There's an Ice Cream Cleanse, but is it Too Good to Be True?

By Lauren Le Vine, REDBOOK.

If the very thought of a cleanse has you penning odes to your love of chewing and feeling full, you're not alone. But there's a new cleanse in town that features one of our all-time favorite foods: ice cream. How can living on ice cream for a few days possibly be good for you? Well, this isn't your typical frozen treat.
The cleanse was developed by Kippy's in California, which specializes in organic, non-dairy, coconut cream-based, raw honey-sweetened ice cream. You eat one pint of ice cream five times a day for five days. And while it sounds great in theory (all ice cream, all the time), Brent Rose, the intrepid tester who tried the cleanse for Gizmodo noted, "It's not so fun to eat something ice-cold first thing in the morning." Touché.

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In the introductory email for the cleanse, Kippy's says that, "Raw saturated fat is nothing short of a miracle worker in the human body. It helps us digest, repairs the gut, feeds the brain, boosts the metabolism and is a powerful agent of detoxification.... Your body, in the course of the cleanse will also release heavy metals, plastics and other toxins, and the raw saturated fat will function as a carrier to rid your body of them for good. The metabolically active properties present in the raw saturated fat (think coconut oil) will increase your metabolism and help you to actually burn fat."

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Still, the idea of living on saturated fat worries us, as it did Rose, who wondered "if my heart was going to explode if I tried this." Coincidentally, a new study released yesterday in the Annals of Internal Medicine "found no evidence that a diet high in saturated fat increases the rate of heart attacks or other cardiac disease." Still, we're guessing that study didn't take into account people consuming only saturated fat. A certified nutrition coach echoed these concerns to Rose. While she sang the praises of virgin, cold-pressed coconut oil, she also warned that too much of a good thing can be problematic.

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In the end, Rose and his girlfriend did end up losing weight during the cleanse, but they gained it back shortly afterward. Plus, they realized dragging ice cream around all day can be a major inconvenience. So, all things considered, we may have to pass on the 5-day ice cream cleanse, and instead order a few pints of Kippy's to eat in normal quantities when we want something sweet. How about you?


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