A little while ago, I watched a video blog about juice fasts, and it made me want to give my opinion.What are juice fasts? Well, it's a 'diet' that consists of just juices, sounds healthy right? well it's not. I have seen a variety of juice 'diet's, some use only fruits, some use vegetables, some use a mixture, and I even saw one that sold powdered fruit?? unbelievable....
People seem to go on these 'diets' (Yes I am saying 'diets' like that because it's an absolute joke of a diet) to either lose some weight or for a detox. If you go on a juice fast for fat loss, then you will lose weight, that is almost guaranteed, but a lot of it will be fluid and muscle tissue, not much fat being lost. But what happens when you stop the 'diet' and start eating real food again? you will find your weight increasing, why? because your body has just been starved! So when you eat real food again, its going to grab onto it and hold it. Also, I read a comment made by a well respected nutritionist, who said - "the human body is not designed to be starved, not designed to live on an extremely low calorie intake. If you do that, you are leaving yourself open to numerous health issues, and also, if you start eating whole food again, you will put weight on. If (bless them...) young children living in a poverty stricken countries, got given good nutrition for a couple of months, they will put weight on, you're body simply isnt made to be 'skinny'".
What is the one thing that people who care about weight, want? a great body! So how on earth will a 'juice fast' give you that? Yes you will lose weight (fluid and muscle loss), but you aren't going to be gaining a great figure, the right curves, low body fat percentage and look better. It is not healthy for you, and the negatives completely out weight the, I suppose, one positive (and that is being generous!).
Now, if you are using juice fasts for a detox, then, I advise you to stop. People seem to think by going on a juice fast, then you are going to detoxify your body far better than if you just eat healthy. To detoxify your body, mainly a few organs, one being the liver, you need certain amino acids. Where do amino acids come from? well, your muscles, and protein from food! If you are only taking in juices or even powdered shakes everyday, where is your protein coming from? nowhere! You don't want to lose muscle mass, as it can cause you to be more metabolically inefficient, which is not going to help you in any way. By only taking powdered drinks or juices every day, you are losing a heck of a lot of nutrients that you NEED to stay healthy AND to detoxify your body, because you're not eating real food. If you don't provide your body with the right nutrients, it cannot possibly detox itself.
So, in summary - juice fasts/diets are a complete and utter waste of time and money! Look at the people are are the most healthiest - they eat healthy, a variety of foods, hydration, exercise etc etc. If these juice fasts were so good, and the way to go, don't you think nutritionists and trainers would either sell them/advise you to go on them? or they would be out of a job because these 'diet' companies would take over!
I didn't want to make this too long, and I have undoubtedly missed a few points, but I like to keep my posts short-ish. I hope you like this post and gives you an insight into the bad world that is juice 'diets'!
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