– by Dr. Ritamarie Loscalzo
If you’ve ever done a juice cleanse where you consume primarily or exclusively fresh pressed juice for a specified length of time, you may have already experienced the state of “juice euphoria” that comes from having a clean digestive tract and a clear mind.
There is something very freeing about not eating for several days to several weeks and allowing your body to rid itself of toxins.
Each cup of vegetable juice is jam packed with all the nutrients you need to give your mitochondria the raw materials to make energy for you. When you juice rather than eat, the nutrients make a bee-line right into your blood stream, allowing every cell in your body to feel alive and energized.
Most people think that if they do a juice cleanse – meaning consuming nothing but juice for several days or longer – that they’ll feel weak and tired. Quite the contrary in most cases. Think nutrients for starving cells. When you eat in the usual fashion – meaning low nutrient food consumed on the run and under stressful circumstances – there’s very little nutrition, and your digestive system does not digest it well.
If you typically feel less energetic after eating, or crave food even when your stomach is telling you to stop, you just may benefit from a juice cleanse. Your approach can be as simple as replacing a meal or two with fresh squeezed vegetable juice. Of course, if you’d like to really benefit, try a juice cleanse for 3-5 or even 10 days.
Three days is easy to do on your own; ten days is another story. There are a lot of emotions and habits that rear their less than pretty heads when you do an extended cleanse, and it’s best to do it with support, like the 10-Day Juice Cleanse program the Raw Divas are doing in August. I am one of their team of juice and cleansing experts and I must say, I am impressed with what they put together.
Tune in to my recent blog talk radio show called “Juicing as an Antidote to Fatigue” for all the “juicy” details.
It’s true or not if i said, Raw juices are called the internal bath of health.
As a nutritionist, I’m always recommending people who otherwise don’t consume a lot of fruit and vegetables to start juicing. It’s a great way of getting the essential nutrients and vitamins you need, and it can be fun inventing your own drinks as well.