Have you ever struggled to lose weight, felt like you’ve been eating poorly, or had such a bad hangover that you feel like you might die unless you do something about it? Chances are that you have stumbled across a juice cleanse/detox in your search for a “cure."
What is a juice cleanse? For those of you who may or may not know, a juice cleanse is when you go for a specific number of days only drinking the juice of fruits and/or vegetables! Wild right?! But is there any actual benefit from doing this “detox” or is it all hype?
Let’s look at it from a pros and cons point of view.
Let’s start with the Pros of juicing.
You are consuming fruits and vegetables.
You get the vitamins and minerals from those juiced fruits or vegetables.
It’s easy to drink juice.
Now let’s look at the Cons of juicing.
When juicing, people generally don’t eat any other form of food, which means that all your calories are coming from juice.
There is no (or very minimal) protein (the building block of muscles and cells) in juice.
The vitamin and mineral content of fruits and vegetables is significantly reduced when you juice them!
You lose the insoluble fiber when you juice fruits and vegetables.
Juicers are an expensive investment ($50-$400).
Potential side effects – Juice detox diets to get rid of toxins in the body can actually cause diarrhea, fatigue, and irritability.
Juice cleanses can rid your body of healthy bacteria and really upset your GI system.
Juice cleanse diets are a concern for people with diabetes because of all the sugar in them.
As you can see, there are nearly three times as many cons, as there are pros. But let’s make even more sense out of this. Why go on a “detox” or "cleanse" when your body is already equipped to do that naturally? Our kidneys and liver are constantly detoxing, filtering, and cleansing our bodies of impurities. Sure you may lose some weight on a “cleanse,” but that’s usually due to all the deficiencies that they promote, and as soon as you stop the diet, you gain the weight right back. If you find it easier to drink your fruits and veggies, then adding a smoothie to your diet is a perfectly good option; however, the best way we can truly help our bodies, is to eat a balanced diet with whole grains, lean meats, healthy fats and fruits and veggies in their natural form!
Sources Are juice cleanses actually good for you? (2021). Retrieved February 12, 2021, from https://www.houstonmethodist.org/blog/articles/2020/jan/are-juices-cleanses-actually-good- for-you/ Publishing, H. (2015). Juicing -- fad or fab? Retrieved February 12, 2021, from https://www.health.harvard.edu/healthy-eating/juicing-fad-or-fab
Cover Photo by Greg Rosenke on Unsplash