The Juice Fast Myth: How a Liquid Cleanse Diet Can Actually Harm Your Health

Recently, the juicing craze has completely taken over. Supporters insist that an all-liquid regimen can help you detox your body and lose pounds fast in a natural, healthy way. Juice fasts, say supporters, will help you lose weight and cleanse your body of toxins. Like Atkins before it, this diet fad seems to be everywhere.

But in reality, juice fasts can actually be very dangerous for your body — and Scambook has some important health warnings for anyone thinking about juicing to lose weight.

Health Benefits Claimed by Juice Fans

A juice diet can look pretty attractive when you put together all the positive claims out there. Juicers insist that blending your berries and beets are distilling nature’s gifts to their bare essentials, leaving the best nutrients in watery form.

Juicing is meant to melt off the pounds fast and produce lots of positive physical energy, putting you in great shape to exercise more (and squeeze those lemons with your strong arms).

There’s a misconception that juicing will help you crush your fitness goals.

Consuming only fruit and vegetable juice is also meant to detox the body. This is one of the most widely shared claims out there — supposedly, juicing will “reset” your vital organs and cleanse your system.

Certain kinds of juices are also rumored to cure specific illnesses or drastically decrease symptoms.

Unfortunately, despite these wonderful claims, a juice diet is simply NOT good to the last drop. Here’s why.

Juiced Fruits and Veggies Lose Potency and Damage Your Body

Say bye-bye to dietary fiber if you choose to crush your cranberries and smash your spinach. Most of the fiber in fruits and veggies are contained in the skin and flesh, and fiber is vital to our body’s digestive system.

Consuming only juice will also put stress on organs like your liver and kidneys — the very body parts a juice fast is meant to cleanse or detox. These organs naturally purify the food we eat and overloading on liquids (especially high-sugar liquids like fruit juice, even when it’s fresh squeezed) can shock our systems.

Quick Weight Loss Leads to Quick Weight Gain

While it’s true that an all-juice diet will melt off the pounds, that will happen with any fast. You’ll be consuming way fewer calories than normal and losing water weight as you constantly flush your system with liquid.

However, there’s no long-term advantage to a starvation diet, even if it comes in juice form. Once you end the juice and go back to solid food, experts say you’re likely to put the weight back on  –and then some — due to the negative impact starvation has on your metabolism.

The Increase in Energy is Actually Dangerous

If you’ve ever known a diabetic, you’ve seen the onset of giddiness and euphoria that results from an imbalance of sugars in the body. A juice diet throws off the glucose in your system, resulting in those strange bursts of juice mania.

Not only that, but those short bursts of energy can be followed by a crash or general fatigue due to the lack of other nutrients and essentials like protein and carbohydrates.

Miracle Cure? Not So Fast

Juice enthusiasts also claim that their illnesses fade and their immune systems improve thanks to their liquid cleanse diet. However, it’s simply not true that a few glasses a day will keep the doctor away.

Depriving your immune system of essential food groups can lead to the major sniffles.

While you may be getting more vitamins and minerals than usual, you are also depriving yourself of other important substances as noted above. Without carbs, meats, good fats, etc, your body is weaker and less able to take on illness.

Drink In the Facts and Make Smart Juice Choices

It’s fine to quench your thirst for the occasional pulverized pineapple. Consuming juices in moderation, as part of a healthy and balanced diet, can indeed boost your nutrient levels and expose you to various health benefits.

However, exercise caution around all-juice diets and fasts. Depriving the body is not a permanent solution to lose weight or increase your energy — so don’t believe all the juicy hype!

Have you ever tried a juice fast? Have some tips for getting your juice fix without hurting your body? Let us know in the comments!

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