This is the new trend in well-being, beauty and health: the “pretox”, the counterpart of the “detox”, which aims to prepare your body for the excesses of festive meals.
There was already the post-holiday “detox”, now there is the “pretox”. This is the new trend in well-being, beauty and health. For several weeks, articles devoted to this phenomenon have multiplied.
Among these: “Before the holiday meals, one prepares one’s body to excess with the pretox”, “Do you know the pretox, the anticipated detox before the holidays?”. Or: “Slimming pretox: here’s how to prepare for the holidays to avoid not being able to close your jeans in January!”.
“Pretox: 9 golden rules to clean up your liver”. “D-7 before New Year’s Eve, it’s time for the pretox!”, magazine title again She, who explains that it is a question of “limiting the ‘damage’ in advance” and “preparing your body for excess”.
On social networks, the subject is also relayed. Naturopaths, beauticians, beauty advisers but also aesthetic doctors go there with their recommendations. Some pharmacists even offer, on their website, solutions for “successful pretox”.
“Detoxify” and “purify” your body
The general idea: “detoxify” and “purify” your body before holiday meals. To sum up, it is a question of eating less fat and less sugar, replacing alcohol with herbal teas or lemon juice but also avoiding industrial dishes, animal proteins, dairy products and gluten.
“Basically, it’s not a bad idea to eat less fat and less sugar,” greets BFMTV.com Corentin Lacroix, general practitioner and author of the WhyDoc Youtube channel, distinguished by the Academy of Medicine for its educational content. But according to him, the very principle of a “pretox” is more than debatable.
“A good diet is played out over the long term, it’s a matter of weeks or even months. It’s not three days before getting your stomach blown that you have to eat a balanced way”.
“It’s marketing”
And it’s not one or two festive meals that could change the situation, still reminds this doctor. He also adds that provided you do not drink too much alcohol, “the body does not need to detoxify”, insists Corentin Lacroix. “In the absence of being able to prescribe medication, you are prescribed something that would look like it to give yourself the appearance of a caregiver.”
Evidenced by these many food supplements, combinations of probiotics or herbal teas with “regenerative”, “purifying” and “anti-inflammatory” properties, which promise to eliminate “waste and toxins” from the colon, kidneys or liver, especially in the case where it would be “fat or tired”.
“The liver like the kidneys do not need that, they do their job unless you have liver disease”, sweeps Corentin Lacroix. “It’s stratospheric aberration. It’s just marketing.”
