What’s the minimum amount of food I have to eat so that my digestive system doesn’t slow down in the way that it would during a juice fast?
I’m on day 10 of a juice fast and even though I don’t want to end it, I need to start transitioning back to food so that If I’m in a situation where I have to eat, it won’t really mess up my stomach because of my dormant digestive system suddenly having solid foods thrown into it.
So instead of ending it all together, I’d like to just adjust my food intake from 0% to the minimum percentage of food I can eat before my digestion system will start shutting down as if I was fasting.
Could my daily intake still be 80% juice and 20% food without my digestive system being put in a position where eating a steak could severely fuck up my stomach? What would that threshold be? I just want to maximize the % of my intake that is juice without my digestion going dormant.
For those wondering why I would ever be in a position where I would have to eat regular food without much notice, it’s because of work. I often have to attend dinners without much notice (a day or 2) and as dumb as it may be, going to dinner and declining to eat because of a juice fast would be looked at as strange and would possibly impact how I’m looked at in a way that I don’t want. I know, it’s dumb, but I’m young and these people are old school to them it would be hippy bullshit. So basically I need to avoid a situation where I’m on day 15 of a fast and find out that the next day I have to go to a dinner at an Italian restaurant or a steakhouse.
Posted Jan 18, 2019, 4:29 PM UTC
That's not how it works at all. Your digestive system doesn't go dormant just because you are juicing. You can still digest things, and you will digest everything you eat (that can be digested).
I've done a 30 day juice fast, and then immediately ate a huge meal of all sorts of crap (including meat). Nothing happened. Continued with a regular diet after that. No problems.
The idea behind jucing is that you take all the fiber out of your diet, so all the stuff you're consuming gets absorbed into your body quickly - and doesn't have a lot of indigestable waste (fiber). Basically it allows your large intestine to empty.
That doesn't mean any of those systems go dormant.
They still are active, and still work.
Oh well I feel dumb. I read comments on this sub and online about how bad that is for your stomach and that you could end up in the hospital and shit. That’s good to know.
There's a lot of FUD out there on juicing , "detoxing", and "cleansing" .. Why? Because it makes a LOT of $$$ for people. Your body does "detox" every day, on it's own. It's why we poop and pee.
Will you feel different? Probably. But there are many reasons why that aren't anything to do with the crap put out there online. After juicing will it feel different to have a full stomach and intestine? Yeah, sure, but you'll still be able to eat and crap and pee and do all the things your body does naturally. I would also suggest not putting crap food back into your system after juicing, meaning meats, processed foods, foods that are empty (no nutritional value). It's just not good for you in general, and you'll feel the difference after eating real food (veggie juice).
The reason juicing works for a lot of over weight people is because it is, at its core, a plant based whole food diet that contains no animal products, no dairy, and no oils. Calories in and calories out still counts for the weight loss part. The plant based part is way more healthy then whatever the crap you were eating before was. Net result? You get healthier and you lose weight.
But juicing is not the way to live your life every day. It's a good way to kick start a transition into a plant based real foods diet.
In my opinion, (and I know a lot of people like to downvote opinions here) - Smoothies are a great way to continue the juicing into something more sustainable. Your body needs the fiber to slow down the absorption of the sugars found in any juice. It also helps to make you feel full.
Solution? Smoothie for breakfast , plant based diet for lunch + dinner.