Source: nyulocal.com
Over the summer, I had noticed a health trend that was getting pretty popular in my age group, where you would commit to only taking in all natural pre-made juices—or sometimes you made the juices yourself—to cleanse your body of toxic build up and help you drop excess weight. The cleanse could last for three or even up to ten days, and every meal you would only be allowed to drink your food. I found this growing trend extremely interesting because during my freshman year I tried an all liquid diet for one week, however I added ample amounts of protein into my drinks in order to maintain energy levels and not loose muscle mass. By the end of the week I felt refreshed and energized, but completely ready to go back to food. But when I was looking at some of the recipes put together for the juice cleanse programs promoted online, little to no protein was added to any drinks which made me wonder, “Could this juice cleanse fad potentially be bad for you?”
source: blueprintcleanse.com
I was researching if there are different type of juice cleanses out there and found that there actually are; there are juice cleanses that involve blended fruits and vegetables and then there is the “Master Cleanse” which only allows the cleanser to drink a mixture of lemon juice, maple syrup, cayenne pepper, and water. According to Health.com, many people turn to juice cleansing because they feel like their body is off—they feel sluggish, heavy, or bloated. It is believed that only drinking these fiber-rich drinks will rid your body of the toxins that are preventing it from operating at maximum capacity, but this may not be the case. There are already organs within your body—such as your kidneys and liver—that remove all the toxins within our bodies, thus making the idea of a juice cleanse obsolete. According to the Huffington Post, the reason it seems like the juice-cleanse is actually a viable way to loose weight is because it increases the rate at which we lose water weight. Switching over to a liquid diet reduces calorie intake, causing the body to release the carbohydrate glycogen for extra energy for the body to function. Glycogen attaches to water so when it is lost, so is water—but normally the water is gained after the cleanse ends.
The general consensus is that taking part in a juice cleanse isn’t a sustainable way to lose weight—it is still suggested to watch what you eat and exercise regularly. However, there is nothing that shows doing a cleanse for a couple of days would do detrimental harm—so if you’re particularly interested in taking part it is generally safe. However, it would be unwise to partake for more than 10 days because there are not any commercial juice cleanses that go past that length.
source: whatsgabycooking.com
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/02/08/are-juice-cleanses-safe_n_1264051.html
Just like you, I have always been interested by the juice cleans trend and its effect on weight loss. As you mentioned, “The general consensus is that taking part in a juice cleanse isn’t a sustainable way to lose weight”. When considering your findings I was curious to learn more about the correlation between the cleans and weight loss. According to http://www.shape.com/weight-loss/weight-loss-strategies/how-juice-cleanse-can-actually-cause-weight-gain when your body is deprived of its usual nutritional intake “the body often reacts by slowing down its metabolism, which can make loosing weight harder in the future”.
This is a very interesting article! I was always skeptical of the juicing diet but never really had reasons to back up why, and now I do. I think that this is another prime example of laziness in America. People are looking for easier alternatives to working out. But like you said in the article, the best way to lose weight is STILL to eat healthy and work out. If food consumption is the problem, why not sign up for Weight Watchers? Why is someone’s first attempt at weight lose to blend their food?
I think your blog post is something that all girls in this age group can relate to. I have a nutritionist that my family uses, and she highly recommends the idea of having a liquid diet, but only in the since that we do it every morning for breakfast. Her facts to me were that it allowed our bodies to get as much vitamins and essential nutrition as possible that is sometimes harder to get if you try and eat 7 fruits and vegetables. With this in mind, I am interested to hear that when you went on this diet you felt refreshed and energized. There are many extreme ways of cleansing your body. This website that I will post here: http://www.webmd.com/diet/features/detox-diets-cleansing-body
gives a medical idea on the process of cleansing. In a personal experience, my yoga teacher has a cleanse where she fasts for seven days only drinking water. Then each week, she adds a food group to her diet and sees how her body reacts to it. She said she learned about her body system and found a diet that made her feel healthy and also showed health benefits for her.
My question for your post is the idea of intestinal fasting, possibly through laxatives or other liquids. I encourage you to look into the products “Good Bellies” and another cleansing liquid that may pose some interesting thoughts against your post. I will link them here: http://www.goodbelly.com/probiotic-drink/
http://www.genesispure.com/products/display/2065/goyin
Hope this helps for a follow up blog!