BellaOnline Forums Food and Wine Low Carb Juicing Fast - Join Us!

Starting on Monday, April 22nd - Earth Day! - I'm going to be doing a week long juice fast. The aim is to eat fresh fruits and veggies all week long. It's a great cleanse, and good for the environment too.

Join me! It'll be lots of fun! You can do just a few days or the full week.

I'll be posting recipes, videos, instructions, and much more. We can all encourage each other!

Chime in if you want to join us on this project!

When you say eating, do you mean drinking? Since it is a juice fast?

I'm concerned that I will miss chewing.

I watched a video called, "Fat, Sick and Nearly Dead" and once you stop feeling offended by the title, it is highly informational and inspiring. It was recommended by a trainer.

Anyway, my husband and I wanted to try it but there are a few intimidating issues to overcome first:

1. The extraordinary amounts of fruit and vegetables you need to buy just to get one glass of juice.
2. Being able to refrain from eating when we are an extremely food-centric society, community and family. We might be able to get our adult kids on board though but a week seems nearly impossible for me/us.

One day? Maybe. How many times have we gone without eating all day when we are super busy? Well, that hasn't happened to me in a long time because I'm at home working but it does happen to my husband and son.

I'm interested but hesitant.

Lori -

Yes we own that video, it's quite good. I've lent it out to friends.

Start with just one day! One day is a great way to start. You can see how it goes.

Your juice bulks up with spinach and such, so it shouldn't have to be too many items in your shake. Also, it's good for you to ingest those things, so it's a positive that you're drinking them in .

My opinion of a juice fast is that it is unhealthy, expensive and very contrary to lowcarb in every way. It's a nice fad for Hollywood these days but I won't be doing it. Good luck to you though.

According to the video and the doctors interviewed, a juice fast can be very healthy. It's not low-carb if you add in too many fruits, true. I have to watch that.

In the video, the guy drank unlimited quantities of juice. Do you have any guidelines for how much to drink?

Maybe I will do it just for one day and see how it goes.

Dear GrannyM -

Welcome, it's great to hear from you!

It might be that you've heard of something else called a juice fast, like drinking only pre-canned orange juice all day long. That's not what we're talking about .

We're talking about taking fresh organic veggies like celery, kale, spinach, tomatoes, radishes, and blending them together and drinking them. Not only is that extremely healthy for you but it's also exactly what low carb is all about.

Lori -

Right, exactly, it's all about the style of juice fast you do. If all you do is drink pineapple juice all day, that's not healthy.

I definitely recommend the video Fat, Sick, and Nearly Dead for people who want to understand better what a healthy juice fast style is about.

The key is to be comfortably full - but not overfull. The stomach is a flexible organ. It expands if you keep stuffing it - and then it takes more to feel full. I've, over time, reduced the size of my stomach so now it gets full before I can even finish my morning shake. So less than a shake container fills it up. Which is great because I feel happy and full with relatively few calories / carbs in me.

It definitely can be done, little by little, over time.

It's also better for your digestive health.

I would start with one day and in terms of how much to drink, drink until you're comfortably full. Don't worry about "finishing the shake". And drink ample water.

Heading to bed early to be up for Earth Day tomorrow. Get ready for our fun Juice Cleanse - it'll be great!

Earth Day, I nearly forgot. How perfect that I will be resurrecting my containers, planting some herbs, filling in a few bare spots in the front border garden with allysum. Picking lemons and avos. Fertilizing the trees, too.

What a nice way to commemorate Earth Day. And, I think I will donate a bit to an earth-friendly charity.

Oh, and the juice cleanse. I have some green juice ready to go! I'm still unsure if I can do it even for a day. Too much fruit juice will send my glucose levels too high. I'll have to drink a little at a time throughout the day.

To celebrate my 40th birthday (several years ago), I attended a week long juice fast. Some of the benefits were that 1) someone else was preparing the juices 2) someone else was cleaning the juicing equipment 3) I was away from my family and could completely concentrate on me.

I have done others since and am going to join you tomorrow - with three days of green smoothies (a slightly altered cleanse; I do not want to clean my juicer every day, several times a day).

It is a great way to free yourself of toxins and to start welcoming and craving more veggies and fruits in your diet (a great way to kick off Earth day!). Looking forward to joining you tomorrow and hearing about drinks you are all concocting!!