Detoxing is a scam: In 2007, a science advocacy group called Sense about Science reached out to the makers of 15 detox health products to figure out what toxin their products were targeting, eventually arriving at the conclusion that there were none, writes Julia Belluz for Vox. The idea that the human body can produce toxic substances that cause disease and need to be expelled dates back to Ancient Egypt. The notion, labeled auto-intoxication, was sent to “the dustbin of medical history” by the early 1900s, according to medical journal the Lancet, but stuck around in the realm of pseudoscience thanks to “archaic misconceptions about how the body works, marketing, and celebrity endorsements” (runtime 4:08).

Tags: