Crikey
This thread is equally interesting and alarming.
Before I go into any of my opinions (and that is really all that they are), I am a fan of cleansing - BUT - a clear distinction has to be drawn between cleansing and fasting.
Cleansing involves cutting out all of the crap and basically consuming only fresh vegetable juices and raw soups, with plenty of ingredients such as wheatgrass, green vegetables, avocado, lemon and lime juice, essential fatty acids (from flax and hemp) and lots of water etc.
On a cleanse you actually ingest MORE food than you would normally, but as it is in juice or pureed soup format your body does not require hardly any energy or effort to digest it and all of the nutrients are easily assimilated around the body. The most important thing is that you must never feel hungry. If you are hungry, consume more. If this means 10 bowls of soup and 10 juices a day then so be it. Remember all that will be in these soups and juices are vegetables, spinach, wheatgrass, avocado, wheatgrass etc.
It is absolutely essential to give your body the nutrients it needs (including the fats suggested above) to aid in the detoxification and cleansing process.
Fasting = restricting. I simply cannot understand the logic behind fasting. Especailly a water fast! Just water?! This is insane! Apart from religious and self-realisation type gains from this I simply cannot see any positive health outcomes from this. The lemonade diet seems similar and the only outcome I can see is a lot of muscle loss and water loss from the body.
I have read this thread through twice and I still am astounded that people would happily starve their bodies of any form of nutrients for this length of time. It just baffles me.
This is just my 2p worth, but I felt compelled to join in because I am so shocked by the notion of a water fast (or any other kind of fast).
Have a great day
Ross
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