Juice Cleanses: What’s The Point?

Good-looking celebrities such as Sofia Vergara, Gwyneth Paltrow, and Salma Hayek have all admitted to being on a juice cleanse at some point in their lives.

A juice cleanse is when you give up food and drink only fruit and vegetable juices for anywhere from a day to a few weeks. Or, in Ali’s case, four hours.

So why would anyone do that? Ali asked AJ Jacobs, author of ‘Drop Dead Healthy: One Man's Humble Quest for Bodily Perfection,’ who tried a cleanse or two for his book. Do people really need to clean their organs? Or are they just trying to lose weight quick?

According to Jacobs, a juice cleanse doesn’t really help you do either. Any weight you lose during a cleanse will come back once you’re done. “An easier way would just be to restrict your calories and eat normal food.”

And cleaning toxins out of your body? Well, that’s what your kidneys, liver, and intestines do anyway.

Both Ali and AJ admitted to getting light-headed and spacey when attempting a cleanse. Other side effects include crankiness and tiredness. So what WILL you get out of a juice-only regimen? “Expensive urine,” AJ says.

So unless you really really like juice, maybe leave the cleanse to the celebrities.