Juice Fasting, or juice cleansing, has more benefits than you can imagine, and you can do it for as long as you want to, and it will still have great benefits. A 6 day juice fast is the shorter, more common length, whereas the extreme lengths can go until 60 days.
Juice fasting is one of the fastest ways to get rid of toxins in the body. While juice fasting, your body still gets the calories, minerals and nutrients it needs for daily function while simultaneously removing excess waste and cleansing your entire body. The most difficult thing about juice fasting is commitment; it is incredibly hard to stick to, especially in the first week, since that is where the body begins it’s epic craving. It’s not impossible though, so don’t get discouraged.
What are the benefits?
There are more benefits than I can count, and having already done a juice fast, I can testify to feeling my best while on the fast. Some of the benefits are:
- Balanced pH and blood sugar levels,
- A cleansed and regulated colon,
- Weight loss (fat, not water),
- Diminished toxin load,
- Strengthened immune system
Not to mention, you’ll consume more vegetables and fruits during the fast than you ever had before, and probably ever will. When you juice, you use way more fruits and vegetables than you could actually eat at one time. As a result, you are drinking a HUGE quantity of vitamins, minerals and other plant-based nutrients that would be impossible to get otherwise.
Juice requires hardly any digestion, so all its nutritional goodness gets rapidly into your system while simultaneously giving your digestive system a rest. You give your WHOLE BODY a chance to “clean house”. Without the added burden of digestion, which takes a LOT of time and energy, the body is now free to work on other things like detoxing the liver and kidneys…and the remains of all those Ramen Noodles you used to eat!
Juicing at Home vs Store Bought Juice
Now, this is a juice fast, and most people do this for the detox benefits, which would mean juicing at home would be your best bet. If you are trying to detoxify your system, you don’t want to pollute it further with juices which may contain processed sugar or preservatives. Juicing now is very easy with a good juicer. It removes the pulp in a flash and all you’re left with is the juice, and the great thing about juicing at home is that you can adjust your recipes.
Fruit or Vegetable Juices?
Fruit juices will be higher in sugar than vegetable juices. If you’re doing it for health reasons, and to detoxify, I would recommend one fruit juice and three vegetable juices a day. You can juice literally anything you want. There are hundreds of thousands of recipes on the internet and in books, and you can also compile a few of your own based on your specific tastes and requirements.
How long should you juice for?
Duration is up to you and your doctor. The longest recommended juice fast is 60 days, although I understand some people go as long as 90 days. I would suggest starting off slowly, perhaps a four day fast if it’s your first one, then next time lengthen it by a week, and every time you juice fast, go one week longer, or as far as you can go.
Side Effects
Like every method out there, you will experience side effects, most of which are detoxification effects. I will let you know them in my follow up article, Stages of Detoxification.
Now that you have the facts, you have the power to make the changes in your life that need to be made. It’s not longer a luxury to be healthy. It’s a basic necessity to live a balanced and normal life. Perhaps when you were younger, you could get away with some processed and fast foods, but the junk is more toxic than ever and no one can get away with eating like that any more. Can you afford to be sick? Setting an example for your children is the most important part of raising them. It’s not what you say, but what you do that they learn from.
