Actors Demi Moore and Ashton Kutcher helped to popularize the Master Cleanse diet by using Twitter to describe their detox diet experiences. The Master Cleanse plan significantly restricts your food intake to include only a special homemade beverage. Before starting the Master Cleanse plan, discuss possible health risks with your physician.
Ingredients
The Master Cleanse diet features a simple list of ingredients: water, lemons, maple syrup and cayenne pepper. During the detox diet, cleanse practitioners make a homemade beverage with these ingredients. Dieters squeeze fresh, organic lemons each time they make a new drink. Using bottled or canned lemon juice supposedly reduces its benefits. Grade B maple syrup is optimal for the Master Cleanse beverage, because it contains vitamins and minerals lacking in typical supermarket syrups. Dieters include ground organic cayenne pepper to provide vitamins and minerals, loosen mucus and improve blood flow.
Diet Features
Some Master Cleanse practitioners follow the diet for three or four days, while others extend the cleanse for one month. During the cleanse, dieters avoid all solid food and only drink filtered water or the lemonade beverage. Master Cleanse proponents emphasize the importance of drinking at least six 10-oz. glasses of the lemonade each day for the duration of the cleanse. Many people also perform a salt water flush or take laxatives to induce bowel movements, clearing the digestive system of toxins.
Claims
The Master Cleanse diet claims to improve your health in a variety of ways. Cleanse advocates believe the diet dissolves and sweeps away toxic chemicals that build up in your cells. The Master Cleanse also supposedly cleanses the kidneys, digestive tract, glands and other organ systems. Results of this cleansing action include lower blood pressure, weight loss, improved skin elasticity and clarity, reduced symptoms of chronic illnesses and better digestive functioning. Little scientific evidence supports these claims, and many conventional physicians advise against performing a Master Cleanse diet.
Risks
Following the Master Cleanse diet plan for a prolonged period increases your risk of serious illness. Cleanse advocates believe that side effects such as coughing, sneezing, sore throat, fatigue, congestion, fever, headaches and rashes indicate that the Master Cleanse is working. Instead, these are serious side effects that occur because you are significantly restricting caloric intake. According to Anna Raymond, a dietitian and member of the British Dietetic Association, the Master Cleanse may cause your body to create dangerous chemicals called ketones in response to severe caloric restriction. Before beginning the cleanse, talk to your doctor to determine whether it is healthy for you.
References
- "The Independent"; The Stars Who Are Bad for Your Health; Terri Judd; Dec. 2010
- Mayo Clinic; Detox Diets: Do They Work?; Katherine Zeratsky; April 2010
- Master Cleanse Secrets: The Master Cleanser Recipe
- The Master Cleanse; The Definitive Top 27 Master Cleanser Side Effects; Mike Olaski; Jan. 2010
- Master Cleanse Secrets: When You Cleanse Your Body You'll Undo Years Of Toxic Lifestyle Damage
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