3 Day Juice Fasting? Not So Fast!

Juice fasts are trending… Again. They have been before, and this will probably not be the last time either.

The rationale is that by having nothing but fruit and/or vegetable juice for a few days, the body can clear itself of toxins while it’s not being preoccupied by dealing with what you’re eating on a daily basis.

This is not bad in theory, and in fact is a sort of parallel to the actually good advice to help the liver regenerate—by abstaining from things that the liver has to do hard work about, it has more internal resources to devote to taking care of itself.

Learn more about this: How To Unfatty A Fatty Liver

Just one problem

By having only juice for a few days, you are doing the opposite of what the liver needs.

In fact, by giving it what’s basically straight sugars in water with no fiber and not even any fats to slow it down, you are making your liver work overtime to deal with the flood of sugars, and it will not cope well.

Indeed, processed carbs without sufficient fiber are one of the main drivers of non-alcoholic fatty liver disease.

And yes, that’s what juice is: processed carbs without fiber

(juicing is a process!)

You can read more about the science of that, here:

From Apples to Bees, and High-Fructose Cs: Which Sugars Are Healthier, And Which Are Just The Same? ← we get into quite some detail about how, exactly, such a harmless-seeming thing as fruit juice messes up the liver so badly

Here be (more) science

A three-day interventional study was performed on juicing and microbiome health, with three groups:

1. Juice only
2. Juice with whole foods
3. Only whole plant-based foods

The results?

1. Juice only: biggest growth in bacteria that cause inflammation and gut permeability (that’s bad; very bad)
2. Juice with whole foods: the same bad effects, but much less pronounced than the juice-only group
3. Only whole plant-based food: notable improvements in the microbiome

That’s what the changes were immediately post-intervention; what’s interesting to note is that the bad effects of the juice-only group also lingered longer, whereas the juice+food group enjoyed a relatively quicker recovery in the two weeks after the intervention.

Here’s the paper itself; be warned, you’ll be reading a lot about feces and saliva alongside eating and drinking:

Effects of Vegetable and Fruit Juicing on Gut and Oral Microbiome Composition

Ok, what can I do to detox?

Well, the advice we gave up top in the linked article about liver health is very sound, and also you might like to check out:

Detox: What’s Real, What’s Not, What’s Useful, What’s Dangerous?

Want to learn more?

Here’s a video explainer from the ever-charming French biochemist Jessie Inchauspé (and our own text overview, for those who prefer reading):

Fruit Is Healthy; Juice Isn’t (Here’s Why)

Take care!