As some of you may know, my family owns a smoothie store in
Los Angeles. Lately we have had a HUGE demand for fresh vegetable juices and
juice cleanses. My family and I have been juicing our own fruits and vegetables
for the past year, but we haven’t been brave enough to try a juice cleanse.
I am always being bombarded with juice cleanse deals from
websites like Groupon and Living Social, so I decided to do a little
investigating. I wanted to look up some scientific literature backing up this
latest fad to hopefully better explain to myself and to you all why this latest
health craze is positive and beneficial. To my great surprise and dismay I was
unable to find any scientific evidence supporting juice cleanses or detoxes.
Instead I found several blogs that have sought to
disprove this latest diet fad including a group called Sense About Science (http://www.senseaboutscience.org/pages/debunking-detox.html).
Here is an article from a sub group of Sense About
Science, called the Voice of Young Science.
It is an interesting review of various
detoxing products done by young scientists.
Since “detoxing” and
“juicing” seemed to be journal article dead ends for me, I decided to look up
“antioxidants” and “free radicals”. Here is a great review article from 2010
about both.
According to the article, free radicals are connected with several diseases and
are naturally found in our body, cigarette smoke, and environmental pollutants to name a few.
Antioxidants are naturally found in the body and can be supplemented through
our diet. The article also discusses several foods that are found to be rich
sources of antioxidants, especially foods found in a traditional Indian diet.
Juice cleanses and
detoxing may be a fad, but being healthy is here to stay. There is no quick fix
to make up for binging on processed foods and you do not have backed up toxins
and poop that you need to force out of your body. Yes, you may lose a few quick
pounds, but it will probably be just poop and you’ll most likely be very hungry
and cranky. Your body already has a very good detox system in place (aka your
liver, kidneys, etc.).
However, the idea of
juicing fruits and vegetables can be a positive addition to a well-rounded
diet, but you should not completely eliminate solid foods. There is scientific
evidence to support antioxidants kicking free radical butt, so add a little
vitamin E, C, and B-carotene to your diet. Synthetic oxidants may actually be
harmful to your health, so stick to natural sources like berries, olives, and
green or black tea as the article above suggests. Don’t forget to eat some
Indian food too!
I too found little to no actual scientific backing for the juice cleanse craze. I recently watched the 2010 documentary "Fat, Sick, and Nearly Dead" though and will say that both of the main characters lost more than poop or water weight from their extended juice cleanses (over a year.)
ReplyDeleteI also read that with juice diets, due to the lack of fiber content in solely juice, laxatives may also be required during a "cleanse". This made be wonder why only juice fruits and vegetables to cleanse instead of also just eating them and skipping the laxatives? This naturally lead to the raw diet fad and I found a study from 1999 (I know, not that recent) that found that people who ate 95% raw had significantly higher occurrence of developing dental caries that can be found at http://content.karger.com/ProdukteDB/produkte.asp?typ=pdf&doi=16498.
I also saw that documentary. I think their reason for juicing rather than eating was that you can consume much more fruits and vegetables in juice form, rather than spending all day chewing and filling your stomach up with undigestible fiber, this is also to concentrating nutrients and fulfill Calorie requirements.
ReplyDeleteThere is no doubt that vegetable and fruit juices contain essential vitamins, minerals, and antioxidants. However, not only do fruits and vegetables contain low amounts of salt and other essential vitamins found in meat and dairy, but people also need to take laxatives or enemas to get rid of waste. As we learned in class, colon absorbs water pretty well. Water from the enema into the colon may cause electrolyte imbalance, this is not good when one is already getting low salt from the juice diet. Not to mention risk of puncturing and irritating the colon due to improper methods.
Another problem I foresee are from people who may want to do this diet - those who are overweight and are inspired by the movie to start doing the juice diet right away. There is a high correlation between weight and cardiovascular diseases, those who are at risk or have survived cardiovascular diseases often take anti-clotting pills like warfarin to help prevent a future incident. We learned from Biochemistry that green leafy vegetables have large amounts of vitamin K, which helps catalytic enzymes in the clotting cascade. This juice diet is a bad idea for people on drugs warfarin and want to prevent thrombosis. It is a little ironic that those who might be tempted by the juice diet as a fast way to lose weight and get healthy might just encounter the opposite of their good intentions.
Ernst E. Colonic Irrigation and the Theory of Autointoxication: A Triumph of Ignorance over Science. Journ. Clin. Gastro. (24)4; 196-198. June 1997.
Wiedermann CJ, Stockner I. Warfarin-induced bleeding complications - clinical presentation and therapeutic options. Thromb Res. (122)2: S13-8. 2008.
I have some different opinion about Juice cleanse diet. I practically feel that when you are on a juice cleanse you should stay away from solid food because taking solid food will slow the detoxification process. And specially for the people who are doing juice cleanse for weight loss. Juice cleansing promises to not only clean your body's hardworking system, but to also help you improve your health and lose weight simultaneously.
ReplyDeleteNice to be visiting your blog again, it has been months for me. Well this article that i've been waited for so long. I need this article to complete my assignment in the college, and it has same topic with your article. Thanks, great share.
ReplyDeleteMiracle Juicer
wow, really wonderful article!!! you did great job. I hope this will help to others. this is the best weight loss secrets i ever read..Juice Cleanse Diet
ReplyDeleteThat's a great idea!..I am so impressed… I am not very skilled at this sort of thing, but you make it look so easy! Juice Diet Plan
ReplyDeleteHi! Nice blog .You have done a great job. Keep on working. Juice Cleansing
ReplyDelete