WHEN Fiona Nicholl of United Kingdom spotted the cream dress on the hanger, she was smitten. “It was love at first sight,” says the 50-year-old woman. “I knew it would be perfect for my friend’s wedding.

    “But when I tried it on, tears came to my eyes. The dress had looked so desirable on the rail, but it clung to my size-14 figure and wrinkled around my belly.

    “I left the shop empty-handed and made a promise to myself to lose weight — I was 67 kg — and return to buy the dress. It was June 2012 and I had three months until the wedding.”

    While most women would eat more sensibly, exercise and count the calories, Nicholl took a more radical approach: she started drinking clay to slim down.

    It sounds bizarre, but these “clay cleanses” are the latest product the diet industry — now worth US$3.37 billion — is pushing on women desperate to lose weight. Although some are considered dangerous by doctors, that hasn’t stopped it taking off as a trend, first in the United States, and now in the United Kingdom.

    The cleanses involve either swallowing clay tablets or mixing powdered clay with juice. The rationale is that the clay — usually bentonite clay, a super-absorbent type of volcanic ash mined in the United States and China — swells to 12 times its original volume in the stomach, curbing hunger pangs.

    Devotees also claim that the indigestible clay sucks away “toxins” thanks to its absorbency, and helps kickstart a sluggish metabolism by removing slow-moving waste in the gut, in much the same way that colonic irrigation does. The idea is that once this accumulated waste is gone, the body can digest food more easily and absorb more nutrients.

    Bentonite is commonly used alongside psyllium husk, from seed shells. These husks can’t be digested by the small intestine but are broken down and act like a sponge in the intestinal tract.

    Its high-fiber content is said to keep the clay moving quickly through your system. The touted results are impressive: anything up to a 4.54-kg weight-loss in 10 days.

    Needless to say, clay cleanses have already got celebrity devotees, with supermodel Elle Macpherson and actress Zoe Kravitz apparently having drunk them to ditch the pounds.

    No wonder online retailers and health stores are doing a brisk trade, selling everything from US$17 tablets to US$337 “master cleanses.” Even clay cleanse retreats have started springing up, costing up to US$1,687 for a week.

    Of course, one thing sellers don’t mention is that the same substance they are suggesting women put in their mouths is also a key ingredient in cat litter — effective for absorbing of waste fluid and swelling when wet.

    The other thing they keep quiet is that the clay can be highly toxic.

    Worried by the popularity of the cleanses, the U.K. food watchdog has issued a warning about the dangers of ingesting some clay-based “detox” products, after finding dangerously high arsenic and lead levels in some supplements.

    Arsenic can trigger kidney failure, nerve damage, and skin, lung and bladder cancer; while ingestion of lead can result in anemia, brain damage and liver failure. But even such a stark warning can’t seem to put off women desperate for a quick-fix. (SD-Agencies)