A few days ago I stumbled upon a juice fasting article that I found very interesting. I think it highlights the main issue with juice fasting, which is what I’m going to talk about today.
“To fast on water is a test of discipline. I do not enjoy water fasting; I do it for the results. Having a very fast metabolism, no excess fat and being muscular, my body demands a continual supply of calories. I live mostly on fruit and get hungry every two hours. About four hours into the fast, my body starts to feel the lack of calories. Twenty-four hours later, I am lying around with little energy to expend….Juice fasting is just the opposite of water fasting, blasting the body with more nutrition than it has ever seen.”
This passage perfectly highlights one of the main problems with juice fasting and the ideologies that surround it. But wait! you say, this guy says WATER fasting makes him feel bad! That’s exactly my point.
The passage above is a typical account of a person addicted to sugar. On a high fruit diet (or any sugar filled diet), it’s very hard to go for extended periods without eating. More and more research points to the addictive properties of sugar and how it functions in an extremely similar fashion to narcotics.
The writer in the passage above is going through a blood sugar roller coaster ride, which is why he feels terrible without a constant supply of juice. The reason juice fasts are so popular – besides the fact that marketers have something to sell you – is that people riding those blood sugar highs and lows will crash after just a few hours without eating. Juice diets provide them with a constant supply of sugar, which works perfectly for marketers because the overweight people they’re selling to are the most likely to have that kind of sugar dependence.
The Juice Fasting and Holistic Detox Scam
Lets get two things straight:
1. Fruit juice is NOT a health food
2. Thousands of calories of juice each day is NOT a fast
Juice fasting is just an easy way to sell people a product and keep the addiction going for people who are dependent on sugar.
We’ll get more into how sugar addiction works and how it hampers your ability to fast effectively in the next few articles. We’ll also get learn about what to eat to get out of the sugar loop and make fasting effectively much more doable.
Until then, don’t juice fast!