Beyoncé Before and After
the Master Cleanse
A lot was written about Beyoncé's weight
loss (losing 20 pounds in 10 days) on the Master Cleanse
for her movie role in "Dreamgirls" where her character
first appears on screen as 16 years old, then later as 36.
While it was true that Beyoncé was
14 pounds lighter and looked 10 years younger for shooting
the younger part, there were many misconceptions in the
articles that I'd like to clarify.
Misconception #1: "Health
experts claim that this diet sends each of its followers
in a hospital if they try it more than 10 days." (originally
written in www.playfuls.com and then reprinted in www.chinadaily.com.cn).
The truth: Literally thousands
of people do the Master Cleanse for anywhere between 10
and 40 days and feel better afterwards. I personally have
done it 18 times and 6 of those were for more than 10 days.
I have never been to the hospital since I started eating
better (predominantly raw vegetarian, but not completely)
and doing regular Master Cleanses (about 1 every 3 months).
Many more experiences can be found in my book,
Lose
Weight, Have More Energy & Be Happier in 10 Days. (Click here to buy it.)
Misconception #2:
"People would start to feel very lethargic and would
be unable to concentrate... They will probably end up in
hospital, especially people who try it for more than 10
days." (from the same article)
The truth: I do it to have
more energy and think more clearly. In an informal survey
in January 2005 of 141 people who had completed at least
one Master Cleanse, more than 3/4 had more energy and more
than 90% were happier!
Misconception #3: "The
problem is not what's in the diet but what's not. There
are no fats, proteins, vitamins or minerals and the only
carbohydrate is in the form of sugar." (from the same
article)
The truth:
Most people know that citrus fruit (including lemons) are
a good source of vitamin C. What many people do not know
is that lemon juice is also a good source of potassium.
However, that's beside the point. The idea that people cannot
exist without protein for 10 days may be a dream of the
meat industry, but it is not true. Fasting, as recommended
in the Bible, has been recognized by many doctors for hundreds
of years. The most current, visible American MD who is a
major proponent of fasting is Dr. Joel Fuhrman, author of
Eat
to Live and Fasting
- and Eating - for Health. He has had numerous
successes curing with diabetes, high blood pressure, and
heart disease. In Europe, there are many health spas run
by doctors that practice fasting for healing and rejuvenation.
Misconception #4: "The
diet was presented for the first time by a Swiss health
company in 1985 and reached a high popularity very fast."
(from the same article)
The truth: The Master Cleanse
was first developed by Stanley Burroughs and later appeared
as The Master Cleanser, first published in 1976.
Misconception #5: "The
cleanse became popular again with the 2004 publication of
Peter Glickman’s Lose
Weight, Have More Energy & Be Happier in 10 Days. (Click here to buy it.)." (www.calorielab.com)
The truth: I appreciate the
publicity. (They never even called or emailed. I was pleasantly
surprised when I discovered this.) However, the Master Cleanse
has consistently grown more popular due to the great word
of mouth from the hundreds of thousands of people who do
this detoxification diet every year and discover its benefits.
Misconception #6: "The
lemonade (which you drink 6 to 8 glasses per day)
is made from 2 tablespoons of Grade A maple syrup, juice
of ½ lemon, 1/10 teaspoon of cayenne pepper and 1
quart of spring water." ("Hot Stuff"
New York Daily News, August 17, 2006)
The truth: I appreciated
the reporter, Jane Ridley, giving my website a direct link
from the article, but "1 quart" should read "8
ounces". I don't know what would happen to
a person if they drank 8 quarts of water every day for 10
or more days, but I wouldn't want to be the one to find
out. "6 to 8" should read "6 to 12
glasses per day".(By the way, Burroughs recommends
Grade B organic maple syrup because it has more minerals,
but says any grade will work.)
Misconception #7: "
'I ate everything when it was over...the second I looked
at a donut, it came back! I gained back all the weight,
even the weight I didn't want to come back!' she says, laughing."
("Beyoncé: 'I'm in no rush to get married'"
The Belfast Telegraph, August 25, 2006)
The truth: I believe weight
gain is a result of accumulated toxins. It's been shown
that the body protects itself from toxins that are too numerous
for the liver to handle by putting them into fat cells.
That's why going on a raw vegan diet results in people losing
weight. The liver is finally able to handle some of these
stored older toxins because it doesn't need to handle as
many from the raw vegan diet. That's also why people who
go back to eating the Standard American Diet (lots of artificially
flavored, colored and preserved food that has been heavily
processed and practically no fresh, raw greens, vegetables
and fruits) immediately regain any weight they lose on any
diet, let alone the Master Cleanse. The better your diet
afterwards, the less weight you put back on. The informal
survey of 141 Master Cleansers mentioned earlier discovered
that the average woman completing the Master Cleanse lost
about 12 pounds and regained about 6. The average man lost
about 16 pounds and also regained about 6. Interestingly,
most people reported they ate a healthier diet after completing
the cleanse.
Misconception #8: The Master
Cleanse is for everyone.
The truth: The Master Cleanse
is great, but it's not for everyone. It is probably the
second most powerful (read that as the fastest) way to detoxify
the body. Only a water fast is more powerful. If a person
has a great deal of stored toxins, releasing them too quickly
results in detox symptoms, such as headaches, rashes, tiredness,
irritability, even vomiting. Those people should not do
the Master Cleanse. They should detoxify much more slowly
with a better diet. Also, people recovering from surgery
need large amounts of protein to regenerate tissue and so
should not do the Master Cleanse until they have completely
recovered from surgery. Pregnant and nursing women should
not do it either, as there is a remote possibility that
the toxins may find their way into the infant. Although,
I have never heard of such actually occurring, but better
safe than sorry. For the rest of us, the Master Cleanse
is really amazing!
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