Is a Juice Cleanse Good For Weight Loss & Detoxification?

Carrying a $10 bottle of pressed juice in your yoga bag has become somewhat of a status symbol in Southern California, symbolizing a quest for health and purity. But is a juice cleanse really as healthy as it’s cracked up to be?

When considering juicing for weight loss you may also like to consider getting acupuncture in La Jolla, CA. Juicing was made popular in the 1950’s with celebrity chiropractor and fitness club owner Jack LaLanne. He had a TV show and marketed exercise equipment, vitamin supplements, and electric juicers. In the late 1980’s and early 1990’s, Jay Kordich re-popularized juicing as a health regimen. He produced a variety of infomercials selling electric juicers.


More recently, the Institute for Integrative Nutrition, an online nutrition school based in New York City, has produced a large number of graduates promoting raw foods, a vegan diet, and juice cleansing. Among one of the first juice cleanse delivery services was Blueprint Cleanse, started by two Institute for Integrative Nutrition graduates.  Their juice cleanse program consists of six bottles of juice daily for 3 days, which is supposed to assist the body in weight loss and detoxification.

Depending on who you ask, what company it is selling the juice or juicer, or what your particular motive is (weight loss, detoxification, recovery from illness, increased energy, etc.), a juice cleanse is usually described as a liquid fast for any time period from 1 to 100 days. Most people opt for just doing a juice cleanse for a few days up to a week,  but those seeking desperately for help will do it for longer. For “maintenance” purposes, many consumers shell out $10 - $30 a day on high-end juices at Whole Foods, which are the same brands of juice pictured in the fashion magazines and promoted at events such as Coachella, Wanderlust, Bhakti Fest, and Hanuman Festival.

But is juicing really as healthful as it’s cracked up to be? The evidence suggests that juice cleansing may actually do more harm than good, especially when it comes to weight loss and detoxification. When fat cells are broken down in a process known as lipolysis, toxins stored within the fat cells such as environmental pollutants and metabolic byproducts are released into the bloodstream. This can cause tiredness, headaches, and other unpleasant symptoms that are often brushed aside as a “healing crisis” or “detox” reaction. Certain nutrients such as amino acids (the components of proteins), B vitamins, dietary fiber, and a variety of nutrients and cofactors are required by the body in order to bind to toxins, transport them to the kidneys, liver, and colon, and excrete them. However, on a juice cleanse, these nutrients are not available. The toxins floating around in the bloodstream can therefore lodge inside any organ or gland.

If you are trying to lose weight, you might consider acupuncture for weight loss instead. Not only is acupuncture safer than a juice cleanse, but acupuncture in La Jolla, CA is actually well-studied and time-attested to aid in weight loss. Combined with herbal medicinals and the traditional wisdom of Chinese dietary therapy, acupuncture in La Jolla, CA can also assist in detoxification.