Do I really need to flush toxins out of my body?

**Bababam** (0:04)
Do I really need to flush toxins out of my body?
Thanks for asking.
There are an increasing number of trends and products out there promising to rid your body of toxins, such as infrared saunas, liver purifying supplements and detox diets. But what exactly are toxins? According to the Cambridge Dictionary, a toxin is a poisonous substance, especially one produced by bacteria, that causes disease. However, today we tend to use the word toxin to refer to all the harmful substances present in the body, such as food additives, pesticides, alcohol, gluten or pollutants. It's actually kind of misleading, because not all toxins are as bad as one might think. That's especially true when you consider that our bodies are capable of flushing out toxins on their own, without the need for any fancy treatments or supplements. Which organs in the body are responsible for eliminating toxins? There are five actually, the liver, kidneys, intestines, lungs and skin. Your lungs exhale carbon dioxide and have tiny hair-like structures called cilia that push contaminants out. So if you breathe in substances that shouldn't be there, they get trapped in the cilia and they're released through coughing or swallowing. Your colon or large intestine gets rid of whatever remains after you eat, while your small intestine absorbs all of the nutrients. The liver is very important for digestion too, but it has many other additional functions. One is filtering your blood to get rid of potentially harmful substances. Your kidneys filter blood too, getting rid of byproducts of digestion and other processes by producing urine which flushes pollutants out from your body. Finally, your skin acts as a physical barrier for pollutants trying to enter the body. It also helps flush out toxins through processes such as sweating. People say that you have to sweat to flush out toxins, is that true? Again research suggests that that is a misconception. Pascale Imbo conducted a study on the subject for the Office for Science and Society of McGill University in Canada. He observed that only 0.02% of daily diet consumption ends up in our sweat. So even if you do 45 minutes of physical activity every day, you'd still only potentially eliminate 0.04% of the pollutants ingested. Really, the best thing to do is eat a healthy balanced diet and exercise regularly. Are we saying there's no need to flush toxins out after all? No, your body knows best and you can trust it to flush out toxins as needed. However, you should still be careful about what you put in your body in the first place and limit your exposure to anything that can harm you. Now you're better informed, take any fancy marketing slogans about toxins with a healthy pinch of salt.
There you have it.
Now you know whether you really need to flush toxins out of your body. In under 3 minutes, we answer your questions and help you understand the true meaning behind trends, concepts, and acronyms that are making headlines. Listen along and you will really know it for sure.
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