Project Summary: >> Detox diets are generally designed to improve the ability of the body to remove toxins. It sounds great in theory, but does it actually work? Well, we're going to put the detox theory to the test. Take ten women who love to party. [ Cheering ] Let the girls abuse their bodies with alcohol and bad food. Then add a country retreat and divide the girls into two groups. Put one group on a detox diet, while the other group eats normally and we'll see what difference the detox makes. >> If you'll all stand up, I've got the straws. >> The experiment begins by randomly picking the five girls who will detox. The other five will act as a control group. They'll eat a normal diet. Then the science starts. >> We're going to establish kind of how well you guys are functioning in terms of your liver, your kidneys. We're going to do quite a bit of testing today. I'm going to start you on the detox tomorrow and at the end of that, I'm going to do another load of testing, so we can compare the two results. >> Okay. >> I'm going to hand you each a test tube. There you go. >> Before the trial begins, both groups are tested to see how loaded with toxins they all are, how well their bodies are coping will show up in samples of blood, saliva and a whole twenty four hours worth of urine. >> Everything you pass between now and the morning goes in here. >> At the end of the week, more samples will be taken and analyzed to see if the detox girls have flushed the impurities from their systems and got their bodies working more efficiently. For the next week, the white group will follow the rigorous detox diet, starting with a whole day of just fresh vegetable juice and water. Meanwhile, the reds will eat a hearty balanced diet with a little of everything in moderation. This includes pasta, red meat, curry, wine, coffee, chocolate and crisps. Most detox diets begin with a fasting day, no food allowed, just juices. It's argued that this will increase the ability of the kidneys and the liver, to flush any toxins out of the bloodstream. It's a prospect that the girls are not looking forward to. [ Background Conversations ] [ Blender Whirls ] [ Cheering ] >> Yeah, success! [ Background Noises ] Next door, the control girls enjoy a much more appetizing start to the day. For their bodies, it's tea, toast, butter and jam, business as usual. It's argued that doing a detox will reinvigorate the body and leave you feeling healthier. So, our test will see if our detox can improve the function of the liver and kidneys, the most important detox organs. The week is up. The women have put their bodies through every stage of our detox diet. >> Day one was this and now day seven is this and it's just awful. >> Emily? >> The last task before they leave the detox house is to drop off the final twenty four hours worth of urine and saliva. >> So, I'm quite looking forward to seeing what the results are to be honest. >> The results are analyzed by the Head of Toxicology at Imperial College, Professor Alan Boobis. >> We were looking to see whether the detox diet might be able to help the body remove toxins. And we then compared the detox group with the control group. I have to say, ladies, that the detox diet had absolutely no effect. [brief laughter] >> So, all that sacrifice was for nothing and there was no difference between the groups. >> To hear that is absolutely amazing because we had very different diets over the week. >> Would you advise people that detox diets are pretty much a myth? >> I would say many of them are just that and that they are based on a rather simplistic view of how the body works and fails to take kind of a true complexity. >> The body is designed to get rid of most harmful toxins quite naturally by itself. Our liver and kidneys will remove some toxins in minutes and most of us within forty eight hours of them entering the body. Our liver and kidneys don't need to rest and simply flushing them with water and juices, won't speed up the bodies natural detox processes. That's the transcript of the video above Juicing has become very popular. The information/research presented on the internet is not always scientifically accurate. Watch the video and do a brief search of the benefits/concerns of juicing. 1. Discuss what you found in researching the benefits or concerns surrounding juicing. 2. What would you advise your best friend about juicing if he/she said they were going to go on a month long juice fast. Be specific about the reason to or not to juice for 30 days. 3. Explain why you think juicing has gain such popularity