the usual Western fashion. Juice fasts are therefore
regarded as a way of restoring balance within the
person’s physical constitution rather than as ‘‘treat-
ments for illness’’ in the Western sense.
The second major influence on the popularity of
juice fasts in Canada and the United States is natur-
opathy, which is an approach to health care that
developed out of the natural healing movement in
Germany and North America in the late nineteenth
century. Naturopaths of the twenty-first century use a
variety of techniques in treating patients, including
hydrotherapy, spinal manipulation, and physical ther-
apy as well as nutrition and dietary advice. Like Ayur-
veda, naturopathy emphasizes prevention of disease
and recommends noninvasive treatments that rely on
the body’s own self-healing powers. Juice fasts are an
important part of naturopathic dietary therapy.
The third factor that has contributed to interest in
juice fasts since the 1970s has been the widespread
adoption of vegetarian and vegan lifestyles. People
who are concerned in general to minimize or eliminate
meat from their diet, whether for environmental, reli-
gious, or health-related reasons, are often drawn to
juice fasts as periodic intensifications of their normal
vegetarian practices. Two subgroups of vegetarians
that are particularly likely to practice regular juice
fasts are raw-food vegetarians and fruitarians. Raw-
food vegetarians, also known as raw foodists, are
attracted to juice fasts and juicing because of their
belief that cooking destroys most of the nutrients in
food. The two best-known proponents of juice therapy
in the 1980s, Jay Kordich, ‘‘the Juiceman,’’ and Ber-
nard Jensen, a chiropractor in California who died in
2001, were both raw-food vegetarians.
Description
The following description focuses on juice fasting
as it is usually practiced in North America, as the
Ayurvedic practice of pancha karma has already
been summarized.
Preparation
Most practitioners of juice fasting recommend
restricting it to the warmer months of the year, or
traveling to a spa in a warm climate for a wintertime
juice fast. Most people undergo juice fasting only once
or twice a year; however, some undergo a one-day
juice fast every week, or a two-day fast once a month.
Beginning 7 to 10 days before the fast, the person
should reduce their intake or eliminate entirely all
stimulants (coffee, tea, cocoa, and cola drinks), alco-
holic beverages, animal meats, fish, eggs and dairy
products, sugar, and wheat. The diet during this prep-
aration period should consist entirely of organic fruits,
vegetables, and beans.Making and consuming the juice
The dieter is instructed to drink between 32 and 64
ounces of juice per day, with 6 glasses of warm filtered
waterin addition. Some therapists recommend one or
more cups of herbal tea each day in addition to the
juice and water. The juice should be made in a juicer
from fresh organic produce; prepackaged juices should
not be used because they are pasteurized to retard
spoilage. The heat required for pasteurization destroys
some of the vitaminsand enzymes in the fruit. If
organic fruits and vegetables are unavailable, ordinary
supermarket produce may be used, provided it is peeled
or washed in a special produce cleaner (available at
health food stores) to remove pesticide residue. A com-
bination of fruits and vegetables is recommended
rather than fruit or vegetable juice alone. The juice
should be consumed within half an hour of processing
in the juicer because the natural enzymes in the fruits or
vegetables begin to break down the other nutrients in
the juice after that time. It should not be refrigerated.
There are a number of recipe books for combining
fruit and vegetable juices to make the fast as tasty as
possible. Fruits and vegetables that are commonly
recommended in these books for juicing include:
Greens: parsley, beet greens, kale, chard, celery, spi-
nach, dandelion greens
Cruciferous vegetables: broccoli, cabbage, Brussels
sprouts
Root vegetables: carrots, beets, sweet potatoes
Fruits: grapes, apples, watermelon, pineapple, cran-
berries, strawberries, peaches, some citrus fruits
Herbs: fennel, yucca, spearmint, peppermint, basil,
ginger, garlic
Wheatgrass and bean sprouts
Aloe vera gel: sometimes taken orally as part of a
juice fast for treatment of arthritisBowel care
An important part of juice fasting is the use of
laxatives or enemas to cleanse the lower digestive tract
because the juice will not supply enoughfiberto keep
the bowels moving. Since many practitioners believe
that juice fasts are necessary to detoxify the body, the
removal of wastes is considered essential to prevent the
toxins in the digestive tract from being reabsorbed into
the bloodstream. Some juice therapists recommend
mixtures of slippery elm or other herbs to cleanse theJuice fasts