Juice cleanses, fancy foods, sweat, charcoal, and colonics— is there a scientifically proven way to ‘clean out’ your system? This week, we dig in deep to the science of detox and turn ourselves into guinea pigs for a juicing experiment. We talk to a passionate proctologist named Prof. Graham Newstead, as well as nutrition researcher Prof. Stella Volpe and toxicologist Dr. Susanne Ramm.

Sign up to our newsletter here - for all the cool science stuff we’re reading. View our guide to Gimlet’s Fall shows here.

Our Sponsors: Cole Haan | Google Cloud, Maker of GSuite | Cotton Inc + Madewell

Credits: This episode has been produced by Shruti Ravindran, Wendy Zukerman, and Heather Rogers. Our senior producer is Kaitlyn Sawrey. Edited by Annie-Rose Strasser and Blythe Terrell. Fact checking by Michelle Harris, with help from Rose Rimler. Sound design by Martin Peralta.  Music written by Bobby Lord. Extra thanks to Lynn Levy, the Zukerman Family, Joseph Lavelle Wilson, Torey Armul, Dr. Naveed Sattar, and Dr. David Juurlink.

Selected References

• On the inability of activated charcoal to absorb wind, aka the ‘poo in a blender’ study
• Review paper on the dangers of colonics
• Why liquids don’t make you feel very full
• An investigation of capsaicin, aka the spice in spicy food, for weight loss