym this month.
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