First of all what is the Master Cleanse?
It's really a very strict detox diet where you drink a special lemonade concoction all day - and nothing else - for several days. The lemonade consists of:
- 2 Tablespoons of organic lemon juice
- 2 Tablespoons of organic grade B maple syrup
- 1/10 Teaspoon ground cayenne pepper
- 10 oz of filtered water
This is only the recipe for 1 drink - you need to drink at least 12 of these lemonade drinks or more per day.
The Grade B maple syrup is supposed to give you the B-Vitamins that you need to get through the fast. And the Cayenne is supposed to speed your metabolism and help with the release of toxins.
Advantages:
1) You'll Lose Weight - Obviously if this is all you're drinking you're going to lose weight very fast. You'll also detox very quickly which means you could hit some major rough patches as you go through detox reactions.
2) Simple To Follow - It's not hard to make up a big batch of lemonade to take to work all day
3) Cheap - Since you're not spending money on food, this diet is very cheap to do.
Disadvantages:
1) VERY Hard to Do - Obviously getting by on nothing but essentially water and maple syrup is very hard to do.
Your body will go into starvation mode and be very cranky with you. As Raylen Sterling, author of Master Cleanse Secrets says "Most people don't last 1 day on the Master Cleanse".
2) Can Be Dangerous - You can run into a variety of problems on this diet including nutritional deficiencies and exascerbation of current medical problems.
This is essentially a very strict detox diet and you really need to know what you're doing to avoid any potential detox 'die-off' reactions.
3) Can Cause Bingeing - It's a physiological fact that when your body is deprived of food - when you do go off the diet, you could find yourself bingeing.
It's a pendulum effect. Your body thought it was starving so it wants to shovel as much as it can in before the next starvation period. So you could end up undoing all the good you did when you were on the cleanse.
So is the Master Cleanse diet right for you? It depends. Personally I think it's way too harsh. There are other diets out there that don't put your body into starvation mode or cause the serious detox side effects like Diet To Go or Medifast.
If you do decide to try the Master Cleanse diet I recommend you read Master Cleanse Secrets first which will tell you how to prepare to do the Cleanse properly, how to handle the detox reactions and even how to eat food if you want it and still get full benefits from the cleanse.
It's also recommended that you talk to your doctor before starting any diet or exercise program.
