To cleanse or Not to cleanse?

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I have covered the basics of juice cleanses so far, but now it is time to get down to the nitty gritty of the medical information regarding these juice cleanses. In my previous post, while sifting through some other sources I began to notice doctors opinions leaning towards juice cleanses not being healthy or useful. This information began raising questions for me about what juice could actually cleanse and what your body does itself. First of all, I am going to tackle the actual term “cleanse” that is used in the title of juice cleanse. Most doctors believe that your body can cleanse itself well enough on its own without needing any help from juice cleanses.

The kidneys are the main reason for your body being able to cleanse itself. It is your body’s detoxification system. Your kidneys, according to the National Kidney and Urologic Diseases Information Clearinghouse (NKUDIC), are “sophisticated reprocessing machines”. This segment from the NKUDIC website breaks down exactly why you don’t have to cleanse your body and how it does it itself. “Wastes in the blood come from the normal breakdown of active tissues, such as muscles, and from food. The body uses food for energy and self-repairs. After the body has taken what it needs from food, wastes are sent to the blood. If the kidneys did not remove them, these wastes would build up in the blood and damage the body.”  (NKUDIC) 

So if your body is already cleansing your blood toxins, then most juice cleanses are claiming to do something that you are doing naturally whether you are surviving on a strictly juice diet or not. 

The American Cancer Society’s website (http://www.cancer.org) has a section on juice cleanses or otherwise known as juice therapy. Their overview section says that, “there is no convincing scientific evidence that extracted juices are healthier than whole foods.” In my earlier post I had discussed that while juices are not proven healthier than the whole food, you can pack a days worth of vegetables and fruits in one or two glasses of juices making it more accessible to people looking to fulfill their recommended daily intake. The American Cancer Society’s website also says that, “a diet high in vegetables and fruits has been shown to reduce cancer risk and improve overall health.” They say that juicing can be safe when incorporated into a healthy diet, but when over-ingesting juice you can induce some flu-like systems. So while juice incorporated into a healthy diet is safe, is it worth it to reduce your diet to strictly juice and possibly cause flu-like symptoms for cleansing results that most doctors agree your body creates naturally?

Cited Sources

1.) "The Kidneys and How They Work." National Kidney and Urological Disease Information Clearinghouse. Feb 2014.NIH Publication No. 14–3195. National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases, National Institutes of Health. Web. 20 Apr. 2014.