Anytime I see a new diet or weight-loss scheme becoming popular, I assume it’s my duty as an RD to check it out and report back to you guys about whether or not it’s legit. A lot of these are pretty crazy looking and suspicious, especially when they promise to ‘cleanse’, ‘detox’, and generally make you into a new person.
These promises definitely apply to Skinny Teatox, a weight-loss regimen using tea. This stuff is everywhere! I couldn’t ignore it if I tried!
Now, tea dieting is far from a new idea; there have been weight loss teas on the market since long before I was even born. None of them, however, have had the power of social media to promote the heck out of themselves and create an international sensation (which may or may not be legit). There are over 300,000 #skinnyteatox posts on Instagram alone – and many of them are posted by models. Reportedly, these people are sent the product, don’t even have to use it, and are simply paid big bucks to photograph themselves alongside the package.
As with most celebrity and model-promoted diets and beauty products, things are not as they seem. Do you really think these models use Skinny Teatox? And if they do, do you believe that’s how they look the way they do?
Come on, people! You’re smarter than that!
I hopped online and went to investigate this tea. Skinny Teatox has a really pretty, colorful website with a ticker on the top banner counting down the minutes until their ‘sale’ is over.
Also on the site are YouTube videos from people who have reportedly lost weight drinking Teatox, and blogs written by Teatox believers. One blog is hilariously titled “You Can’t Ignore Your Liver – Here are 5 Foods to Keep Your #1 Detox & Cleansing Organ Healthy” – which I find very amusing, because by drinking ‘detox’ tea, you actually ARE ignoring your liver…and the fact that it DETOXES YOU ALREADY!!!!
Of course, what weight-loss regimen’s site would be complete without testimonials? Teatox has heaps and heaps of those, and some of them are pure gold:
This is the first teatox i’ve ever tried and it helped boosted me to loose 5 lbs on the 14 day trial! The colon cleanse does wonders!
It automatically starts making you feel better about yourself because it’s cleaning you out in a calm way, you just have to put your part in.
Because I live in a bikini, even around holiday season, I needed a nice flush.
The night teatox was horrible, it tasted good but I got really bad stomach pains and constantly going to the bathroom. ONTOP of ther I got a yeast infection twice because the tea flushes everything out of you… And I mean literally flushes everything.
It’s very important to remember that online reviews may not be legit (although something tells me that the ones above are). It’s a well-known fact that companies who are selling things on the internet frequently plant tons of positive reviews for their products to convince people like you to buy them. Never mind that there is not one bit of research behind this tea. Nope, Skinny Teatox didn’t even bother to do poorly-designed research on their product…they’ve just done none at all. Why do you think that is? Hm. Could it be that they’re lazy? Could it be that they’re raking in the bucks anyhow and they don’t feel the need to mess that up for themselves because the results would be bad? Could it be that the product actually doesn’t work?
I vote for all of the above. Remember, if and when a company comes out with a fantastic, groundbreaking weight-loss supplement or drug, it will be well researched. No one is hiding some miraculous weight-loss drug from you; it’s just that one has never been found. You actually have to WORK to achieve and maintain your ideal weight. So sorry!
Let’s take a look at the actual product, because we need to talk right now about the claims that Skinny Teatox makes about its tea.
This claim is all over the Skinny Teatox site:
Our 100% natural 14 Day Teatox is our most popular product – so you can’t go wrong!
A 14 Day Teatox is Designed to Help You:
- Weight loss
- Burn calories
- Boost metabolism
- Cleanse
- Detoxify
- Suppress appetite
- Increase energy levels
All the ingredients in Skinny Teatox are 100% natural. There are no chemicals or preservatives.
I literally just breathed an audible sigh at the sight of that list. Besides the obvious grammar mistake (our tea is designed to help you weight loss?), these claims are pretty standard of any weight-loss supplement I’ve reviewed or seen in my life. But, as usual, are they just empty claims? Let’s go through them one by one.
Can any consuming and particular food or herbs alone or together:
Help you lose weight? No.
Burn calories? Hell no.
Boost metabolism? Not enough for you to lose weight.
Cleanse? Seriously? Give your liver and kidneys some credit.
Detoxify? Um. No.
Suppress appetite? Maybe.
Increase energy levels? Caffeine can.
Well! So that leaves us with one maybe and one yes, but only if the product contains caffeine. Wait, this one doesn’t! What?
I’m going to also say that just because something is natural doesn’t mean a thing in terms of safety or efficacy. The deadliest poisons we know of are completely ‘natural’. Plus, the term ‘natural’ isn’t regulated, so it can essentially mean anything the company wants it to mean.
Unfortunately, Skinny Teatox is rather coy about sharing its ingredients. I searched the website, finding them nestled in the middle of their very long disclaimer statement. Here they are, with my definitions next to each one:
Our products may contain all or some of the following:
Gluten – Protein from certain grains. I haven’t got a clue why this would be in a weight loss supplement.
Malva verticellata – Chinese mallow. Known for its laxative effects.
Cassia angustifolia (senna leaf) – This is a powerful laxative.
Cascara sagrada – this plant is a laxative. (I’m starting to see a pattern here, aren’t you?)
Arctostaphylos uva ursi – This plant has diuretic properties.
Ginseng – This root may reduce fatigue, in large amounts given for 8 weeks (in other words, probably not for your Teatox)
Liquorice – Yum, and used homeopathically to treat the ever-elusive ‘adrenal fatigue’ otherwise known as ‘you need to slow down in your life’. Looking further into licorice, I found that it can actually INCREASE cortisol, which is a stress hormone. So taking it for stress doesn’t even make sense.
Chrysanthemum – The flower. Pretty, but it has been shown to inhibit appetite in rats, not humans. Also, its toxic threshold is low. This means that it’s a short hop, skip, and a jump from ‘I’m not hungry’ to ‘I’m poisoned’. So let’s not go there.
Orange peel, cinnamon bark, cloves, rhubarb and ginger – you know all these, because they are or have been in your own kitchen. And they are probably used by Skinny Teatox to flavor their teas, because they sure as hell don’t cause weight loss.
The Skinny Teatox website recommends you drink the teas while maintaining a healthy diet and exercise regimen, which they don’t bother geting into detail about on their site. They sort of leave it to you to figure it out.
One thing the company does recommend is that you don’t drink Skinny Teatox more than every other day. Their disclaimer reads:
Skinny Teatox produces a laxative effect and can be toxic in high doses. Do not consume more than once every two days.
I find it completely bizarre that the disclaimer says one thing but the rest of the site implies another. Isn’t a 14-day cleanse meant to be done in 14 consecutive days? I think it is, and the comments/testimonials on the site reflect that people have been consuming the tea every single day. Should we be worried about this?
Skinny Teatox comes in 14-day ($35) and 28-day ($45) versions, depending on how long you’d like to ‘detox’ for.
The Morning Tea is supposedly a stimulant which the company claims will increase your metabolism and energy, and help with appetite suppression. We’ve already talked about this above – the contents of this tea are unlikely to do any of these things. For the people who have lost weight on this tea – maybe they’ve changed their other habits as well, and weight loss is the result of that, not the tea?
The Evening Tea ‘cleanses and detoxifies your body. It’s a colon cleanse that flushes our your digestive tract of toxins and unwanted excess which could be making it more difficult for you to lose weight’.
Interesting. Which ‘toxins’ exactly are they talking about? Can anyone give me the name of one toxin they may be referring to?
Bueller?
Bueller?
Exactly.
And, how in the world is ‘unwanted excess’ (which clearly means poo in your colon, phrased delicately) equivalent to excess weight or, preventing you from losing weight? It’s a completely faulty concept! What are they even trying to say? That you have 5-10 pounds of poop in your bowels?
Let’s not even go there, because not only is it gross, it’s also physiologically not likely.
I’m not sure if you’ve ever heard of the ‘placebo effect’, but that may be at work here! So much for Teatoxing!
In Short:
When and if a fantabulous, scientifically-proven, incredibly groundbreaking weight-loss supplement or drug is found, it’s not going to be sold online, and it will have solid research behind it.
This tea is full of diuretic and laxative herbs, some of which can be dangerous if taken too often or in excessive quantities. Any weight loss will likely be due to fluid loss. Nothing in this tea has ever been tied, by research, to weight loss.
The disclaimer for this tea states to not consume it more than once every 2 days, but this isn’t clearly reflected in the product descriptions and testimonials on the website.
Companies plant fake testimonials all the time, and fitness models are paid a lot to simply pose with a product like Teatox, but not to use it. Do you think models really look the way they do because they used Teatox?
The Verdict:
Do you really need to ask? Enjoy a cup of tea, but don’t buy into the Teatox trend.