Celebrities, including the type of royalty that only reigns on Instagram, have been leveraging their prominence to promote laxatives. Many of the people who are buying and drinking these laxatives are doing so because they're hoping teas will help them lose weight.
It sounds like a simple solution to weight loss — drink some tea, lose some weight — and the results can be visually observed, thanks to an ingredient called "senna."
The results of senna's work don't typically manifest in flab to abs in weeks as suggested by some sellers of diet teas, also called teatoxes, and the Instagram personalities that promote them for pay. No, the results of senna's work typically manifest as a higher frequency of trips to the toilet and an increase in output.
The thing that senna does best is irritating bowels and causing them to evacuate whatever is inside of them. This effect is what teatox promoters often call "detox," and is the same effect that is flushing out water and electrolytes.
The teas themselves aren't bad. What's bad is suggesting that people can lose significant amounts of weight by drinking the teas, which also cheapens other efforts people have been taking to lose weight. This is according to Jillian Trigg, a nutritionist from Vancouver who spoke with Racked about how teatox companies want to put their products next to her body on Instagram.
"Tea is not evil. Telling girls they will lose 15 pounds by going on a teatox, that is evil," Trigg says. "I work with some clients who are young girls and when they say they want to take a teatox because they feel bloated, I have to explain that it's not actually going to 'detoxify' them and that these companies are just devaluing hard work."
The National Library of Medicine (NLM) indicates that senna is great for treating constipation. But the organization states that there is "insufficient evidence to rate effectiveness" for losing weight, irritable bowel syndrome and hemorrhoids. Senna usage shouldn't exceed two weeks, though many teatox products have kits that prescribe its usages for two or more weeks.
"Longer use can cause the bowels to stop functioning normally and might cause dependence on laxatives," the NLM states. "Long-term use can also change the amount or balance of some chemicals in the blood (electrolytes) that can cause heart function disorders, muscle weakness, liver damage, and other harmful effects."
