How a plant-based diet can reduce your cancer risk
5 detox myths: The truth about cleanses and liver detox
July 17, 2026
Key takeaways
- Your liver, kidneys, lungs and skin naturally remove waste and toxins without detox diets or cleanses.
- Fasting, juice cleanses and supplements may cause nutrient deficiencies, electrolyte imbalances and other health risks.
- A balanced diet, regular exercise, good sleep and limiting alcohol are the safest, most effective ways to support overall health.
Detox diets or cleanses have grown in popularity over recent years on social media and in online health forums. The idea is that these detoxes offer your body short-term reset by removing harmful substances called toxins
Marketers of detoxification products, diets and supplements claim they can cleanse your system and provide all kinds of benefits, such as more energy, better digestion, reduced inflammation and weight loss.
But are our bodies really full of toxins? And do we need help to get rid of them?
Medical professionals, including those at UT MD Anderson, say that research largely shows that detox diets do not offer long-lasting benefits while posing various health risks instead.
Here’s the truth behind five detox myths.
Myth: Your body needs help to detox
Fact: Your body does not need a detox program. It’s designed to detoxify itself.
Toxins in your body come in two forms:
- Endotoxins are byproducts your body makes, such as lactic acid, urea and feces.
- Exotoxins are toxins that come from outside your body. These include chemicals from cleaning products and cosmetics, pollutants from the air or water, and pesticides on food.
“Our bodies are designed to detoxify our system, not only through the liver but our kidneys, our lungs — with exhalation of carbon dioxide — and our skin through sweating,” says Meroë Morse, M.D., who works with patients in UT MD Anderson’s Integrative Medicine Center. “We don’t need more help through fad diets or taking in products or supplements.”
You should eat a healthy diet, exercise regularly and get plenty of sleep to take care of your body.
Morse adds that it’s important not to overload your body with substances that make natural detoxification more difficult or disrupt your microbiome. Anything in high quantities can be unhealthy. That obviously includes sugar, alcohol and calories, but also healthy things like water.
“Your body will do the rest,” she adds.
Myth: A detox can restore health
Fact: If you overindulge too often, that can damage your liver over time. And that’s something no detox can repair — but a healthy diet and lifestyle sometimes can.
The liver has a hard time processing fried foods, sugary drinks and alcohol. These force your liver to work harder to turn them into energy or storage. This causes them to become fat in liver cells.
Fat build-up in the liver can lead to inflammation around the liver cells, a condition called metabolic dysfunction-associated steatotic liver disease (MASLD). Over time, sustained inflammation may cause fibrosis, which is a build-up of scar tissue in the liver. Eventually, the scar tissue may become permanent (called cirrhosis) and liver failure.
MASLD is now the leading cause of cirrhosis in the U.S., surpassing hepatitis C and alcohol overuse.
Can you detox your liver?
Rather than trying a detox, Morse suggests eating healthy, whole and unprocessed foods, getting regular exercise and enough sleep every night, and taking steps to reduce your stress. All of these may help your body’s natural health recovery system.
At some point, it’s not possible to reverse liver damage, but diet and lifestyle changes may reverse some of its effects, Morse says.
And if you switch to a healthy diet of varied vegetables, fruits, whole grains, and lean proteins like chicken and fish, you may get the benefits that many detox products claim to offer.
The benefits of a healthy diet include:
- Reduced inflammation
- Balanced blood sugar levels and regulated insulin levels
- Improved digestion
- Increased energy
- Improved immune system function
Additionally, these foods are high in nutrients, fiber and prebiotics that help support your gut microbiome.
Learn more about how diet rich in whole grains, vegetables, fruits, nuts, seeds and lean protein can help reduce your cancer risk in the video below.
Myth: Detoxing is safe
Fact: Detox diets can be dangerous.
They may call for:
- Complete fasting
- Water- or juice-only fasting
- Restrictive diets of only fruits and vegetables
- Use of herbs, teas, supplements, enemas or laxatives
Such strict regimens like these may cause:
- Electrolyte imbalances
- Vitamin or mineral deficiencies, which is when your body does not receive or absorb enough of the essential micronutrients it needs to function properly
- Gastrointestinal issues like diarrhea
- Fatigue
- Breakdown of muscle
“These diets appear harmless since they use natural foods and products, but we do not have evidence that they are safe or that they work,” says Lindsey Wohlford, a wellness dietitian at UT MD Anderson. “The stories are mostly anecdotal, and progress is not monitored by a medical doctor. These two things raise a red flag for safety.”
And keep in mind, herbal detoxes or supplements do not have to be reviewed for safety and effectiveness by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). That means they could contain ingredients not listed on the label or amounts of active ingredients different from what is listed on the label.
Some herbal remedies may be toxic to your body, Morse says. For example, consuming high levels of vitamin B12 supplements have been linked with a higher risk of lung and colorectal cancers.
“They may actually interfere with cancer treatments, too,” she says. “I always recommend speaking with a medical professional expert before starting any supplement or over-the-counter medication for those reasons.”
Most people can get enough nutrients through their diet. If you think you may be deficient in a specific vitamin or mineral, speak with your doctor.
“The only nutrient that I regularly check and tend to supplement is vitamin D,” Morse says. “I don’t usually recommend using a multivitamin, unless there’s a deficiency.”
Morse says many people with cancer she sees are especially interested in juice cleanses as a way to detox. But while whole fruits and vegetables are often healthy, stripping them of important fiber and other nutrients through the juicing process can leave little other than fruit sugar (fructose).
When you take in fruit sugar without fiber, the excess sugar is absorbed into your bloodstream and goes straight to the liver, where it’s converted and stored as fat. This leads to excess fat in your liver and high blood sugar.
“It’s always better to eat the whole fruit or vegetable, which has nutrients and fiber,” she says.
Myth: Weight loss from detox is sustainable
Fact: There’s very limited evidence that short-term detoxes are an effective long-term weight loss strategy.
You may lose a few pounds, but that’s usually due to fluid losses and loss of lean muscle mass – not body fat.
“Muscle is vital for health. We do not want to compromise muscle by trying to drastically restrict our eating patterns,” Morse notes.
Also, detoxes that claim to cleanse your colon run the risk of creating an electrolyte imbalance. This is when the levels of essential minerals in your body are too high or too low. Having the right balance is essential to all cellular bodily functions, like heart rhythm and cardiac muscle functioning.
And if the diet is temporary, so are the results.
“Detoxes are not meant to be a long-term eating pattern, so the results are not long-term, either,” Wohlford says. “As you begin eating normally again, the weight comes back on, but it’s typically the fluid associated with glycogen storage rather than actual body fat.”
Glycogen storage is the process by which your body saves excess glucose (sugar) for later use.
Myth: Research supports the use of detoxes
Fact: Existing studies into health cleanses and detoxes didn’t have enough participants to confirm their effectiveness, or they didn’t undergo a rigorous fact-checking and bias review process. Side effects and risks remain even in studies that have shown potential, Morse points out.
“Researching diets is inherently challenging because it’s difficult to create and sustain controlled environments,” she says, adding that more research is needed on nutrition in cancer care.
A healthy lifestyle is the best detox
The best way to limit or decrease the toxins in your body? Eat a healthy, balanced diet, exercise regularly and get enough sleep every night. If you drink alcohol, cutting back or avoiding alcohol can lower your risk of liver disease, as well as cancer. For cancer prevention, it’s best to drink no alcohol. And if you smoke, get help to quit right away. Health benefits begin almost as soon as you stop.
Remember, a dietary detox may cause severe negative effects on your body whether you are healthy or undergoing cancer treatment. If you’re undergoing cancer treatment and are considering a detox or weight loss plan, speak with a dietitian who has experience treating people with cancer first. UT MD Anderson patients can get referred to one of our clinical dietitians by their care team.
Request an appointment at UT MD Anderson online or call 1-877-632-6789.
Topics
NutritionOur bodies are designed to detoxify our system, not only through the liver but our kidneys, our lungs and our skin.
Meroë Morse, M.D.
Physician