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Master Cleanse

jimtron

Illuminator
jimtron
Joined
Mar 9, 2005
Messages
3,105
Location
Los Angeles, California
Anyone know much about the Master Cleanse fasting thing? I know a bunch of people that have done it, but I'm skeptical--there doesn't seem to be much if any evidence (other than anecdotal) that it has any significant health benefits. I just checked out the Wikipedia entry for it, and the article is flagged as reading like an advertisement. Anyone up for some editing?
 
Idiots run rampant and no one will let us hide their dead bodies away. Damn!!!!
 
This M.D. has come down hard against Master Cleanse in a number of blog posts:

Dr. Z's Medical Report: Master Cleanse: Still crazy after all these years
http://blog.healthtalk.com/zimney/master-cleanse-still-crazy-after-all-these-years/

As with all quick-fix crash diets, Master Cleanse works initially (because of extremely reduced caloric intake and excessive bowel movements), but as soon as the fast ends and regular eating resumes, the lost weight is quickly regained. As a detoxification regimen, Master Cleanse is both unnecessary and ineffective. Your colon is not a septic tank, building up toxic contents, that needs periodic cleaning. Rather, it is an elegantly evolved perpetually self-cleaning system that empties on a regular, or as-needed, basis.
Click to expand...

Lots of good sub-links in that article, apparently he's been writing about this for almost 2 years.
 
What you mean Kevin Trudeau has been lying to me and I don't have fifty pounds of putred, steaming fecal matter stuck to the walls of my colon? :boggled: I tell you :boggled:
 
"Poo Woo" :D:D

http://whitecoatunderground.com/2008/01/20/detoxification-the-pinnacle-of-quackery/

Might as well cover all the "detox" woo woo. These regimens usually want you to starve yourself as well, meaning if you ever eat again, you'll just gain more weight than before you tried to lose any.

Detox Woo
http://www.quackwatch.com/01QuackeryRelatedTopics/detox.html
http://www.consumeraffairs.com/news04/2007/01/worst_diets.html
http://www.burnthefat.com/colon_cleansing_scam.html

If you go on a cleanse and lose weight, you will lose the weight that food in the digestive tract gives you, and water weight, and other vital tissue loss, but this type of weight loss is not safe...
http://www.burnthefat.com/colon_cleansing_scam.html
Consistent, long term body weight/ body fat loss can rarely exceed 2 lbs per week or 1% of total body weight per week (ie, 3 lbs if you weigh 300 lbs) and weight lost beyond that is usually not body fat.

The contents of the digestive system add to your body weight. If you have fasted or done a light food or juice "cleanse" for any significant period of time, OF COURSE YOU WILL WEIGH LESS! And by the way, that's the normal contents of your digestive tract clearing out - not "icky stuff" that has been clinging to your insides for months or years.
Also, when you fast or go on a very low calorie "cleansing" protocol - you often generate a huge caloric deficit. A large caloric deficit will create a large weight loss. With a large enough caloric deficit, you can also get FAT loss that is above average (usually 1-2 lbs a week, but could easily be 3-3.5 lbs in a week with a big deficit). Combined with water weight, glycogen and lean tissue loss, (plus the clearing out of the contents of the digestive tract), the total body weight loss can be very large.
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http://www.mediterraneanbook.com/20...with-other-diets-did-you-fall-in-these-traps/
But there is a thing to consider with the detox diet, following for a long period this diet create the diminishing muscle mass due to insufficient amino acids for repair (the diet lack of proteins). With less lean muscle the body’s metabolism decreases.
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Leech Detox Woo

http://blog.healthtalk.com/zimney/demi-moores-leech-detox-therapy-a-scambuster-report/

I don't see one single positive aspect of these crazy regimens. You can perforate your colon, disrupt your body's electrolyte balance, mess with your metabolism. What a mess, and all spouted out by idiots who have no clue how the body really works.

I really find the ones where you eat clay very funny. The clay comes as a powder and you mix it up and chug it down. It conforms the shape of your colon while in your body. When you poop it out, the directions claim that the clay is what was building up in your body, even though it wasn't there until you drank it down.

There is another type of cleanse, claims to clean out gallstones, where you drink something, and it reacts with the fat you ingest, making it come out in lumps/balls. The directions claim that this fat lumped together is gallstones coming out :boggled:.

Then there is other ionic toxin woo.
I wrote this article on footbaths:
http://skeptix.ca/?p=15
 
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jimtron said:
Anyone know much about the Master Cleanse fasting thing? I know a bunch of people that have done it, but I'm skeptical--there doesn't seem to be much if any evidence (other than anecdotal) that it has any significant health benefits. I just checked out the Wikipedia entry for it, and the article is flagged as reading like an advertisement. Anyone up for some editing?
Click to expand...

FWIW, I have experimented with two so-called "cleansing" regimens, one of which was harmless, yet patently useless; and the second (mostly capsicum-based) actually somewhat useful for a one-time vermifuge (anthelmintic, i.e., expulsion of parasites). I would decline to identify the products because I am not a tout, nor do I offer these comments as anything more than anecdotes. Indeed, I concur with Dr. Z. that there is nothing more than anecdotal testimony to recommend them.
 
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