If you walk into a bookstore and go to the health section its easy to find plenty of various books on fasting. A quick visit to a natural health store will often yield even more writings on the subject of juice fasts.
There are so many juice fasts and recipes online and in print that one can feel like there are too many options to choose from. Despite the abundance of juicing programs, most can be classified under the main categories:
- vegetables
- greens
- cruciferous vegetables
- root vegetables
- fruits
- herbs
- wheatgrass
The older the juice fast program a person selects the more likely it will fall easily into one of the categories mentioned. Here is an example of some juice fasts popular among health enthusiasts:
The Master Cleanse Fast: This is a simple fast involving hot water, freshly squeezed lemon juice, and cayenne pepper. Advocates of this juice fast swear by it for helping them become regular and stimulating weight loss. Depending on which book you read this fast is designed to last 10 days and supposedly cleans your liver and gallbladder. People are advised to drink a lot of purified water in addition to 10 to 12 glasses of the lemon drink throughout each day. Most that have been able to follow the Master Cleanse for an entire 10 days claim there’s a frequent dependency on going to the bathroom.
Vegetable Juice Fast: There are endless varieties of the vegetable juice fast with plenty of recipes to pick from. These often include major vegetables like carrots, spinach, cucumbers, etc that are blended together like your own personal version of V-8 juice. Vegetables are selected based on their nutritional content depending on what a person is looking to achieve health-wise. For example, a person may use a lot of spinach and beets in their juice fast recipe because they are anemic and do not want to take iron pills.
Fruit Juice Fast: Fruits are often cited in various natural health literature for having antioxidant properties. What this means is that consuming fruits can help against the damage done to one’s cells through free radical damage a person is exposed to. WebMD defines antioxidants as vitamins, minerals, and nutrients that protect and repair cells. Free radicals are toxins that can depress a person’s immunity and cause disease. A fruit juice fast can include citruses like grapefruits and oranges or raw fruit like apples and pears.
Juice Fasting can also include “smoothie” drinks where ingredients are mixed in with ice cubes and milk or protein powder to give it a thicker consistency. This is popular with people who enjoy colder drinks and want to feel fuller. Depending on the recipe, one can add spices or flax seed to their juice fast concoctions.
Reality star Kim Kardashian endorsed QuickTrim as a weight loss aid. The company produced a 48 hour pre-made liquid fast drink with a lemon flavor that supposedly helped reduce body weight over a weekend. The product has since been called unsafe by US Health News. Popular fitness guru Jillian Michaels has developed a detox water blend recipe that includes cranberry and dandelion which is easy to make. Even actress Gwyneth Paltrow has created her own GOOP Detox Diet. Organic Avenue is another juice fast detox line of products sold in stores. These vegan-based fresh pressed juices claim beauty benefits such as bright eyes, mental alertness, and a sense of peace. Ingredients are raw organic fruits and vegetables.
So far, there have been no medical reviews on it. A lot of celebrities endorse weight loss systems and many health food stores sells juicing kits which promise health benefits but few have been evaluated by the FDA.
There are also the “condition-specific” type of fast such as those that claim to target the liver or gallbladder. Again, since none of these claims have been medically tested it is best to have a cautious approach before attempting such a fast. The following is a synopsis of some of the particular juice fasts that are used by people who believe it will benefit a vital organ or two.
The liver is responsible for detoxification of the blood, metabolism of protein, digestion, and conversion of thyroid hormone into its more bioactive version. Damage to the liver can cause a person to looked jaundiced and require dialysis. A physician who specializes in liver diseases is called a hepatologist. Hepatologists caution people against too much consumption of alcohol because it can damage the liver but to date, they have not prescribed any particular juice fast recipe to encourage liver health.
eHow Health features a liver fast cleanse which is only three days long. This is not the only juice fast for the liver but one of many that are available online or in natural health publications for anyone to follow. The article describes that the liver cleanse will stimulate bile production and will soften and release gallstones. None of these statements have the endorsement of the FDA and medical community. The origin of this cleanse is unknown.
According to eHow Health the liver fast cleanse works as follows:
- The person on this fast would eat only fresh organic apples and beets for three days. There is no limit on the amount consumed. This is all a person can eat along with water. They can consume them raw or in juice form.
- On day three the person puts two tablespoons of Epsom salts into their drinking water and adds fresh lemon juice. This salty drink is ingested every eight hours for a full 24 hour period.
- Before bed, on the last day of the fast, the person drinks a 6 ounce glass of cold-pressed olive oil immediately followed by 8 ounces of water mixed with lemon juice. Once finished with both drinks the person must go to bed immediately.
- While sleeping the person is advised to lay down on their right side with their knees up. They can repeat the liver cleanse again in two weeks.
The above liver cleanse is not the only one included on eHow Health. The website also published the Liver and Gallbladder fast which it states has origins in European folk medicine. eHow Health states that it is a recipe still used in health spas and hospitals but does not mention names. The website does suggest not trying this fast at home without getting approval from one’s doctor. For more related articles about this juice fast go to: www.ehow.com/how_12680_liver-gallbladder-flush.html
Some liver cleanses are designed to detox both the liver and the gallbladder. There is a separate gallbladder cleanse juice fast which is a 3 day regime. It is an easy diet of apple juice but you can eat raw and unprocessed fruit if you get too hungry. At night you are advised to drink warm Epsom salt water before going to sleep.
The kidney cleanse juice fast is another popular juicing program. It’s relatively simple to follow and based on the recipes listed on the Just Cleansing blog. The fast is only 3 days long and requires someone to drink plenty of water and apple juice along with the cleanser juice. Some people are said to pass kidney stones doing this cleanse but not all apparently do. Below is the Ultimate Kidney Cleanser Juice recipes and a tea beverage for those who like hot drinks during a fast.
Ultimate Kidney Cleanser Juice
4 Stalks Celery
3 Sprigs Parsley
1 Cucumber
Half a lemon
Water
Blend in a juicer but start with the celery first and the parsley last.
Ultimate Kidney Cleanser Juice Recipe 2
2 Apples
4-6 slices Watermelon
Water
Chop up the apple into small bits and then blend with the watermelon.
Kidney Cleansing Tea
Most health food stores sell a specific tea formula for liver cleansing such as the Peach Detox Tea orYogi Detox Tea. Other options are watermelon tea or celery seed tea.
Another popular organ cleanse targeted by juice fasting programs is for the colon. Holistic health practitioners often remark that the colon and digestive track can be clogged with waste that needs to be expelled from the body. Such practitioners often advise a colon cleanse as the method to help a person’s system remove excess waste stuck in the intestinal track. This is another statement not verified by medical science and does not have the endorsement of the American Medical Association, but is listed on eHow Health.
Just Cleansing states that the stress of modern times on our bodies makes our digestive systems ineffective. A colon cleanse is designed to help the intestines rid itself of stuck waste products. Specific colon cleansing juice fast recipes below are from the Colon Health Advice blog.
Colon Cleanse Juice
- Celery
- Broccoli
- Kale
- Any Lettuce
- Fennel
- Carrots
- Wheatgrass
Blend together in a juicer and consume fresh.
A variation of the above recipe is the following from Detox Diet juice blog:
Colon Cleansing Juice Fast Recipe 1: Vegetable Juice Combo
- 2 Swiss chard leaves
- 1/2 beetroot
- 2 or 3 sprigs of watercress
- 3 carrots
- 1 celery stalk
Wash with filtered or strong water, cut and put in juicer.
Colon Cleansing Juice Fast Recipe 2: Carrot-Apple Juice
- 2-3 Green Apples
- 1 carrot
- Fresh basil leaves
Wash with filtered or strong water, cut and put in juicer.
Colon Cleansing Juice Fast Recipe Recipe 3: Carrot-Vegetable Juice
- A handful of dandelion leaves
- 1 kale leaf
- 4 carrots
- Fresh mint, basil or coriander leaves
- Wash with filtered or strong water, cut and put in juicer.
- Recipe 4: Peach Juice
- 2 or 3 peaches
Wash with filtered or strong water, cut and put in juicer.
