Does pineapple juice help detox the body, make a person lose weight and relieve joint ache? No, that's not true: The only thing that can help detox the body is the liver and kidneys, according to a dermatologist. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) webpage devoted to "significant scientific agreement" about health claims made in food labelling does not list a correlation between pineapple and any of the other claims in this post.
The claim appeared in a Facebook post (archived here) on February 16, 2022. It reads:
Did you know that pineapple water can help detox your body, lose weight and relieve joint ache?
This is what the post looked like on Facebook at the time of writing:
Lead Stories contacted a representative from the FDA to ask if pineapple juice did what this claim says it does. In a February 17, 2022, email, the representative sent a link about authorized health claims that meet the Significant Scientific Agreement (SSA) Standard. That webpage does not document a link between pineapple juice and any of the claims in the Facebook post.
In a previous article, we debunked the claim that detoxifying foot filters work. We spoke to a dermatologist and an internist to find out that detoxification is a specific function handled by the kidneys and liver:
The Mayo Clinic, a top-ranked hospital and research center employing thousands of physicians and scientists, answered the question, "Do detox foot pads really work?" Dr. Brent A. Bauer, a doctor who is board-certified in internal medicine, explains on the Mayo Clinic's website that there are no scientific studies that show that detox foot pads work or are safe to use. He notes that the Federal Trade Commission has even charged some distributors of these foot pads with deceptive advertising.
Dr. Joshua Zeichner, a board-certified dermatologist practicing in New York City, told Lead Stories in a January 26, 2022, email that the only organs in our body that have detoxifying effects are the kidneys and liver. Zeichner added that while glands on our feet release sweat and oil, there is no true detoxifying effect from that.
