5LBs in 5 Days: The Juice Detox Diet. Jason Vale

      They understand it to be a set period of time where they abstain from things such as caffeine, refined sugars, refined fats, alcohol and so on. Who honestly ever really thinks that ‘juice detox’ means anything other than that? Well, apart from some doctors and scientists of course, but here in ‘normal world’ the meaning on the ground has changed and they need to catch up.

      This book is entitled 5lbs in 5 Days: The Juice Detox Diet, not because of my lack of understanding of how the body actually works, but rather because 99.99 per cent of people who pick it up know exactly what that means. They won’t think juices detoxify the body, but rather that they will have a period of time without certain foods and drinks while drinking nothing but juice.

      The meaning of some words change over time anyway, and sometimes if used enough in a certain way, end up meaning the complete opposite of what the actual definition is. Take the word ‘bad’, for example. I grew up in a place called Peckham in southeast London where if you said a certain piece of music or a film or even an item of clothing was ‘bad’; it actually meant it was ‘good’. It is now widely understood that if someone refers to certain things as ‘bad’ they actually mean ‘good’. Clearly it’s not the actual meaning of bad in the dictionary, but it has changed and that’s just how it is. If something is really good some people now refer to it as ‘sick’, but anybody using this term doesn’t actually believe for a millisecond that an item of clothing can projectile vomit! So if you get anyone saying: ‘Detox is a myth’, please tell them to stop being so flipping pedantic, as they are more than fully aware of what you and I mean by the word.

      Having said that, I have just looked up the Oxford English Dictionary’s definition of ‘detox’ and it appears it is indeed what we all believe it to be rather than what the TV doc suggests.

      detox informal noun, Pronunciation: [mass noun]. a process or period of time in which one abstains from or rids the body of toxic or unhealthy substances.

      This is exactly what this programme is: a period of time, five days to be exact, where ‘one abstains from or rids the body of toxic or unhealthy substances’. Where’s the confusion? And moreover what is the problem with calling it a ‘detox’ when that is exactly what it is? If ‘Detox is a myth’, as the TV doc stated on national television, then perhaps it should be removed from the Oxford English Dictionary?

      Once you’ve addressed the fact that ‘detox diet’ is indeed a perfectly reasonable phrase for this five-day programme, you’ll have another couple of big guns to contend with from the juice sceptics out there. Please also remember you are not simply dealing with genuine sceptics either, but also with friends and family members who may not overly want you get slim and healthy while they aren’t doing so! That sounds terrible, but it’s the way of the world. After all, if your next-door neighbour renovates their house and makes it look amazing, in order to make your house look good you have a couple of choices. You can either make an effort to renovate your house too, or you can blow their house up! Many people who feel they cannot make a change in this area for whatever reason will, consciously or sub-consciously, do anything to prevent you from ‘doing your house up’, so to speak. This is why they will often attack what you are doing; it’s simply in order to prevent you from doing it so your house stays in the same condition as theirs. If you make your house look amazing it only brings attention to how bad theirs is.

      Fear, of course, is the most common approach used by both genuine juice sceptics, and the many friends who don’t want your house to improve. This is why many say, ‘it’s dangerous’ and why you will hear the following arguments. I am adding these to the book for one reason alone, to arm you with the right information so you are not scared away from doing this programme.

      How anyone can think that drinking freshly extracted vegetable and fruit juice for just five days is in any way, shape or form harmful is one of life’s great mysteries. However, somehow they can be convincing and many people don’t try this on for size because they listen to the nonsense without questioning it. You can live on water for five days and all would be OK, so the fears are completely unfounded, but let’s debunk them anyway before we start. I have heard the first one for over 15 years, and it’s one of the first things people argue when talking about juice detox diets.

      

      

      And the sugar in fizzy drinks is not the same as the sugar in a freshly extracted apple juice! You may feel this doesn’t need covering. You may feel that it’s obvious that the white refined nutrient-stripped sugar found in a doughnut and a fizzy drink is clearly not the same as the unrefined vitamin, mineral and soluble fibre-rich ‘sugar’ found in an apple and the fresh juice extracted from it. But ever since the late Dr Robert Atkins’ famous ‘don’t eat carbs whatever you do or you’ll explode’ diet (I believe this is better known as a high-protein diet) and all the subsequent copies of pretty much exactly the same theme since then, such as the Dukan diet, it appears our rational thinking has taken a holiday. My mother always taught me, ‘the problem with common sense is that it isn’t that common’, and I fear where the subject of sugar is concerned, for many, it’s disappeared completely.

      Most people are so over-read in the area of diet and nutrition that often they don’t stop to use their common sense; they simply believe what they read and preach it as gospel. This is why I don’t want you to simply buy what I am saying either; always have an open mind and if something makes rational sense to you, then apply it; if not – don’t. But don’t simply go along with a school of thought simply because it was written or told to you by a doctor or dietician, or because it’s been ‘scientifically proven’. Often we don't need science, but our own intuition and common sense.

      Somehow, Atkins and co managed to convince millions of people that bacon and eggs in a frying pan are better for us than an apple – a legacy that still remains to this day. But what does your genuine intuition tell you? Over 92 per cent of the planet is made of water (72 per cent of its surface), over 70 per cent of our bodies are made of it and without it no life on earth would exist. Its importance, I feel, is undisputed. Every single fruit and vegetable designed for human consumption is made up of over 80 per cent pure organic rich water; many fruits and vegetables contain over 90 per cent. This water is designed to transport the essential nutrients within plant food to every cell in the body, while at the same time this essential water helps to flush out any rubbish. We have over 30 feet worth of intestinal tract, designed specifically for high-water-content foods. This water is not only essential for transporting key nutrients and helping to flush the body of toxicity, it also enriches the skin. In my opinion, there are many down sides on the health front to things like the Atkins Diet, but none more so than that gaunt look. You know, that look of total dehydration, like a withered plant that you just want to water.

      We’re not meant to be stick thin, we’re not meant to avoid water-rich foods and we are most certainly not meant to avoid the sugar found in nature’s finest life-giving fruits and vegetables! How we have reached the stage where people honestly believe an apple is worse for their health than fried bacon is beyond me, but we have and that is why I’m having to write this chapter. The belief that the sugars in fruit and vegetable juices are the same as those in a can of fizzy drink are so strong now that I feel I really must put this to bed. I will do this not through ‘science’ but with an often-unused foolproof method – intuition and common sense.