“Fat, Sick and Nearly Dead” is a documentary film about an Australian guy who recovered from life-threatening illness by going on an all-fruit-and-vegetable-juice diet, and then came to America to spread the gospel of better living through pureed carrots.
At least, that’s more or less the summary. I haven’t seen it yet. I will, though, as my wife’s cow-orker has seen it, and gotten my wife sold on it. Specifically. my wife wants us to both go on the “reboot diet.” There are several varieties of this, but they all have to do with eating nothing but fruits and vegetables for 5-15 days at a time. Some of them specify eating nothing but juice for five days straight.
I’m OK with the idea of eating nothing but fruit/veggies for a week or two (can’t hurt, right?), though I may have to draw the line at the just-juice phase, as the mere thought of a V-8 makes me gag. Generally, though, the film and website seems to me to be a great way to sell $200 juice-making machines. My antenna is way up, but in a bit of googling doesn’t find any critiques of this particular diet.
I’m definitely open to hearing opinions and anecdotes, but posting this in GQ because I’d like to hear any hard medical/nutrition information.
I started watching that “documentary” on Netflix a few weeks ago and I turned it off about 15 minutes in after I realized it was just an infomercial for juicers. It wasn’t very well made either.
I think it is obvious that one would lose weight eating nothing but raw and juiced vegetables for long periods of time. The problem is whether or not one has the willpower to actually do it long term. That’s the catch with extreme diets isn’t it? The filmmaker had some serious motivation behind him in that:
a) he was making a film and abandoning the diet would ruin his production
b) if he stuck to the diet and lost weight he could sell juicers for profit
c) he traveled to the other side of the globe while on the diet, separating him from the daily demands and routines that make diets troublesome for the majority of humanity
Adopting a diet that you can reasonably follow for the rest of your life would be a better choice imho. I went from 240 lbs to 185 lbs over the course of about two and a half years by making incremental changes to my diet, six weeks at a time. Still I’m not claiming to be an expert. I just know when I was obese I couldn’t have stuck to a change that drastic without failing.
Going on an all-juice diet is essentially going on an all-sugar-water diet. Logic would dictate that your body will be tearing down your muscles and bone to survive, because it will need the protein and calcium etc to keep going.
So basically you’ll be staying out of ketosis (fat burning) by providing the body with plenty of sugar, but breaking down your muscle mass, thus ensuring a lower starting point when you do finally get to a ketosis state on a healthier diet.
IANAD, but it has never made any sense to me at all.
Eating a lot of fruits and vegetables is certainly a good idea, and nutritionally, eating them pureed isn’t any different than eating them solid. But cutting meat entirely isn’t necessary, and neither is liquifying everything you eat.
Yeaaaahhh, I’d think that the all-juice thing is even worse than the eating-only-fruits-n-veggies thing, because whole fruit at least also provides fiber, which is mostly stripped out of juice and stays behind in the pulp.
Please tell me you at least cook the beans before “juicing” them. (In which case: what’s the point of the blender?)
Do you mean “Best post [you’ve made in your time at this board] so far”? I’d like to think I’m a little better than that one. Or did you mean “Best post [anyone in this thread has made] so far”? Yeah, I thought it was a stupid, but cute joke, not a bad joke compared to the rest in this thread.
An all juice diet is nothing like an all-sugar-water diet.
Wikipedia’s page for V8 shows that a 40 calorie serving has 2.4 g of protein. Drinking 50 of those would put you at 2,000 calories and 120 g of protein - more than enough. There’s also far more than enough fiber. I’m not sure about trace nutrients and vitamins in V8 specifically, but I would be surprised if you couldn’t find the right mix of veggies to get a healthy amount of all necessary nutrients.
As pointed out by previous posters, an extreme diet will work for a little while. After time it becomes boring and easy to stray away from.
For long term weight loss you need a long term committment on your part. Then you need a long term plan for the rest of your life, not just a few weeks or months.
The only successful weight loss program I went through was with my doctor. It involved bariatric surgery and committment to stick to my new habits forever.
And, also pointed out by previous posters, you can get a good juicer for a lot less than $200.
Thanks to all for the input. I need to clarify a few things that maybe weren’t plain in the OP.
The “reboot diet” my wife wants to do is not meant to be a sustainable lifestyle. It’s a 5-15 day thing that claims to help “cleanse” your body. It’s also not an issue of whether or not this particular diet is “necessary” or not. It obviously isn’t, and left to myself I’d not do it.
I guess the question is whether or not there is any reason to stop my wife from doing this. I’ve already told her I’m not going to the juice part – I’m cool with turning vegan for two weeks, but not going on the all-liquid diet. My concern is that she’s convinced that this is going to do something great, and I’m worried that it’s not.
So the point about sugar is worth making: if a lot of the juice is fruit juice, that could well end up being a hell of a lot of sugar. She’ll have to keep the balance tipped towards veggies.
I’d like to think I’m a little better than that one. Or did you mean “Best post [anyone in this thread has made] so far”? 
Yeah, I thought it was a stupid, but cute joke, not a bad joke compared to the rest in this thread.