The Clay Diet: Lose Weight, Toxins?!?

Thigh gap alert!

Zoe Kravitz: “I did a cleanse. I tried to do it the healthiest way as possible, even though it’s not healthy to do. I ended up drinking clay, because it cleans out your body and fills you up. I was eating like a Mason jar of pureed vegetables a day and running.”

She lost 20 pounds for her role in The Road Within.

The Descendants Actress Shailene Woodley has also spoken out about eating clay and it's purported benefits. While on David Letterman she backed up her claims by saying everyone should "look it up" ...so I did.

"The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) regards Bentonite clay as a food ingredient that is Generally Recognized as Safe (GRAS). The FDA has not approved of Bentonite clay treatments for any ailments or conditions, internally nor externally, nor has it reviewed Bentonite clay's effect on toxic removal and digestive health of the body. "

While eating clay could be harmless, it could be toxic (and therefore perfectly ironic). There are some concerns about both a pregnant woman and her fetus, actually being exposed to arsenic, lead and other toxins that naturally occur in soil. The same goes for people who aren't expecting.

"Removing metal from the body is not necessarily good — iron, for example, is a metal and essential to health. So, there could conceivably be benefits, but there could certainly be harms — and a favourable benefit/harm ratio has not been established to justify recommending this," says Dr. David L. Katz, M.D., MPH, FACPM, FACP, aHuffPost blogger and founding director of the Prevention Research Center at Yale University. Katz additionally called Woodley's assertion about the negative charge of clay 'meaningless.'"

Bottom line: There are better ways to get calcium, iron and minerals, like eating food rich in these nutrients.