The Juicy Truth on Detox Diets
Juice cleanses.
At first glance, this sounds really healthy, right? I mean, juice isn’t that bad for you–except for the ones with cups and cups of sugar in them. And everybody could use a good cleansing now and then. Yeah, getting cleaner sounds great.
Add them together and you’ve got yourself the perfect way to get rid of all the toxins in your body, and maybe lose a bit of weight along the way!
Except not really. There are plenty of ways to de-stress and get rid of some of the negative stuff in your body (take these kittens, for example!) but a juice cleanse may end up doing more harm than good.
First, what exactly am I talking about? A juice cleanse is a type of detoxification diet where a person will ingest only a mixture of fruit and vegetable juices over a period of time in order to flush toxins out of the body.
People turn towards juice cleanses whenever they’re feeling sluggish or unusually unhealthy.
Even though it may sound appealing, it can be terribly dangerous! For starters, you don’t even eat when you’re on a juice cleanse. And this is counterproductive–we need to eat healthily and regularly so our body can cleanse itself (which is exactly what you’re trying to do).
The following is a breakdown of how your body reacts during a juice cleanse, with help from this article:
After drinking your initial sip of juice: your body is flooded with sugar from all the fruit, prompting your insulin levels to go way up. In other words, your body and your cells are now dealing with a huge influx of sugar.
After half an hour: your body has used up this short-term supply of sugar, and your insulin levels drop down again, making you slightly dizzy. Without solid food, your body starts to use up energy stored in your liver and muscles.
After two days: your body keeps fluctuating in your blood sugar levels, and your body is drawing from even more sources to get energy: your fat cells (yes!!) and protein from your muscles (no!!!). Even if you’re losing weight you’re losing muscle mass too–not good.
After three days: you’re going start to experience changes in mood, and you may feel downright miserable at times. Also, all the carbs from the juice causes more water to go into your intestines, leading to diarrhea. Great.
After four days: your small intestine hasn’t been used for days, and the little fibers inside that move food start to degenerate. The diarrhea could get worse, and that leads to dehydration, even though you’re drinking juice. What?!
After eight days: you can eat again! But you’ve lost so much muscle, and that muscle isn’t there to break down all the calories you’re ingesting. These calories now start to turn into fat.
…yeah, after further inspection, juice cleanses definitely aren’t the best things to be doing to your body. Instead of losing weight and getting rid of all the bad stuff in your body, you may actually be doing the opposite.
But what do we recommend? Having a healthy, balanced diet and maintaining a solid level of exercise! Your body is equipped to cleanse itself, no juice required.