Although some juice cleanse plans emerged in the 1940s, their popularity has been increasing among Hollywood celebrities such as Demi Moore and Ashton Kutcher, prompting other people to follow suit. Juice cleanses are short-term diet plans that significantly restrict your caloric intake. Because some juice cleansing practices are dangerous, talk to a physician before beginning a cleanse.
Purpose
Juice cleanse advocates believe toxins from the food supply, air and water pollution, household chemicals and other modern products build up in your cells. This accumulation of dangerous toxins causes fatigue, sluggishness, aches and pains, weight gain, depressed mood and other medical symptoms. Alternative medicine practitioners claim that the minerals, enzymes, vitamins and other nutrients in raw fruit and vegetable juice cleanse your body of dangerous toxins. Typical cleanse plans significantly restrict your caloric intake, causing weight loss.
Features
A typical juice cleanse lasts three to 10 days, although some experienced cleanse practitioners stay on the plan up to a month. Before the juice cleanse, the website Just Cleansing recommends eating only raw, organic fruits and vegetables for one or two days to prepare your body. For the duration of the cleanse, dieters avoid all solid foods and drink only purified water and fresh, homemade juices. Cleanse practitioners aim to drink four to eight cups of juice every day in addition to eight glasses of water. Some juice cleanse plans advise dieters to use herbal laxatives to induce bowel movements that clear the colon of waste.
Types of Juice Cleanses
One popular type of juice cleanse is the Master Cleanse, developed by alternative medicine proponent Stanley Burroughs for his 1976 book "The Master Cleanser." This plan restricts your intake to a beverage made from purified water, pure maple syrup, organic cayenne pepper and freshly-squeezed lemons. Other detoxifying juice plans feature celery, tomatoes, carrots, cucumbers, alfalfa sprouts, parsley, leafy green vegetables, grapes, lemons, watermelon and berries.
Warning
Although a juice cleanse may seem like a tempting way to lose weight, people often regain the weight after stopping these fad diets. Much of the weight you lose on a juice cleanse comes from clearing your digestive system of waste and burning lean muscle tissue. A healthier approach to weight loss is to incorporate plenty of fruits, vegetables and whole-grain products into your diet without eliminating all solid foods. Mayo Clinic dietitian Katherine Zeratsky warns that detoxification diets such as juice cleanses may cause dehydration, dizziness, nausea and other serious side effects. Do not begin a juice cleanse before talking to your doctor about weight loss, healthy nutrition and juice cleanse safety.
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