Juice Fasting

First, I think it’s important to ensure that we start off with a clear idea of what I mean by “juice fasting”. Here’s a bit about juice fasting from Wikipedia:

Juice fasting is a type of fasting and detox diet in which the practitioner consumes only fruit and vegetable juices. Being available only in digestible carbohydrates, these foods are digested rapidly as the juice digestion process expends only a small amount of energy.

Additional reasons for undergoing juice fasts include religious reasons, losing weight and attempting to wean oneself from unhealthy habits, i.e., smoking, drinking soda, overeating, caffeine addiction, etc. Some more serious participants use juice fasting as an alternative to conventional medical practices, i.e., as a healing technique for pain, cancer, depression, arthritis, severe infections that failed antibiotics, autoimmune diseases and many other supposedly incurable diseases.

I think that accurately sums up what juice fasting is, and the “why” someone would want to juice fast… the reasons are many. I personally completed a two-week juice fast a few years ago and while I don’t think I will do it again, I will tell you that it was a life changing experience.

There are very few strange feelings your body can have that can compare to the feeling that you get when your digestive system shuts down. Literally, after about a day or two (depending on your body) of having no food in your stomach to process, your body will shut down your digestive system and begin working on other things. This is where the proponents of the juice fast say that all of the magic happens.

The theory is that because we go from meal to meal to meal with very little downtime for our digestive system, we don’t give our bodies much time to focus on regular maintenance tasks that are necessary for our well-being. Promoters of caloric restriction as a means to live a longer life look at things this way as well. The more we eat, the more our bodies have to work at processing food instead of bodily maintenance.

If you want to try a juice fast, you can easily do a one, two, or even five-day juice fast without suffering any ill effect on your body. Almost everyone has adequate stores of fats that can be broken down for energy, and the fresh fructose and other sugars you get from the juice will ensure your brain stays functioning properly.

Note that you can’t just go out and buy a few cans of V8 and call it a day. Juice fasting requires a high speed food juicer, as well as copious amounts of fruits and vegetables. Instead of eating a meal, juice up a combo of fruits and veggies and drink the juice. The juice cannot be stored, as the enzymes you release in the juicing process basically begin digesting the nutrients in the juice. So juice your fruits and veggies, drink the juice within 10 minutes, and come back for another helping in a few hours.

You can also pair a juice fast with a colon cleanse, however you will need to ensure that you start eating again as soon as you feel very hungry (you will know when this is, I assure you.) Check out the link below to view our many colon cleanse reviews:

Here are a couple more links with regards to juice fasting. Be sure to come back and let us know if you decide to try a fast, and how it went!

http://altmedicine.about.com/od/detoxcleansing/a/juice_fasting.htm

http://www.juicefasting.org/