Calorie Restriction, Alternate-Day Fasting, and Dietary Restriction as it Relates to Juice Fasting

IS JUICE FASTING REALLY FASTING?

Part 2 or 2

Barriers to effective communication can distort or retard the message trying to be conveyed and could result in communication failure. In order for two people to have a successful 2-way conversation, about fasting and juicing or any subject, both parties must possess or acknowledge a mutual understanding of the words being used. Because I want you and I to have a provocative discussion about fasting and juice fasts, I'm going to cover a few medical definitions for: eat, detox, fasting, calorie restriction, alternate-day fasting, and dietary restriction (I will be as brief as possible.) 

Eat: to ingest food through the mouth

Detox: to remove a poisonous or harmful substance or to cause to stop using drugs or alcohol by providing special help and treatment.

Fasting is voluntarily not eating food for varying lengths of time. 

Calorie Restriction is the reduction of caloric intake typically by 20-40% of ad libitum consumption - while maintaining adequate nutrient intake.

Alternate-Day Fasting consists of two interchanging days; one day, subjects may consume food ad libitum (sometimes equaling twice the normal intake); on the other day, food is reduced to 25% of normal caloric intake or food is withheld altogether.

Dietary Restriction is the restriction of one or more components of intake (typically macronutrients) with minimal to no reduction in total caloric intake - is another alternative to calorie restriction. 

When you go into your local juice bar either with the premeditated thought of beginning their juice fast or juice detox program or are talked into it by the person behind the counter or their supposed "nutrition expert," what exactly are you going to be doing? Your answer: Juice fasting or juice detoxing. But are you really?

The drinking of a combination of the following: vegetable juice and/or fruit juice and/or juiced herbs, is essentially not eating solid food but instead getting your daily supply of nutrition from liquid extractions of said foods. You just aren't going to be consuming anything solid. According to the medical definition of the word fasting, you will be doing the opposite of fasting which is...ummm eating or the ingesting of food through the mouth.

Now that we have clearly established the fact that you will not be fasting. You are, in actuality, engaging in dietary restriction from solid food as well as abstaining from red meat, poultry, dairy, grains, fish, alcohol, and maybe caffeine if the juice bar you're going to isn't adding a caffeine-containing green tea or black tea in their juice mixture to heighten its anti-oxidant content or add a stimulant to make your liquid diet more palatable. So maybe the juice bar is using the wrong name for what they're selling you or perhaps your understanding (and theirs) of what a fast really is was incorrect (we all get it wrong sometimes.) The next question you and I must ask is: Are you detoxing using plant-based juices? 

For us to answer that question together, it is helpful to refer to the medical definition of the word detox from above. Detoxing is the removal of a poisonous or harmful substance. By definition, you will be removing from your diet those things that the juice bar (and supposedly YOU) considers to be poisonous or as harmful substances. Those foods are: red meat, poultry, fish, dairy, grains, alcohol, and maybe caffeine. So here's the million-dollar question: If you have agreed to do a detox from these agreed upon food poisons or harmful substances (by medical definition of the word detoxing,) why on Earth would you go back to eating those poisons or harmful substances after several days or even one day of juice detoxing? (I'm just asking!) 

So you aren't really detoxing either unless you agree that red meat, poultry, fish, grains, alcohol, and maybe caffeine are poisonous or harmful substances which you can not be saying if you do, in fact, go back to eating those foods upon conclusion of your juice ingestion experience. You and I have now arrived at the correct conclusion that what you will be actually doing when drinking these juices is temporarily removing or practicing dietary restriction from red meat, fish, poultry, dairy, grains, alcohol, and maybe caffeine. You are engaging in dietary restriction. 

We have established the fact that you aren't fasting. You aren't detoxing. You are actually engaging in dietary restriction (and what does the medical research say about the effectiveness of dietary restriction upon weight loss and long-term health outcomes? Nothing good. Do some research.)

So in order for us to conclude this conversation of ours, we need to ask a third question (and maybe a fourth): Are you partaking in a calorie-restricted diet? 

To be able to answer that query, you and I need to know the number of total calories in the juices you will be drinking each day. I can tell you right now that this usually presents a HUGE PROBLEM in most juice bars. The bottles of juice you buy DO NOT have a nutrition facts label on the back and there isn't an information pamphlet available for your review in order to find out how many calories you're consuming. You can try asking the salesperson or nutritional expert on staff, "How many calories are in each one of these juices I'm buying?" but good luck getting that concrete answer from the person selling you your juice or from the nutritional expert on hand. They do not know!!

I'm warning you to be prepared to hear an entire dissertation about how juicing isn't about calories. Juicing is all about flushing your system out of toxins or nourishing your body on the cellular level. Don't allow that person to evade your question. Don't allow her or him to change the subject or to redirect you. NO! What you are paying for IS about the total number of calories you are taking in and the number of grams of protein and carbohydrates (sugar) you are consuming if you are concerned with providing your body with the correct amount of protein to avoid muscle catabolism and if you are normally on a Paleo-type or Low-Carb Diet then you must know the total amount of calories and how many carbs your juice contains. Don't let anyone tell you that it isn't important to know how much protein, carbohydrates (sugar), and total calories are in the juices you are buying. This is important information. 

Ask him or her: EXACTLY or precisely what can her or him tell you about their juice aside from how it is made and perhaps the names of the vegetables, fruit, and/or herbs that are in it. Do they even know the ORAC Value of the juice so if nothing else, you can at least be satisfied that you are buying a product that will help raise your anti-oxidant levels for that day or for those days?

I want to leave you with this thought to work through with your brain: Are you buying a Calorie-Restricted Juice Diet, which medically is defined as the reduction of caloric intake typically by 20-40% while maintaining adequate nutrient intake, from this expensive juice bar when you purchase their juice program or are you simply buying a bunch of juices that will allow you to practice Dietary Restriction from red meat, poultry, fish, dairy, grains, and maybe caffeine for a day or for several days only to return to eating what the juice bar implies is food that is poisonous or are harmful substances?

Thx for reading,

-Bell