After having such a great experience with my very first tea detox from Skinny Bee Tea, I was looking forward to trying out some new brands and comparing results. So for my next teatox, I decided to go with Slendertoxtea 14 day tea detox. Slendertoxtea has created a lot of buzz around the web, especially through Twitter and Instagram, and since their ingredient list is completely different from that of Skinny Bee Tea‘s, I wanted to see just how much of a difference that would have in my overall experience.
One thing I noticed about Slendertoxtea is that they market their tea detoxes more heavily around its weight loss benefits. They claim that it’s supposed to help you burn calories and increase metabolism, and that it “works by breaking down the fatty deposits which adheres to the intestine enabling your metabolism to work much more efficiently”. While I wasn’t doing this for the weight loss aspect, I was curious to find out exactly how it might help someone lose weight. Of course a healthy diet and exercise, as they advise to add alongside of your detox, are going to help you lose weight, but the tea just on its own was supposed to help you shed pounds. That sounded a little curious to me, so I did some more research into Slendertoxtea’s ingredients and found some surprising information. But before we dig into that, let’s begin with some background on the teas, taken straight from the Slendertoxtea website.
What is the Slendertoxtea?
According to the Slendertoxtea website, Slendertoxtea is an ‘herbal clean detox & organic teatox’ that helps you burn fat and lose weight. ‘Made from a purely natural organic herbal blend, Slendertoxtea is a Teatox designed to detoxify and cleanse, increase metabolism, suppress your appetite, burn calories and increase energy’.
Slendertoxtea state that their tea detox will help in the following areas:
- increased energy
- increase metabolism
- beat the bloat
- weight loss
How to Take Slendertoxtea Tea
On their website, they say to use one daytox teabag in the mornings upon waking, and one cleanse teabag every other night for the duration of your teatox. Interestingly, they have a limit on the amount of time you’re supposed to steep their teabags. They say to use a medium sized cup of warm or cold water (not boiling water) and allow the tea infuse for 3-5 minutes, but no longer than 6 minutes. Here’s some other information from the website that I found quite interesting:
“Make sure while detoxing, to drink plenty of water, we recommend around 2 litres per day. This will help reduce the effects that detoxing has on your body. Remember, that a teatox is a detox on the body, and the initial few days of detoxing may be difficult, especially when you’re badly in need of a cleanse. Headaches, fatigue, interrupted sleep and hunger pangs are common during the these first few days, as this is is the toxins leaving your body.”
Possible Side Effects
Slendertoxtea states on their website that the only noticeable side effects you could get from their teatox are those associated with a laxative effect. These side effects can include stomach cramping as well as more frequent visits to the bathroom, however, they warn that it should not include diarrhea, vomiting, severe cramping or dizziness. Depending on the intensity you may experience from these side effects, they recommend adjusting the strength of the Slendertoxtea by infusing the teabag for less time. They do mention that the induced colon cleanse should work overnight and send you to the toilet the next morning, but no more than that.
Slendertoxtea Eating Plan
According to Slendertoxtea, while you’re on your Teatox plan, it’s important to ‘eat clean, look lean, exercise and do not forget a clean and healthy diet!’ They also provide an Eating Plan section that illustrates a basic eating plan to get you started. Below are some foods that they suggest avoiding while you’re taking the teatox:
- Red meat, Chicken, Turkey along with any other meat products such as Sausages, Burgers and Paté.
- Milk, Cheese, Eggs, Cream, Butter and Margarine.
- Any food which contains Wheat such as Bread, Croissants, Cereals, Cakes, Pies, Biscuits, Pies, Pastry, Quiche, Battered or Bread crumbed food.
- Crisps and Savoury Snacks including Salted Nuts, Chocolate, Sweets, Jam and Sugar.
- Processed foods, Ready meals, Ready-made sauces and Takeaways.
- Alcohol Fizzy drinks and Squashes, including diet versions.
- Coffee, Tea & Salt.
My Slendertoxtea Review
Now to my Slendertoxtea review and overall experience with this 14 day teatox. First of all, let’s go back to the Slendertoxtea ‘general advice’ section where they say “headaches, fatigue, interrupted sleep and hunger pangs are common during the these first few days, as this is is the toxins leaving your body”. Well let me just say, I experienced much worse than that – and on every single day of this teatox (that is, until I decided to quit). Through the first six days, I experienced constant, severe cramping and was running to the bathroom almost every hour. Not to be too detailed in my little bathroom sessions, let’s just say that I was losing a lot of water – that much was clear. (Warning to those who do decide to try this teatox – I recommend starting this on a non-workday, as Slendertoxtea also suggests, so that you aren’t running to the bathroom at work every hour!)
To their claim that these side effects are just the ‘toxins leaving you body’, I personally find that sort of unbelievable. I would say that it’s more like everything is leaving your body. You eat, then you go to the bathroom an hour later. The laxative effect is so strong that I doubt it lets your body thoroughly digest, let alone absorb the nutrients, from the foods you’re eating.
Because of the strong laxative effect, I started to understand where the weight loss claims were coming from. The tea never lets the food stay in your system – it’s constantly moving it out and dehydrating you, which of course would decrease bloating and water weight. This might make you think you’re losing weight, when really, you’re most likely just dehydrating yourself, hence the ‘headaches, fatigue, etc’. To me, those symptoms are just misleading ‘effects of detoxing’. You might as well be taking a laxative pill – you’ll lose weight either way, and both are equally unhealthy for you.
Digging a Bit Deeper Into Slendertoxtea Ingredients
I have to admit, for a while there I thought I was actually cleansing my body…somehow…because a number of many people were doing this detox and never complained (or so I thought). It took my boyfriend witnessing all the pain and torture that I was putting myself through for the first six days to finally tell me to stop. Later that day, we decided to look up the ingredients together to see what exactly was in the teas that was causing my pains. Here are the ingredients listed on each package just for reference:
- Slendertoxtea Daytox Ingredients: Hawthorn Grain, Red Bean, Sterling Bean, Radish Leaf, Camellia Seed, Camellia Flower, Green Tea, Fennel Seeds.
- Slendertoxtea Sleeptox Ingredients: Valerian Root, Large Hawthorn, Red Bean, Sterling Bean, Green Tea, Radish Leaf, Camellia Seed, Fennel Seeds, Camellia Flower.
In our search through the internet, we found this very interesting article on Diet Pills Watchdog that talks about the validity of Slendertoxtea’s claims and ingredients. They stated a number of Slendertoxtea cons, including 1) an insufficient ingredients profiles, 2) unpleasant side effects, and 3) no health or weight loss benefit – yep, that pretty much summed up my experience! They run through all the ingredients, the safety concerns, and even the ‘mystery beans’ (i.e. the ‘Sterling Bean’ and ‘Red Bean’) – it’s not clear exactly what they are. Definitely take a look at their article – it poses some interesting questions like ‘where exactly is the strong laxative effect coming from?’.
Since reading that article, I’ve stopped the detox and am letting my body recover (it’s day six and I’m still feeling symptoms of dehydration). If I ever do do another teatox, I’ll be sticking with my favorite – Skinny Bee Tea teatox, which I’ve reviewed here. At least their teas include safe ingredients, and ones known for their beneficial effects, like senna leaf, pu’erh leaf, dandelion leaf, and lemongrass.
What I learned from all this is that, if you’re thinking about starting a detox, just make sure to do some research on the ingredients beforehand. It’s always good to know exactly what you’re putting into your body.
Have you tried the Slendertoxtea detox, or one similar? If so, did you have a similar experience?
Explore some of my favorite teatoxes (laxative and/or side-effect free):
