Detox Cleansing Soup

The detoxification intestine soup that is promoted on the market as "drinking 10 pounds of feces in 7 days, removing freckles, losing weight and curing constipation" is 90% IQ tax. The truly intestinal-friendly intestine cleaning soup is essentially a mild dietary supplement with high dietary fiber and low irritation. Its core function is to reduce the burden on the intestines. It has never relied on diarrhea and water to achieve the so-called "detoxification". **

A while ago, I helped my sister sort out the health recipes she had stored in the memo on her mobile phone. I saved 27 servings of various "detoxifying bowel soups" alone, ranging from the celery and kale salt-free soup that is the favorite of Internet celebrities, to the Bawang Almond Pork Bone Soup that Lao Guang often drinks, and even boiled radish seeds and tangerine peel soup prepared by traditional Chinese medicine clinics. A while ago, she believed in the "3-day bowel cleansing plan" of a health blogger. She only drank boiled cabbage and carrot soup for three meals a day. On the third day, she squatted on the toilet until her legs were weak and all she pooped out was water. She even took a photo to show off to me that she had excreted a lot of toxins. However, the next day she went to the hospital because of dizziness and fatigue. She was found to have an electrolyte imbalance and was scolded by the doctor.

In fact, not only my sister, many people have two extremes in their understanding of intestine soup. They either regard it as a magical health product that can cure all diseases, or they think it is all a deceptive IQ tax. In fact, both sides are a bit biased.

As for the elders in my hometown, almost every family has its own recipe for clear intestine soup that has been passed down for many years. During the holidays, if they eat a lot of big fish and meat, they must cook a pot, add a few lotus leaves and a few cassia seeds, and drink it for a day or two. If the stomach is not bloated, they will "scrape it" "It removes oil and eliminates toxins." If you tell them, "There is no concept of constipation in Western medicine," they can talk to you for half an hour about their personal experience of drinking it for 20 years, and say, "I still have smooth bowel movements at such an old age because of this soup."

I specifically talked to a friend in the gastroenterology department about this matter. He said that first of all, "defecation" itself is a concept created by marketing. This term has never been found in formal medical textbooks. The intestines themselves have their own metabolic rhythms. As long as the bowel movement is no less than three times a week, there is no obvious difficulty in defecation, and there is no need for additional "intestinal cleansing". Most of those intestinal cleansing soups that make you want to run to the toilet soon after drinking them are added with stimulating laxative ingredients such as lotus leaves, senna leaves, and rhubarb. Drinking them once in a while is okay. Drinking them for a long time will make the peristalsis function of the intestines dependent on external forces. In severe cases, it can also induce melanosis of the colon, which is really harmful to the intestines.

However, he also said that there is no need to beat the intestine soup to death with a stick. A registered dietitian I know also makes intestine soup. It is never used for fasting and weight loss. After eating hot pot and barbecue for a few days, he will make an apple and enoki mushroom oatmeal soup the next day. He will cut the apple into pieces, add washed enoki mushrooms and a small amount of it. Boil the oatmeal for 20 minutes and sprinkle some salt to taste. After drinking it, you will not have diarrhea, it will just be a normal bowel movement. The bloated and greasy smell in your stomach will disappear quickly. To put it bluntly, it uses soluble dietary fiber to help the intestines regulate the rhythm of peristalsis. It is more comfortable than eating a bunch of stomach-building and digestion tablets.

Of course, it depends on the person. If you only occasionally eat too much and have bloating and bad breath, you can cook something light like corn silk and winter melon soup or mushroom and vegetable soup. It is perfectly fine to drink it for one or two meals. The essence is the same as eating a light diet for two consecutive days. Don't drink it for more than three consecutive days. But if you have long-term constipation, don’t expect that drinking soup will solve it. First check whether there is intestinal flora disorder or other organic problems. Drinking laxative soup will only make it worse. As for those who want to lose three to five pounds a week by drinking intestinal cleansing soup, I advise you to give up this idea as soon as possible. The weight you lose after drinking it is all water and electrolytes, which will be regained after eating two normal meals. It may also damage the gastrointestinal tract, which is not worth the gain.

I now occasionally cook intestine soup. I went out to eat crayfish with friends for three consecutive days last week. On the weekend, I cooked a pot of winter melon and kelp soup with a small portion of multigrain rice. After two days of eating, the greasy feeling in my stomach disappeared, and I didn’t lose two pounds in weight. I just feel comfortable. Really, don’t be fooled by the marketing rhetoric of “detoxification = cleansing the intestines = beauty = losing weight”. Intestinal cleansing soup is just an ordinary dietary supplement that can help you relieve the discomfort of eating too much. If someone tells you that drinking it can cure all diseases and lose weight quickly, just turn away and walk away. They are definitely trying to cheat you out of your money.