Research by The Guardian indicates that the global market for detox wellness
products will rise from 49 billion dollars in 2019 to an estimated 80.4 billion dollars by 2030. It is a massive market that is steadily growing and is being boosted by the
multiple social media trends in health and wellness found on TikTok and Instagram,
but have these detox trends gone too far? The worries I have surrounding detoxing
first appeared when I was scrolling through TikTok and found a girl on my for you
page who was restricting herself from sleep as a method of detoxing her body
somehow. While detoxing has been around for a long time in the health and wellness
industry, it seems to have reached new extremes in recent years, and I must
question whether a complete withdrawal from something is ever truly beneficial to
your health?
There are many different detox trends that you can find on the internet at the
moment, the most popular being ones involving diet and fasting. It is no surprise that
the trends gaining the most traction are associated with weight loss because
people’s insecurities about their bodies will always be the most profitable area in the
health and wellness industry. However, when it reaches a point where health
‘specialists’ are telling people to just eat once a day, or even not at all on juice fasts,
we have to challenge these methods because while you may lose weight, fasting can
have all kinds of adverse side effects such as fatigue and irritability. Furthermore,
some people are taking detoxing to even further extremes through dopamine
detoxing which involves restricting yourself from the pleasures of life in order to reset
your dopamine levels and make things more enjoyable later on. These pleasures of
life can go as far as to include eating and talking which seems wholly unhealthy and
there is no scientific evidence that proves it even works. It is important to note that
while certain detoxes, like the digital detox which involves cutting yourself of from all
technology and social media can be healthy for some people. This is because there
are certain aspects of life that can be so harmful and invasive that sometimes a
complete departure from them feels good. On the other hand, we have to recognise
that these practices are not sustainable. While detoxing may feel good or provide
you with the more immediate results you are looking for, these effects are usually
temporary and can create more health issues than before, like nutrient deficiencies.
Most doctors recommend a balanced approach. Resorting to the extremes of all or
nothing can actually cause more damage than it is worth, and for only temporary
results. Balance and sustainability are the key to long-term health and wellbeing so
do not believe everything on social media and just because something is a trend
does not necessarily mean you should join in.