What are the ingredients in Detox Cleansing Energy Drink?

Most of the core active ingredients of detoxifying and bowel-cleansing energy drinks currently on the market include soluble dietary fiber, prebiotics/probiotics, and natural herbal extracts. They are often paired with B vitamins and electrolytes to meet the basic properties of energy supply.

A while ago, I helped a friend who makes light meals to evaluate a celebrity prune-flavored bowel cleansing energy drink. In addition to water and crystallized fructose, the first few ingredients in the ingredient list are polydextrose, which is commonly known as soluble dietary fiber on the market. It also contains prebiotics such as xylo-oligosaccharides. I tried half a bottle myself and felt the urge to defecate for more than three hours. It was either a cramping cramp or a normal feeling of defecation. A colleague with a weak stomach had to go to the toilet twice after drinking a whole bottle.

There has been ongoing controversy about the ingredients of this type of drink. A nutritionist from a tertiary hospital I know said that many products that focus on "powerful detoxification" will add herbal extracts containing anthraquinones such as senna and cassia seeds. The short-term effect of promoting excretion is indeed obvious, but long-term consumption will paralyze the autonomic peristaltic nerves in the intestines, which will in turn aggravate constipation. A fan left me a message before, saying that he drank a can of a certain herbal detoxification energy drink every day for three months in a row. After he stopped, he couldn't defecate normally for a whole week. When he went to do a colonoscopy, he already had signs of colon melanosis, which was quite scary.

Nowadays, many brands are taking the mild route, replacing the pungent herbal ingredients with freeze-dried fruit and vegetable powders such as kale and barley sprouts, and adding ingredients such as taurine and nicotinamide. This not only retains the refreshing effect of ordinary energy drinks, but also relies on the insoluble dietary fiber in fruits and vegetables to drive intestinal peristalsis. I drank one of these when I stayed up late last week to catch up on a project report. It had no laxative ingredients. After drinking it in the morning, I had normal bowel movements in the afternoon, and I didn’t feel the panic or shaking hands that I get after drinking ordinary functional drinks. The experience was really good.

Oh, by the way, don’t just focus on the propaganda of “detoxification” and “colon cleansing”. Many of these drinks add a lot of sugar substitutes or fructose syrup to adjust the taste. If you drink two or three cans a day, let alone cleanse the intestines, excessive sugar intake will make you prone to belly fat. I have met someone before who drank two bottles of prebiotics at one time and continued to fart all afternoon. This is a typical intestinal intolerance.