8. A juice cleanse won't fix your food habits | The Odyssey Online
Start writing a post
Health and Wellness

9 Reasons A Juice Cleanse Is Not Going To Solve Your Health Problems, Oh Kale No

I'll stick to my solid foods, thanks.

4441
9 Reasons A Juice Cleanse Is Not Going To Solve Your Health Problems, Oh Kale No

In This Article:

Ah, yes. The juice cleanse. Yet another popular diet trend that promises to magically solve all of your health, nutrition, and weight issues.

When you take a close look, juice cleanses aren't as magical as they are made out to be, and in fact, they might do more harm than good.

1. Low caloric intake may stunt your metabolism

Juice cleanses are extremely low in calories, which is why they are promoted for weight loss and detoxification. That being said, though, these cleanses are also often a few days, long, which means you will be taking in very few calories for an extended period of time. Because juices don't contain adequate protein or calories, it is possible that your body may switch its energy sources such that your muscles will start breaking down in order to maintain your energy supply.

2. Blood sugar spikes

Juicing foods ultimately removes all of the fiber that they originally contained. What does this mean, exactly? It means that what's left behind is sugar. Combine that with the fact that this is all you are consuming for those couple of days, and your result is blood sugar spikes that cause headaches, fatigue, and weakness.

3. Cleanses might flush out good bacteria

Some cleanses, specifically those which promise to detoxify your intestines, can actually end up wiping out the good bacteria in your system by flushing everything away. This can majorly mess up your immunity as well as your digestion, because those bacteria help fight infections and keep toxins out.

4. Cleanses are a quick fix

Juice cleanses are labeled as a "quick fix," which may sound appealing, but in reality, this just means they are highly unsustainable, and the changes they yield are temporary.

5. Juices are not any healthier than whole foods

When it comes down to it, juices aren't any healthier than their whole-food counterparts. Plus, whole fruits and veggies contain fiber that their respective juices do not.

6. The juice cleanse trend inadvertently supports restrictive eating

When the juice cleanse trend reaches someone whose relationship with food is not healthy, it can do some real damage to their wellbeing. The idea of consuming virtually nothing over the course of a couple of days goes hand in hand with eating disorder culture, especially when it is so highly promoted with so little scientific evidence to back it up.

7. Nutrient depletion

As mentioned before, juice cleanses contain no protein. Additionally, juices don't contain important vitamins and nutrients, such as B12, which is found only in animal products. If you don't already supplement B12, a juice cleanse results in you depriving yourself entirely of this vitamin just for the sake of a quick fix.

8. A juice cleanse won't fix your food habits

If you are turning to a juice cleanse because your diet tends to consist mainly of junk food, a cleanse is not going to fix this. In fact, you might rebound and binge even more junk food once the cleanse is over because you deprived yourself of it for a few days. A cleanse is not a sustainable way to regulate your food intake. If you want to change the things you are eating, focus on the concept of moderation instead. Everything is OK in moderation. Strive to be your healthiest self 70 percent of the time, and then treat yourself 30 percent of the time. It is all about balance.

9. Our bodies detoxify themselves, they don't need extra help

The bottom line is that our bodies are actually great at detoxifying themselves, so juice cleanses for the purpose of detoxification truly aren't needed. If that's the case, then why spend $50 on juices that promise to do something your body already does for itself?

All in all, juice cleanses are a "no" from me. We don't need them, and quite frankly they don't do much for us anyway. Sure, a juice cleanse might result in you dropping a couple of pounds, but that weight loss comes from deprivation and muscle loss, meaning it probably won't be kept off.

if you want to be your healthiest you, focus on balance rather than bottles.

Report this Content
student sleep
Huffington Post

I think the hardest thing about going away to college is figuring out how to become an adult. Leaving a household where your parents took care of literally everything (thanks, Mom!) and suddenly becoming your own boss is overwhelming. I feel like I'm doing a pretty good job of being a grown-up, but once in awhile I do something that really makes me feel like I'm #adulting. Twenty-somethings know what I'm talking about.

Keep Reading...Show less
school
blogspot

I went to a small high school, like 120-people-in-my-graduating-class small. It definitely had some good and some bad, and if you also went to a small high school, I’m sure you’ll relate to the things that I went through.

1. If something happens, everyone knows about it

Who hooked up with whom at the party? Yeah, heard about that an hour after it happened. You failed a test? Sorry, saw on Twitter last period. Facebook fight or, God forbid, real fight? It was on half the class’ Snapchat story half an hour ago. No matter what you do, someone will know about it.

Keep Reading...Show less
Chandler Bing

I'm assuming that we've all heard of the hit 90's TV series, Friends, right? Who hasn't? Admittedly, I had pretty low expectations when I first started binge watching the show on Netflix, but I quickly became addicted.

Without a doubt, Chandler Bing is the most relatable character, and there isn't an episode where I don't find myself thinking, Yup, Iam definitely the Chandler of my friend group.

Keep Reading...Show less
eye roll

Working with the public can be a job, in and of itself. Some people are just plain rude for no reason. But regardless of how your day is going, always having to be in the best of moods, or at least act like it... right?

1. When a customer wants to return a product, hands you the receipt, where is printed "ALL SALES ARE FINAL" in all caps.

2. Just because you might be having a bad day, and you're in a crappy mood, doesn't make it okay for you to yell at me or be rude to me. I'm a person with feelings, just like you.

3. People refusing to be put on hold when a customer is standing right in front of you. Oh, how I wish I could just hang up on you!

Keep Reading...Show less
blair waldorf
Hercampus.com

RBF, or resting b*tch face, is a serious condition that many people suffer from worldwide. Suffers are often bombarded with daily questions such as "Are you OK?" and "Why are you so mad?" If you have RBF, you've probably had numerous people tell you to "just smile!"

While this question trend can get annoying, there are a couple of pros to having RBF.

Keep Reading...Show less

Subscribe to Our Newsletter

Facebook Comments