wnyc.org / 93.9fm / am 820

My girlfriend and I tried the Standard Process liver cleanse diet. It's a lot easier than the Master process because you can actually eat food. It's 3 weeks long and after day 11 you can actually eat fish and chicken.

I've blogged about it here: http://www.PlateOfTheDay.com/615

Given the focus on 'loosing weight,' I would suggest that based on this discussion, that a really quick way of 'loosing weight' would be to have yourself decapitated. At least twenty apparently quite useless pounds would be lost immediately.

But people will focus on 'loosing weight,' so maybe we, who don't think that way, should just steal their wallets?

At least an ounce or two lighter, and with a far faster result obtained. Maybe smarter, too.

Should be pleasing for all of these people who can't manage to focus on a goal and actually modify habit and behaviour to obtain the goal.

This show restored my faith in the persistance of human belief in mumbo-damned-jumbo and reasoning by infomercial. I always did have to laugh at the idea of some guy who looks like the worse cliche of a lounge lizard, or a clone of John Waters peddling an excess of fascination with the GI tract and its products. God, if I could only come up with a way of combining walking on hot coals, playing with your own feces, and some fundamentalist religion blather, I'd clean up. Pun intended.

Really. I'd be making AIG bonus money.

Yeah, in the warm glow of the dying embers of the siege of Wall Street, laid waste by the hordes of Armani suited barbarians, the ignorant villagers are forced to read their own entrails. Gotta love the decline and fall of empire. You really just gotta.

How about some shows devoted to the concept of Facts and the Public Misconception? A week devoted to the Madness of Crowds? What a fool believes? I've even got the snappy theme music for that one...

Really does amaze me how much the human mind resists information.

Sorry but man has gotten sick and diseased long before any man made toxins or pesticides existed. Any Doctor or nutritionist worth a grain of salt will tell you to eat a well rounded healthy diet 365 days a year. They will also tell you that the only healthy way to loose weight is by a healthy diet and lots of exercise. You should only loose about 3 lbs a week, not 15 lbs a week…

Medical fact, if you fast long enough and your body goes into starvation mode and you have no more fat to fuel the body, it will start to eat your tissue. This is what happens when you take the feeding tube away to a brain dead or terminally ill person.

Decades of independent studies and real world statistics and observations back up the Doctors and nutritionists views that fasting is not good and eating a well balanced diet and exercise are the way to go. Where are the independent studies to back up cleansing, fasting or even vitamin supplements?

And I gotta say... In response to this, "How could fasting not be of some benefit? I admit it's not a cure all, but animals even fast in nature when they are sick. "

Can you read minds now? Is that why you act like you can read the minds of animals? Is that another of your fantasies? No, animals go hungry when they are sick and can't find food.

Maybe it would be a good thing if some people fasted from oxygen for a while. Just five minutes of an oxygen deprivation fast. It won't take up much of anyone's time to do that.

The resulting brain damage might actually serve to raise the level of public discourse.

Oddly I caught a moment of some trio of really rather silly people pimping for the Blueprint cleanse on WNBC's second DTV channel last night. Why was that ever a good idea?

People with limited grasp of facts, no grasp of the science or the medicine, or to be blunt, silly and stupid people, grab a hold of things like this. Learning something would take too much time. Of course, it's also about excrement, and the infantile mind is always fascinated by that.

Rather than be disciplined all year long, not living on red meat and martinis, they content themselves by making up stories about how this will help them. Of course, they also delude themselves that it makes them better than other people. It's wishful thinking at its more desperate and degenerate level. Cleanses. Astrology. What other silly, stupid stuff have you got?

FYI, FYI: BluePrintCleanse was unavailable during the show's time slot, did not decline, and further was told that "we will NOT be
having Mr. Stein on the program tomorrow...he is not the right guest to be having this conversation with you. So we won’t be having him on."

NY Press story by Stein is riddled with factual inaccuracies and was never fact-checked.

done correctly the master cleanse is a wonderful experience. it can be very meditative and serves as a holistic mind-body realignment. it's not for everyone, but for many of us it's a pleasure. needless to say, most of the people doing the master cleanse are already leading healthy lives and this is an added bonus. it is a yearly spring ritual for me now, this year was my third, and my skin has never looked better (one of the many perks)...

Great show. People really should just eat simply and do some exercise.

BTW: The link takes you to the NY Press, not the Post. Give credit where credit is due.

I felt that this lady had no idea what she was talking about. How could fasting not be of some benefit? I admit it's not a cure all, but animals even fast in nature when they are sick. How is someone going to tell you that a behavior that naturally occurs in nature is bad for you. Fasting can be a great thing if you go about it the right way. As for those weird drinks that people come up with I would never trust those. In my opinion I feel that a fast is only a fast when you just drink water, freshly squeezed juiced right from the fruit is great too. Get a juicer. I feel that eating is way too overated, and that a fast would do most people good. Most of the United States is obese and thats even more unhealthy than being slightly underweight. A fast is a great idea to start a diet plan. Fast for the first few days and then gradually get off the fast with fruit and veggies. Then stop eating like a cow. Most people eat weigh too much and they can't blame it on matabolism, because everyone is responsible for their own bodies. Don't eat what you can't handle. I was put on medication that caused me to go from 120 pounds to 180 pounds in 3 months. It took alot of hard work and effot to loose the weight. Finally I reached my goal weight and now I am 105. It was not fasting that did it, it was my eating exercise habits that have changed,(I also got off of that horrible medication). But I must say that fasting did help in my weight loss process. It helped to get all those nasty toxins out of my system. After fasting I felt cleaner, lighter, and more energized. Don't expect a miracle from fasting, but don't let anyone make you scared to try it. If you go about it the right way fasting is harmless. Yeah you won't feel that great while doing it because the toxins are leaving your body. Thats why alot of people don't feel great while loosing weight because there are so much toxins in the fat. If you think you have the will power to fast go right for it.

[[FYI, Blue Print Cleanse was invited to come on today's show and declined. But, thanks for posting!
-BL Show-]]

Our aim is to establish a distinction between doing an extreme type of deprivation program compared to a program such as ours, that is nutritionally sound—one day’s worth of BluePrintCleanse juices is equivalent to consuming fifteen to twenty pounds of fresh fruits and vegetables.

The critical concept of a raw juice cleanse that is often overlooked has to do with enzymes, and how most modern diets are severely deficient in them. The enzymes in living foods work to aid in digestion, whereas without that outside help, the body is depleting its own natural reserve of enzymes which can lead to various health and immunity issues. Consuming raw fruit and vegetable juice is the fastest and most convenient way for us to access that enzymatic benefit.

The notion that the body doesn’t need these sorts of measures in order to clean itself doesn’t take into consideration that most of what we eat today (i.e the packaged/processed/cooked diet) is NOT what the body was designed to consume.

We offer different levels to suit the needs of different people. Not everyone should be doing the same program. Further, not everyone should even be doing a full cleanse at all, particularly those with sugar issues such as Diabetes, people who are pregnant, nursing or on blood thinners. We make it an option to use our juices as a supplement, rather than exclusively as a cleanse, or a meal replacement.

We do not make specific medical claims, nor do we aim to be considered medical authorities. We simply offer access to what is difficult or inconvenient for many to re-create on their own.

Since our company was mentioned on the show, and unfortunately lumped in with other programs that are NOT the same, we hope to provide another point of view with our statement below. It is unfortunate that with the numerous medical professionals who do believe in the benefits of periodic juice cleansing, their point of view was not presented in today's show.

While the various health claims about fasting remain unsubstantiated, people seem drawn to fasting, especially this time of the year. It's traditional in many cultures. That makes sense: group fasting is a way to stretch the last stores of winter food into the spring, when hopefully more food will be available. Perhaps it's a survival mechanism that proved so successful that it became religious mandate?

For all we know our bodies might even have evolved to adapt to such fasting.

It makes sense that people are drawn to it, even if their stated reasons may be pure bunk.

I am a dedicated Brian fan and listen to the show almost everyday. I have a problem, however, with what seems to be consistently misguided critiques of alternative medicine/therapies. Why would you have an medical doctor from the world of pharmaceuticals on the show to talk about cleansing or vitamin supplements? You wouldn't have a chiropractor on the show to talk about a spinal surgery. If we're going to talk about cleansing, let's at least have someone on who is a Naturopath as well.

Suki, I'm totally with you. Do all these people have a job? How are they able to perform at work while not eating?? My husband and I try do go on a vegan diet for 2-4 weeks every spring. It is much easier to maintain.

I'm a nationally board certified acupuncturist and herbalist. Of course, eating well, lots of fruits and veggies, organically when possible, etc is ideal. The problem is that we don't do that all the time. I think a seasonal cleanse is a great idea. Ms. Sasson, who I felt was closed minded, says that our Liver and Kidneys do the cleansing...the problem is the back up - I think of it as the toxins standing in line to get out of the body, and if you shorten the line, more things will get through! We have quite a complicated endocrine system, and it's not as simple as either the cayenne/maple syrup cleanse says, or, as Ms. Sasson says. Hormones, especially, are impacted by our diet...and getting more balanced is never a bad idea. I think a ten day cleanse is too taxing on the body, however a day/week, isn't a bad idea, or, a cleanse per season, always makes sense, and personally, I believe it should involve supplements and real fruit/veggie juices. Of course, all of this depends on one's body types. Not all cleanses will work for everyone! And not everyone should cleanse!

I don't think I've ever agreed with a guest on this show MORE than this guest. "Fasting" has its place -- religious significance or political statements -- but otherwise, these "cleanses" are just a way for their manufacturers to make a buck capitalizing on lazy consumers who don't want to do it the hard (read: right) way -- exercising, eating right, and cutting out the junk. It's like Michael Pollan preaches: Eat low on the food chain, local, and clean.

Cleansing is a necessity a few times per year in our society because we consume such a high volume of processed foods, red meats. It's a plant-based diet, fresh organic juices and colon cleansing that keeps the body running at its optimal potential. For more information on cleansing, detoxification and the importance of whole food nutrition, visit www.TheHolisticOption.com

Fasting can have an important cleansing aspect. Toxins and other unhealthy chemicals can become stored in fat cells, and will remain there unless that fat gets broken down, which is exactly what happens when you fast long enough.

I wish Ms. Sasson and others would recognize that there are a LOT of people who eat fresh fruits and vegetables, exercise regularly, and strive to be healthy, but who ALSO fast regularly. Not everybody who detoxes spends the rest of the year drinking and smoking!

I've performed The Master Cleanse twice, both for three weeks at a time, replete with daily salt water flushes. What I took away from it, other than a renewed level of patience prior to leaving the house in the morning, was a sense that we, as humans, consume more than we really need. Long term, I have adopted a diet of moderation, which is certainly the most advisable way to go. Still, it was a very informative experience - though not one that I would heartily recommend to anyone at this point.

I want Denise's number!

moderation, moderation, moderation is the key.
whole grains and lots of veggies.

Good lord - juicing 6x a day??? Does this woman have a job?

Cleanses can be a good chance to break bad habits. After about a year of drinking a beer or two with dinner, after doing the Master's Cleanse, I broke that habit and now my dinners are(mostly)beer-free.

Kidneys and liver are overloaded with all the pesticides and other crap (sugar, pollution) we put in our bodies. That's why we develop dis-ease.

Seasonal cleanses are absolutely needed. Hate it when "experts" say otherwise.

17 year ago i worked on the west coast where the mable syrup clense was used. funny how it takes this long to get here. the entire film crew was on it for 7 days strait. hard workers 12-14 hrs work 6 days a week

I suffer irregularity despite being a vegetarian with a very well balanced diet. It's actually infuriating. So, from time to time, I replace my midday meal with one quart of Green Smoothie for a month at a time. Leafy greens with fruit and water taste fantastic and have incredible results.

I follow the [Norman] Walker Citrus Purge:
3 or more days of a laxative first thing in the morning (epsom salts, citrate of magnesium) followed by juice of 6 grapefruits, 2 lemons, and oranges to make 2 quarts, diluted with 2 quarts of water, throughout the day.
This purportedly helps with lymphatic drainage (not to mention intestinal flush).

Norman Walker was the pioneer of juicing and would follow this with a juice regimen.

Totally agree with your guest; the Master Cleanse is a scam.

You want a cheap, healthy cleanse? Fruits vegetables and water for a couple days.

This is like fasting. People think if they're miserable for a few days they can atone for how they treat their bodies the rest of the year. It's easier than being good all the time.

If you take care of yourself and give yourself an occasional treat you don't need any of this nonsense.

what about a liver cleanse? considering this is a vital organ that is a cleanser for your body.

what is the male female ratio on who cleanses?

I remember Kelsy Grammar (sp?) on one of the late-night talk shows talking about the water, lemon, cayenne, honey thing 10 or 20 years ago.

why not cleanse your body with whole grains and vegetables, fresh fruit and water!

Whatever benefits there might be to the Master Cleanse, to use it for weight loss could be an ideal first step in anorexia/bullemia

My husband and I went to Thailand over a year ago - we fasted for 10 days and did colonics twice daily. We were given scylium husk and vitamin supplements every day and allowed one bowl of broth. We each lost about 15 lbs and introduced foods slowly back into our diet over the following months. We continued to lose weight after the cleansing fast. We also felt great, had more energy and clarity of mind. I would recommend it to anyone.

Can Ms.Sasson please comment on the GM diet advocated by the General Motors corporation for cleansing your body and losing weight?

As an alumnus of NYU's Food Studies program, I am fascinated by this subject and have done a lot of research into it myself. What I find to be most intriguing about it is not the purported benefit or harm of cleansing regimens, but rather the sense among their proponents that food ultimately is a poison of which the body must be purged. It seems somehow oddly American that we would regard our nourishment in such a clinical light.

I had a dear friend in her late 30's drop dead on the floor of her garage 3 months after her wedding at the end of a 7 day fast. the medical determination was that her electrolyte levels fell to such a low level that her heart stopped. now i am not a medical professional and i am not sure of the details, but she is dead and the dr's blame the fasting. what a tragic story.

I've done the master cleanse - to purge long-term build up of toxins and stuff in the colon, as I have a lot of allergies - I have not used it for weight loss. The feeling of euphoria that your guest explains is not psychological - it's actually physical. After a couple of days of feeling terrible, having headaches, etc., you do feel light and focused in a way you might after doing yoga.

The real Master Cleanse consists of your Liver and Kidneys. Stop eating junk and let your organs deal with the toxins.

Master's Cleanse are more of an ascetic experience than a cleanse. There definitely is a euphoria that comes with it. I've done it, and I don't really buy the hype that either it will promote long lasting weight loss or gain. I lost weight and then gained it back, no net loss or gain.

By the way, they say that Grade B maple syrup is less refined and has more nutrients.

I won't be doing a 10 day cleanse anymore, but I'll do juice fasting for a day or two once or twice a year.

I tried the master cleanse process but only made it 5 days. It was not that hard to go without food, but rather the absence of the social aspect that surrounds food. I can go on a diet and still eat out with friends, yet sitting at a dinner table sipping my master cleans lemonade seemed impossible. I couldnt have dinner with my family, I couldnt go out with friends I just couldnt take the anti social aspect of the cleanse.

your body wasn't made to take a break.. you can burn fat by exercising.. and agree.. you're losing muscle mass.. (lean weight).. losing weight is pointless.. very toned and muscular people can weigh a lot because muscles are denser than fat.

Isn't a "cleanse" the same as a crash diet? And it's widely accepted that crash diets first, don't work for long-term weight loss, and second, are detrimental to health. Starvation is starvation, period.

Cleanse: isn't that what your kidneys and liver are for?