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CLEANSING 101
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Cleansing & Your Health
The key to a long and healthy life is locked in the internal condition of our body. A clean body is a healthy body.
Pre-Detox Guidelines
Detox safely and successfully with proper preparation. It's important to cleanse gradually by improving your diet and supplying your body with the nutrients and supplements it needs.
Personalizing a Program
These cleansing protocols can be customized for your particular needs.
Detox Therapies
Get the most out of your detox program by including these detox therapies before, during and after your detox program.
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The Master Cleanse cleanses the body of toxins and remove the cravings associated with drugs, alcohol, tobacco, and eating junk food. "Coffee, tea, and various cola drinks, as habit-forming beverages, also lose their appeal through the marvels of the lemonade diet."
The cleanse involves drinking only lemonade made from fresh lemon or lime juice, Grade B maple syrup, water and Cayenne pepper. No solid food is eaten for the duration of the cleanse. The master cleanse is technically not a "fast" and proponents say it is more gentle on the body because it does contain some essential vitamins and minerals. According to proponents it is recommended to be on the cleanse for a minimum of ten days, but it is not uncommon for people to stay on the cleanse for longer periods of time, even as long as 45 days.
Since there is no intake of solid food, special precautions are taken to avoid constipation. Senna tea is taken every night, and in the morning warm saline is required. This passes through the digestive system extremely quickly, usually causing defecation in 30-60 minutes. It is essential to go off of the cleanse slowly. The lack of solid foods for such long periods requires careful breaking, as gut flora need to re-develop and mucus linings re-build. This usually involves drinking "full strength" juices for a day or two, while slowly adding in soups, then fruit, vegetables and nuts before resuming a regular diet.
Some practitioners add probiotics at this time to help re-establish a healthy intestinal culture. Some individuals have returned to their healthy diet the following day after stopping the program without any problems, but this is rare and not recommended especially for first timers.
Fruits and Vegetables Used in Juicing
- Vegetables - celery, cucumber, tomato, bell pepper
- Greens - parsley, kale, beet greens, chard, spinach, dandelion leaf
- Cruciferous vegetables - broccoli, cabbage
- Root vegetables - carrots, beets, sweet potatoes
- Fruits - dark grapes, apples, citrus, Açai berry
- Herbs - yucca root, fennel, spearmint, peppermint, basil, ginger, garlic, green onion, chile pepper, fresh turmeric root, milk thistle
- Wheatgrass juice, spirulina (a blue-green sea algae)
Health Warnings
Fasters must take care to maintain their intake of vitamins and nutrients. However, there are no specific side effects associated exclusively with juice fasting, though certain medical conditions such as diabetes may be aggravated by excessive intake of certain juices. It's also possible for a juice such as grapefruit to interact badly with certain prescription drugs. Additionally, the juices from highly acidic fruits such as tomato and citrus juices can conceivably upset the body's natural acid-base (pH) balance.
Some individuals should be careful before attempting juice fasting or even performing excessive juice fasting without the consultation from medical practitioners. These include the malnourished and underweight, pregnant or lactating mothers, advanced cancer patients, poor immunity individuals, individuals who have recently undergone surgery, individuals who suffer from stomach ulcers, low blood pressure, excessive fatigue, and children.
Who shouldn't fast?
- Pregnant or nursing women or children shouldn't try a juice fast.
- People with diabetes, low blood sugar, eating disorders, kidney disease, liver disease, malnutrition, addictions, underweight, anemia, impaired immune function, infection, nutritional deficiency, low blood pressure, ulcerative colitis, cancer, terminal illness, epilepsy, or other chronic conditions shouldn't try a juice fast or should do so only under strict medical supervision.
- People shouldn't try a juice fast before or after surgical procedures.
- A juice fasting can reduce blood proteins and change the way prescription drugs react in the body. People taking prescription medications should consult a health professional skilled in detoxification before trying a juice fast, and should never discontinue or reduce their medications on their own.
Liquid Diet Fasting Tips
- Proponents of juice fasting suggest fasting only during the warmer months of the year. Spring is thought to be the best time of the year for juice fasting.
- Seven or more days before the fast, alcohol, nicotine, caffeine, sugar, dairy, wheat, animal meat, fish, and eggs are typically reduced or eliminated from the diet. This preparation diet often consists mainly of organic fruits, vegetables, and beans.
- Between 32 and 64 ounces of juice is usually recommended per day during the fast. The juice is sipped throughout the day. Typical fruits and vegetables include celery, carrot, kale, cabbage, apple, pineapple, cranberry, spinach, beet, and greens. Citrus fruits are often avoided.
- Approximately 6 glasses of room temperature or warm filtered water is often recommended in addition to the juice.
- Organic fruits and vegetables are usually recommended. If organic produce isn't available, practitioners suggest peeling the skin off fruits and vegetables or washing vegetables with a non-toxic produce cleaner, usually available at health food stores.
- Freshly juiced fruits and vegetables are preferred, but if unavailable, practitioners suggest buying it from the health food store or juice bar as fresh as possible.
- Green vegetables and sprouts contain the pigment chlorophyll, which juice proponents believe are especially beneficial during a juice fast.
- A combination of fruits and vegetables is recommended.
- Variations on the strict juice fast include eating one meal a day in addition to the juice.
- Certain fruits and vegetables and their parts should not be juiced, such as the pits of peaches, apricots, cherries, and other fruits, apple seeds, citrus peels, carrot and rhubarb tops, tough skins (such as kiwi, pineapple, mangoes), and bananas and avocados.
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