Starting on Saturday, Ales and I embarked on the notorious Master Cleanse. The MC’s purpose is to rid your body of toxins while you subsist on nothing but spicy lemonade for a week or more. You also flush your system with many liters of salted water, but, even though I’m also subjecting myself to this part of the cleansing process, I’m not going to be discussing it here. There are plenty of informative websites out there that cover this aspect of the Master Cleanse, and I’d rather not burden Biorequiem with all the gruesome details.
Let me preface the rest of this entry by saying that I am not a proponent of extreme dieting and do not recommend the Master Cleanse if you’re trying to lose weight. The weight you lose from the cleanse will come back gradually, as you start eating again. My actual health and diet regimen is that of exercise, avoiding processed food and not eating too much of anything. I’m trying the Master Cleanse as its name implies – a cleanse. If i like the effects I’ll consider doing it twice a year, or maybe even quarterly.
Anyhow, the first time I heard of this seemingly insane remedy was three years ago, when my friend Micki Krimmel decided to try the Master Cleanse and document her experiences with daily video-blogs. I’ve been curious about it ever since. Sure, at first glance it sounds like any other diet fad, but almost every single person I know who’s tried it has reported improved health, diet and even incredible feelings of euphoria after the third day. I finally decided to find out for myself, easing into the process with a day of nothing but vegetables, followed by a day of soups and blended food, followed by a day of orange juice. I decided to take a few pictures of what I’d be putting into my body during this process.
Ease In Day 1: Roasted Beets
You can eat all kinds of fruits and vegetables on the first ease-in day. I’m just on a massive beet kick anyway, and roasted beets have got to be one of the easiest and most delicious dishes ever. Those interested in this recipe will need:
- 3 beets
- salt
- black pepper
- 2 tablespoons of olive oil
Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees. Thoroughly wash the beets, leaving the skin on. Slice into 1/4″ thick rounds and toss with olive oil, salt, and pepper. You can also add a pinch of Cinnamon and sliced onion to taste, but don’t need to. Put into any oven-safe dish and bake, covered, for 45 minutes to an hour. Simple and delicious.
[We ended up screwing up Day 1 in the evening, because our friends had a housewarming party and we weren't strong enough to resist Claire's deviled eggs. And fondue. Oh god.]
Ease In Day 2: Soups
We took the least effort necessary route and went with Trader Joe’s Sweet Potato Bisque and Butternut Squash soups. Season them with a little red pepper, black pepper and nutmeg, and it’s magic.
Ease In Day 3: Orange Juice
This is where it really gets tricky. I’m glad I was aware of this day being the hardest, because I felt extremely low-energy and out of it the entire day. Its almost discouraging, but the key is to get through this day. Everything after Day 3 is much easier. For Orange Juice Day we bought Simply Orange High Pulp, because it’s really very good. We ended up having the OJ for breakfast and then easing into the lemonade the same day.
The Lemonade
We bought 4lbs of lemons to start, a new jar of ground Cayenne pepper, grade B maple syrup from Trader Joe’s and a lot of water. That’s all. I love the simplicity of this mixture, and it actually tastes amazing. I think I want another glass right now, actually. Thought it’s the first lemonade-only day, I already feel less hungry and more energized than yesterday. I’m really looking forward to the rest of the week. I’m probably only going to keep this up until Saturday and will write up my final thoughts on the process sometime next week.
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Tempting but…I don’t know if I’d be able to overcome my extreme, obsessive love of food enough to do this! Although…I guess part of the point might be to get over that…
The lemonade sounds tasty, anyway! Can’t wait to hear how it goes, with…certain details left out, of course!
This master cleanse has piqued my interest Miss Zoetica. Good luck with the rest of it, I’d love to hear a your thoughts afterward.
Oh and Simply Orange juice is mmmmm. Their lemonade is good too….but it’s not spicy ;)
ah! iv considered doing this
but i think i will wait for warmer weather
im very interested to see what your thoughts will be
good luck,tovarisch!
I’ve been curious about MC for a while, so I’m interested in what you and Ales make of this experience. Good luck!
i’m glad you’re stressing that it’s a cleanse and not a diet. i tried not to tell anyone except those who might be perplexed at me not eating in social situations, and at least half of the reactions suggested they thought it was a crazy starvation diet, which was disappointing & kind of offensive.
what they say about your energy being surprisingly high is true–i was biking 20 miles and going to kickboxing class just like any other day. what i particularly loved was how acute my sense of smell became, how i was able to enjoy smelling the essence of food without being hungry, and the absolute mental calm i had the entire time. there was time to do everything, i gave everything attention and never felt rushed.
good luck & enjoy it!
I honestly need to do something like this for my terrible inside. My system is awful (I have a lot of medical issues!), and everyone around me is doing this. It’s kinda nutty. I’m quite interested in hearing what you gotta say on the subject.
Spicy lemonade sounds pretty delicious.
I’ve never tried a cleanse. I know there are all kinds, but my food allergies always make them hard. I want some kickass energy and calm, jeez!
If all goes well, I may also try this MC thing.
Those pictures of beets you put up make me very insanely happy for some reason. Something about the little hairs. I may need professional help.
Gretta, I am your personal MC test-pig. Also, the very reason I took that first photo is because the beet tips look like happy tentacles. You’re okay. Either that, or we’re both crazy.
hey nice! I’m glad to see it! So good that you’re easing into it. I did a smoothie diet a while back for similar reasons (vis. not weight-loss, but gross-loss) but I didn’t ease into it or out of it. I really hurt myself. Man that sucked. A friend of mine did the MC for ten days all the while doing hard labor at work. Worst mistake in his recent memory. He was so wasted by the end, but the first few days were great. Eventually I will do this (sans ignorant taxing of terrestrial system). At present, I am ill, and the thought of it makes me want to pass out. :) Looking forward to further Chronicle installments!
(happy tentacles. … hahahah! HEART!)
Horizonline, I’ve only ever done a juice fast before, sans, er, salt water, and this is way, way more intense. I can’t possibly imagine doing any sort of hard work in my present state, but I do plan on amping up my workout once I’m back to solid food. Taking it easy for now and, save for a trip or two to the post office, working from couch all week.
Feel better! <3
Thank you so much for sharing your experience with this. I caught your posts on Twitter about doing it. I seem to know of quite a lot of people who are doing some sort of cleanse at the moment.
Looking forward to hearing more from you.
All the best!
I had a read of the concepts online and I have a number of concerns (this being the scientist in me) as I often have discussion with my wife about dieting etc as she takes an interest in these issues.
The first thing that jumped to mind was the mention of probiotics. I understand what they are suggesting, but it has been clinically proven (and appeared on BBC’s ‘Horizon’) that probiotics do not distinguish between good or bad bacteria in the gut and so it was shown that a proportion of the test subjects had an increase in the population of bad bacteria in the gut.
The next thing that concerns me (as always) is the very notion of chemicals. Again it has been clinically proven (Again same BBC Horizon study) that amount of chemicals that get into the body from eating organic or treated fruit/veg is negligible/not noticeable. In fact simply washing our hair/bleaching hair/using cosmetics etc etc etc (in fact living in this modern world) brings us into contact with enough ‘chemicals’ (the word chemical has such bad press when we are in fact made up from chemicals of course) that it has long term effects (see epigenetics).
Personally I agree with the non-processed foods. It cuts down on waste packaging and is better for the mind (i.e. you feel more accomplished making it). Also eating more fruit/veg is generally a good thing. However don’t get suckered in my ’super foods’. It means nothing that something is richer in a particular thing, your body can only soak up vitamins and minerals at a particular rate. Again this is clinically proven.
I personally have a great distrust of diets and detox (Again same science group for BBC did a review of detox for Horizon, low and behold they found that some can do more damage than good) since the best way to flush the system is simply water and a good balanced diet, and a simple change of diet is enough for someone to feel better. For instance myself and my wife keep to a Mediterranian/oriental diet and so eat plenty of colourful veg/fruit, olive oil (this stuff is great) and whole wheat and we have few complaints. Another important thing is to keep to low GI foods (this I think is most important for loosing weight/keeping it off) as this is all do with energy release/conversion to fat.
By all means go for this if you wish, and I know you would have also found the numerous sites that speak of the dangers of the master cleanse, but I would not advise it until there was some form of peer reviewed clinical trial.
Sorry for the rant (I could have gone on longer if I abused the university journal access).
Take care
Just for information the issue of detox is gaing interest amongst the scientific community.
http://fwd4.me/F6D – A paper in the Lancet
http://fwd4.me/F6H – an interesting discussion but also raises the issue that if these diet/detox plans have been tested whay are they not peer-reviewed.
Note – I also have issues with homeopathy since I did my PhD on water simulation.
You might be interested in a slim little book called Hunger: an unnatural history, which has a fascinating section on fasting… and is not as much of a huge downer as one might expect.
Also… HAPPY TENTACLES!!!!
Far better and less dangerous than unhappy tentacles.
i’ve done the MC(ish) about 3 times now. the (ish) part is that i ate veggies after the 3rd day, and then really simple foods with no salt (wild rice, tuna sashimi, baked salmon in lemon juice and olive oil) for the rest of the week..in addition to the spicy lemonade and water, of course.
uhmm…i also did a colon cleanse with psyllium husks. at the same time.
i was really hoping to feel like a squeaky clean, chemical-free, re-born human being afterward, but didn’t. i realized that, since i don’t really eat foods high in salt, don’t have a caffeine addiction, and avoid processed foods, my body is already pretty squeaky clean. it was kind of a let down.
…or maybe i should just go all hardcore and really not eat any foods at all during the week. all lemonade and water. sounds like your diet is similar to mine (sans sodium-free), so i’ll wait to see how your experience goes.
oh, another thing i learn each time i do it is appreciate quality foods even more than before. the smells, the textures, the colors… yep.
be strong!
I was just about to pull out some concerns, when I read Kris_Ether’s great comment. Thank you sir, that’s just everything I wanted to point out. And thank you for the good links to some scientific reading on the subject.
I’m vastly glad you’re not doing this to lose weight though. It shows a very good grasp on your body image, and that’s always heartening to see.