Day Four

It is such a wonderful relief to eat real food again! The last day of juice dieting has finally come to an end and I have learned a lot about it. Even though the process was painful and way more difficult than expected, I am glad I had the opportunity to research juice diet/fasting so intimately. But let's get one thing clear; I plan on never, ever juicing my entire meal plan again for the rest of my life. The reasons why bring me to my next discussion, the cost versus benefit analysis.

Top 3 benefits of a juice diet (all claims made from juice-diets.com):

1) “Easy, effective and appetizing way to lose weight”.

My rebuttal is that juice diets do not fit any of the above descriptions. The juice dieting for me was challenging, disgusting and hardly lost any weight in the end.

The cost is having limited options of when, where and what to eat. The pleasure factor is taken out from this diet. The process of making fruit juices at home can be fun but the actual consuming of the juice drinks takes a long time and frequently taste gross. And according to WebMD.com, it is all water weight that is being lost anyway.

2)“[Gives] digestive system and internal organs time an opportunity to rest, rejuvenate, revitalize.”

Referring back to the article on WebMD.com, Doctor Wiel says there is no scientific evidence for diets that detoxify. And more importantly the cost could be eating less for no reason.

3)“[Reduces] risk of disease and permanent, positive change in diet.”

This is a very broad statement considering everyone is individualistic and complex human being. What might keep someone from illness could possibly be detrimental to another person. Also how could a diet with the possible side effects of headaches, tiredness, hypoglycemia, constipation, acne, increased body odor and bad breath, encourage someone to adopt a healthier diet? And the side effects list continues at http://altmedicine.about.com/od/detoxcleansing/a/juice_fasting.htm. The costs seem to outweigh the two benefits that may or may not happen to you as an individual.

If you are considering a juice diet, take time to weigh your options and make sure the plan you partake of is flexible and helpful to your specific needs.

It has been pleasure blogging my juice dieting results and I hope you learned a little bit more about juice diets than you did before!