Detox Diet Hollywood heavyweights have rediscovered the master cleanse – but is it for everyone?
BY NIKKI ANDERSON
On a late 2006 episode of Oprah, actress and singer Beyoncé Knowles mentioned that she’d recently lost 20 pounds in 10 days. When an astounded Oprah asked how she’d achieved this feat, Knowles confessed that she’d done a “master cleanse.”
It sounds like a housecleaning ritual foisted on us by Martha Stewart, but the “master cleanse” is actually a fasting technique that has been around for 30 years. The program was originally presented in Stanley Burroughs’ The Master Cleanser in 1976, and is most currently espoused in Lose Weight, Have More Energy & Be Happier in 10 Days by Peter Glickman (who cautions in the first few pages that he is “not a licensed health professional”). Also known as the Lemonade Diet, the 10-to-40-day regime is touted as the closest you can get to a colonic without the tube, promising to clean out all the internal debris that drags us down on a daily basis.
How does it do this? Let’s just say there’s a lot of time spent close to your toilet. The program involves drinking an herbal laxative tea nightly, drinking one quart of salt water every morning, and subsisting for nutrition on a special lemonade: a mix of fresh-squeezed lemon juice, maple syrup, cayenne pepper, and water.
The practice clearly goes against the grain of the Western medical tradition, which makes it nothing if not controversial. Proponents of the master cleanse, however, claim that by giving the digestive system a break and increasing the circulation, the body is able to release and flush toxins stored in the GI tract and lymph nodes.
Melissa Golden, a registered nurse, takes issue with this claim. “We know the lymph system is responsible for filtering and destroying harmful substances that invade the body,” she says, “but [a cleanse] won’t necessarily make that happen. There is no substitute for a consistently healthy diet, drinking plenty of water, and getting adequate exercise to stay healthy.” This echoes what health professionals have recommended for decades.
Golden also emphasizes that while there can be material that remains in the GI tract because it isn’t as reactive to digestive enzymes, it usually would only cause minor blockages that are moved through the body naturally, although more slowly. Only rarely do healthy people need medical attention for this. As far as whether this fast can aid in cleaning the colon, she laughed, “I’m not saying it wouldn’t work to clear things out if you’re taking a laxative and drinking lots of water, but it’s not healthy.” Golden strongly opposes the idea that fasting is a healthy practice, much less a necessary one.
Still, there must be something to be said for the perceived, if not proven, benefits of this practice. There is no doubt that Beyoncé achieved her goal “to make a physical transformation.” And she isn’t the only one. Robin Quivers, famous for being Howard Stern’s sidekick, lost a reported 70 pounds after following the master cleanse at least three times in a year.
Holistic nutritionalist Sylvie Nalezny of Lite for Life in Willow Glen says, “People get excited about dropping weight quickly and detoxing, which can happen,” she assures, “but first you need to build up your body.” Lite for Life always recommends a permanent diet that revolves around promoting a stable blood sugar level and a calorie intake of no less than 1,200 calories each day due to the possible counterproductive side effects. “Undergoing an extended fast or very low-calorie diet with no protein may lead to the breakdown of muscle mass and a lower resting metabolic rate,” Nalezny cautions. These problems, which actually prevent permanent weight loss, are especially likely for those who have been yo-yo dieters in the past. Nalezny was also quick to point out that fasting can have positive effects when there is a healthy diet already in place. “People should do it,” she says, provided they consult a physician first.
As for how you feel while undergoing the cleanse, Beyoncé is quoted as saying, “I felt grumpy.” No surprise. When a Grammy-winning vocalist with a growing film career gets low blood sugar, even Oprah had better watch out.