Detox your body, give your digestive organs a few days of rest and also lose a few kilos. Supporters of juice cleanses attribute all kinds of health benefits to this free extreme diet. But what is true about those claims about juice cleanses? We asked nutritional scientist Ellen Kampman from Wageningen University.
What is a juice cleanse and what does it do to your body?
During a juice cleanse, you only consume vegetable and fruit juices for a few days to a week. A sandwich for lunch or a plate of pasta in the evening is therefore not an option. You can also go one step further by juice fasting: there is only water and herbal tea on the menu (even stricter than intermittent fasting). A juice cleanse is also sometimes called a detox for your body: a way to remove all toxins from your body.
Your body can detox easily on its own
‘A juice cleanse of a few days can’t do any harm, but it also doesn’t really yield much benefit,’ explains nutritional scientist Ellen Kampman. ‘Our body has been detoxing all day long. The kidneys and liver ensure that everything that doesn’t belong in our body gets out as quickly as possible.’ You don’t need a juice cleanse to detox your body. Your body can do that just fine.
And what about the claim that a juice cleanse gives your organs a few days of well-deserved rest? Your body is not necessarily waiting for that either, says Kampman. ‘The kidneys and liver must remain stimulated and have something to do, otherwise they will work at a lower level. It’s not exactly convenient to shut down the entire system.’
Yet people sometimes feel better after a few days of drinking only vegetable and fruit juices. “That may be because they otherwise have a fairly unhealthy diet,” says Kampman. ‘If you only drink juice, you don’t drink alcohol, for example. It may be that you are on a very healthy diet and feel better.’
To fall off? A juice cleanse will not satisfy your hunger
If you want to lose a few pounds, a juice cleanse may not be the best idea. ‘When you chew, all kinds of stimuli go to your brain that make you feel full,’ Kampman explains. ‘If you only drink juice, you don’t get those stimuli and your hunger is not satisfied.’
The result? You can easily drink liters of those fruit juices. ‘These juices contain all kinds of healthy ingredients, but they are often also calorie bombs. So if you want to lose weight, juice cleanses are not that beneficial. It is better to eat less for a while, give up alcohol and stick to the target of five. That really makes you feel much better than such an extreme diet such as a juice cleanse.’
Also read: Does your body go into energy saving mode after dieting?
2024-01-19 16:36:33
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