Juice Fasting

Detoxing the body has become an increasingly popular practice in recent years. Juice Fasting is one method of detoxing and is sometimes known as going on a juice detox or a juice diet. Consult your doctor before starting your juice fast as juice fasting may not be suitable for all.

What is involved in a juice fast?

Juice fasting involves consuming only fresh fruit and vegetable juices and water for a set period of time. The duration of the juice fast can vary from just one day to around 28 days although it is widely agreed that juice fasting novices start with a couple of one day fasts and when they are comfortable with this build up to a 3 day fast. In his book ‘Dr Alis Nutrition Bible’ Dr Ali recommends people do a one day fast once a week.

Reasons for juice fasting:

Juice fasting removes toxins from the body.

Juice fasting can dramatically aid the removal of cellular waste. The effect of the removal of the cellular waste from the body is increased concentration and clarity of mind and an increase in general physical health.

Once food has been broken down into the building blocks of proteins (amino-acids), fats (fatty acids) and sugars (glucose, fructose, sucrose etc) these molecules can pass throught the lining of the intestine and are transported around the body by the cardiovascular and lymphatic system. Every cell in your body is connected to the cardiovascular system by microscopic capillaries and so all cells can access the building block molecules that resulted from the process of digestion.

Living cells produce toxic waste matter. These waste products of cell processes must be transported out of the body (either through the lungs, skin, kidneys or intestine), however the cells will only let the waste products out if the levels of toxic wastes in the circulatory system are below a set limit. This means that if the circulatory system contains levels of toxic waste above the allowed limit then the cells retain their toxic wastes thus lowering the bodies vitality.

Juice fasting results in low concentrations of toxins in the circulatory system and therefore allows cells to release their waste products. This can result in temporary headaches, fatigue and insomnia whilst the released toxins are transported and removed from the body. Once these natural side effects of the fasting process pass most of the cleansing part of the fast is complete.

Juice fasting provides the body with increased levels of nutrients that aid the bodies natural regenerative powers.

Fresh fruit and vegetable juices require very little digestive energy. The body can therefore divert its energy resources from digesting cooked foods to cell repair and cell generation. The bodies lack of appetite when feeling ill is a good indicator of this need to channel the bodies energies away from digestion and towards healing.

Juicing is ideal for ‘rechanneling’ potential digestive energy as the juicer breaks down the fibres in the fruit and vegetables and releases the vitamins, phytochemicals and minerals that were locked within the fibres. This means the body does not have to do the digestive work of breaking down the fibres and as an added bonus more nutrients are made available to the body in the juice due to the release of the nutrients from the fruit / vegetable fibres.

In part 2 of this article we focus on the side effects of juice fasting.