"Cleaning out your system"

[fishtaco]

So my GF is doing this thing she claims cleans out her system. Basically she only drinks fruit juices, and does not eat anything solid.... for 10 days!!!

 

Even though I don't understand how not eating solid food will clean out your system, I can see fasting for a day or two maybe does do something good for your body. But 10 days?! Isn't that a bit too long? Doesn't that put your body into starvation mode? Isn't that a bad thing?

 

She did say it makes her feel better afterwards. But is this feeling better really equivalent to better health, or it's like you feel better when your headache goes away -- basically the lack of feeling crappy that gets interpreted as feeling good?

 

Anyone has any insights to this? Thanks.

[D-Lish]

umm... 10 days is really excessive in terms of fasting!

 

You starve your body like that and all it does is store fat when you start eating again.

 

What research has she done on this method of fasting?

I'd probably go for real fruit instead of fruit juices if you're going to do something like that.

 

A cleanse clears out your digestive tract and bowels... I do think it's a good thing to do... but the 10 days seems excessive. I bet she faints when she does this?

 

I think one is better off remaining on a diet rich in fiber.

 

I do think 10 days is a lot FT- how often does she do it?

[johan]

Here's a little insight for you. http://www.loveshack.org/forums/t146616/?highlight=Master+Cleanse

[Citizen Erased]

Here's a little insight for you. http://www.loveshack.org/forums/t146616/?highlight=Master+Cleanse

 

You drink wine straight for the bottle? Interesting...

[johan]

You drink wine straight for the bottle? Interesting...

 

It's true. That's how a real wine connoisseur drinks it.

 

Right now I'm drinking juice straight from a glass.

[fishtaco]

D-Lish, she hasn't done it for at least 6 months, I don't know when was the last time she did it. I've only known her for 6 months.

 

As far as I know, I agree 100% with what you said. I would think it will make your body retain a lot of fat. And I'd think a fiber rich diet would be a better alternative.

 

johan, thanks for your link. My GF has done it before, and obviously survived, so this is not something that'll kill you, I'm just not sure if it's also good for you. I'm not against it, I just need to be convinced. Although I will never try this myself, because I lift heavy at the gym 3 times a week, plus I do martial arts. There is no way I can survive on a low calorie diet, I'd have to cut back on my activities.

 

Of course my buddies at the gym, the ones that are as big as a house, and can dead lift 700lbs, they are all against this, for obvious reasons. Thanks for providing an example counter to what I'm used to hearing. I'm going to do some more research on this.

[fishtaco]

Well I did a quick scan on the internet, including wikipedia, seem like there are people for it and against it, but there isn't any medical evidence proving it one way or another. It actually came about in the 40/50's, and was recently revived and started to gain popularity again.

 

I need to research more. But I have to go to muay thai class now, where I'll probably burn 800 calories, then I'd need to replenish it with some tasty burger.

[fishtaco]

Disclaimer, I'm not a medical doctor, take what I say with a grain of salt. If you want to try the master cleanse, consult a nutritionist or a medical doctor.

 

Sorry Johan, but I'm going to disagree with this whole master cleanse thing. I'm just voicing my opinion and the results of my research. Feel free to disagree, I'm not trying to convince you otherwise.

 

1) There is no medical evidence that this does anything good for your body. All the "good things" are just anecdotal, and some of them (such as improved skin) could be attributed to drinking enough liquids and vitamin C from the lemon juice, and/or not intaking any bad/processed food. A real test would be to put the same person on a healthy and balanced diet, and still drink 6 glasses of lemon juice a day. I'm guessing the person would still experience the same improvements, but without the headaches and other negative symptoms. I'm not counting the rapid weight loss, because rapid weight loss is never healthy, hence not an improvement. Unfortunately, I don't think this test was ever done so there is no solid proof (of course, if there IS solid proof then this wouldn't be open for discussion).

 

2) Weight loss due to lack of calories will lose not only fat, but muscle as well, especially when it's as extreme as the master cleanse. That's why the best weight loss program always involve moderate calorie restriction, proper nutrition, and exercise together. And master cleanse is extreme. If one stays with only lemon juice for a month or more, permanent internal organ damage will likely occur and maybe even death. A diet that you can only follow for less than a month or you may die is pretty extreme in my books. Of course that's also why master cleanse calls for 10 days and no more. It does make the diet safe to most healthy individuals, but doesn't make it less extreme.

 

When coming out of the master cleanse, if proper nutrition and exercise isn't observed, the weight that is gained back will most likely be fat, and the muscle mass lost during the diet will most likely not be replenished. And losing muscle is bad because it lowers your resting metabolic rate (RMR). Basically you will now consume less calories when you sleep, or just by being alive. So that same piece of cake you ate, more of it will be converted to fat due to the now lowered RMR.

 

3) Your body regularly removes any unwanted chemicals out of your system, as long as you drink enough liquids and your liver and kidneys are functioning properly. There's no need to "burn the reserves". Having your reserves burned will only cause catabolysis, which is rapid fat and muscle loss, and is what will ultimately cause irreparable damage to your body or death. But again, in most healthy individuals, this damage won't happen in 10 days. But the fat & muscle loss will happen.

 

So in summary, Master Cleanse is safe for most healthy people, but:

 

- As a diet, Master Cleanse sucks. It temporarily accomplishes the feat, but unless you're an actor and you need to have the staving look for a role, or need some short term rapid weight loss that you'll pay the price for later, there's no need to use this method. In fact, most actors/actresses would do a liquid protein diet (no sex jokes here please) instead. Because that provides better nutrients for body functions and muscle retention in comparison.

 

- As a detox method, the concept itself is controversial. Is detox even real? If it is, does "burning your reserves" accomplishes this purpose? I would think using certain foods or approved medical substances that "binds" to the toxins and thus neutralizing it would be a better method of detox. Anyway you'll get different answers if you ask different people. Again, ask your doctor or certified nutritionist if you're unsure.

 

- However there is a spiritual side to fasting. I don't understand it, but if that's what you seek, once you've been cleared by your doctor, I don't see why you can't give this method, or other fasting methods, a shot. But realize the implication that you could be less healthy after the fast, and would need to put in some effort in order to regain it.

 

So the advantages are controversial -- detox, but the disadvantages are real -- muscle loss & rapid weight loss. So I'd say don't do it unless you have a real good reason to, and realize you will be in worse physical shape after you're done. But on the other hand, I thought 10 days of starving would really mess a person up, turned out that's not the case for most healthy people; we are more resilient than I thought. It would mess me up though. I get grumpy if I don't eat for 10 hours. 10 days I'll become the anti-christ.

 

I've advice my girlfriend to stop it, but I think she's going to continue anyway. I've voiced my opinion to her already, if she feels like she must do this, I won't nag her about it.

[johan]

...

Sorry Johan, but I'm going to disagree with this whole master cleanse thing. I'm just voicing my opinion and the results of my research. Feel free to disagree, I'm not trying to convince you otherwise...

 

I'll try not to take it personally.

 

To be honest I have no idea whether doing such a thing makes any difference health-wise. I've never tried it. I'm usually too hungry.

 

It is common in the animal kingdom that those who consume fewer calories overall also live longer. As long as the diet is sufficient otherwise. And there is something to be said for someone putting this kind of effort into her health. Chances are she's making a lot of good choices in addition to some questionable ones like this. The net is probably positive. Not to mention what it does for her state of mind.

 

In my opinion doing something like this should rate higher on the health scale than low-carb diets. And I do think we were built to withstand periodic fasts. That has been a fact of life of humanity that we gluttonous American pigs have been lucky to escape.

[fishtaco]

I'll try not to take it personally.

 

To be honest I have no idea whether doing such a thing makes any difference health-wise. I've never tried it. I'm usually too hungry.

 

It is common in the animal kingdom that those who consume fewer calories overall also live longer. As long as the diet is sufficient otherwise. And there is something to be said for someone putting this kind of effort into her health. Chances are she's making a lot of good choices in addition to some questionable ones like this. The net is probably positive. Not to mention what it does for her state of mind.

 

In my opinion doing something like this should rate higher on the health scale than low-carb diets. And I do think we were built to withstand periodic fasts. That has been a fact of life of humanity that we gluttonous American pigs have been lucky to escape.

 

Good points. I have read about calorie restrictions lead to longer life. This is actually a proven fact, at least when they experimented on animals. However I won't practice this because I believe life is more about quality than quantity, also having higher athletic capability do help you in unexpected situations in life. For example a more physically fit person with more muscles protecting vital organs will have a higher chance of walking away from a car crash with less injuries. But everyone is different, this is just me.

 

And yes, you are absolutely correct, low-carb/no-carb diets are worse, because they tend to be long term.

 

My GF also pointed out that my goals are different from hers. I'm trying to pack on another 15lbs of muscle, so I won't be the wussy guy when I spar (which will make me overweight according to BMI, but I won't be really because I'll have reasonable body fat percentage), so this concept to me at first was shockingly wrong. But after my research, although I'm still against this, I've also realized this is less of a big deal than I had originally thought. Worst case scenario (from my perspective), the practitioner would have wasted money on Master Cleanse books and put themselves through a 10 day torture for nothing.

[electric_sheep]

Personally, I'm highly skeptical of any sort of "cleaning" or "detoxification" diets. There is almost never any credible scientific evidence to back up any of them. They become popular because it's easy to sell a book if you can convince people they need "cleaning" or "detoxifying". This idea has almost universal appeal, so it's easy to sell it.

 

If you have the name of her diet, go here and do a search on it:

http://quackwatch.org/

 

Even though the diet is probably not doing anything for her "cleansing" wise, it is probably harmless. Probably, but maybe not. I suppose she may be getting some sort of psychological benefit from it, kind of like people do from praying.

 

Why not ask her what she is cleansing, how the diet works, and whether their is any scientific evidence to back it up.

 

There is also the chance she is just doing this in the hopes of losing some weight, though you probably won't be able to get her to admit to it. She may not have admitted it to herself yet.