Every January or even every Monday, as per their resolutions, millions of people swap meals for juice, cut out every vegetable they own, or brew a "28-day liver cleanse" tea they found on Instagram. Their promises are not modest: reset your gut, reverse disease, eliminate toxins, lose weight fast.
MedBound Times reached out to three specialists about what these diets do when real patients try them. Mrs. Sharanya Guna, MSc Clinical Nutrition, has eight years of practice across diabetes, gut health, and PCOS. Dr. Aashirwad Pawar is a Diabetes Educator and a Diabetologist at Sai Aashirwad Hospital, Mumbai. Dr. Vijaya Manikandan, BSMS, MHSM (Australia), is a Siddha Medicine Practitioner and Healthcare Quality Management Consultant in rural Tamil Nadu and a Consultant (Roster) at the WHO's Global Traditional Medicine Center.
The carnivore diet consists of meat, fish, eggs, sometimes dairy and nothing else. Grains, fruit, vegetables, legumes, all gone. By late 2025, #carnivore had crossed 2.6 million posts on Instagram.
Some early findings lean positive. Seven IBD patients improved significantly on a meat-only diet, some stopping medication entirely. A 2021 survey of 2,029 followers reported high satisfaction and few adverse effects.
However, long-term controlled trials remain limited, and most available evidence comes from observational or self-reported data.
Because that survey only captured people still on the diet. Anyone who had already quit due to symptoms or worsening labs was never counted. When researchers looked at the full picture, nine human studies reviewed in Nutrients in January 2026 told a different story, vitamin C, calcium, magnesium, fibre, iodine, and vitamin D all falling below recommended levels, with cholesterol and blood fats rising across multiple studies. A 2025 case in JAMA Cardiology documented a follower who developed xanthomas, fatty deposits under the skin, a clinical sign of dangerously elevated cholesterol.
Low-fibre diets have been associated with reduced microbial diversity in the gut, which may impact metabolic and immune health over time.
High intake of animal protein may also increase renal workload, particularly in individuals with pre-existing kidney disease.
When the diet has no plants at all, mood, sleep, and mental sharpness can suffer, because plants feed the gut bacteria that produce the brain chemical that controls all three. Remove the plants, and you remove the starting point of that entire chain
Dr. Vijaya Manikandan, BSMS, MHSM (Australia), Consultant (Roster), GTMC, WHO
People on insulin or diabetes medication who cut carbohydrates without medical guidance can experience a sudden blood sugar crash, sometimes without warning. Speak to your doctor before changing what you eat.
The carnivore diet is widely promoted as a way to reverse type 2 diabetes. The blood sugar numbers can look convincing, briefly.
Short-term improvements in blood sugar can happen with almost any major dietary change. What patients miss is why the number went down. That is not the disease improving. Diabetes needs long-term stability, not a good week on the glucometer.
Dr. Aashirwad Pawar, Diabetologist, Sai Aashirwad Hospital, Mumbai
Short-term metabolic changes can appear favourable, but long-term health outcomes remain the primary concern in clinical practice.
For patients on insulin or sulphonylureas, cutting carbs without adjusting medication creates an immediate hypoglycaemia risk. As for the "LDL doesn't matter" argument popular with carnivore advocates, Dr. Pawar is direct: "LDL plays a causal role in plaque formation. Cardiovascular risk in diabetes builds over years, not snapshots.
Drink only fruit and vegetable juice for a few days and "detox" your system, that is the pitch. A 2025 study from Northwestern University and San Raffaele University found the opposite. After just three days on juice alone, participants showed shifts in gut and oral bacteria toward strains linked to inflammation and poorer brain health.
Juicing removes fibre that normally supports beneficial gut bacteria while delivering a high sugar load, a combination that may shift microbial balance toward less favourable strains.
People believe they are giving their gut a break. They are actually disturbing a balance that took years to build.
Mrs. Sharanya Guna, MSc Clinical Nutrition
Glycogen, how the body stores carbohydrates, binds to roughly three times its weight in water. Cut carbs and those stores empty out fast, taking the water with them. The scale drops. Eat normally for two days and it all comes back.
That cycle has nothing to do with fat. Actual fat loss requires a consistent caloric deficit over weeks, not three days of juice
Mrs. Sharanya Guna, MSc Clinical Nutrition
The NCCIH confirms there is no clinical evidence that juice cleanses improve the body's toxin removal beyond what the liver and kidneys already do continuously.
For South Asian patients, Dr. Pawar adds a specific concern: "Higher baseline insulin resistance means a juice cleanse doesn't detox anyhing, it creates a metabolic overload."
Also read: How a Mediterranean Diet Supports Brain Health as You Age
Detox teas don't require pre-market safety approval. In India, such products are often regulated as food supplements under the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India, which does not require the same level of pre-market safety evaluation as medicines.
The US FDA has found prescription drugs hidden inside marketed detox products, including a case where an antidepressant turned up in a weight loss tea. A 2024 case report documented a patient hospitalised after drinking "Tapee Tea," later confirmed by FDA testing to contain a steroid and a prescription painkiller, neither listed on the label.
Many diabetic patients are already on medications that affect fluid balance. Adding a senna-based tea on top isn't a cleanse, it's a compounding risk for cardiac arrhythmia
Dr. Aashirwad Pawar, Diabetologist, Sai Aashirwad Hospital, Mumbai
Many popular detox teas contain senna, a stimulant laxative. Senna depletes potassium rapidly. Low potassium can trigger dangerous heart rhythm problems, particularly for patients already on blood pressure medication or diuretics.
At my Siddha Zone, Siddha clinic in Tamil Nadu, I regularly see patients with severe muscle cramps and extreme tiredness after drinking detox teas, classic signs of senna-induced low potassium, whether or not it's listed on the label.
Dr. Vijaya Manikandan, BSMS, MHSM (Australia) | Consultant (Roster), GTMC, WHO.
Liver injury linked to herbal and dietary supplements has also been increasingly reported in recent years.
A 2024 study in JAMA Network Open found herbal supplement-related liver injuries nearly tripled over a decade. A published case report describes acute liver failure in a 60-year-old woman who drank a commercial "liver detox" tea three times daily for just two weeks.
Mrs. Sharanya Guna puts it simply: if this product fixes your weight, energy, and skin all at once, why hasn't it fixed everyone's? "You are looking at marketing. There is no medical solution inside that box.”
Dizziness, fainting, or confusion during extreme diets
Persistent vomiting or severe fatigue
Muscle cramps or palpitations after detox teas
Unexplained rapid weight loss
These may indicate electrolyte imbalance, hypoglycaemia, or organ stress and require prompt evaluation.
Your liver, kidneys, and gut do the work these products claim to do, every day, without help. The liver processes toxins through enzymatic pathways such as phase I and phase II metabolism, while the kidneys filter waste continuously into urine. The WHO and the American Heart Association point to the same basics: whole foods, fibre, activity, water, sleep.
"A low-calorie diet rich in fibre and good protein brings the body back to normal steadily, without the rebound that always follows extreme restriction. A gentle reset, not a punishment.", Mrs. Sharanya Guna
"My job is not to stop people trying something new, it's to make sure they don't come to harm doing it. The answer is almost always a modified, supervised version of what they saw online, not the extreme one.", Dr. Aashirwad Pawar
These diets may be particularly risky for individuals with diabetes on medication, kidney disease, cardiovascular conditions, or those who are pregnant.
Extreme dietary patterns are also difficult to sustain, with most individuals returning to previous habits, often leading to weight regain.
Next year there will be a new trend. The one after that is probably already being filmed. Your liver, though, will keep doing exactly what it has always done, quietly, without any help from a tea bag. The trends will keep changing. Biology will not.
I lost weight on a juice cleanse. Was it real?
Almost certainly not fat. Mrs. Sharanya Guna explains: glycogen holds water, stop eating carbs, those stores empty, the scale drops fast. Eat normally and they refill. That cycle has nothing to do with fat loss.
Are detox teas safe to buy online in India?
Dr. Vijaya Manikandan is direct: most would have never been safety-tested. They may be sold as food supplements, a far lighter regulatory category than medicines. Look for an FSSAI licence number and verify it at fssai.gov.in. If the label claims to treat or cleanse a specific organ, without verified company registration or labelled as 'ancient (Parambariya) formulation' without any literature reference/ licensed formulation, refrain from buying it.
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Verma S, et al. A Life-threatening Cup of Tea: A Case Report and Literature Review. J Community Hosp Intern Med Perspect. 2024;14(3):51–54. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC11259483/
Yogi Detox Tea: A Potential Cause of Acute Liver Failure. PMC. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC5674495/
US FDA. Public Notification: Toxin Discharged Tea Contains Hidden Drug Ingredient. https://www.fda.gov/drugs/medication-health-fraud/public-notification-toxin-discharged-tea-contains-hidden-drug-ingredient
Juice Cleanses Likely Good for Nothing, Bad for Much. Medscape. May 2025. https://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/juice-cleanses-likely-good-nothing-bad-much-2025a1000dgz
Marmagkiolis K, Caballero J, Iliescu C. Yellowish Nodules on a Man Consuming a Carnivore Diet. JAMA Cardiology. 2025. https://doi.org/10.1001/jamacardio.202
Expert opinions in this article are the professional views of the contributors, for educational purposes only. They do not constitute medical advice and should not replace guidance from a qualified healthcare professional.
