Juice fasting is certainly safer than a pure no nutrition water only fast. A great alternative to juice fasting is to add fruits and vegetables to your fast. Juicing fruits and vegetables with a juicer will actually strip out most of the fiber which depending on the type of fiber can fill you up more and make the fast more sustainable for your fast or possible juice detox.
So the question remains, “Is Juice Fasting Safe?” I would have to say yes, it’s perfectly safe, and if you want to implement this type of fast you could do it every now and then and drop a few pounds in a very short amount of time which will give you a quick boost in your weight loss journey.
One of the biggest drawbacks to the diet would have to be a lack of protein in a juice fast diet. If you were to take my advice on adding vegetables to your fast, you could easily maintain satisfactory protein in your diet by throwing a small amount of beans into the mix.
Also the juice fast will usually contain high amounts of sugar and possibly calories into your diet so it may not be as effective as you think. So if you’re going to fast on fruit juice I warn you now that the pressure of being hungry all the time on your fast probably isn’t worth the overall effort for weight loss.
However let me state that some of the benefits of juice fasting may not just be for weight loss purposes. Maybe you are considering a detox diet, in which case a safe juice fast may be just what the doctor ordered.
Organic juice fasting would be even better if you don’t mind spending the extra money on organic fruits and or vegetables. If you are trying to do ANY sort of juice detox, you should absolutely go organic for the safest and healthiest fast. This is a must for a pure safe juice detox as if you’re trying to rid your body and organs of unnatural synthetic and other unhealthy impurities, organic would be the most optimal and effective way to go.
Going hungry will be your biggest issue with safe juice fasting journey. I would recommend two to three day stretches at a time so your life doesn’t become a total drag. Almost everyone experiences extreme irritability on about the 3rd to 5th day of fasting. You can totally avoid this by just doing a two or three day juice detox/fast on a monthly or bi-monthly cycle.
Variations of a Juice Fast
Other variations of a juice fast would include something like a soup fast. Soup is usually extremely low calorie. Be sure to find a good dinner recipe that meets your calorie intake expectations. Something like my Very Low Calorie Turkey Chili is a great example. You get tons of protein, its super low calorie and it contains lots of veggies. (Not to mention it tastes great)
The soup fast also adds way more satiety than a pure juice fast and does not digest too fast. Fast digestion leads to more hunger time in your day which leads to more eating and/or more irritability.
Smoothie fasts have become super popular over the last 5-10 years. My biggest problem with using a smoothie fast as a diet goal is the false expectations that these people marketing them give you. Expect to be hungry a lot. While not as uncomfortable as a pure juice detox or fast in regards to hunger, you will find that they digest extremely fast. So that temporary filling of the stomach effect is very short.
Milk, soy milk, almond milk and blended fruits and vegetables digest in about 1 hour. So the low calorie content in the smoothie can be misleading. Like I already mentioned, don’t set your expectations too high with a smoothie fast and you’ll be fine. Once again I would only recommend 2-3 day stretches in monthly cycles.
When I set out writing this article on Is Juice Fasting Safe? I had no idea where it was going to end up. The clear cut winner of any sort of fast would have to be the soup fast. It wins in the satiety (lack of hunger) category, the nutrition category, taste category and in slow digestion time. And if you choose your soups wisely and it’s just as competitive in the low calorie department.
In a future post, I’m going to delve more into some great soup ideas and some of the reasons behind it.
