Along with three friends, I am embarking on the Master Cleanse. While this doesn’t necessarily have to do with life in Austin, I don’t think I’d ever make this decision if I weren’t here. When I moved back home to Austin after I graduated college, within a year I was almost vegetarian (eating only free-range meat and chicken), shopping at Wheatsville, feeding my dog all-natural dog food, doing a different cleanse (one that allowed only fruits and veggies, and provided a bunch of supplements to take), seeing an acupuncturist as my primary care physician, and practicing yoga. I grew up in Austin and was never this much of a hippie. What had the city done to me?!
So when a friend asked if I’d like to take on the Master Cleanse, a 10-day cleanse of the system where you drink a lemonade concoction, perform a saltwater flush, and drink laxative tea, I was totally in. And I blame that on Austin.
I’m thrilled about it, truthfully. For me, I think it will have as many psychological benefits as it does physical/health benefits. Learning to forgo cravings and alleviate a dependence on food will certainly be interesting, as will seeing the impact not eating has on my social life. Geez, what will I even blog about?!
I’ll keep you posted on my experience (overall, not in detail, plenty of those graphic blogs are available on the web), and if you’re curious, here are a few good resources:
http://healthandlight.com/TheMasterCleanse.pdf - the actual book
http://themastercleanse.org – one guy’s summary/blog
http://www.therawfoodsite.com/mastercleanse – contains a lot of helpful information, but be aware that the guy who made it is trying to sell his book. But the 5 symptoms of detox, the FAQ, and the most common mistakes are pretty helpful. The message boards are also interesting, but I wouldn’t let them sway or scare you.
http://www.thelemonadediet.com/services.html -another good FAQ
http://www.shirleys-wellness-cafe.com/cayenne.htm – all about the benefits of cayenne pepper, not just for the Master Cleanse but for life!
… thanks to my friend Lisa for some of these links, she’s our Master Cleanse pro in this adventure!
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5 Comments
July 15, 2008 at 4:00 pm
This is old-fashioned quackery. Several folks I know have done this and gotten extremely ill afterwards. Fasting for more than 24 hours can be very dangerous. If you do this for 10 days you will only lose water weight, become ravaged, and eat everything in sight until your body restabilizes. In short, the Master Cleanse is a huge crock of liquid doo-doo.
July 16, 2008 at 3:56 pm
Hi, Pat. I would encourage you to read more about the master cleanse from the websites posted above. It is actually very different from a fast. I am curious about your friends who were ill afterwards. Did they follow all steps of the cleanse? My friend and I completed the master cleanse last year, and we did not feel ravaged or eat everything in sight. In fact, the cleanse helped me to develop very healthy eating habits.
At any rate- you don’t have to want to try it, or even really support it- but before you start on a rant, you should really consider gathering some facts.
July 22, 2008 at 2:11 pm
[...] Jump to Comments Since all I want to do is eat some solid food (Day 9 of the Cleanse), I’m going to go ahead and torture myself and talk about Moonshine. The Third-and-Red-River [...]
July 22, 2008 at 5:01 pm
Hey there just found your site via austinbloggers.org. Pat is correct- The Master Cleanse and countless other “detoxification diets” are just scams with no real health benefits. Your liver and kidney are the primary organs responsible for getting any “toxins” out of your body.
Here’s just one article written by a MD:
http://blog.healthtalk.com/zimney/master-cleanse-diet-master-scam/
July 28, 2008 at 2:08 pm
Will one of you angry white males please explain to me what the “scam” part of the master cleanse is? The ingredients are inexpensive and generic and the process is freely available on the internet. So, who is behind the “scam?” The maple syrup companies?
I’m about to start this thing and, though I am skeptical of some of the more extreme claims, I am fairly confident it will be good for me. I have had a large number of friends undertake the cleanse and they have all had positive results.
So, if the scamming schemers are listening, let me know how you’re victimizing me, because I still don’t understand.