The New York Times’ coverage of wellness concepts like “detox” is a case study in pseudoscience creep.

Scientifically speaking, “detoxing” isn’t a thing. As writer Dara Mohammadi put it in a scorching takedown of the dominant wellness watchword of the past decade: “If toxins did build up in a way that your body couldn’t excrete, you’d likely be dead or in need of serious medical intervention.” Given that scientists, doctors, and nutritionists have united in rejecting the very idea of a “detox,” it’s a bit head-scratching to read the New York Times’ T Magazine’s My Detox column, featuring attractive “creative people” sharing “the homemade recipes they count on to detox, cleanse—and refresh.” In a recent installment, the model Alek Wek recommends a Sudanese okra stew; she “adds a glass of detoxifying lemon juice” to her recipe when her life is about to get especially busy. ‘My Detox’ pieces are not meant to serve as instructional stories.” Cohen added: “The Times’ science and health editors regularly offer guidance on relevant subject matter for sections when necessary.” To be fair, the intrusion of pseudoscientific wellness language into editorial coverage is not a problem exclusive to the Times. Pseudoscience creep is how Bon Appétit can run an essay in which the author begs the reader not to talk about “toxins”—“If you’re not on dialysis, your toxin level is probably okay”—while also publishing stories like “Post-Thanksgiving Weight-Loss and Detox Recipes,” a “Tax Day Detox,” and “Rich, Heavy Recipes to Ruin Your New Year’s Resolution Detox Diet.” Some might argue that detox clearly just means “healthy” now, so why be pedantic about its origins? As the Times’ Taffy Brodesser-Akner wrote in her great 2017 piece on the shift between an old “diet” paradigm and our “clean eating” world, talk of “cleansing” hides old compulsions in new clothing.