Liver Detox? Juice Cleanse? Is This Safe? Effective?

If you or your kids are considering a juice cleanse or liver detox diet, think again. This article presents food for thought to outline the adverse effects of juicing. Social media has much inaccurate advice and information.

Juices made from whole fruit and vegetables

Reasons Why Juicing is Not as Beneficial as It Seems.

Liquifying fruit and vegetables into a juice may be healthier than the juice you buy at the store, since it lacks added sugar, dyes, or additives. However, juicing also removes the most beneficial part of the fruit: fiber, while retaining the vitamins and minerals. Making your own juice to drink occasionally is no problem. The problem is a juice cleanse diet in which all you consume for a week is liquidized fruit and vegetables.

Paper drawing of the stomach and intestines surrounded by foods with fiber that help maintain a healthy microbiome. Juicing depletes foods of this vital nutrient.

Despite the hype and promotion that drinking fruits and vegetables is beneficial to your gut, the opposite is true. Even a few days on this type of diet adversely changes your gut microbiome as well as your oral bacteria. Removing the fiber (which is filtered out during the juicing process) eliminates what is needed to maintain a healthy microbiome. Changes can occur in just a few days, and promote undesirable bacterial growth linked to inflammation. The lack of fiber and an increase in sugar consumption, from the fruits’ natural sugars, are thought to cause these changes.

Eating whole fruit and vegetables rather than juicing does not have this effect.

Precautions

Gastroenterologists believe that juice cleanses negatively impact gut health and disrupt the gut microbiota. This can worsen irritable bowel syndrome. Commercial juices promoted for detox or cleanses may not be safe. These can lack pasteurization, exposing consumers to harmful bacteria. They may be high in oxalates, (especially if loaded with green leafy vegetables), making susceptible individuals at risk of forming kidney stones.

Detoxification is a normal, continuous, ongoing natural process of the liver and kidneys - no juice needed.

Woman holding a paper model of the liver surrounded by healthy whole food that aid the liver and kidneys in normal detoxification.

Parents use caution when serving juice. Most are loaded with added sugar and should be used sparingly, if at all. Children who drink juice daily (similar to soda intake) are at risk for tooth decay, weight gain, inflammation, an unhealthy gut microbiome, type 2 diabetes, and fatty liver disease. 

The Bottom Line.

Juice is a poor substitute for whole fruit and vegetables. 

For those who juice, consider blending instead to retain the fiber, or combine juicing with whole food consumption to avoid negatively changing the microbiome. 

Maintain a nutrient-dense, fiber-rich diet with whole foods.