Juice Cleanse is the Most Useless Way to Lose Weight: Says Nutritionist

Juicing is the popular fad, but does it help lose weight? From health related problems to slowing down metabolism, organic juice cleanse or 3 day cleanse is the biggest scam of it all and here’s why!

The concept of organic juice cleanse or a 3 day cleanse has been in the spotlight for a while now. This is not the first time we’re hearing of such crash diets. Remember a few years back, fruit diet was a thing and how young women wanted to try it to lose weight. Now, juice cleanse is the popular millennial diet for weight loss. But has anyone ever lost weight by having just juices? Um, even those who tried it aren’t sure.

So we wanted to get to the bottom of it and asked our in-house nutritionist about how it works, how it affects our body and whether it’s a step towards weight loss or not. So, here’s everything you need to know about organic juice cleanse.

What is Juice Cleanse?

Juice cleanse is a diet in which only fruit or vegetable juices are consumed while refraining from any other foods.

How Do Juice Cleanses Work

The juice cleanse is taking over the internet by storm and has created its own niche market. Typical juice cleanse may be done as a 3-day diet of homemade or cold-pressed juices also known as 3 day cleanse. A combination of fruit and vegetable juices are consumed, so as to limit fat intake. Juicing may also be done as a 7 day cleanse or a short day-long one. Juice brands like Juice from the Raw, Cold Press, Raw Pressery and countless more have their own fresh or organic juice packs that one comes with cleansing plans.

Essentially, juice cleanse claims to be the perfect way to cleanse the body of toxins and enriching the body with nutrients. And while a “juice cleanse” may be a good way to avoid fatty junk food, it may have no effect on a person’s long-term diet and exercise, which affect weight loss and fitness. After going through many juice cleanse plans, I understood that juice cleansing is a concept that is being used as a marketing strategy. There, I said it!

Read on to know in detail…

Types of Cleanses

There are different types of juice cleanses. In fact, from beauty to fiber to deep cleanse, countless companies have various categories available. Personally, I feel that these are the ways to get the customers fooled with. Even celebs promote them glamorously. Yeah! With heavy pay cheques, who wouldn’t? From Gwyneth Paltrow to Gossip Girl’s Jessica Szohr to Megan Fox, they all follow juice cleanse (but we never got any hard facts about how many pounds any of them lost just by juicing)! “Every once in a while, we like to give our digestive systems a break and do a good old-fashioned detox or juice cleanse,” mentions Goop.com about their juice cleanse. Although, in their defense, they do mention it’s not about weight loss.

Let’s check out the different types of cleanses!

1. Cold Pressed Juice Cleanse

The veggie and fruit juice is extracted from the hydraulic press instead of traditional methods like centrifugal method. In this process, the fruits retain the maximum amount of nutrients as they are not exposed to heat.

2. Organic Juice Cleanse

A diet of juices prepared with fresh fruits and vegetables grown organically is called organic juice cleanse.

3. Green Juice Diet

Consuming juices made out of greens like spinach, kale, celery, green apple, guava, cucumber and kiwi is called green juice cleanse. As the green juice companies diet claim, it helps the body absorb the nutrients more quickly as there is no need for chewing or food bits to be broken down.

4. Lemon Juice Cleanse

Having lemonade when you feel hungry is the key to this diet. You need to drink around 6-12 glasses of lemonade a day in order to (apparently) “rush the toxins out of your body.”

I Tried Juice Cleanse

Every religion practices fasting to heal and regenerate the toxins out of the body and avoid overeating.

Personally, I have also tried juices from a brand called Rawpressery. I was convinced because Bollywood actress, Jacqueline Fernandez endorsed it and I blindly believed that she’s healthy because of juice cleansing. The juices were overpriced and too little in quantity for the price point. I want to lose weight in a healthy way, so I opted for cold pressed juices. However, after 10 days of trying them, they didn’t help me shed a single pound. Okay, lessons learnt!

Why not? I hadn’t expected to shed pounds overnight, but at least I expected it to be a healthy way to do a cleanse. So why didn’t it work? Why was I always so hungry?

We discussed with trainer and nutritionist Surbhi Gandhi. With a masters degree in nutrition and diabetics, Surbhi is a gold medalist, she’s been an experienced professional at Fitness First gym in Gurgaon, and is also an online fitness influencer.

How Juicing Affects Our Body

So, we found out what exactly happens to our body while doing organic juice cleanse. Let’s check out in detail:

1. You will be providing a lesser amount of nutrients than your body actually needs in juice cleansing and this will lead to problems like diarrhea, dizziness, digestive problems and so on. And the funny (or saddest) part is the juice cleanse companies like Juice from the Raw claim that the digestive issues are normal. But the truth is it’s not because your body needs a certain amount of fiber for a day but with juice cleansing, you will be providing half of it.
2. The digestive process messes with the blood-sugar levels. This leads to hypertension, giddiness and so on as stated by says Jo Ann Carson, Ph.D., R.D., L.D., professor and program director of the department of clinical nutrition at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in an interview published in the magazine, Shape.com.
   
3. You will lose the water weight with low-calorie intake and your belly might shrink temporarily. But there’s no need to rejoice because there are chances of you gaining even more once you start the normal diet back again since a feeling of constant-hunger will make the body crave for more food that its daily requirement.
4. Consuming only juices doesn’t provide enough proteins to your body so your muscles will shrink. This leads to muscle loss which in turn will burn only a few calories. And weight loss is directly related to calorie intake and burning calories.

But Really: Do Juice Cleanses Work?

We have already seen that cleanse has no proven relationship with weight loss. Additionally, it also fails to be nutritious. Here’s why:

a. A major issue with juice cleansing diet is low sodium levels. It leads to dizziness and results in a very bad health issues in long-term.
b. You will be missing on the essential nutrients like vitamins and carbs (yes, no matter if a person is fat or thin, human body needs carbs. Period!) When you juice a fruit or a vegetable, you’re throwing away the pulp and drinking a glass of sugar religiously. And wasting food (not good at all!).
c. It’s a myth that all juices are vitamin-rich. Vitamins A and C fade away when you expose a fruit or vegetable to light, making juicing not as vitamin rich as it sounds. This implies to cutting or chopping them finely, too.

Juicing companies claim that juice cleanses help the toxins to be removed from body. As per Juice from the Raw, “Your body is working very hard to release the toxins built up inside while you’re on organic juice cleanse.” Then what is the liver doing? Was it on a break?!

And Rawpressery claims that it lends a glow to your skin. What?! After throwing away the pulp which was filled with vitamins?! What’s remaining in the bottle that will make my skin glow? And it also says improved digestion. But hello, what’s left to digest if there’s no solid intake?

So, basically, don’t fall for these marketing gimmicks. Instead, go run in a park!

Natural Cleanse

Our digestive system is capable of cleansing by itself. That’s what our organs are for. So, our body doesn’t need an outer source for cleansing. However, you can add a few fruits and veggies that help for a better detoxification like apple, asparagus, avocados, basil, beetroot, broccoli, cabbage and carrots in your daily diet. You can chew them raw and have in small amounts daily. And you need to get rid of all the junk food, refined sugar and caffeine (it’s difficult but try to reduce the intake)! This way you can help your body do a better cleansing, which will really be beneficial in the long run as opposed to a 3 day cleanse over an organic juice cleanse.

Juice Cleanse for Weight Loss

Juice cleanse exclusively for weight loss makes no sense. Consuming juice is neither harmful nor beneficial, especially when it comes to weight loss either. This is why it’s really difficult to prove that juicing directly contributes to weight loss. But it’s equally difficult to prove that it’s harmful.

When you’re on an organic juice cleanse, you might feel good for a day or so as you are consuming healthy stuff, especially if your regular diet contains caffeine, alcohol or fatty foods. And you may lose some weight, too, but that’ll be temporary water loss. But once you’re back to your normal diet, then your back to your normal weight. So 3 day cleanse is a method that doesn’t work in the long run.

30 Day Juice Cleanse Results

First of all, I would love to know who can go for 30 days with only juice. It sounds like a really unhealthy way of robbing the body of essential nutrients that can’t be found in fruit and veggies only and also overloading it with sugar and water. And natural liquids may be good, but too much of everything is bad. So for an entire month, organic juice cleanse may give you diabetes and all sorts of diseases.

Also, you will be spending like a bomb on these products. It costs somewhere around $350 for a 3 day cleanse. Imagine what you could do with that amount. From traveling to Netflix subscription to a year’s worth of gym membership, there are so many other ways to spend money. Even if you prepare them yourself, you will need to double the number of fruits and veggies in a 3 day cleanse than what you can actually eat whole.

Juice Cleanse and Working Out

Working out on any day also great and is necessary. One needs to make fitness a lifestyle, not a seasonal thing. But when it comes to organic juice cleanse or a 3 day cleanse, working out seems impossible. I read a few reviews on Google and I gathered that even doing the daily routine itself makes you tired. You might feel dizzy, you could feel weak, have headaches and be low on energy as per eatthis.com. It also states that “Your body goes into conservation mode because it doesn’t know when its next meal is going to be,” says nutritionist Ilyse Schapiro MS, RD, CDN. So, if you start running while you’re on a 3 day cleanse, you might just faint.

Detox Cleanse: Experts View on How to Do It Right

1. Chewing fruits and vegetables is better than drinking juice.
2. If you don’t particular fruit at all, then it’s okay to juice it. But consume it right then or it won’t have any effect.
3. If you want a diet change to break the monotony, then juice cleanses are good to try for 3 days but only by adding them to other nutritious foods like yogurt, beans, pulses, nuts or whole wheat bread.
4. Lastly, instead of relying on such diets like 3 day cleanse, running or working out is better any day!

So, have you tried juice cleansing or a 3 day cleanse? How did you feel? Do you agree with our views? Share your thoughts with us! Tweet us @shilpa1ahuja!

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