Juice Cleanse or Master Cleanse What is the difference?

By Tom Woloshyn, The Lemonade Guy

To understand why one would choose either the Master Cleanse (Lemonade Diet) or a juicing diet, you first need to know the differences between one diet and the other. There are a number of factors in the way either of these diets are digested and assimilated and their energetic effect on the body, which are quite different from each other.

The digestive system can use as much as 30% of the body’s total energy output to make the nutrients in what you eat bioavailable for the cells in the body.  Everything you eat has to be converted into a liquid soluble form and into small particulate so that the nutrients necessary to nourish our bodies can pass through the small intestinal tract. (Fats have to be emulsified or reduced to very small particles as well to pass into the bloodstream.) 

Here is where both the Master Cleanse and a juice diet are similar in that they are already in a liquid state. Either liquid still needs enzymatic action to further reduce them into a simpler form that can readily be absorbed by the body. 

Here is where the first difference between using juices or lemonade becomes apparent, as lemonade is much easier to digest and assimilate than vegetable or other fruit juices. It might not seem obvious that this would be a factor, however, I can speak from experience, as I have been on the Master Cleanse for a few days and tried drinking freshly pressed carrot juice. I immediately felt some heaviness in my stomach and noticed my energy level starting to drop within a few minutes.

This extra amount of effort put forth by the digestive system might seem insignificant to someone unfamiliar with how the body can actually cleanse or detoxify itself. The body will transition into a detoxification phase only when the digestive system has almost entirely been shut down. 

Digestion and detoxification cannot happen at the same time, just as you cannot walk and run at the same time, so it is only when we stop putting food into the digestive system that this often misunderstood and underappreciated metabolic state can begin. Digestion continues to take place, but instead of food being broken down, unhealthy tissues and cells, plus accumulated wastes and mucus, are being broken down to be eliminated or recycled. 

The process of autolysis is when the body can, for example, break down proteins in the body where they are no longer needed and recycle them. In fact, your body will recycle up to 80% of the amino acids released from these proteins and reuse them elsewhere in the body. Autolysis will be far more effective while one is cleansing than when one is eating.

If you have done a juice diet in the past, but not the Master Cleanse, I would challenge you to do the Master Cleanse properly and make a direct comparison.

Many years ago, a man showed up at my door as someone had suggested he talk to me about the Master Cleanse. He had done 25 different cleansing diets in the past. I told him if he had not done the Master Cleanse, he had not truly experienced a full body cleansing, and that he had to do the Master Cleanse and do it right.  He came back to my door after 2 weeks saying he would never do another diet but the Master Cleanse as it worked much more effectively than any other diet and that his energy was so good he was able to continue working at his job, which was a surprise to him.

In my next article, I will discuss another very important aspect of the cleansing process that can only happen while on the Master Cleanse.

If you are new to cleansing, download my free PDF on how cleansing jumpstarts your health journey!