Sip ’n starve: Dangerous diets in disguise

How can juice be bad for you?
Fasts come in several varieties: Some L.A. women chug raw fruit and vegetable juices that are delivered regularly to their door by companies such as Izo Cleanze and BluePrintCleanse; others sip tinctures from kits ordered online, like the Blessed Herb’s Colon and Internal Cleansing Kits; many whip up their own beverages using “superfood powders” (21 Day Detox) or recipes that call for lemon juice, maple syrup and cayenne pepper (the ever-popular master cleanse). Although the ingredients vary, the marketing promise is largely the same: Consuming these brews — and often nothing else — for anywhere from a few days to a few weeks can help flush out toxins such as food additives, heavy metals, medications, cigarette smoke and other pollutants that disrupt your immune function, liver function, metabolism and digestion; as these toxins leave your body (through increased bowel movements), you’ll feel better and perhaps even drop some pounds in the process.

Fashion producer Dawn, for example, did a three-week fast last summer, during which her only sustenance was soups and red and green juices made from superfood powders, vegetables and sometimes berries, complemented by a regimen of detoxifying supplements, digestive enzymes and colonics. The 34-year-old spent hours cooking up broths and blending beverages from daikon radish, kale, cauliflower and other produce. “I made one of mustard greens and garlic that I could not get down,” Dawn says. “Do not put garlic in a juice — I almost vomited.” She contends the goal was to rid her body of toxins built up from excess consumption of junk food and alcohol. “I’d been partying for a month, and stuff needed to get sorted, stuff I wouldn’t have lost through working out alone,” she says. “It was more about cleansing and being healthy.” That said, she’s not complaining that she lost 10 pounds. And she repeated the fast this past spring.

In a way, this new health rhetoric is a backlash against the more obviously unhealthy weight loss routes that were popular in the past two decades, including misuse of prescription drugs such as fen-phen (now banned), Clenbuterol (not approved by the FDA for use in humans) and Adderall (a medication typically used to treat attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder) as well as surgical procedures such as liposuction and gastric-bypass surgery, the potential dangers of which have been well documented. The movement is also a reprieve from wading through the media minefield of ever-changing “good” and “bad” foods because, natch, you’re not eating anything at all. As Beth Reardon, R.D., the integrative nutritionist at Duke Integrative Medicine in Durham, North Carolina, puts it, “It simplifies the confusing diet world down to one thing: Just drink this. If it’s only juice, it has to be good for you!”

But cleanses, detoxes and fasts can lead to some very real physical hazards, especially because they’re often done without the supervision of a doctor or qualified nutritionist. “They can really dehydrate you or rob your body of potassium and other electrolytes,” says Julie Eltman, R.D., a holistic nutritionist in Los Angeles. Over time, or even within minutes, electrolyte imbalance can cause heart problems, organ damage and more. Another potential danger: colonics — enemas intended to “wash out” the intestines — which frequently go hand in hand with fasting. Performed regularly, colonics can kill the good bacteria in your intestinal tract that are supposed to protect against infection, compromising your immune system; they also can disrupt nerve and muscle function in the bowel. “I see some people who get their colon cleansed every week and can’t go to the bathroom without it,” Eltman says.

Potential enema dependence, a weakened immune system, organ failure — these are high prices to pay for what amounts to only fleeting weight loss, says Reardon, who stresses that however many pounds you lose during a fast or cleanse, they’re almost guaranteed to return rapidly. “You initially lose only water weight, then you start breaking down muscle protein,” Reardon explains. “It’s minimal fat loss.” And frequent fasting can slow your metabolism, making it easier to put on pounds later. Ultimately, those who repeatedly fast and cleanse set themselves up for a life of yo-yo dieting, weight regain and the health problems that can come with it, such as heart disease, hypertension and diabetes.

No one can fast forever. At some point, even the most abstemious will need to swap her juices for solid food, a shift that will signal her body to cling to the sudden influx of calories, setting the stage for weight regain. That doesn’t mean that she’ll eat much, though. In fact, many of the most popular Hollywood diets entail food-restriction guidelines that can seem almost as severe as eating nothing at all.

“I call my diet the ‘no’ diet because there are so many things you can’t have,” says Mary Louise, a 48-year-old Hollywood screenwriter. When she’s not fasting (which she does at every season change for two to three days), Mary Louise adheres to a version of the candida diet, which consists mostly of brown rice, green vegetables and organic beans and forbids all dairy, breads and sugar. “Before, I was really sick and I didn’t know why. I was lethargic; I couldn’t get out of bed,” she says. On this plan, she says she feels energetic and clearheaded. She also has shed nearly 30 pounds. “But in the beginning, I was down to only five foods I could eat.”

That sounds almost lavish in comparison with the recommendations of popular plans by Beverly Hills bariatrics physician Howard Flaks, M.D., who advises eating only 800 to 1,000 calories a day under weekly medical monitoring. According to a patient we spoke with, her plan consisted of 7 ounces each of protein and vegetables, two pieces of fruit and a handful of crackers, to be washed down by at least 10 glasses of water. By contrast, Reardon and other registered dietitians say women on diets should consume at least 1,200 to 1,500 calories daily. “It’s a shock, the first week, a real shock,” says the Dr. Flaks true believer, who lost more than 30 pounds with his guidance. “But you realize how addicted you are to the idea of having plentiful food.”

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