Holiday Cleanses

foodishSo now it’s after Thanksgiving and onto Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, Christmas and New Years. We have begun to ingest colorful cocktails, digest crispy cookies and crumbly cakes and invest in our slowly expanding waistlines.

Why not prevent “packing on the pounds” by practicing a cleanse in between all these celebrations? Can you believe a Registered Dietitian is recommending a cleanse?

Well of course- there’s the catch- it all depends on what you define as a cleanse.  There is what I call the E X T R E M E  cleanse- drinking lemonade, spiked with cayenne and maple syrup for 10 days which also includes a comforting laxative tea each evening. This popular celebrity cleanse is down right dangerous as here is the dark side of this masterful fad diet.

Drinking less than 700 calories/day for 10 days void of nutrition and protein does a number on your body.

  1. The weight you lose may be rapid but you are losing mostly water and muscle weight. Overall, eating less than 1200 calories a day for 10 days puts your body into starvation mode, and even though the weight loss is rapid  it comes right back on.
  2. Drinking only lemon juice gives you plenty of Vitamin C- but no real nutrition. This type of 10 day cleanse is void of carbs, protein, essential fats and many vitamins and minerals needed to survive.
  3. Adding cayenne to anything does not make you burn more fat. Spices are absorbed and digested like all food- there is no magic to food breakdown and metabolism.
  4. That soothing cup of laxative tea at night- gets you to lose even more water, can induce gut cramps and have you  heading to the bathroom round the clock, day and night.

Here’s my solution , go ahead onto a cleanse, but think of it like this- Instead of cutting out important nutrients and entire food groups…How about having some food rules in between the actual holiday days?After all,  it’s the average of your entires weeks intake which counts- not just one day.

Think about,cutting out white flour and white sugar during the week. Limit foods that contain too much salt and unhealthy fats. Say no to cakes, cookies, chocolate, soda, candy, pies, ice cream and chips.

Say yes to real, whole fresh foods. Believe me an apple will start tasting sweet, crisp and  juicy  if you are hungry.

” if you are not hungry enough to eat an apple- then you are not hungry” .