"Colon Cleansing" Undigested meat/Impacted Feces and Urban Legends

Okay, I LOVE foods that are rich in fiber, and we all know that they are essential for good colon health, right? And eating more natural, whole foods with fewer chemicals and additives can only be a good thing, right?

But then there are these "cleanse" gimmicks out now, where people are supposed to fast and take some sort of concoction or other, and then the satisfied customers hold up some sort of nasty stuff they found in their stool as "proof" of how the product/program has "cleansed" the "built-up" stuff from their colons.

This seems to be built upon the old urban legends that we all have X lbs of "undigested red meat" lining our colons by the time we reach X years of age.

 

Here's what Snopes has to say about the matter:

 

http://www.snopes.com/horrors/gruesome/fecalc olon.asp

 

Vegetarian groups employ this horror story to demonstrate that a meat-based diet is both unnatural and unhealthy for human beings. Hence stories circulate aboutalleged post-mortem discoveries that celebrities (such as John Wayne and Elvis Presley) who epitomized the "meat and potatoes" diet, gluttony, or other negative eating habits had some tremendous amount (40, 60, or even 80 pounds) of "impacted fecal matter" or "impacted feces" lodged in their intestines.

Anecdotes such as these are, in a word, crap.

(edited for brevity)

In 1994, an Israeli man sought medical attention because he was suffering constipation two days after having eaten a large quantity of pomegranates. He refused to allow doctors to administer an enema, fled the hospital, and returned a week later in severe pain and bleedeing from his rectum. This time the doctors operated to remove the impacted feces. How much fecal matter did they remove? Half a kilogram, or a little over a pound. Just one pound of impacted feces was causing extreme pain and rectal bleeding in this patient, but we're to believe that people can accumulate up to 80 pounds of the stuff without even being aware of it?

(edited for brevity)

None of this is to say that treatments such as colonic irrigation have absolutely no therapeutic value, or that most of us wouldn't do well to change our diets to cut down (or possibly eliminate) our intake of meat, or that the morality of killing animals for food is not open to debate. The point is, however, that no one soberly considering these issues should allow himself to be influenced by the type of propagandistic misinformation contained in Internet anecdotes such as these.

As for the "toxins" these products are supposed to "cleanse" please remember that our bodies are constructed with a device that was made specifically to filter the toxins we eat. It's called a liver. The idea that our bloodstreams are awash in all these unnamed "toxins" seems a bit dubious to me... If you want to to do one of these "cleanses", knock yourself out. But personally, I haven't seen any info to prove that a cleanse gimmick will promote intestinal health any more than the fiber and vegetable-rich diet I'm already enjoying. And I don't believe for a second that those old sausage casings or whatever it is they're holding up to the camera is ACTUAL intestinal buildup.

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A new organic food store opened in my home town a couple of years ago. This was a welcome addition, because there had been only one place to shop for organics. The lady that ran this new store was one of those cleanse nuts. She was anti everything. She had some kind of scan that would pick up pesticides and other types of additives that weren't natural.

While I thought there was some merit to what she said, and I learned some things for her that helped me health wise, she was over the top radical. It was just too much.

I do believe though that our livers are being overtaxed. In the last 50 years, humans have gone from eating mostly natural foods to eating an onslaught of additives, preservatives and artificial ingredients. I believe this is the cause of a lot or our health problems here in the US.

I know from personal experience, that when I eat a lot of natural foods versus a lot of packaged processed foods, that I feel better. I used to drink 4-8 cans of diet pop a day. Several months ago, I quit completely. Within 1 week I felt better. Within 3 weeks I felt a surge of health. Now, I occasionally have a pop, but I know better than to start up my old habit.

I think most of these special cleanses are a waste of money, and they just prey on people's fears.

Original Post by moonikins:

I do believe though that our livers are being overtaxed. In the last 50 years, humans have gone from eating mostly natural foods to eating an onslaught of additives, preservatives and artificial ingredients. I believe this is the cause of a lot or our health problems here in the US.

I know from personal experience, that when I eat a lot of natural foods versus a lot of packaged processed foods, that I feel better. I used to drink 4-8 cans of diet pop a day. Several months ago, I quit completely. Within 1 week I felt better. Within 3 weeks I felt a surge of health. Now, I occasionally have a pop, but I know better than to start up my old habit.

I think most of these special cleanses are a waste of money, and they just prey on people's fears.

Yes, yes and yes. 

Gimmicks like a "cleanse" or diet pills or ultra weird diets (hello, cabbage soup diet anyone?) more indicate our complete unwillingness to acknowledge that losing weight means fewer calories than we burn. Period--end of story.

I'm not addressing nutritional concerns because yes, nutrition plays a huge role in overall health--what I'm talking about is when people want to know how I maintain my weight, how I got fit, and you can just SEE their faces fall and their eyes glaze over when I say "I count my calories every day, and I work out six days a week."

No magic pill, sorry. They don't exist.

You wanna have a healthy colon, then eat five to seven servings of fruit and vegetables every day--preferably raw or barely cooked and certainly not drenched in fat. Limit your refined carbs--those are gut chokers and won't add good fiber to your diet. Avoid fried foods, and choose good sources of protein.

You wanna have abdominal muscles that look good? Then work out, while you lose weight. That's the only way to get abs.

No magic pill for ANY of this.

I agree with this. I was startled to see recently in the drug store that small boxes of "Colon cleansing" products or teas or whatever coat $40 a piece! And some people use these things several times a year! What a scam.

I almost believed what they were saying. I looked at the Colonix website and read the testimonials. At any rate I cannot believe how many people sent in pictures of the alien that came out of their asses after using the product and the website posted them proudly. Everyone that wrote into the website said they lost weight too because supposedly food was able to pass through the colon easier now that the alien was out of there.

i think some additional research also needs to be done on the startling statistics and rise of heart disease, cancers (colorectal cancers), obesity, childhood diabetes, etc., etc. It goes on and on. we are the sickest, heaviest nation in the world what we're doing isn't working for us. "our filter for toxins"- the liver- is overburdened and abused by the modern chemicals and processed foods and medications that are so common.

look at animals and babies- they all crap immediately after eating. most americans don't. most americans don't go more than once a day, or even every day. 

actually, healthy diets, nutrition and cleansing programs, and colon irrigation, among other modalities are extremely beneficial and have been health building and in practice for thousands of years. 

again, if none of this mattered, people wouldn't be dying in the volumes they are today. 

 

 

 

Colon clenses... talk about a load of crap.

Original Post by direwolf689:

Colon clenses... talk about a load of crap.

lol

actually, healthy diets, nutrition and cleansing programs, and colon irrigation, among other modalities are extremely beneficial and have been health building and in practice for thousands of years. 

People are not dying in volumes from preventable conditions because they need their backsides sluiced or their guts scoured, but because they're totally inactive, eating too much and have lost touch with what good food looks like.      

It's entirely possible for someone in this day and age to eat without ingesting chemicals, processed foods and medications.   But it's much easier to choose not to make the effort and instead to seek oral gratification in the freezer cabinet or at the fast-food counter.  We need less 'irrigation' and more 'education'