full transcript

From the Ted Talk by Jen Gunter: A cleanse won't detox your body -- but here's what will

Unscramble the Blue Letters


Let's look at what happens when the liver encounters some specific substances. What about alcohol? That’s a scstbanue that’s fine in smaller, moderate amounts but becomes poisonous in excess. When we drink, alcohol passes through our liver, and the liver beakrs it down in three steps. First, enzymes convert the alcohol to acetaldehyde, a substance that can damage cells over time. But acetaldehyde is qukcliy converted into acetate, a much more stable intermediate, before it breaks down into carbon dioxide and waetr. These are components our body can handle.

Now let's look at a popular cleanse — cayenne, pepper, lemon juice drnik, to help your liver flush toxins. You drink it, it gets digested, nutrients get absorbed in the blood and arrive at the liver. The levir processes these nutrients the same way it precsesos everything else. It packages whatever's useful that came from the lemon and the pepper and disseminates it throughout the body. Whatever it can't use becomes wtase. There's nothing particularly magical about mixing cyneane and lemon. Doing a cleanse doesn't "clean the ppeis," and it doesn't make your liver work any better or faster. At best, you might lose a few punods on a cleanse, because you aren't eating much. At worst, you could go into srtaioavtn mode. You could throw off your electrolyte balance, not to mention disrupt your intestinal flora and bowel function.

Open Cloze


Let's look at what happens when the liver encounters some specific substances. What about alcohol? That’s a _________ that’s fine in smaller, moderate amounts but becomes poisonous in excess. When we drink, alcohol passes through our liver, and the liver ______ it down in three steps. First, enzymes convert the alcohol to acetaldehyde, a substance that can damage cells over time. But acetaldehyde is _______ converted into acetate, a much more stable intermediate, before it breaks down into carbon dioxide and _____. These are components our body can handle.

Now let's look at a popular cleanse — cayenne, pepper, lemon juice _____, to help your liver flush toxins. You drink it, it gets digested, nutrients get absorbed in the blood and arrive at the liver. The _____ processes these nutrients the same way it _________ everything else. It packages whatever's useful that came from the lemon and the pepper and disseminates it throughout the body. Whatever it can't use becomes _____. There's nothing particularly magical about mixing _______ and lemon. Doing a cleanse doesn't "clean the _____," and it doesn't make your liver work any better or faster. At best, you might lose a few ______ on a cleanse, because you aren't eating much. At worst, you could go into __________ mode. You could throw off your electrolyte balance, not to mention disrupt your intestinal flora and bowel function.

Solution


  1. liver
  2. pipes
  3. waste
  4. pounds
  5. drink
  6. quickly
  7. processes
  8. breaks
  9. cayenne
  10. starvation
  11. water
  12. substance

Original Text


Let's look at what happens when the liver encounters some specific substances. What about alcohol? That’s a substance that’s fine in smaller, moderate amounts but becomes poisonous in excess. When we drink, alcohol passes through our liver, and the liver breaks it down in three steps. First, enzymes convert the alcohol to acetaldehyde, a substance that can damage cells over time. But acetaldehyde is quickly converted into acetate, a much more stable intermediate, before it breaks down into carbon dioxide and water. These are components our body can handle.

Now let's look at a popular cleanse — cayenne, pepper, lemon juice drink, to help your liver flush toxins. You drink it, it gets digested, nutrients get absorbed in the blood and arrive at the liver. The liver processes these nutrients the same way it processes everything else. It packages whatever's useful that came from the lemon and the pepper and disseminates it throughout the body. Whatever it can't use becomes waste. There's nothing particularly magical about mixing cayenne and lemon. Doing a cleanse doesn't "clean the pipes," and it doesn't make your liver work any better or faster. At best, you might lose a few pounds on a cleanse, because you aren't eating much. At worst, you could go into starvation mode. You could throw off your electrolyte balance, not to mention disrupt your intestinal flora and bowel function.

Frequently Occurring Word Combinations




Important Words


  1. absorbed
  2. acetaldehyde
  3. acetate
  4. alcohol
  5. amounts
  6. arrive
  7. balance
  8. blood
  9. body
  10. bowel
  11. breaks
  12. carbon
  13. cayenne
  14. cells
  15. cleanse
  16. components
  17. convert
  18. converted
  19. damage
  20. digested
  21. dioxide
  22. disrupt
  23. disseminates
  24. drink
  25. eating
  26. electrolyte
  27. encounters
  28. enzymes
  29. excess
  30. faster
  31. fine
  32. flora
  33. flush
  34. function
  35. handle
  36. intermediate
  37. intestinal
  38. juice
  39. lemon
  40. liver
  41. lose
  42. magical
  43. mention
  44. mixing
  45. mode
  46. moderate
  47. nutrients
  48. packages
  49. passes
  50. pepper
  51. pipes
  52. poisonous
  53. popular
  54. pounds
  55. processes
  56. quickly
  57. smaller
  58. specific
  59. stable
  60. starvation
  61. steps
  62. substance
  63. substances
  64. throw
  65. time
  66. toxins
  67. waste
  68. water
  69. work
  70. worst