Tuesday, April 10, 2007

Cleansing with lemons, maple syrup and cayenne pepper

I said some time ago I'd look into some kind of a detoxification program. One that's surfaced recently and gaining popularity is known by various names, such as The Lemon Diet, The Lemonade Diet, The Maple Syrup Diet, Lemon Cleanse, and Lemon Fast. Whatever you want to call it, they all come from Stanley Burroughs' book, Master Cleanse. (This book was written in the 70s, but made popular again as a reference by Peter Glickman's book, Lose Weight, Have More Energy & Be Happier in 10 Days.)

Lots of people are using this formula to lose weight, but make no mistake about it, it's a fast, not a diet. A diet is restricting yourself to certain quantities or types of foods. A fast means no solid food whatsoever. (And how can you not lose weight if you eat nothing?) I used to be very skeptical of fasts because it's not natural. Your body needs fuel. However the vast majority of food we eat nowadays is unnatural, full of chemicals, hormones and who knows what else.

I read a little more on the ideas behind fasting, and it seems to make sense. When you stop eating solid foods for awhile, your organs don't need to crank so much to process it all. This gives them the opportunity to clean house a little bit, get rid of toxin buildup or whatever. I was able to get ahold of a free copy of Master Cleanse but haven't had the chance to read it yet (I've put it on my server for you to download, just click the link). I'm interested in what it has to say about detoxifying and hope it has clear explanations on how everything works. I like to know why and how a plan works before putting my body through it. I don't trust anything that simply tells you to take this or do that and you will magically feel better. (Kinda like Herbalife.)

If I decide to try it, I will definitely post my results here!

2 comments:

samsosss said...

Pish! Toxins my left foot! Where's the evidence that normal people have hazardous buildups of "toxins" that can be relieved by "detoxifying"?

Anonymous said...

I have done this diet actually. I was hardcore into it until the 7th or 8th day with my face started to break out into hives. I didn't feel hungry at all and I had tons of energy. I did have to go to the restroom... A LOT. I was starting a new job and when my face started to break out, I stopped and it receded. I was using lemons from my friends lemon tree so there may have been something in it that didn't like me or too much acidity. Did I lose weight? Yes. About.. 2-3 lbs... but I'm not terribly fat or anything so that's a big deal for me. Did I gain the weight back? Yes.