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Juicing for Health or Torture

We are ingenious at finding new ways to complicate our lives and torture ourselves. One of those ways is adopting fad diets in the quest for health. Juicing is a big fad today. I find that hard to comprehend. I recently endured two interminable months on a liquid/pureed diet while my fractured jaw healed. It was miserable. If I were a prisoner being interrogated, the promise of solid food might have tempted me to tell all. It was hard to maintain a nutritious diet and find foods that could survive being blenderized and still tempt the appetite. The only “health benefit” was the loss of a few pounds that I really didn’t need to lose; it brought me down to a BMI of 18.8, close to the “underweight” range of 18.5 or less. Since that experience, I cherish the pleasures of being able to chew. We have teeth for a reason. The idea of systematically taking delicious solid fruits and vegetables and reducing them to liquid strikes me as a truly revolting idea. I don’t object to the occasional fruit juice, but celery without the crunch? No thank you.

Health Claims for Juicing: Detoxification

People juice for various reasons. One is “detoxification,” a buzzword that is a red flag for pseudoscience. My liver and kidneys do an excellent job of removing toxins from my body, thank you very much. They don’t need any help, except in the case of acute poisoning with lead or other heavy metals. And juices are useless in acute poisoning. Several companies will sell you juices for detoxification. Some examples:

Juice Served Here tells us “everyday life contributes to the congestion and buildup of harmful toxins in the body from processed foods, pollutants and stress.” They offer a Soft Cleanse, a Semi Cleanse, and a Hard Cleanse: 25% off; originally $55 a day! When a customer asked Juice Served Here to specify the toxins he’d be flushing from his system, the company answered with this lame copout: “Unfortunately, due to regulations by the FDA we are unable to specify exact health claims for our products.” Naturally.

Paleta offers a PURIFY Cleanse that will “cleanse the toxins right out of your system so you can experience a more joyful and healthful life.” Benefits? Lose weight, kick the caffeine habit, reduce or stop smoking, detoxify your liver, boost your metabolism, refresh your mind and body, curb sugar cravings, increase energy and stamina, improve skin, hair and nails, sharpen cognition and focus, reduce sensitivity to allergens, and improve moods. The full 10-day program costs $645. Gee, if it really could do all that, it might be worth that much.

Moon Juice offers “plant-sourced alchemy to nourish and elevate body, beauty and consciousness… Juice cleansing enables the body to naturally go into detox mode while flooding it with live nutrients and enzymes… Some signs that it is time to cleanse are: a weakened immune system, troubled skin, allergies, low moods or anger, sleeplessness, poor digestion, weight gain, low energy, feeling and looking blah.” (I can relate to feeling blah, but I’m not sure I understand “troubled” skin.) They offer Rainbow, Indigo, and Green cleanses that they claim will “flood your system over the course of the day with over 20 pounds of certified organic, raw produce and nuts or seeds. The only thing missing is the fiber.”

Pure Pressed offers Green Cleanse, Detox Cleanse, and Energizer Cleanse.

That’s enough examples. You get the idea.

Juicing for health

JuiceRecipes offers a long list of health benefits and health conditions with recipes for which fruits and vegetables to juice for each. For Alzheimer’s prevention: apple, orange, and celery. If Alzheimer’s is already present: apple, carrot, kale, red bell pepper, cilantro, and collard greens. For colon cancer: coconut, orange, and peach. For detoxification (only one of many reasons to juice, not the reason as the aforementioned companies claim): apple, strawberry, and lime. For sore throat: tomato, green bell pepper, celery, cilantro, spring onion, garlic, cayenne pepper, and Himalayan salt. And on and on, for a long list of conditions that includes everything from pain to weight loss, from kidney stones to low libido, from acne to leukemia.

Is there any health condition that juicing would not benefit? Would using the wrong mix of ingredients for a condition make things worse? How do you suppose they determined which juices are good for which conditions? Intuition? Divine revelation? Gut feeling? Dowsing with a pendulum? Shamanic journeying? A dart board? They certainly didn’t use the only reliable method: scientific testing.

Wheatgrass juice

To my mind, wheatgrass juice is one of the worst fads. People brave enough to drink that nasty green glop testify that it tastes even more putrid than it looks. It makes no sense: cows can digest grass; humans can’t, even in juice form. Proponents say it is a powerhouse of nutrients and vitamins; but according to the Jamba Juice website, it only contains 7% DV (the recommended daily allowance) of vitamin C, 10% DV of iron, 1% DV of protein, and 0% of everything else. The enzymes in wheatgrass are highly touted, but they can’t be used by the human body. I see no rational argument for consuming wheatgrass. It contains only small amounts of nutrients that we already get in larger amounts from a healthy diet.

The health benefits claimed for wheatgrass include:

  • Strengthens heart and arterial tissue
  • Lowers blood fat
  • Reduces inflammation
  • Treats degenerative diseases
  • Drains the lymphatic system
  • Flushes out toxins
  • Dissolves scars in the lungs
  • Maintains youthfulness by its enzyme content
  • Normalizes high blood pressure
  • Regenerates the liver
  • Stimulates healing
  • Works as a hangover cure

The evidence for those claims? None whatsoever. Zilch. Nada.

Juicing for Weight Loss

To lose weight, the website Reboot with Joe recommends juicing a mixture of pineapple, kale, celery, lettuce, both flat and curly parsley, lemon, ginger, turmeric, and “chilli’s”. Substitutions are permitted: pear and apple for pineapple, spinach for kale, mint for parsley, etc. It seems to me you could substitute anything at all and it would probably be just as effective. I’m sure you will lose weight while drinking any mixture of fruit and vegetable juices, providing you also reduce your total calorie intake and exercise.

Do-it-Yourself

The JuiceRecipes website helpfully tells us “Juice is juiced with a juicer.” Juicers sell for $30 to $1200. Or you can use a blender and strain the result through cheesecloth. You discard the pulp and drink the juice. It retains the soluble fiber but not the insoluble fiber.

Another option is to blenderize your produce and keep the insoluble fiber. Not as pleasant to drink.

Do-it-yourself proponents like Reboot with Joe argue that commercial juices are processed and lacking in nutrition while freshly juiced fruits and vegetables are loaded with an abundance of vitamins, minerals, and phytonutrients. Processed juices are subjected to high temperatures (pasteurization) and may have added sugars. They may be supplied in low quality plastic bottles that allow harmful chemicals to seep into the juice. They argue that commercial facilities may not clean their equipment as thoroughly as you can do at home; and there have been reports of contamination with bacteria, which is particularly a danger for pregnant women, children, and the immunocompromised. When preparing your own juice, you can wash your hands and produce well and peel produce to remove pesticide residue. You can mix and match. You can even save the pulp and use it in baking, soups, veggie burgers, healthy cookies, crackers and much more.

There are some reports of reduced amounts of certain nutrients (like antioxidants and glutathione) in commercially produced juices compared to homemade juices; but the amounts are probably not enough to make any significant difference in nutritional value, and there is no evidence of any detectable difference in health outcomes.

Juice v. Whole Fruits

Whole fruits are unquestionably healthier than juices, since the insoluble fiber has not been removed. Insoluble fiber helps prevent constipation and diverticular disease and may reduce the risk of some cancers. A recent study from the Harvard School of Public Health found that eating more whole fruits, especially blueberries, grapes, and apples, was associated with a lower risk of diabetes, while greater consumption of fruit juices was associated with a higher risk of diabetes. They estimated that swapping three servings of juice a week for whole fruits would result in a seven percent reduction in diabetes risk.

Skeptic magazine 22.3 (cover)

This column appeared in Skeptic magazine issue 22.3 in 2017. Order this issue.

The only rational argument I have heard for juicing is that some people don’t eat enough servings of fruits and vegetables. There could be many reasons: they may not like the taste, they may not have ready access to fresh produce, they may not be able to afford them, they may not want to take the time to prepare them, they may have difficulty chewing, or they may lack an appetite. It is easier to get them to drink juice than to eat more whole fruits and vegetables. I guess that’s better than nothing, but it would make far more sense to just increase the intake of whole foods. It’s a bit like saying people should take a multivitamin as insurance to make up for possible deficiencies in their diet: that’s an ill-conceived band-aid measure that may do more harm than good. Studies have shown that people who take multivitamins are likely to die sooner and to develop certain cancers.

The bottom line: juicing is a silly fad that provides no special benefits for people who eat a healthy diet. END

About the Author

Dr. Harriet Hall, MD, the SkepDoc, is a retired family physician and Air Force Colonel living in Puyallup, WA. She writes about alternative medicine, pseudoscience, quackery, and critical thinking. She is a contributing editor to both Skeptic and Skeptical Inquirer, an advisor to the Quackwatch website, and an editor of sciencebasedmedicine.org, where she writes an article every Tuesday. She is author of Women Aren’t Supposed to Fly: The Memoirs of a Female Flight Surgeon. Her website is SkepDoc.info.

This article was published on February 27, 2018.

 

31 responses to “Juicing for Health or Torture”

  1. Loco says:

    Sorry Skeptics here writing these articles are all quacks and whackos…

    “That article is quite disappointing. Sounds like a rant more than anything thought through”.

    Yes I agree, Dfg she rants and raves….always negatively proud of herself. Thank you.

  2. Barbara Harwood says:

    One of the things that we are told about reducing fruit or vegetables to a juice is that we can put the entire thing into the juicer. We then eat the skin and seeds as wwell as the pulp. The seeds of some fruits are poisonous, which may not be enough to harm a healthy p[erson, but may defeat the purpose of detoxifying. We myst also reminbd our
    We must also remind ourselves that somebody benefits financially from whatever new fad we are urged to take up. We are toled not to eat processed food, but how much more processed can it be?

  3. Dfg says:

    That article is quite disappointing. Sounds like a rant more than anything thought through.

    It starts really bad ; “we have teeth for a reason” … well, no, please. Ever heard of David Hume ? Because we have teeth doesn’t mean we need to use them (although I guess not using them would be bad in the long term if you want to ever chew anything again).

    Then sure, juice are one of those things that sell well because they make people feel better after eating a burger with fries. But as it has already been said multiple times, there is no proof here that juicing does not have a global positive impact on the population’s health.

    Electric cars are sold as “zero-emission” when we all know producing electricity is hardly zero-emission, but that doesn’t mean overall they don’t have a positive impact on the earth.

    As always, the reality is a bit more complex than one-sided rants.

  4. Dale A. Wood says:

    “Juicing and Torture”
    “Juicing” has a completely different meaning in this context: passing an electric current through the body!
    1). I am sure that there are some pseudoscientific nitwits who claim health benefits from this: “juicing up” with electric currents through their bodies.
    2). “Juicing” with electricity is an awful form of torture. I can remember years ago an interview on the “60 Minutes” TV program. It was with a Spanish-speaking refugee from the regime of General Pinochet in Chile. He had been tortured by Pinochet’s underlings. The interpreter said, “They applied electricity to my penis…”

    That is horrible form of torture – by “juicing”!
    Also, this was a translation into formal English. I have wondered what kind of slang Spanish he really spoke in.

    • Dale A. Wood says:

      There have been films that have depicted the (supposed??) forms of torture via electric shock treatments (to the brain) in psychiatric hospitals. For example there were “The Snake Pit” (1948), starring Olivia de Havilland, and the more famous “One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest”, starring Jack Nicholson.
      So, this is one form of “juicing the brain”.
      In modern times, in modern countries, such evil , extreme treatments are quite obsolete. Among other things, general anesthesia is used.
      I have visited a mental hospital, and one of the patients was undergoing a series of electric shock treatments. He told me that he was on his way for a treatment that morning, and by lunchtime he was back – alert, talking, smiling, and in no distress at all.
      Shock treatments are only used in severe cases, and in his case they were a lifesaver because he had been very suicidal.
      I also met another man who was undergoing serious inpatient treatment for depression. In his case, he had shot himself twice, and once was in it chest with the bullet barely missing his heart. So, to compound this problems, he had endured severe chest/cardiac surgery.
      Especially in the titles of articles, we need to beware that simple words like “juicing” sometimes have two or more meanings.

    • Tzindaro says:

      I have heard of a popular fad of passing an electric current through the frontal lobes of the brain to open a psychic channel of communication with UFOs. This was apparently rather common in UFO circles at one time.

      I knew one person who had tried it. He seemed no worse afterwards than he was before, but then, he was not very sane before that either.

      • Dale A. Wood says:

        Oh, wow – juicing one’s brain electrically for the purpose of having hallucinations! I hadn’t thought of that one.
        Of course, one can juice one’s brain chemically with LSD, peyote, mescaline, cocaine, etc., none of which I think are beneficial.

        • Tzindaro says:

          LSD is an essential nutrient in the normal diet and is required for proper brain function. I have often observed that people who do not get enough of this important nutrient in their diet and suffer from LSD deficiency syndrome do not think the same way as other people.

  5. Joe says:

    As is so often the case, the very rigid biases of the writers at skeptic.com appear all over Dr. Hall’s diatribe in opposition to juicing. She sums it up for us in her “bottom line”:
    “The bottom line: juicing is a silly fad that provides no special benefits for people who eat a healthy diet.”

    One expects a broader and more nuanced view of a topic from a true skeptic, but Dr. Hall has her axe to grind and grind it she does. As Dr. Hall reveals in the beginning of her article, she considers consuming juice to be a “torture” and she wishes to persuade everyone else to view it the same. Are there silly and sometimes extreme claims made for juice in ones diet? Sure. Does that negate the benefits that can come from juicing? No.

    In all of her examples (juicing for detox, juicing for weight loss, etc.), Dr. Hall leaves out the benefits that many derive from simply including juices in their daily diet, i.e., juicing as one component of a healthy diet. I’ve followed a vegetarian diet for 40 years and included both fruit and vegetable juices for the last 25. Including the juices into my diet proved to be a boon and a pleasure, despite Dr. Hall’s personal bias.

    For a while I juiced twice a day everyday but my schedule in recent years has reduced that to perhaps every other day, yet the benefits are still notable and present. I use the Champion Juicer, a masticating rather than centrifugal juicer, and a brand and type that Dr. Hall is either ignorant of or doesn’t wish to include in her denunciation. The Champion leaves a good portion of the insoluble fiber in the juice, especially if you run the pulp back through the juicer several times, thus eliminating one of Dr. Hall’s objections. My basic fruit juice consists of 1 pureed banana, 1 apple, 1 orange, 1 grapefruit (occasionally adding various other fruits as whim and availability inspire). My basic vegetable juice consists of 3-4 whole carrots, 1/2 a red bell pepper, 1/2 a large English cucumber, 2 large handfuls of spinach, 1 small green apple (and a similar assortment of other vegetables as inspired). As an experiment, I’ve attempted to eat in whole form what I can easily consume in juice form. Suffice to say that eating that much fruit or vegetable matter is arduous. In the juice form it is easy, very tasty (but perhaps I am not as easily offended as Dr. Hall), and gratifying. Not to mention nutritious. For me it feels like health in a glass, and when I miss juicing too many days I notice it and feel deprived and sluggish.

    The masticating quality of the Champion is as though the plant material were “pre-chewed”. The thought is that the way the mastication breaks down the material, it becomes more available. Certainly, I don’t chew my fruits and vegetables as thoroughly and completely as the Champion does, and I doubt that anyone else does either. The consistency is a bit like a smoothie. Consuming beans, various whole grains, other cooked vegetables, cheese provides me with what I believe to be a fiber rich and highly nutritious diet.

    I have fasted for several weeks at a time, consuming only juices. I can report that one can lose weight in this manner and that one feels cleaner, lighter, and (shocking to the ears of many skeptics) more spiritual as a result. I swear by it, have had no adverse effects, and would heartily recommend it.

    There are many ways and many reasons to bring juicing into your diet. Dr. Hall would be wise to broaden her perspective on the topic. I hope my comment here has provided some balance to the negative and biased views which make up Dr. Hall’s article.

  6. mike mackay says:

    Sorry to hear about your jaw. Glad to see the experience has diminished neither the heat nor the light from the hearth.

  7. Gary Klaus says:

    Indeed the topic is rife with pseudoscience. There is, however, some evidence that occasional or periodic fasting can be beneficial to brain health [1], longevity [2], and other health issues. There also seems to be some evidence that juice fasting can produce “significant changes in the intestinal microbiota associated with weight loss.” [3] What isn’t clear to me is whether a juice fast provides the same benefits as a water fast. I have always assumed it was the same or better, since you were reducing caloric intake (though maybe not as much) but also continuing to supply your body with natural vitamins, minerals, and whatever else you get from fruits and vegetables, minus the fiber. Like most issues of diet, though, it is difficult to find clear and unbiased information on the topic.

    1. http://www.johnshopkinshealthreview.com/issues/spring-summer-2016/articles/are-there-any-proven-benefits-to-fasting

    2. http://www.sciencemag.org/news/2015/06/short-term-fasting-may-improve-health

    3. https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-017-02200-6

  8. BillG says:

    Here’ s a novel concept on better health: eat less and move more – and it’s free! We’re lazy gluttons vulnerable to fads.
    Thanks Dr Hall

  9. Bob Pease says:

    Gout has a lot to do with reuptake enzyme regulation rather than MAGIC food regimens.
    An osteoquack made me stand in salt water and chant magick crap.
    A REAL Doctur cured me by prescribihg medication
    After 30 years of treatment by MD I have no gout even though my Uric acid is flagged high

    • Hugo Lindum says:

      If your blood urate is high, with or without gout, you are still heading towards a heart attack. The long-term problem is the hyperuricemia – not the symptom (gout). Either allopurinol or Febuxostat at the correct dose will get your blood urate down low where it should be for health.

      • Bob Pease says:

        thank you
        I am under treatment by Kaiser
        I understand that some risk factors have to be balanced .
        I must trust my M.D.

        R.J. Pease

  10. MBDK says:

    David Clumper, I observe that you have no reservations about being their guinea pigs, but please don’t make unverifiable claims. Your own personal testimony can be contradicted with the personal testimony of others. As for paying the piper, I assume you are paying your pipers quite well, also.

  11. bruce says:

    Bad Boy Scientist, I like your miracle cure better than Buddy’s. I hope Buddy is joking but sometimes people deserve to be mocked.

  12. Hugo Lindum says:

    I wonder if the experience of a skinny woman, who has never been more than 10 grammes overweight in her life, and forced to a liquid diet by an accident, is relevant to the normal case, a 150kg man or woman who embraces a liquid diet to lose 60 kg to save their lives?

    • Harriet Hall, MD says:

      It is relevant to the palatability of the diet.
      While losing weight can save lives, I question whether a liquid diet is a necessary or wise way to lose weight.

  13. David Clumpner says:

    My oh my Harriet,
    Alternative, holistic, integrative health is finally making headway isn’t it, no thanks to the present disease care system.
    I assume u folks still consider docs like Jonathan Wright and Jerry Mixon frauds and quacks even tho they’re way out front in research compared to my VA and U/W docs….About 10 yrs I’d say, at least!
    My VA docs are still only testing for the two types of cholesterol but if I beg hard, maybe I’ll get four out of them. Same problem with my thyroid testing: T-3 and T-4 ? “forget it, u don’t need them'” they tell me.
    Most mainstream docs only test for 3 or 4 hormones.
    Great docs like Mixon and Wright test for EIGHT!

    One day I had GERD pretty bad and guess WHAT,
    my U/W-VA docs prescribed an antacid w/o even testing me for stomach acid, even when I asked. Wright and Mixon say it’s CRIMINAL to prescribe stuff like this w/o testing. Turns out I had LOW stomach acid after undergoing the Heidelberg Test: I needed HCL Betaine and other digestive enzymes.
    These are just a few examples of troglodyte medicine
    being ‘practiced’ by so many docs riding the main stream ‘merry go round’ of shill collusion between the insurance/FDA/Big Pharma/Food Industry.

    I’m approaching 80 and I really feel sorry for my children and younger generation if this sad state of affairs doesn’t change fast. Yes, we probably are
    going to have a single payer system sooner or later
    but if it’s anything like the current VA system (which will probably be the eventual protocol), then heaven
    help us all and Tiny Tim.
    And u folks harnessed into this present system
    are being duped whether or not u realize it.
    U and Michael probably label docs like Mixon and J Wright ‘Quacks’ when the term needs to be placed on this current ‘revolving door’ system: Yup, Psychological Projection at it’s finest utilizing the Hegelian Dialectic~ (Problem-Reaction-Solution).
    Now ask me how mad I really am!
    This little quote pretty well sums it up:
    “He who pays the piper, calls the tune”!

    David Clumpner
    (I’d appreciate your sending a copy of this to Michael for his perusal.)

  14. Buddy Silver says:

    GOUT AND URIC ACID
    Uric acid is a chemical compound made of carbon, oxygen and hydrogen. The kidneys process this acid, but in case the kidneys fail to finish this task, high blood levels of uric acid in your system can cause formation of solid crystals. Gout is a form of arthritis, in which uric acid crystals deposit in the joints.

    What Causes Uric Acid Crystals in Joints?
    As the name suggests, these crystals that accumulate in your body especially in the joints are uric acid salts which are formed in the body as an end product of purine metabolism. Purines are formed from food, biological synthesis or nucleic acids metabolism. The accumulation of uric acid crystals in joints and all over the body occurs as a result of either decreased or increased excretion.

    What Happens When Uric Acid Crystals Collect in The Joints?
    The presence of uric acid crystals in joints can lead to severe pain in the joints. This pain is especially strong during the night. What is interesting is the fact that in most cases only one of the joints is affected, most often that’s the joint of the big toe, although in some cases these crystals can spread to several joints. The occurrence of high temperature and chills is not rare in people who have problems with this accumulation. The presence of uric acid crystals in the joints is a hallmark of gout – a disease mostly present in men. This is a metabolic disease manifested by the occurrence of acute arthritis.

    Foods That Keep Your Uric Acid at Normal Levels.
    In order to keep uric acid at normal levels you should definitely be careful what you eat, because as we have mentioned before the occurrence of uric acid crystals in joints has its roots in the metabolic disorders.

    In general, to bypass the accumulation of uric acid crystals in joints, you should avoid alcohol, sugary foods, meat, and poultry and give advantage to food that contains less fat because most of these foods have preventive and healing properties.

    Those who have problem with increased levels of uric acid in their system should take more raw vegetables and fruits rich in vitamin C as Awla, Guava, Kiwi, Sweet lime, oranges, capsicum, lemon and green leafy veg.

    Fruit should be consumed only on an empty stomach.

    It is very useful to include potatoes in the menu (but not fried potatoes). Potatoes have both healing and preventive properties. It can be easily digested and it provides useful carbohydrates and vitamins. Some experts suggest using various juices based on vegetables like – carrot and celery juice. Don’t forget that water can be helpful too not only for the elimination of uric acid crystals in joints but also for your health in general……

    • Bad Boy Scientist says:

      Buddy, I cannot tell if you are joking or not.
      This is a case of Poe’s Law.

      I had assumed you were joking – my intent was to join in on the joking NOT to ridicule someone who actually believed it.

      If you were serious, then I apologize for mocking you and I’ll let the others assist you in reasoning about this topic.

    • Hugo Lindum says:

      Where is the research to back this up? While there is much that is correct (eg sugar and alcohol), research diet will not reduce blood urate by more than a point or two, when gout suffers need to reduce it reduce by 5 points or more.

    • Dale A. Wood says:

      Huh? One of the essential ingredients of uric acid is NITROGEN.
      The whole reason for urea and uric acid in the human body (and animals, too) is to get rid of excess nitrogen. Where does this harmful form of nitrogen come from? It comes from the decomposition of proteins and amino acids, something that happens every day when cells die.

  15. bruce says:

    Buddy, correlation does not equal causation. It’s called anecdotal “evidence” and it’s no evidence at all.

    • Dale A. Wood says:

      You are completely correct about correlation not being equivalent to causation.
      On the other hand, I think that you have missed something in what some previous writers said. Some of thing were writing with irony (ironic intentions), not meant to be taken literally.
      I have studied probability and statistics (sometimes as a part-time student) at Auburn Univ., Georgia Tech, the Univ. of Southern California, Tennessee Tech, and the Univ. of Alabama at Huntsville.
      What got me started was that at Auburn, a course in Engineering Statistics was required for all students of electrical engineering, and I found the subject to be fascinating.
      D.A.W.

  16. Buddy Silver says:

    Hi,

    I had a very painful earache! I rubbed Tea Tree oil around the ear and put a piece of garlic in my ear and placed a piece of plaster over it to keep it in place. I went to bed and next morning the earache was gone!
    Believe it or Not!

    • Bad Boy Scientist says:

      Hey. I have a miracle cure story, too!

      I had a bad cold with a sore throat recently. I stayed home for 3 days and watched Frasier reruns online and only consumed homemade soup and tea.

      Believe it or not, I made a full recovery with my “Soup and Frasier” treatment!

  17. Tzindaro says:

    Diet is a very personal matter and what works best for one person might be torture for another. Instead of prescribing a one-size-fits -all “best” diet it would be better to take into account the needs of the particular individual involved.

    I will eat anything that doesn’t eat me first, and after a few days without meat I start to feel hungry for it. But I know a man who has lived on nothing but raw vegetable juices for 15 years and is in very good health, practices martial arts, does a very brisk 10-mile walk every weekend, and does not preach about diet to me.

    For most white Americans, it would be better to get more exercise than to change their diet in any reasonable way. The importance of diet to health is over-rated as far as white middle-class Americans are concerned.

    Differing dietary needs may have a genetic component, with people whose ancestors lived in a cold climate needing more meat than those from a warm climate.

    Dietary requirements may also be related to activity level, age, ambient temperature, and emotional needs or stress. There is no such thing as a “best diet”.

  18. Steve Levenberg says:

    Very helpful! These fad fasts are just
    Plain silly
    And appeal to
    The same
    Part of us that believes whatever we are predisposed to want
    To believe.
    A low Carb diet with low processed foods is always the best option. There is a reason we are so obese in our Culture (and the Mexican culture). It is our DIET plus inactivity.

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