I've heard that fasting can help your body detox but the people who advocate that usually talk about fasting for 2-3 days at a time. Does intermittent fasting have similar effects?

Seems to have a lot of health benefits. Am not sure if it is due to a 'detox' effect or whatever. I have seen loads of science reports etc saying there is no such thing as an active detox effect but am not sure. I just figure if I spend a day not shovelling crap into my system it can get on dealing with the backlog
I keep trying the 1 day normal eating, 1 day fast <600 cals. Although I have not noticed massive weight loss, my walking has improved, my breathing is better, I feel generally more 'withit' and without going into details more manly . Am having a chat with my Doctor re weight and health etc later this week so will get her opinion. So much varying info out there it gets hard to know if what you are doing is correct. Do I go raw food, vegan, live off juices, fast ...? All so overwhelming
I just noticed my favourite fasting diet, Master Cleanse, that loses me around 5lbs a day has been voted one of the most dangerous diets by lots of nutritionist groups. They advocate normal healthy eating but fail to see that spending a week losing 2lbs to slip up one meal and put on 6 is soul destroying. I worked out I have spent probably as much money on diet and exercise books\dvds etc as I have on junk food