What's In Your Juice?

Have you ever tried a juice cleanse? 

Apparently there's been a crazy about it. Not that I didn't know about it, it's in every single women's magazine - but I just didn't know it'd become so huge and so populated by the idea of this juice to be the answer to all the toxins in one's body.

The juice cleanse has become the must-have remedy for clearing up your...basically everything: your body, your soul, your mind.

You might be surprised or not, but I have not tried a juice cleanse. I've been more of a smoothie-kind-of-gal. I was making the smoothies not for cleansing, but for vitamin and protein essentials to take after my jogging, biking, and/or working out sessions. It's been a religious habit of mine to incorporate various greens, veggies and fruit with a touch of Protein powder to see if it'd do any good for my tire-wholesome muscles after a work out - [Harley Pasternak and David Kirsch, who I respect, staid it should have done the job! But it didn't!]. These smoothies have neither nurtured my muscles, nor they help them to 'grow'. Very upsetting. Very disappointing. Haven't done it since...

OK, so what is a juice cleanse, and - why so many women are obsessed with it?
It’s a kind of detox, or I guess more like a fast using only fruit and vegetable juice. Many New Yorkers inflict it upon themselves in winter, especially, at the end of it - [to get back into bikini bodies], right after major holidays - [they say - to clean out, but what it means - to get rid of all the foods and loose weight] - they do it right before fashion week, ha! And they seriously believe it's working... Does it, really?

Gwyneth Paltrow says it does - and she does look good, so, perhaps it's working after all. Here, for example, she talks how she discovered Organic Avenue, a New York store that specializes in detox juices and mixes to make it:

I discovered Organic Avenue a few years ago through a girlfriend who was about to do one of their fasts, and I joined her on the 5 day program. The result was pretty amazing and the juices and smoothies (esp. the coconut milk and the cacao smoothie) were so delicious that I imbibe them whenever I’m in NYC. They make a cleanse easy with different degrees of gnarlyness and home delivery if you are in Manhattan.

Read Paltrow's interview with Denise Mari - [with some juice recipes that we, New Yorkers, who live in tiny apartments and work too much, know we'd never make] - here.

So, after years of 'brainwashing', perhaps we could try, ladies, what do you think? Cause, you know, personally, I don’t really get the whole thing. I just don't.

Yeah, I get why everyone does it, especially in New York where everyone is obsessed with their weight. And I think it’s not going too far to say that what people expect from a juice cleanse, in New York in 2012, is a quick way to lose weight. Seriously, let's not fool ourselves.

I don’t know if it works or not, or if your body really does need a good detox or not, and if it does, I’m not sure doing such extremes is the most helpful (I know for me, when I need a good detox (like after a few too many drinks), all I need is to go to a sauna and/or hot yoga, make a good broth and/or ginger tea with lemon and honey and take a walk around Central Park for a breath-in-breath-out 'session'. Jogging helps too!

I just feel like it is such a perfect way to keep perpetuating the illusion that you can control your appetite (and therefore your weight, your body, your life). Moreover, some people say that when they start doing juice cleanses, they become obsessed with foods, they become depressed and crave to eat the worst foods out there, like a really fat steak and/or pastries and/or hamburgers to the point that they even dream about it when they sleep, and that's not healthy.

 

But others say that “Juice cleanses are so great!!! You feel so good! It’s so good for your skin!” So, maybe, I am wrong, but then again, while so many people do it, I don't know any of my friends doing it, and they still look clean and fresh to me..

I’m wondering, what do you think about juice cleanse, have you tried it?