Lemon Detox and Fasting for Weight Loss: a Few Warnings
Wednesday, December 30th, 2009Juice fasting has emerged as a new, hip weight loss technique. In southern California, one of the dieting capitals of the world, a bran-new approach to weight loss is making the rounds, partly to conceal the fact that the dieter is indeed dieting. Fasting, particularly the lemon detox diet has become a new favorite for fast and comparatively easy weight loss. When done right and for the right intent, fasting is an effective method of body detox and cleansing. When followed for weeks or months at a time, fasting for the purpose of weight loss can be a very life-threatening undertaking.
For centuries, fasting has been used with great success in addressing various health problems and cleansing the body of built-up toxins. Weight loss is a normal side effect of a fasting regimen, in light of the fact that that no solid foods need to be metabolized by the body and overall calorie intake is very low. Weight is lost because 1) water retention goes down, 2) trapped gas in the digestive track is expelled, and 3) toxins that are stored in our body fat are purged. It’s interesting to note that we don’t necessarily burn fat on a fasting program, rather, we are purging our fat cells of stored toxins, so our overall store of fat cells become smaller.
The chic set in southern Cal have learned about this, and detoxing has become the new dieting. And while the results are quite definitely desirable (in addition to weight loss, cleansing gives you all the other benefits of purifying your body — more energy, clearer skin, better concentration, a feeling of well being, and a reduction in various symptoms ranging from body aches to constipation), fasting for prolonged periods will do much more harm than good.
What our bodies need so much is nutrition, not starvation. Most of us already experience unknown nutritional deficiencies. Our bodies need a steady supply of nutrients to function and maintain health. Starvation or severe calorie reduction will ultimately cause imbalances in the body that will, at best, launch an assault of food cravings, the dieter’s worst nightmare.
The promise of quick weight loss can be very alluring, but weight loss at any cost is utterly dangerous. There are a few healthy ways in which to achieve rapid weight loss, and there are healthy, sensible long term approaches to eating that will, if you stick to it, shed the pounds and keep them off.
