How does the Master Cleanse Diet work for You and Your Body

Posted by Angela on June 9th, 2007 filed in Diets for Health

When I heard about the Master Cleanse aka the Lemonade diet, I was skeptical. I have done hard-core fasting with 10 days of yoga, rice fasting, fasted for multiple colonoscopies and in the desert while I banged a drum and danced. So I didn’t think that a bunch of lemons and syrup was going to do much. However, I have been pleasantly surprised by the wonders of the Master Cleanse (and unpleasantly obsessed by what came out of me!)

Please note, I have done a lot of fasting and know the dangers of doing unsupervised fasting. Most of the fasting I have done has been under supervision so I was also skeptical about doing a fast without teachers to hold my hand. You first have to decide whether it’s the right time for and your body to be doing ANY fasting and THIS particular type of fasting.

An important element of the Master Cleanse is the salt water drink you take in the morning. Be FOREWARNED, you may spend up to two hours (sometimes more) on the potty with this solution moving out of you. ALSO this is not the best thing to do if you’ve been eating FOOD! The salt water has a laxative effect and whatever ‘s inside of you – is coming out quickly - which can be painful!! So I recommend before even bothering with this cleanse you should have at least a week of a light foods. If you have a heavy diet of meat, fried foods and processed foods, then don’t expect the master cleanse to be easy or pleasant on your digestive system.

The lemons and cayenne pepper in the Master Cleanse diet work to stimulate the toxins out of the organs. In order to get the best out of your cleanse, you want to remove the heaviest toxins in the body first before jumping straight in. If you do another cleansing diet first, like the Liver Cleansing diet, or a macrobiotic based diet, you will have taken off the top layer of toxins so then the Master Cleanse will be able to move deeper toxins that have built up in the organs.

However, if you’re keen and want to start straight away, just try a simple 7 day diet of no caffeine, no fried foods, rice, lightly cooked veggies, beans, some tofu (don’t go over board with the tofu) some fish and just ease yourself off the heavy and overprocessed and overcooked foods. While raw foods are great for stimulating the liver, its easier for the digestion to break down foods that are lightly cooked. Lightly cooking foods, (steaming, sautéing in water) breaks down the cell walls of the food and helps the stomach do its job.

The beauty of the Master Cleanse is following a routine that tells the body to cleanse and let go of what’s old and useless to the body. At night the body is resting (and not eating) so the cells can restore. In the morning there is elimination (a lot of it) and then little bits of sugar during the day to keep the body functioning without putting more effort into breaking down food. The focus is to continually remove the useless build up of waste in the body but with small amounts of sugar in the maple syrup to keep up your energy (there’s about 100cal in the maple syrup per serve).

The routine of the diet is signaling to the body to change old habits and release what is not needed. You will find you are as much releasing PHYSICAL toxins you don’t need as well as EMOTIONAL patterns that are not really serving you and your positive health.

In the first days of the diet I fantasized about pastries, really good European pastries like apple strudel and date and ricotta slices. I was in the USA at the time and in my dream I dreamt about the European pastries I found in Australia but I could never find here. It was the memory of really good food I was fantasizing about. After three days I was laughing about my fantasies of home cooked food that I no longer eat! The memories were better than eating the food. And also my Italian mamma’s cooking is still the best food I will ever have in my life (because it was my mom’s!).

On the Master Cleanse, you should have a good time looking at what your attachments to food are. And LAUGH at them! There’s a tendency to become so attached to food that we become as dependent on certain foods as if they are drugs. It’s always healthy to take a break from any substance or thing that makes you feel good – to appreciate it MORE and understand it better.

So PLEASE, be sure that you’re ready to jump into the Master Cleanse, emotionally, time wise (remember potty time) and with the most ease for your digestive system. You can even buy the master cleanse kit online so the main ingredients come straight to your door. Walmart now sells organic lemons! Or you can find online citrus growers to deliver to you as well.