Here’s Why The Soy Sauce Cleanse is so Dangerous

With cleanses increasing in popularity, it’s vital to understand which ones (if any) are beneficial and which ones are a bunch of malarky. One such “cleanse” lurking around the internet, the soy sauce colon cleanse, is so incredibly dangerous that it actually left one woman brain dead.

According to a YouTube video by Chubbyemu, a 39-year-old woman partook in the soy sauce cleanse which entailed drinking a liter of soy sauce within two hours. The cleanse, intended to remove toxins from the colon, is based on partial fact in that where sodium collects, water will flow toward it. The theory is that if the colon holds an entire liter of soy sauce, bodily water, and therefore toxins, the bad stuff will be attracted to the soy sauce, enter the colon, and then be expelled from, well, your butt.

However, the massive amount of soy sauce has a lot of other organs to pass through before entering the colon, thus causing the cleanse to go very wrong.

Because there was so much sodium ingested at once — an equal amount to eating 10 pounds of cooked bacon — the woman’s internal organs became dehydrated as the salt entered her bloodstream. Her brain shrunk, rendering her unable to move, speak, or swallow.

It’s important to note that, although this cleanse is not appropriate or safe for anyone to try, the woman at the heart of this story had other health issues prior to the cleanse. She had unintentionally lost 25 pounds in three weeks, had a vitamin deficiency, and, according to her husband, she was only eating white bread and canned fish.

The woman had also just left a psychiatric hospital where she was diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia.

Experts believe that the woman may have suffered from Celiac disease that externally presented itself as delusion, and therefore, went misdiagnosed. This led her to look for help online where she happened upon the soy sauce cleanse and fell for it.

Perhaps the woman could have been saved from her dire fate if she had met with the right doctors or continued to seek answers from medical professionals rather than online forums. But unfortunately, her story has now become a warning for others to stay away from fishy cleanses like drinking a liter of soy sauce.

Remember, we have kidneys for a reason, people.