Juicing fast?
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Can't you juice beans?or meat for that matter. Tuna flakes in your vegetables blend... I can't imagine anything more yucky but... if the idea is to only "drink" rather than "eat" and the main issue is protein intake (ok and fiber), then one could juice anything. No?
The point is that there are scammers (with books and juicers to sell) who have convinced people through junk science and outright lies that there is some health benefit to a "juice fast" or "juice cleanse". Their recipes are purely vegetable juices, on the ridiculous and scientifically false theory that it somehow "reboots" your metabolism. The truth is that no "cleanse" or "detox" does anything beneficial for the body and can actually be potentially harmful. Calories in < Calories out still applies, but juice fasting will teach you nothing about how to eat or nourish yourself properly. It doesn't "kickstart", "jumpstart" or "reboot" your metabolism, as nothing of the sort actually happens - your metabolism works 24 hours a day every day doing what it does and your liver and kidneys are constantly at work "detoxing" your body.
Basically what a juice cleanse/fast amounts to is a VLCD/starvation diet which is highly unbalanced nutritionally. I don't see how that can be considered healthy or beneficial in any way. It sounds more like a desperate move somebody with an eating disorder (and no knowledge whatsoever of basic physiology or nutrition concepts) would try because they've swallowed the bait of some snake oil salesman.
+1000
I also think that a lot of the appeal of juicing diets/"cleanses" comes from the seemingly inherent Holier-Than-Thou Effect. You can glance around you at everyone who's eating nasty, disgusting toxic-laden food while you smugly drink your glass of Purifying Self Righteousness.
Too bad it isn't doing what you think it is, though. Other than robbing your body of essential nutrients, of course.
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amusedmonkey wrote: »Many vegetables contain protein.
Personally, I prefer to eat my calories rather than drink them.
A juice fast is a way to reduce your calorie intake. It also forces you to increase your consumption of fruits and veggies.
It offers no health benefits, IMO, that you couldn't get from adding the equivalent amount of salad and whole fruits/veggies into your diet.
This always baffles me. If I eat a banana, an apple, a tablespoon of peanut butter, oatmeal, a glass of milk, berries, and a big bunch of kale I'm full and happy for a long while. Now blend them into a shake or juice them and I'm guaranteed to hit the kitchen 30 minutes later after my 500 calorie shake. If anything, I would use juices and shakes to gain weight if it was something I needed to do.
Agreed! Both my sons are underweight and get smoothies / juices in addition to their normal diet to attempt to gain weight. This is doctor recommended supplementing typical for children. Less volume with high caloric content. Of course they use a lot more than veggies in them.0 -
snickerscharlie wrote: »
+1000
I also think that a lot of the appeal of juicing diets/"cleanses" comes from the seemingly inherent Holier-Than-Thou Effect. You can glance around you at everyone who's eating nasty, disgusting toxic-laden food while you smugly drink your glass of Purifying Self Righteousness.
Too bad it isn't doing what you think it is, though. Other than robbing your body of essential nutrients, of course.
100% this. There's a huge spiritual/quasi-religious/moral component to so many restrictive WOEs. Heck, fasting *is* a religious practice in many faiths. Juice marketers have just cleverly grafted a product- specifically a cheap-to-manufacture product that has undertones of magic potion and for which people will pay big bucks- to a practice that's already well known for having powerful psychological effects and culturally associated with being enlightened and in self-control, and then taking credit for how "focused" and "in-control" people feel when they've eaten almost nothing for a week.
Kind of evil genius, really.
The language around "clean eating" is similarly laden with moral judgement.
I'm not religious, but I've often wondered if the rise in popularity of highly restrictive eating patterns has been partially driven by a general decline in religiosity. If you don't have a cleric telling you what to do to be a morally superior person, a diet guru might be the next best thing to fill that emotional need for some people.0 -
brittny0627 wrote: »I actually think it is all it's cracked up to be. I'm doing my second one now on day 3. Did one last year I think I did 8-10 days or something. I lost 9 lbs (nod I'm not a big girl) and I felt Better. It made me stop eating all the junk food I started eating. If you want to lose a few and get healthy it's a good idea. If you don't want to lose weight you can drink more than the usual juice amount!!
How much did you gain back?0 -
amusedmonkey wrote: »Many vegetables contain protein.
Personally, I prefer to eat my calories rather than drink them.
A juice fast is a way to reduce your calorie intake. It also forces you to increase your consumption of fruits and veggies.
It offers no health benefits, IMO, that you couldn't get from adding the equivalent amount of salad and whole fruits/veggies into your diet.
This always baffles me. If I eat a banana, an apple, a tablespoon of peanut butter, oatmeal, a glass of milk, berries, and a big bunch of kale I'm full and happy for a long while. Now blend them into a shake or juice them and I'm guaranteed to hit the kitchen 30 minutes later after my 500 calorie shake. If anything, I would use juices and shakes to gain weight if it was something I needed to do.
It's usually used to create a VLCD, though. The juice is consumed in limited amounts and is low calorie (not peanut butter and banana, usually). The idea is that when you basically fast or just drink juice for a while you stop feeling hungry, as that's what our bodies do in response to famine.
Is it true? Beats me, as it seems super unhealthy.0 -
I'm no fan of juicing (especially commercial ones) but I do think the outraged attitude toward temporary deprivation or temporary limiting of food groups is kind of nutty. But IF gained respect even here, so maybe some day temporary juice fast posts won't invoke a pile-on.
Our bodies work on the nutritional inputs over a longer time span than 24 hours. The software here just focuses on that span because it's convenient.0 -
WalkingAlong wrote: »I'm no fan of juicing (especially commercial ones) but I do think the outraged attitude toward temporary deprivation or temporary limiting of food groups is kind of nutty. But IF gained respect even here, so maybe some day temporary juice fast posts won't invoke a pile-on.
Our bodies work on the nutritional inputs over a longer time span than 24 hours. The software here just focuses on that span because it's convenient.
The body does not work on nutritional inputs (or lack thereof) for the 7, 14, 30 day spans of these inane juicing plans.0 -
lemurcat12 wrote: »amusedmonkey wrote: »Many vegetables contain protein.
Personally, I prefer to eat my calories rather than drink them.
A juice fast is a way to reduce your calorie intake. It also forces you to increase your consumption of fruits and veggies.
It offers no health benefits, IMO, that you couldn't get from adding the equivalent amount of salad and whole fruits/veggies into your diet.
This always baffles me. If I eat a banana, an apple, a tablespoon of peanut butter, oatmeal, a glass of milk, berries, and a big bunch of kale I'm full and happy for a long while. Now blend them into a shake or juice them and I'm guaranteed to hit the kitchen 30 minutes later after my 500 calorie shake. If anything, I would use juices and shakes to gain weight if it was something I needed to do.
It's usually used to create a VLCD, though. The juice is consumed in limited amounts and is low calorie (not peanut butter and banana, usually). The idea is that when you basically fast or just drink juice for a while you stop feeling hungry, as that's what our bodies do in response to famine.
Is it true? Beats me, as it seems super unhealthy.
The thing is, regardless how low in calories the shakes and juices are I would feel much fuller if I eat the ingredients whole. Juicing is even worse than shakes. At least shakes have some substance to them. Juices are gone within minutes. I could attest to losing appetite on a water fast after 4 or so days (had a very bad personal experience as a teen that landed me in the hospital) but I'm not sure that would happen if you do take in calories, most of which are carbs.
I personally believe the only thing juice fasts have going for them is the strict rules. Some people thrive on rules. If you are not allowed to eat anything, no matter how hungry or miserable you are, if you are a person who likes to follow rules you will attempt to stick it out till the end. Unnecessary torture with mostly temporary results in my opinion when those people have the option of picking any diet with arbitrary rules to follow that does not leave them hungry.0 -
@Nickers5405 Exactly why I'm not going back and forth any more at least about things I've answered. Some people are not contributing to the convo and are repeating the same things over and over again. Thank you LOL for contributing to the convo, as others have done as well, but..... not all.
@brianpperkins I'm done answering about the video that i simply said was fascinating. Don't watch it, I honestly couldnt care less. You are antagonizing rather than actually taking in my responses which have already answered all the questions you have repeatedly asked. What are you even doing? commenting on who i feel as though i would like to thank because Im civilized and have manners like wtf ? why do you care? Go take a nap and get ready for work. Unless this is all that you do with your time. Nothing else to say to you. moving on THANK YOU!
@MondayJune22nd2015 thanks lol !!!! I appreciate the advice. I do plan to incorporate smoothies into my regular diet but i actually prefer the texture of juicing. Im not a big thick drink fan. Maybe I'm weird and I do like the taste of veggies juiced.
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@ARGriffy I did it like dec 2014-jan for 7 days. I maintained for the most part fluctuating like 2-4 lbs. Weighing myself at the start of this time I was 2 lbs heavier than that range i give myself. meaning like I fluctuate 130-134 so i was 136 when started this. Main goal isn't weight loss, but of course I wouldn't mind if you see my previous post lol! It did helped me jump start eating clean last time.0
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You thanked them in a manner that indicated they agreed with anything you had to say when they explicitly said they didn't. That was what prompted my laughter then reply.
So far you have injected all of the typical flawed concepts into this thread. "Jump start" .. a video from a guy selling a plan, juicers, etc as a basis to support a position ... then when countered with fact and logic you accuse others of "not contributing to the convo". Your posts are a cliche on MFP.
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It prompted your laughter because similar to the way you hone in on an irrelevant point passively introduced and badger it and also as you have misinterpreted the majority of my responses, you took it the wrong way.
@BrianPerkins2015 every question or inquiry as to my motivation and beliefs and experience on the topic have been answered. scroll up re read I won't repeat them for you they are there. I believe YOU wanted to talk about being fallacious in our responses? Look at yourself! argumentum ad hominem.... argument of repetition.... cherry picking to name few. Ive answered your questions. I don't accuse many others of not contributing mainly you. 0 -
Nickers5405 wrote: »Personally I'm not a fan of the juicing, but some people prefer to judge and nit pick what people say rather then have a positive conversation.
99% of people gain their weight back. Stop using that as an argument to discredit a certain "diet".
I don't think the lack of protein is a huge problem. Most people think If they keep their proteins high during weight loss they'll be left with all this muscle they think they've built up underneath the fat for all these years...wrong. Unless you've been strength training while you've been gaining weight, you'll be surprised with how little muscle is actually there.
I know you already replied to rabbitjb on this, and based on your response to her, we're on a similar wavelength.
Just want to add a different perspective. Your first response sounded as if, by reflex, you were thinking like a younger, stronger, fitter person - all good stuff, BTW.
As a li'l ol' lady, I'm highly motivated to hang on to the absolute maximum possible of my tiny, weak, pathetic li'l ol' lady muscles. They're one of the major things that keep me off the slippery slope toward hip fractures, assisted living, and other undesirables - problems I see around me in other women my age and older. And strength is a struggle to regain, at my age & sex.
I'm losing weight to improve my health picture, but there's obviously more to health than weight. So I absolutely want to eat enough protein, stay active, and (yes) lift weight while losing, just to keep the odds on my side.
That makes juice fasts (or other multi-day adventures in limited nutrition) seem like a particularly Bad Plan.
(P.S. to the easily alarmed or offended reader: The "tiny, weak, pathetic" was hyperbole, for effect. I'm actually pretty fit and strong, all things considered. . . and want to stay that way.)0 -
@brittny0627 (please take note that I mentioned the right person, unlike you in your last post) nothing you've contributed has been of use. It is all fallacy based which is why so many people in this thread disagreed with you. From "jump start" to watch this video ... all wrong answers that you then keep referring to as you've answered. As I said, your posts are cliches on MFP and even the posts you thank people for are contradicting the content of your posts.0
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