And what to do to promote peak wellness (and gut health) instead.
Juice cleanses have grown enormously in popularity, thanks to Instagram influencers and Tick Tock stars. They promise quick results for weight loss, detox, clear skin, and improved immunity.
The problem: They don’t work. And they can actually harm your health, doing the exact opposite of what you were trying to accomplish. Juice cleanses can take a toll on your overall wellness, mainly because they’re terrible for your gut microbiome—the trillions of bacteria in your gut.
Fortunately, there is a way to accomplish your health goals without putting yourself at risk, and it definitely doesn’t involve consuming nothing but juice.
But first, let’s look at how juice cleanses can be detrimental to your overall health…
5 Ways Juice Cleanses Can Damage Your Health
Juice cleanses involve consuming almost nothing but fruit and vegetable juices for anywhere from 1 to 10 days. People rely on juice cleanses for a variety of reasons like losing weight, clearing toxins, boosting nutrients, and improving digestion. But contrary to what you may have heard, juice cleanses can’t accomplish any of these goals… at least not for the long haul. And in many cases, they can actually cause the problems you’re trying to solve.
Want to listen instead of read? CLICK HERE
Evidence suggests that juice cleanses can cause or contribute to the following five issues.
1. Dangerous Blood Sugar Spikes
Juiced fruits and vegetables—even 100% pure juice—contain high amounts of sugar without any fiber to balance the absorption. A single 8-ounce glass of juice contains anywhere from 23 to 28 grams of sugar, practically a full day’s recommended allowance. Drinking juice without anything else for days can lead to big spikes in blood sugar levels, and even lead to type 2 diabetes.[1]
2. Weight Gain
Skipping fiber, fat, and protein while you’re on a juice cleanse can leave you feeling hungry, so you consume more juice. Even 100% fruit juice is packed with calories, all from sugar. Research shows that drinking juice regularly can lead to long-term weight gain.[2]
3. Nutrient Malabsorption
Many nutrients and other healthful compounds like antioxidants can’t be processed in your body without fiber or fat. For example, vitamin A is a fat-soluble vitamin and must be consumed along with healthy fats or your body can’t absorb it.[3] And many antioxidants rely on fiber for their complete absorption.[4] Without fat and fiber, your body won’t be able to make use of the nutrients in the juice.
4. Gut Microbiome Imbalances
Your gut contains trillions of bacteria. When it’s in healthy balance, beneficial probiotic bacteria vastly outnumber harmful pathogens. Probiotic bacteria need dietary fiber to survive and thrive. Pathogens consume sugar. When you drink nothing but juice for even one day, you’re feeding pathogens while starving probiotic bacteria.[5] That gives the pathogens a chance to take over and crowd out probiotics, leading an imbalanced gut—a condition known as dysbiosis.
5. Diarrhea and Bloating
Juice cleanses can cause digestive symptoms, especially diarrhea and bloating.[6] Fructose, a key sugar in fruits and vegetables, can cause digestive symptoms when your body gets too much of it at once, with nothing to act like a buffer. And while it may seem like