5 reasons why I don’t recommend juice cleanses
The hallmark of most “cleanses” or “detoxes” out there is…restriction. Juice cleansing, where you drink nothing but juice, is a poster child for this.
Although the word “detox” has been co-opted in many cases simply to sell diets, your body actually does have very real detoxification pathways. Ironically, these pathways actually need MORE nutrients to run properly, not less.
That’s why, if one is truly concerned about supercharging their body’s detox capacity, opting for extreme restriction is not the best choice.
A Quick Primer on Detoxification
Detoxification happens primarily in the liver, but many other organs are involved as well, including your kidneys, lungs, skin, and gut. Issues with any of these “organs of elimination” can put a damper on detoxification, especially the gut.
Poor gut health inhibits proper detoxification for a few main reasons.
First, too much “bad” bacteria or fungi can release their own toxins, increasing total toxic burden that your liver has to deal with. Secondly, if the gut lining is permeable (called “leaky gut”) and/or the immune system in our gut isn’t robust, it cannot act as a barrier. This allows more toxins to enter the body. Finally, if your digestion is sluggish and trends toward constipation, you won’t be able to eliminate all that junk.
Aside from issues with our organs of elimination, detoxification can also get bogged down by high level or chronic exposures. These include drugs, alcohol, and exposure to chemical pollutants via food (think pesticides), water, or air.
Why I don’t recommend juice cleanses
Contrary to popular belief, juice cleanses are not the best way to support detoxification. In some cases, they can do more harm than good. Here are 5 reasons why:
1. There’s no fat to absorb fat-soluble vitamins
Vitamins A, D, E, and K are fat-soluble, meaning they must buddy up with some kind of fat in your digestive tract to be absorbed. Otherwise, they cannot access the rest of our body.
For example, that Vitamin K in your greens juice isn’t going to go far without fat. And then there’s the beta-carotene (a form of Vitamin A) in vegetables like carrots. Although beta-carotene has amazing antioxidant properties, it’s going to have a muted effect without a little fat to chaperone it into the body.
2. There’s virtually no protein
Amino acids, the building blocks of proteins, are needed in specific elimination pathways. Basically, the amino acids get tagged to toxic compounds so that your body is able to actually remove them (think of them like hashtags). In the absence of protein-rich foods, such as with a juice cleanse, this arm of detoxification is essentially shut down.
Moreover, several detoxification pathways require B vitamins and zinc. Both of these exist in ample amounts in protein-rich foods, but they can be difficult to get enough of in fruit and veggies alone.
3. It can worsen blood sugar and cortisol issues
Juice is juice, meaning it no longer contains fiber (see more on this below). Fiber, along with fat and protein, helps regulate blood sugar. That means, the sugars in a juice can hit you quickly and crash just as fast.
These peaks and valleys in blood sugar then trigger our major stress hormone, cortisol, to be released. High cortisol causes a myriad of issues, but in terms of the gut, it can slow down bowel movements causing constipation and bloating.
4. Juice is fiber-stripped
Fiber has many wonderful qualities beyond regulating our blood sugar. Most importantly, it is food for our gut bacteria; they literally starve without it.
When our gut bacteria have nothing to eat, they are unable to make the many byproducts that benefit our health. Perhaps the most notable are short chain fatty acids. Short chain fatty acids are highly anti-inflammatory both in the gut and the rest of the body, and may be protective against diseases such as diabetes, colon cancer, and heart disease.
5. It may slow down bowel movements
Without any bulk from fiber, many people get constipated. If you want to detox, having a daily bowel movement is crucial. After our liver does its job, we are counting on our gut to actually eliminate that crap! If a juice cleanse backs you up, toxins (and used-up hormones) are recycled throughout the body.
Whether it be a juice cleanse, a keto diet, a carnivore diet, or whatever else, if it’s constipating you, it’s actual working against your detoxification process.
In conclusion
While some juices can offer concentrated phytonutrients, there’s no need to exclude all other forms of food. You can have your juice and eat too. Or just eat the tried and true whole food. For nutrient-dense, anti-inflammatory, and gut-friendly recipes, check out my Gluten-Free Recipes for Gut Health guide.
Also keep in mind that the most effective thing you can do is to move towards nourishing diet and lifestyle habits that are consistent. Juicing is not something that can or should be done long-term. Therefore, working on the stuff that’s going to continue through the rest of the year is going to be more impactful.
