Detox Cleansing Tea

More than 90% of the teas sold on the market under the banner of "detoxifying and cleansing the intestines" cannot remove the "toxins" you think, and long-term drinking will destroy your intestines. If you really want to regulate the smoothness of the intestines, you don't need to spend this wasted money.

When I was doing nutritional consulting two years ago, I met a 22-year-old girl who bought 3 boxes of 99 yuan of Internet celebrity bowel cleansing tea in order to get full discounts from e-commerce. She said that drinking it would not only relieve constipation but also slim down her face and lighten her spots. In the first half of the month, she drank it every day and drank a cup of it after hot pot. She was sure to have a good bowel movement the next day and lost 3 pounds. Everyone she met said this tea was a miracle. As a result, in the third month after drinking this tea, she found that she could not go to the toilet at all without drinking this tea, and her belly was extremely bloated. She went for a colonoscopy and found that there was mild blackening of the intestinal wall. The doctor said that if she continued to drink the tea, the intestinal peristalsis function would only get worse and worse, and it might develop into intractable constipation.

To be honest, it cannot be said that all intestinal cleansing teas are useless IQ taxes. If you eat hot pot every day and get angry and can't poop, make some mild herbal tea with chrysanthemum, barley, and a small amount of cassia seeds and drink it for a day or two. It can indeed relieve the discomfort of bloated belly. I ate too many soy bones last winter and didn't have a bowel movement for two days. I also made half a cup of cassia seed and lotus leaf tea, and drank it for a long time before I could pass it. It was indeed more comfortable than carrying it. But this function is essentially to replenish water. In addition, the legal mild tea on the market contains a small amount of dietary fiber and mild herbal ingredients. It just happens to be suitable for your symptoms of heat secretion. It has nothing to do with "detoxification" - the human body's liver, kidneys, and intestines have their own metabolism. With the function of eliminating waste, there is no "poop" that has been accumulated for ten years waiting for you to eliminate with tea. The so-called diarrhea after drinking is mostly because the ingredients in tea stimulate the rapid peristalsis of the intestines and expel undigested food and water. The scales that fall out are all water, and they will go back up after eating two meals.

Different people have very different opinions on this thing. The last time I went to the drugstore downstairs to buy Hangzhou Baiju, I saw a teller selling an annual card of more than 300 yuan for bowel cleansing tea to a sixty-year-old aunt, saying that drinking it could lower blood lipids and lighten age spots. I couldn't help but say, "Auntie, if you have constipation, try eating more prunes and dragon fruit first. If it doesn't work, go to the doctor to prescribe medicine. Don't drink this stuff blindly." The teller glared at me on the spot. In fact, there is no concept of "detoxification" marketed in traditional Chinese medicine. Regular Chinese medicine doctors prescribe teas for defecation. They are all symptomatic: if you have heat constipation caused by internal heat, you can prescribe some hemp seeds and cassia seeds for a few days and it will be fine. If you have cold constipation due to qi deficiency and spleen and stomach deficiency, the more you drink such cold tea, the more serious the constipation will be. The attitude of Western medicine is more direct: As long as the intestinal cleansing tea causes abdominal pain and diarrhea after half an hour to an hour, stimulant laxatives such as senna, rhubarb, and aloe vera are basically added. Long-term drinking will destroy the intestinal flora and cause the intestinal wall muscles to gradually lose the power of independent peristalsis. In severe cases, colon melanosis may occur, and even increase the risk of intestinal lesions. In clinical practice, many patients with problems due to long-term drinking of intestinal cleansing tea are encountered every year.

There are also health bloggers who say that as long as they choose "no additives" and "pure herbs", there will be no problem. In fact, these words have to be discounted. A friend of mine who does food testing has previously tested more than a dozen Internet-famous intestinal cleansing teas that claim to be "laxative-free". Three of them secretly added excessive amounts of sennosides, which are not listed on the ingredient list at all. Although you may feel the effect is good after drinking it, it is actually the laxatives that have damaged your intestinal health. If you really have to choose, look through the ingredient list. If senna, rhubarb, and aloe vera are in the top three, just put it down and go. Even if you want to buy it, you can only drink it once or twice for emergencies. You definitely can't drink it as water every day.

I rarely touch the commercially available intestinal cleansing tea. If I eat too much and my stomach becomes bloated, I will either eat two prunes or soak some tangerine peel and drink it with warm water. I usually eat a pound of green leafy vegetables every day and walk two extra stops after get off work. My bowel movements have always been quite regular. Some friends have tried homemade bowel cleansing tea that is very popular on the Internet. They boil water with lemon, honey, and ginger and drink it. They say it feels good after drinking it. In fact, it is just warm water with some vitamins and sugar added. If you drink two more cups of warm boiled water, the effect will not be much different.

Anyway, don’t just watch the advertisements and get excited about the things you eat. If you really can’t pass stool for three or four days in a row, go to the hospital to see a doctor first. Don’t use your own intestines as a test field. After all, if the intestines are damaged, it will be difficult to repair them no matter how much money you spend.