Everyone talks about doing a cleanse for a multitude of different reasons—to reset your digestive system and eliminate toxins, to jumpstart your weight loss, repair a leaky gut, or improve your energy, for example. Some people out there think cleanses are entirely useless and do nothing for you. I disagree with this. Others think cleanses are essential to your health. I don’t necessarily agree with that statement either. I believe cleanses do have a benefit, but I do think that it depends on the cleanse that you choose. Not all cleanses are made the same and not all cleanses are good for you. Also, cleanses are not the end all be all. They can’t fix everything; you have to take care of yourself generally, because a cleanse won’t fix years and years of bad habits.
There are a bunch of different cleanses out there—juice cleanses, bone broth cleanses, water or tea cleanses, the master cleanses, and many other cleanses. It’s hard to know what cleanse is worthwhile. The real answer is that it generally depends on your goals. But generally, if you choose and follow a healthy cleanse, the cleanse can be very safe for your health and extremely beneficial.
When my friends, acquaintances and colleagues tell me that they want to do a juice cleanse though, I cringe—especially when they say they want to do a pressed juice juice cleanse. That is because juice cleanses are filled with lots of sugar and when the juices are not organic, they are also filled with tons of toxins because non-organic fruit contains many toxins. If you think about the fact that one bottle of cold pressed juice contains more than four pounds of fruits and vegetables. If you do a five-day juice cleanse, you will consume about 100 pounds of fruits and vegetables and no other sustenance to offset the consumption. The amount of toxins and pesticides contained in 100 pounds of non-organic fruits and vegetables would be immense. It’s almost to the point that you would be poisoning yourself. At a minimum, if you choose to do a juice cleanse, even if I do not recommend it, I will consciously choose an organic cleanse to at least avoid the toxins.
I just don’t recommend a juice cleanse though because fruit and vegetable juice cleanses are devoid of almost all protein, healthy fats and necessary vitamins. So, you could lose muscle and even bone from doing such a cleanse. And, fruits and vegetables, when they are pressed, are stripped of their fiber, which is necessary to your gut health. So, this can cause you to feel fatigued and won’t repair a leaky gut either. So, an organic juice cleanse may still not give you the health benefits you are seeking. This tends to be the same with respect to a tea or water cleanse.
I haven’t done a cleanse in a really long time. I have actually been saying I am due for a cleanse for about a year, but as you all know, a lot has happened this past year. So, I have been preoccupied. However, the cleanse I prefer to do is an organic grass-fed beef bone broth cleanse.
I prefer a bone broth cleanse, because in my view, it is a lot more beneficial to your health than any other cleanse. This is because bone broth, if its organic and grass-fed, contains so many nutrients. So, even though you are technically cleansing and having an all-liquid diet, you aren’t fully starving your body of essential nutrients for your everyday life and function. So, this means you won’t feel malnourished and crappy during your cleanse. Additionally, bone broth, generally, aids in digestion and helps increase your body’s ability to absorb nutrients. Bone broth is also super anti-inflammatory and helps aid in improving joint pain and movement, while promoting gut and liver health. It’s like the perfect reset you never knew you needed.
Additionally, you could always mix a cleanse with your normal everyday diet, as well, if you don’t want a completely liquid diet. It’s also a good way to transition into a cleanse. It is almost like pulsing.
None of this is to say that cleanses are necessary or that you should complete a cleanse. It is just that if you are inclined to try a cleanse, this post is supposed to help you consider the different facets of a cleanse to determine if a cleanse is right for you and if it is, which cleanse, specifically, is a good option for your goals.
To be well preserved.
Always,
Taylor
