The FastDay Forum

Hi all,

I was active on this forum last year when I did the 5:2 diet for quite some time with success. Since then I have fasted on and off, but not as regularly as I should and I have put on weight.

I am not sure whether it is ok to discuss juice fasting on this forum. I recall that this forum was a good resource, so if juice fasting is an allowed topic and there are people who are interested in it and/or are doing it, I would be happy to hear your experiences.

Hi Dom Dom. Juicing is a form of fasting but unfortunately it can be loaded with simple carbs, spiking your blood sugar, and making you feel hungry and cranky. This is what works for me.
Juice your veg, eat your fruit. Better still blend instead so you get the fibre as well - this will even out those blood sugar spikes.
Choose berries over sweet fruits.
Anything green is lower in sugars and will sustain you.
Green smoothies is the way to go. My favourite here http://www.rawfamily.com/recipes

I prefer intermittent fasting as it does not start the hunger monster and as you know from the wonderful data on this site, it is good for us - probably much better than a juice fast.

Thanks for your response, Karen. Having low carbed for a long time previously I am well aware of sugar content of fruits, and like you say I am avoiding the sugar trap. For now I am mostly reading up on the subject and I juice daily, but not in a religious way. I am not sure whether I am going to juice fast, replace a meal here and there or just use it as a supplement to eating normally.

I can tell you that in three days I have probably eaten more vegetables than I do in a year.

Being quite well versed in intermittent fasting and low carb eating I have some thoughts about juicing. I am not buying the detox idea that is on every juicing site. Sure, there may be some ingredients that are better for that than others, but there is no scientific support for the general detox claims.

For instance they attribute the pains you may go through in the beginning of juicing as evidence of detox. There is nothing supporting this idea. Interesting is that the same pains and I'll feelings may happen when you begin low carbing or fasting. I think it is more likely than when you make a dramatic change very quickly to what you eat, the body is sure to react. For instance, when you cut out carbs (which you do when fasting too) your body switches from running on glycogen and you may go into ketosis. For a body to all of a sudden change what it has done for decades is sure to be a shock to the system.

When I did that the first time I got the flu, pretty much. Fevers, fatigue, feeling absolutely horrible. Now when I have switched between the fuels many times, I don't notice a thing.

I think there are benefits with juicing, but I don't think the general ideas are correct. I think the benefits come from these reasons:

You consume less calories
You consume less carbohydrates
You consume less processed foods

If you do this, you will become healthier, be it intermittent fasting, low carbing, juicing or any other method.