{"url":"https://whatshealthyandwhy.com/juice-cleanses/do-juice-cleanses-detox-your-body","path":"/juice-cleanses/do-juice-cleanses-detox-your-body","alternates":{"json":"https://whatshealthyandwhy.com/api/articles/juice-cleanses/do-juice-cleanses-detox-your-body.json","markdown":"https://whatshealthyandwhy.com/juice-cleanses/do-juice-cleanses-detox-your-body.md"},"topic":{"slug":"juice-cleanses","name":"Juice Cleanses","url":"https://whatshealthyandwhy.com/juice-cleanses"},"slug":"do-juice-cleanses-detox-your-body","order":1,"title":"Do Juice Cleanses Detox Your Body?","question":"Do juice cleanses detox your body?","answer":"Juice cleanses may not detox your body: your liver and kidneys already clear toxins, and no controlled trial shows a cleanse removes more.","description":"What the evidence says about juice cleanses: little proof they remove toxins, a fibre and sugar trade-off, and kidney risks for some people.","confidence":2,"confidenceNote":"No randomised trial tested commercial detox diets, the one juice study had 20 people and no control group, and conclusions rest on physiology, a critical review and kidney-injury case reports.","evidenceSummary":{"rctCount":1,"observationalCount":3,"metaAnalysisCount":4,"totalParticipants":"310,000+","replicated":false,"newestStudyYear":2025},"category":{"categoryTitle":"Detox & Heal","categorySlug":"detox-and-heal","subcategoryName":"Cleansing","subcategorySlug":"cleansing","url":"https://whatshealthyandwhy.com/explore/detox-and-heal/cleansing"},"actions":["Put the money into whole fruit and vegetables: in a meta-analysis of 95 studies, intakes up to 800 g a day went with lower heart disease and death risk [7].","Aim for 25 to 29 g of fibre a day from whole foods; risk reduction in pooled studies was greatest in that range [9].","If you like juice, drink it with a meal rather than replacing food for days; a review of 15 systematic reviews found mostly neutral effects from 100% juice [11]."],"cautions":["Kidney disease, kidney stones or past gastric bypass? Avoid juice cleanses, especially oxalate-rich leafy greens, which have caused acute kidney failure in case reports [5][6].","Diabetes, or taking insulin or sulfonylureas? Juice-only days can swing blood sugar and change medicine needs, so ask your care team first [3].","Pregnant, breastfeeding, a history of an eating disorder, or taking warfarin or other prescription medicines? Do not start a juice-only plan without asking your clinician or pharmacist."],"simpleText":"Probably not. Your liver and kidneys already neutralise and excrete waste routinely [2], and a critical review found no randomised trials showing that detox diets remove toxins [1]. Juice-only days strip out fibre and can swing blood sugar [3][4], and oxalate-rich juices have caused kidney failure in people with risk factors [5][6]. Whole fruit and vegetables are the better bet [7].","mediumText":"How it works\n\nWho does the cleaning. The liver converts drugs and other compounds into more water-soluble forms, and the liver, gut, kidneys and lungs then remove them [2]. A critical review of detox diets found very little clinical evidence for them. A handful of small, flawed studies claimed effects on liver detoxification or pollutant elimination, and the reviewers found no randomised trial of a commercial detox diet in humans [1].\n\nWhat a juice cleanse does do. In a study of 20 healthy adults who drank only vegetable and fruit juices for 3 days, weight and BMI fell and stayed lower at day 17, gut bacteria shifted (partly reversing), and well-being scores rose. There was no control group [8].\n\nWhat you give up. Juicing removes most of the fibre. In a small randomised trial of 10 people, apple juice was swallowed 11 times faster than whole apples, was less satisfying, and produced a bigger insulin rise and a rebound drop in blood glucose [3]. In three large US cohorts, each three servings a week of fruit juice went with 8% higher diabetes risk, while whole fruit did not [4]. Higher fibre intakes, in contrast, were linked to 15% to 30% lower risk of death, heart disease, type 2 diabetes and colorectal cancer, and trials showed lower body weight, blood pressure and cholesterol [9].\n\nJuice is not poison. Across 19 adult trials, 100% juice did not significantly change body weight [10], and an umbrella review found most outcomes unchanged and some, such as blood pressure, improved [11]. The problem is replacing food with it for days.\n\nThe kidney risk. Oxalate is a natural compound in leafy greens and some other plants that can form crystals in the kidneys. Case reports describe acute kidney failure after heavy intake of oxalate-rich juices, including a \"green smoothie cleanse\"; the people involved had risk factors such as chronic kidney disease, gastric bypass or recent antibiotics [5][6].\n\nA gentler plan. Eat the fruit and vegetables whole, add beans, oats and whole grains for fibre, and keep your usual meals. See our liver support article for food-based ways to support your body's own processes.","deepText":"The evidence in detail\n\nDetox claims\n\nThe critical review examined whether detox diets are necessary, what they involve, whether they work and whether they are dangerous. It found few clinical studies, hampered by flawed methods and small samples; preliminary signals for foods such as coriander, nori and olestra came mostly from animals; and it found no randomised controlled trials of commercial detox diets in humans [1]. The absence of trials is not proof of harm or of no benefit, but it means the claims are unsupported.\n\nThe juice study\n\nHenning and colleagues gave 20 healthy adults only vegetable and fruit juices for 3 days, then 14 days of their usual diet. On day 4 weight and BMI had fallen significantly (P = 2.0E-05) and remained lower on day 17 (P = 3.0E-04). Gut bacteria shifted (less Firmicutes and Proteobacteria, more Bacteroidetes and Cyanobacteria) and partly reversed by day 17. Plasma nitric oxide rose 244 ± 89% and a urinary marker of lipid oxidation fell 32 ± 21% [8]. It had no control group, lasted days, and the health meaning of these markers is unknown.\n\nFibre, satiety and blood sugar\n\nIn the classic randomised trial, 10 adults ate test meals of apples, purée or fibre-free juice, each with 60 g of available carbohydrate. Juice was consumed 11 times faster than intact apples and 4 times faster than purée. With eating speed equalised, juice was less satisfying than purée, and purée less than apples. Plasma glucose peaked similarly, but fell sharply after juice, and insulin was higher after juice and purée [3]. The cohort data come from Nurses' Health Study I and II and the Health Professionals Follow-up Study (66,105 women, 85,104 women, 36,173 men; 12,198 diabetes cases): per three servings a week, fruit juice carried HR 1.08 (95% CI 1.05 to 1.11), whole fruit 0.98 (0.97 to 0.99) and blueberries 0.74 (0.66 to 0.83) [4].\n\nJuice, weight and overall health\n\nA meta-analysis of 42 studies found each daily serving of 100% juice went with 0.03 higher BMI in children. In adults, cohorts that ignored total energy found 0.21 kg more weight, those that adjusted found 0.08 kg less, and 19 trials showed no significant effect (-0.53 kg, 95% CI -1.55 to 0.48) [10]. The umbrella review of 15 reviews rated 10 of 51 meta-analyses as showing benefit, 3 as showing risk and the rest as neutral [11].\n\nKidney injury\n\nA Mayo Clinic review of 65 patients with biopsy-proven calcium oxalate crystals in the kidney (1985 to 2010) identified three with presumed diet-induced oxalate nephropathy, including a patient with acute kidney failure after heavy juicing, and warned that oxalate-rich diets can precipitate failure in chronic kidney disease [5]. A 65-year-old woman with normal kidney function developed acute kidney injury that progressed to end-stage disease after a green-vegetable juice cleanse; gastric bypass and recent antibiotics were predisposing factors [6]. These are case reports, so the risk to healthy people is unknown.\n\nWhole-food evidence\n\nA dose-response meta-analysis of 95 studies found that, per 200 g a day of fruit and vegetables, risk fell for coronary heart disease (RR 0.92, 95% CI 0.90 to 0.94), stroke (0.84, 0.76 to 0.92), cardiovascular disease (0.92, 0.90 to 0.95), total cancer (0.97, 0.95 to 0.99) and all-cause mortality (0.90, 0.87 to 0.93), with benefits up to 800 g a day [7]. A series of reviews of 185 prospective studies and 58 trials (4,635 participants) found the greatest risk reduction at 25 to 29 g of fibre a day, with moderate-certainty evidence [9].\n\nWhere the evidence disagrees\n\nObservational diet studies can be confounded by healthier habits. The juice study shows short-term changes in weight and biomarkers, but those changes do not show that anything harmful left the body [8]. Whole juice is not harmful in most outcomes [11], so the case against cleanses rests on missing benefit, lost fibre and rare kidney injury, not on proven widespread harm.\n\nBottom line (confidence 2 of 5). There is no good evidence that juice cleanses remove toxins; your liver and kidneys already do that work. A short cleanse is unlikely to hurt a healthy adult, but it costs fibre and can be dangerous for kidneys. Eating whole plants is the better-supported option.","deepTruncated":false,"references":[{"id":"1","title":"Detox diets for toxin elimination and weight management: a critical review of the evidence","authors":"Klein AV, Kiat H","year":2015,"journal":"J Hum Nutr Diet","pmid":"25522674","url":"https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/25522674/"},{"id":"2","title":"Drug Metabolism in the Liver","authors":"Almazroo OA, Miah MK, Venkataramanan R","year":2017,"journal":"Clin Liver Dis","pmid":"27842765","url":"https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/27842765/"},{"id":"3","title":"Depletion and disruption of dietary fibre. Effects on satiety, plasma-glucose, and serum-insulin","authors":"Haber GB, Heaton KW, Murphy D, et al.","year":1977,"journal":"Lancet","pmid":"71495","url":"https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/71495/"},{"id":"4","title":"Fruit consumption and risk of type 2 diabetes: results from three prospective longitudinal cohort studies","authors":"Muraki I, Imamura F, Manson JE, et al.","year":2013,"journal":"BMJ","pmid":"23990623","url":"https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/23990623/"},{"id":"5","title":"Oxalate nephropathy due to 'juicing': case report and review","authors":"Getting JE, Gregoire JR, Phul A, et al.","year":2013,"journal":"Am J Med","pmid":"23830537","url":"https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/23830537/"},{"id":"6","title":"\"Green Smoothie Cleanse\" Causing Acute Oxalate Nephropathy","authors":"Makkapati S, D'Agati VD, Balsam L","year":2018,"journal":"Am J Kidney Dis","pmid":"29203127","url":"https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/29203127/"},{"id":"7","title":"Fruit and vegetable intake and the risk of cardiovascular disease, total cancer and all-cause mortality-a systematic review and dose-response meta-analysis of prospective studies","authors":"Aune D, Giovannucci E, Boffetta P, et al.","year":2017,"journal":"Int J Epidemiol","pmid":"28338764","url":"https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/28338764/"},{"id":"8","title":"Health benefit of vegetable/fruit juice-based diet: Role of microbiome","authors":"Henning SM, Yang J, Shao P, et al.","year":2017,"journal":"Sci Rep","pmid":"28526852","url":"https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/28526852/"},{"id":"9","title":"Carbohydrate quality and human health: a series of systematic reviews and meta-analyses","authors":"Reynolds A, Mann J, Cummings J, et al.","year":2019,"journal":"Lancet","pmid":"30638909","url":"https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/30638909/"},{"id":"10","title":"Consumption of 100% Fruit Juice and Body Weight in Children and Adults: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis","authors":"Nguyen M, Jarvis SE, Chiavaroli L, et al.","year":2024,"journal":"JAMA Pediatr","pmid":"38227336","url":"https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/38227336/"},{"id":"11","title":"Health effects of drinking 100% juice: an umbrella review of systematic reviews with meta-analyses","authors":"Beckett EL, Fayet-Moore F, Cassettari T, et al.","year":2025,"journal":"Nutr Rev","pmid":"38679915","url":"https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/38679915/"}],"wordCount":1114,"source":{"path":"src/content/topics/juice-cleanses/do-juice-cleanses-detox-your-body.md"},"citeAs":"“Do juice cleanses detox your body?.” What's Healthy and Why. https://whatshealthyandwhy.com/juice-cleanses/do-juice-cleanses-detox-your-body","notice":"General information backed by peer-reviewed research, not medical advice."}