So many people are jumping on the weight loss bandwagon, marketing new, healthy diets, which simply do not work. These generally take two forms, one which offers a new ‘plan’ or ‘schedule’, telling you what foods to eat and when. The other version, that’s becoming increasingly common, are the ‘cleansing’ diets. These are the ones that tell you that being fat is not your fault, but the result of some sort of parasite or disease that you can combat… if you buy their product.

The fact is, this is simply not true. To take one example for instance, a product that claims that one of the leading causes of obesity is a “worm” called “Paragonimus westermani” that supposedly infects you. And yes, I suppose this could be true, provided that you’re in the habit of regularly eating raw, freshwater crabs. When was the last time you ate a raw crab? I certainly can’t remember ever doing it. But of course, they just “happen” to leave out this little detail.

The best thing you could hope for when following one of these body cleansing schemes is that nothing would happen, while in fact what is far more likely is that you would end up with some major problems. If you did get rid of all the bacteria in your gut, you would be completely defenseless to all the usual dangers that they normally protect you from.

Just think of your body as a country, where the borders are guarded by an army of bacteria. They take up no space, cause no damage to you, and viciously fight off the attempt of any other bacteria to invade.

As a case in point, let me share with you one of the more stupid mistakes I’ve seen recently. One of the ‘cleansing’ sites I checked out had some photos which they claimed were of ‘plaque spots’ on the colon. funny thing is, they had forgotten to remove the caption on the picture that read “Candidiasis”. Turns out, Candidiasis is a dangerous condition caused by the lack of bacteria.

That doesn’t seem very clever. I’d think that someone who claimed to be a doctor would know enough not to make a mistake like that, but I guess they’re not as smart as they think they are. Personally I would not want to take the chance of trusting myself to the hands of someone who can’t even tell one disease from another.

It’s all down to you, of course, but I would rather keep to dieting then risk myself on a new scheme that probably won’t work, and could even seriously hurt me. Dieting is hard, and takes a lot of effort, but even if I wasn’t willing to try I would prefer to be fat then to be dead.

The cleansing programs offer a lot of big promises and claims, but they’re all either scams, or ignorance. If you want something that will really work, talk to your doctor or dietician, and stay clear of the crazy new schemes that haven’t a hope of working.