True. But V8 is more blended than juiced. A juicer takes all of the solids out. Putting a bunch of fruit and veggies into a blender would be extreme, but potentially healthy given the right ingedients.
It’s also true that juicing veggies results in more than just sugar water, but the fact remains that the sugar content will be high compared to the nutritional content, thus preventing ketosis, which is the whole point of any diet.
A juice diet can be useful for a weekend as a jump start to a healthier diet, because it lowers appetite and makes smaller portions more filling going forward. But I can’t see any use to a long-term juice diet.
The big question here: if eating a diet loaded with fruits and vegetables is good for you (it is), then why not do it all the time, instead of going on a crash 5-15 day diet where you eat nothing else? Ben Goldacre addressed this point in an article discussing whether such diets were useful:
“…if (a “detox diet”) makes us think healthy living is like purgatory, something to be ventured into very occasionally, and with much trepidation and forward planning, then the answer is clearly no. And is it an intellectually dishonest scam? Probably. Although it might be gentler to think of it as a voluntary, self-administered tax on scientific illiteracy and decadence.”
You could show your wife umpteen articles by experts detailing why such dietary flings are useless for “detoxifying” one’s body, but I doubt if she’d be willing to change her mind. Instead, I’d offer to commit to a long-term healthier lifestyle instead of an unsustainable 5-15 day juice-vegan binge.
[QUOTE=furt;14148083I guess the question is whether or not there is any reason to stop my wife from doing this.[/QUOTE]
Yes, there is.
It encourages ignorance (which we’re trying to fight here):
ignorance about what is a healthy, continuing diet instead of occasional fads & purges.
ignorance about the body; the feeling that it is somehow ‘dirty’ and needs to be periodically ‘cleansed’.
ignorance about a sustainable lifestyle – that you can live all the time, without any need for ‘reboots’.
(Frankly, I could not imagine living with a person this ignorant & gullible. But that’s your choice. Presumably she has other qualities that make you love her. Concentrate on those, and try to just ignore or tolerate this other nonsense.)
I have attended lectures where claims were made that an all juice diet was good for helping with fighting cancer. That it gives your body the much needed nutrients without the need to take all that energy to digest the food. But a reputable lecturer will also note that God created the doctor to help with healing, so use them. I have friends who have gone on this diet while fighting cancer, specifically 2 friends who had brain tumors. Did it cure them, I don’t know, they are all still around and doing better, but they did follow their doctors treatment plan as well.
A fast of a week or so with just juice is not going to hurt you and it might actually allow you to learn a bit about appetite, in the sense of what you might crave that is controlling your life rather than you controlling it. But I would not go for longer than that. You need grains and beans at least in your diet to get a balanced diet.
I know this seems anecdotal but the above is from lectures I have attended over the last dozen years.
Let me tell you something better to talk your wife into. A fast from processed sugars for 40 days. It is hard but a better diet plan imho.
Well, I guess it would depend on the total intake of sugar. I don’t know anything about this diet but if, say, you only took in 80% of the energy you need via juicing then the body will still burn fat in order to make up for the deficit. Hence, ketosis while on a high carb diet.
Its a documentary worth seeing all the way thru. Its not trying to get anyone to buy a juicer, it shows you what juicing can do for you. I watched Fat, Sick and Nearly Dead on Netflix, glad that I did. I bought the cheapest Juicer a G.E. from Wal Mart for $49. It works fine, I can take it back for a refund if I don’t like it, but i’m keeping it. The juice makes me feel more energetic, more alert and younger, no joke. In the Movie, they say that the Juice taste good, the way I make the juice, Its gross, but I still drink it, because nothing else makes me feel this way, I like who I am, when I drink the Green Monster. If I eat a Hambuger at McDonalds, thats a day wasted, because i’m all sleepy and slugish, but on the Juice, i’m not tired, full of energy,not just some of the day, but all day. People will always have something negative to say about anything, but with this, don’t listen to the negative comments. If you are looking for the Fountain of Youth, this is it. Its not a pill, its all totally natural, and you make it yourself, from Fruits and Vegatables.
Realizing this is a zombie thread, but I doubt anyone with a functioning liver and kidneys needs any special diet to “cleanse” their body. The human body works pretty well.
I used to work an overnight shift at ADT back in the mid 90s, and my work buddy and I got really bored one evening and figured that you could actually manage a [seriously high sodium] reasonable diet from the stuff in the machines, and a large amount of the micronutrients were actually available in 3 V8s and 2 orange juices, combined with 1 packet of trail mix [can’t remember the brand but it was the one without the chocolate chips] 2 packets or chips or pretzels and a packet of beef jerky. I seem to remember it came out to 2000 calories.
It’s what my pastor does when he fasts–he says the point is to feel hungry, not to be deprived of nutrients. He used to also go lacto-ovo, but he found it hurt his stomach.
