[LittleMoonRabbit]

It doesn't really have anything to do with an actual diet... but I have read in different places that it gives your body a rest and kind of "cleans out the basement" so to speak You're supposed to drink fresh fruit and vegatable juices for three days (or more, if you can handle it), and have as much as you want, along with healthy doses of water . People claim to feel like a completely different person when it's over, because it supposedly flushes out toxins from the bowels. I don't know how much I buy into it, but I can't help but be a little curious... has anyone ever tried one??? Does it work, or is it just a crock of... sugar? lol.

[bargoo]

I have done it , you will lose weight but it will all come back when you start eating solid foods again.

[rockinrobin]

I'm sure restricting your calories for 3 days will result in weight loss. But what of it? Aren't we looking for a longterm solution? As far as flushing out toxins from the bowels, well I believe eating healthy foods in healthy portions every day will do just the same. No need, IMO to drink some juice to do so.

[Spinymouse]

I think it sounds like a good idea and have been thinking of doing a juice fast also. I have a Vita-Mix, which is the perfect gizmo for making whole juices. I think even a day of breaking a pattern can be a good thing, for psychological reasons, regardless of the toxin question. If anything it might give some of the internal food processing organs and organelles somewhat of a mini-vacation. (How's that for scientific?)

[MariaMaria]

Except that you're not designed to send your internal parts on vacation. Try it with your lungs or your heart or your kidneys and see what happens.

[LittleMoonRabbit]

Yeah, I didn't necessarily mean I would do a juice fast for the purpse of weightloss... more as a means to getting one's system back in balance. If our bodies were never made to "maintain" (since we were scavangers, and would go days without food, and then have big meals) it seems like it might be logical to kind of clense the system in that manner. However, I am aware that any weightloss I would incur would come right back after I started eating normally.

[aphil]

There is no reason to get your body back in balance, when it is in balance already (unless you have a specific medical problem). Unless you are trying to get rid of drugs from your system, or something medically along those lines-there is really no reason to "detox".

Going on a juice fast doesn't even give the digestive system a rest. The digestive tract still has to process and digest the juice, the same as it does anything else-it still has calories, sugars, nutrients, etc.

The digestive system is meant to do what it does, every day. It doesn't need a day off...and a juice fast isn't giving it one anyway.

[Spinymouse]

It might not be giving your digestive system a full-blown day off but more like a lighter workload.
The most recent time I did any kind of a fast was before I had a colonoscopy, so I was directed to have only clear liquids for two days before it. I had vegetable broth and drank carbonated and regular water. I could have had jell-o but I don't consider jell-o to be an edible food. Anyway, I felt great and after the colonoscopy I didn't feel hungry so I just kept it up for an extra day even though I didn't "have to." I felt fine, and nothing horrible happened!