Juice Cleansing: The Fad Answer To Health Problems

            Another trendy way of losing weight has landed the country and it’s called juice cleansing! Just check instagram and you’ll see a lot of “sexy” celebrities posting this very promising product. Aside from its promised weight loss, it also claims a lot of benefits like boosting one’s immune system and detoxifying the body. Juice cleansing or juice fasting is a fasting method which a person would only consume fruits and vegetables juices to obtain nutrition while abstaining from food. It is claimed that resting the digestive system, through a liquid diet, is healthy. It could last for about three days to a week or sometimes longer. Here in the Philippines, these juice cleanses cost around 3,000 pesos good for three days. Wow, that is one pricy diet and surely this juice cleansing has become big business.

            Before splurging money into this trend, we should take a minute to take a look at the science behind this “miracle” method. Eating fruits and vegetables has been proven multiple times to be healthy hence, juice cleansing through affiliation is presumed to be healthy. However, the benefits claimed by juice cleansing are not scientifically proven. Meaning, the benefits claimed commercially is from eating fruits and vegetables and nothing is proven from the juice form itself. Therefore, it is not usually prescribed by doctors.  

            Cleansing is not necessary since the idea that your body needs to get rid of toxins is false. The bowel is a self-cleaning mechanism. While digesting food, it produces toxins and the body is made to eliminate them. Of course, those are what we call, excrements.  Some cleanses rely on laxatives and even the herbal ones has the potential to damage nerve cells. The safest way to help clean the body is through eating fiber – which what is juice cleansing removing (Rubin, 2013).

            Weight loss nevertheless is an indirect side effect of this fasting method. Less food intake means less calories entering the body hence would result to weight loss. Its slimming effect just rides with the cardinal rule of losing weight.

            Lastly, it puts the body in a vulnerable state through lack of nutrition. Making it prone to feeling irritable and fatigued. Fasting and a deficiency in protein, two hallmarks of cleanses, also deplete your liver's store of the antioxidant glutathione, which is crucial fuel for the immune system and key in the detoxification of blood. The resulting decrease in liver function causes waste products to accumulate in your body, which is pretty much the opposite of what the cleanses claim (Chan, 2011).

            This fad is big business. We, its audience, should think twice, and of course do some research, about the health regimens were about to take. Not all claimed “healthy” are of purest intentions.

References:

Chan, A. (2011, March 23). 5 experts answers: Is there such thing as a healthy juice cleanse?. Retrieved from http://www.livescience.com/35561-5-experts-answer-juice-cleanse.html

Rubin, C. (2013). The truth about juice. Retrieved from http://www.cosmopolitan.com/advice/health/truth-about-juice