The Juice Cleanse Reset Diet (6 page)
Read The Juice Cleanse Reset Diet Online
Authors: Lori Kenyon Farley
A shocking 70 percent of processed foods sold in the United States today contain genetically modified organisms. Breakfast cereals; meal replacement, protein, or snack bars; and salad dressings are all commonly consumed foods that frequently contain GMOs. Conventional (nonorganic) corn, sugar, soy protein, cornstarch, and vegetable oil used in U.S. products almost always come from genetically modified crops.
Foods containing GMOs first hit supermarket shelves in the early 1990s. Due to lack of testing and long-term study of human health and environmental effects, sixty-one countries currently mandate the labeling of GMOs and dozens more have banned the import, sale, use, and planting of GMOs. Unfortunately, the United States currently has no regulations around the labeling of GMOs in food. Recently, a large consumer movement has demanded labeling GM foods within the United States. Thankfully, responsible businesses and consumer advocates are working to get GMOs in foods labeled. Whole Foods is leading the charge toward total food transparency in the United States, requiring that all GM foods in their stores be labeled by 2018.
• Until the FDA mandates labeling of GMOs, look for the Non-GMO Project seal. Learn more at
www.nongmoproject.org
.
Although soy food sales increased from $1 billion to more than $5.2 billion between 1996 and 2011, soy has now fallen from grace. A few short years ago, we were told to consume soy to prevent cancer, heart disease, and osteoporosis, and to fight inflammation. However, today research points to soy as a cause of estrogen-sensitive cancers, thyroid disease, and mineral deficiency.
What happened? Let’s start with the thought that not all soy is created equally. As the demand for soy increased and big food companies began using it in all sorts of products, it became a highly processed crop. A staggering 90 percent of soy in the United States has
been genetically modified! Just as corn is widely used in the food industry because it yields the most inexpensive form of carbohydrate, soy is abused in the modern food industry because it provides the most inexpensive form of fat and protein.
When it comes to consuming soy:
• Avoid overconsumption of hidden soy by removing processed food from your diet.
• Choose USDA organic to avoid genetically altered soy.
• Eat soy in moderation.
• Edamame and soybeans are the least processed forms of soy and are highly beneficial.
• Fermented soy products, like miso and tempeh, are great choices because the fermentation process neutralizes phytic acids, which may interfere with the absorption of minerals.
• Tofu and soy milk are good options as well, but they typically undergo more processing than edamame and tempeh do.
Registered dietician Ashley Koff, who has given her stamp of approval to our home-delivered Reset Cleanse, coined the term
qualitarian
and we think it’s brilliant. According to Ashley,
qualitarian
means, first and foremost, “that you choose to be the gatekeeper for what goes into your body. That you don’t feel deprived but rather empowered when you turn down a veggie burger with genetically engineered ingredients or hexane and enjoy one made from organic quinoa and mushrooms or a wild salmon burger or a grass-fed burger. It also means saying no to a ready-to-eat salad of chemically sprayed lettuces in favor of cooking your own organic broccoli. And it means taking pride in being smarter than the front of a package or a commercial.” The foundation of all sound eating philosophies is built on eating high-quality pure food.
Whether you’re a vegan, vegetarian, pescetarian, or omnivore has little to do with whether you’re eating a low-nutrient, high-crap diet. As a vegan, you could include lots of genetically engineered corn and soy products. As a vegetarian, you could overdose on the rBST in the creamer you dump in your morning coffee, in your grilled cheese at lunch, and again on your post-dinner pint of ice cream. As a pescetarian, you could fill your plate with toxin-ridden, farm-raised fish and pesticide-filled veggies. As an omnivore, you could eat hormone- and antibiotic-laden poultry or beef. The point is that none of these terms automatically equates with healthy. Whichever category you fit into, achieving your optimum health requires you to fill your diet with the highest quality foods that fit into your chosen lifestyle.
For centuries, people have used fasting—whether for spiritual reasons or to clear addictions, heal ailments, improve mental clarity, or increase energy—as a way to give the body a break and to embrace the new. Historically, fasting involves consuming only water, so the energy typically used for digestion can be saved. However, a water fast—which provides zero nutrients—doesn’t generally work with the demanding, fast-paced lifestyle most of us lead. So we have developed a way for you get all of the benefits of fasting (and more), while also nourishing your body with whole foods!
Although the Juice Cleanse Reset Diet begins with a seven-day plan (or perhaps longer, depending on how long you stay in each phase), we teach you the skills to reset for life. We want you to pay attention to how you feel each day throughout the program in order to better understand your own body, thoughts, cravings, taste, and attitude. The key to making positive changes begins with understanding where your health is now.
Depending on your current lifestyle and habits, you may have one obstacle, or you may have many. For some of you, the issue is that you don’t really know what to eat, because there is so much conflicting information from various experts. For others, you have just gotten into bad habits. For still others, you may make healthy choices most of the time, but occasionally you lapse (for example, you just got back from a vacation where you indulged a little too much). Depending on where you are currently, you may have only a minimal amount of toxins in your body, or you may be storing them in all of your cells.
The short test that follows will help you determine your “type,” which, in turn, will indicate how you should approach your individual cleanse program for maximum results. Your current habits and lifestyle will impact whether you need to reset your attitude and mindset, your energy level, your metabolism, your taste buds, your digestive system, your weight, your beauty, or all seven.
Choose the answers below that best match your lifestyle. Choose only one answer for each question.
How do you feel about your current weight?
A:
I am at or within five pounds of my ideal weight.
B:
I can’t seem to lose that last ten pounds!
C:
I seem to struggle and yo-yo with a twenty-pound swing.
D:
I am thirty or more pounds overweight.
How often do you eat fruits and veggies?
A:
Nearly every meal includes fruit or vegetables.
B:
I eat some type of fruit or vegetable pretty much every day
C:
I rarely eat fruit or vegetables.
D:
I just don’t like vegetables.
Do you exercise?
A:
I work out three to five times per week.
B:
I fit in workouts intermittently, when my schedule allows, at least once or twice per week.
C:
I don’t work out, but my job and life keep me pretty active.
D:
I lead a very sedentary lifestyle.
How many times do you drink alcohol per week?
A:
I don’t drink any alcohol.
B:
Only on special occasions.
C:
I try to limit my drinking to the weekends rather than during the week.
D:
I have a couple of drinks with dinner most every evening.
What do think when you see the word
natural
on a label?
A:
I ignore it and look for the USDA symbol.
B:
Natural
means no dyes or chemicals, right?
C:
Isn’t
natural
the same as organic?
D:
I’ve never thought about it before.
How often do you drink water?
A:
I’m never without it.
B:
I have a couple of glasses a day.
C:
Once in a while, but I prefer other drinks.
D:
Almost never, only when I don’t have other choices.
How often do you eat sweets like cookies, candy, or pastries?
A:
I never eat sugar.
B:
On special occasions.
C:
Once or twice a week.
D:
At least once a day.
How many cups of coffee do you drink per day?
A:
I never drink coffee.
B:
Two or three times a week.
C:
I have one cup of coffee every morning.
D:
Several throughout the day.
How often do you eat fried food?
A:
Almost never.
B:
Only occasionally, when I eat out at a restaurant.
C:
A few times a week.
D:
Most every day, since most of my meals are on the go.
How often do you consume sodas (including diet) and energy drinks?
A:
Never.
B:
Once in a while, as a treat.
C:
One every day.
D:
More than two every day.
How many servings of red meat do you eat per week?
A:
I never eat it.
B:
I only eat red meat on occasion.
C:
A couple of times per week.
D:
Most days.
How often do you consume dairy products like milk, cheese, and yogurt?
A:
I try to avoid them.
B:
A few times per week.
C:
Daily.
D:
A few times a day.
Do you take any probiotic or digestive supplements?
A:
I take a supplement every day.
B:
I eat yogurt every day.
C:
I eat yogurt several times a week.
D:
I am not sure I know what they are.
Do you drink juice?
A:
Yes, I make my own fruit and vegetable blends every day.
B:
I go to the juice bar a couple of times a week.
C:
There is always a carton of juice from the supermarket in my fridge.
D:
I rarely drink any type of juice.
When eating out, which dressing would you choose on your salad?
A:
Olive oil and lemon or vinegar.
B:
Vinaigrette on the side.
C:
Whatever dressing it comes with.
D:
Ranch, blue cheese, or anything creamy.
To score, add up the number of A, B, C, and D answers. If you have:
Mostly As, you are type 1
Mostly Bs, you are type 2
Mostly Cs, you are type 3
Mostly Ds, you are type 4
Type 1:
You are the health enthusiast who has gotten off track and needs to reset to your normal healthy eating. For you, the Juice Cleanse Reset Diet will be more about resetting your taste buds and your attitude. You may have gotten accustomed to the taste of processed food, and you may be making bad choices unconsciously. You should follow the Juice Cleanse Reset Diet as presented here and spend two days in the precleanse phase. After the cleanse, you will
find yourself naturally craving healthier foods and find it easier to make better choices.
Type 2:
You are the weekend warrior who tends to eat well during the week and indulge on the weekend, but needs a reset to make more consistently healthy choices. You will need to spend three days in the precleanse phase to clear your body of the remnants of too much caffeine, alcohol, or processed food. You probably won’t need to worry about detox symptoms, but by precleansing for this amount of time, you will reset your attitude, taste buds, metabolism, and digestive system to make your cleanse as enjoyable, easy, and effective as possible.