Quite popular in recent years especially among the stars and celebrities is juice fasting, a type of detoxification diet in which you consume only fruit and vegetable juices. Juices are digested more rapidly than food as pure juice contains little to no fiber, and the body needs little energy to process it. Some of the fruits commonly used in juice fasts include: celery, cucumber, parsley, kale, beet greens, chard, spinach, dandelion leaf, broccoli, cabbage, carrots, beets, dark grapes, apples, Açai berry, fennel, spearmint, peppermint, basil, ginger, garlic, green onion, wheatgrass juice, and spirulina (a blue-green sea algae). It is important that at least 6 glasses of room temperature, filtered water are taken in addition to the juice. Organic fruits and vegetables are usually recommended to avoid ingesting pesticides while cleansing the body.
Of course, freshly juiced fruits and vegetables are preferred, but if unavailable, practitioners suggest buying it from the juice bar as fresh as possible. Green vegetables and sprouts contain chlorophyll, which are especially beneficial during a juice fast. Also, if juice fasting, you may want to use an enema or herbal or saltwater laxative to efficiently expel waste from the intestines and colon. Another method is mixing psyllium husks in with the juice because it is not absorbed by the body and increases in volume greatly upon absorbing water, so it creates the bulk necessary to keep the bowels moving.
Many people find when fasting that they feel lighter in body and mind. Their skin often clears and sometime, weight loss is achieved that has not occurred for years and years. Many people think more clearly or emerge from a depressed state. Digestive problems often resolve themselves as do migraines and other signs of toxicity. It is recommended to juice fast at the change of the seasons by many Eastern medical schools of healing. Skin brushing and tongue scraping are other techniques which can be added to the fast period to enhance your detoxification.
