Juice cleanses have become the trendy new “detox” regimen, with celebrities and social media influencers showing off their fresh pressed concoctions of cold-pressed greens, roots, citrus, and spices. Brands offer juice cleanse programs claiming to help you “reset your body” and “flush away toxins” through 3, 5 or even 7-day regimes of sipping nothing but fruit and vegetable juices.
But do juice cleanses actually live up to their vaunted health claims? Let’s examine what the science says.
The Promise of Detoxification
At the core of juice cleansing’s purported benefits is the premise that it can “detox” your body by removing waste and promoting the elimination of toxins stored in your tissues. This tantalizing prospect is unfortunately not grounded in reality. Our bodies already have highly evolved systems in place for clearing out toxins – notably the liver and kidneys. They work constantly, without needing a yearly “re-set” button.
As pharmacologist David Gloverstates: “Nobody has ever measured clinically the levels of toxins in patients before and after cleansing…There’s no data to support the idea.” This lack of proof for actual toxin reduction makes the entire cleansing concept questionable.
Nutritional & Health Pitfalls
While drinking fruit and vegetable juices can certainly seem healthy at first glance, multiple nutritional drawbacks emerge in the devilish details.
First, juice cleanses typically lack complete proteins and healthy fats, starving the body of essential nutrients for energy and survival. They are also absurdly low in fiber, offering only a fraction of daily needs.
These nutrient deficiencies can trigger headaches, fatigue, mood swings, blood sugar fluctuations and other symptoms which cleanse proponents insist are merely “detoxing side effects.” This is demonstrably false according scientists.
Juicing also entails very high amounts of sugar entering your system rapidly due to the lack of fiber slowing down absorption. 7-day juice cleanses often provide over a week’s worth whole fruit sugar in a single day, spiking blood sugar and potentially storing visceral fat.
Finally, juicing removes some of the key benefits only present in raw whole fruits and vegetables – live enzymes and biophotons. Centrifugal juicers also introduce substantial heat and oxygen, degrading both overall nutrient quality and micronutrient availability. You literally give up nutritional benefits for perceived convenience.
The Verdict: Just Eat More Plants!
So with no proven toxin elimination mechanism, and actual potential for provoking symptoms of micronutrient deficiency, juice cleanses ultimately constitute an implausible “detox” regimen with no factual merit.
You’re far better off simple eating more fruits and veggies while reducing processed foods and meat. Let your liver and kidneys handle the real detoxifying. It’s what they’ve evolved over millions of years to do phenomenally well – no juice cleanse required!
