BACK ON THE JUICE

The sweet health promises of juice and smoothie cleanses have been revealed to be anything but. Now, this roundly debunked diet method is flowing back into fashion – but why?

The unwelcome return of a debunked detox trend

There’s a grainy green solution in a blender. The word ‘detox’ is being thrown around and there are even some before-and-after selfies comparing day one with day 10. No, you haven’t stumbled on to kitchen appliances hour on QVC circa 2007, nor a dated diet page on Facebook, but on to Lizzo’s Tiktok in December 2020. The 33-year-old singer told her 13 million fans that she was doing a ‘smoothie detox’ for her health, and while the global poster girl for ‘good as hell’ body positivity might be the last person you’d expect to be digging up a nutritional relic from the noughties, she’s not the only one.

Shortly after Lizzo’s smoothies went viral, Salma Hayek’s penchant for juicing was given as the prime reason behind a series of age-defying bikini snaps the 54-year-old actress posted to Instagram. Proving that the allure of drinking your meals spans generations, there are now millions of videos tagged #smoothiecleanse and #juicecleanse on Tiktok, of which 40% of users are below the age of 24. And it seems the pandemic has only lubricated this trend – online searches for both terms spiked in late June and early July 2020, just ahead of the pubs reopening, before reaching another peak in early January this year. Of course, there’s nothing wrong with sipping your way to your five-a-day, be it via a smoothie (where whole pieces of fruit and/or vegetables are blended together) or a juice (where liquid is extracted from the fruit or vegetable); it’s the ‘cleanse’ part of this trend – the idea that you

substitute meals for fruit in liquid form for anything from one to 10 days – that has dietitians concerned. In an era when we really ought to know better, why are liquid cleanses doing the rounds once again?

THROWBACK THIRSTY

While the concept has been around since 1941 – when alternative health practitioner Stanley Burroughs created ‘the master cleanse’ (10 days of lemon juice mixed with maple syrup, cayenne pepper and spring water) – they hit the mainstream when Beyoncé revealed that she’d lost 20lb in two weeks on the regime ahead of her 2006 role in Dreamgirls. Then along came Instagram in 2010, and pictures of rainbow-hued beverages through an X Pro II filter helped liquid fruit and veg to become the first viral wellness trend, prompting grab-and-go versions to pop up everywhere from Sainsbury’s to Starbucks. Throw in a handful of studies supporting the health benefits of sipping on your five-a-day – kale, citrus and carrot-based juices were reported to potentially reduce heart disease risk, while the latter was also linked to lower oxidative stress in the cells of women treated for breast cancer – and you begin to understand why juices and smoothies became synonymous with optimum health.

But by the close of the noughties, the trend was beginning to leave a bitter taste. Doctors warned that it was becoming society’s most acceptable form of eating disorder, prompting the emergence of the term ‘juicerexics’. A 2015 analysis by Harvard Medical School warned of the need to differentiate between drinking juice as part of a ‘cleanse’ and consuming on the fly; even former fan Gwyneth Paltrow walked away from the trend, announcing that she had given up on cleanses on an episode of the Goop podcast in 2018. In recent years, cleanses have fallen firmly out of favour, replaced instead by more evidence-based approaches. Think: eating a variety of fruit, veg and pulses – peppered with fermented foods – to support gut health; and canning the idea of ‘good’ and ‘bad’ foods to eat more intuitively.

Or so we thought. Fast forward to 2021 and the basic principle – that you exclusively, or mostly, sip on liquid fruit and vegetables for anything from one day up to 10 – has barely changed. While you can do the blending or juicing yourself (expect to pay up to £500 for the top-rated machines), you can also pay a premium for someone else to do it, with companies charging up to £50 a day for the privilege of premade drinks delivered to your doorstep; the exclusive vibe amped up by lifestyle photographs featuring dumbbells and jade rollers alongside endorsements from nutritionists. And the same sweet promises are doing the rounds. Primarily, that’s weight loss, closely followed by ‘detoxing’ your body, alongside assurances of brighter skin, better sleep and boosted energy. If cleansing has had the equivalent of an IOS update, it’s in the adoption of trending health terms; terms like ‘boosted immunity’, ‘nourishing’ and ‘health promoting’.

SQUEEZED OUT

So, is there a health case to be made for the cleansing revival? The short answer is no. Every dietitian

WH contacted for this piece described the trend of forgoing meals in favour of liquidised fruit and veg for days at a time as a negative one. ‘You risk nausea, tiredness, headaches, irritability…’ says registered dietitian and British Dietetics Association spokesperson Marcela Fiuza (marcelanutrition.com), reeling off the side effects you can expect to endure on a cleanse. She explains that while smoothies are healthier than juices – since the former involves the whole fruit as opposed to the extracted liquid – when you begin to consume them as a substitute for meals, you put your nutrition at risk. The idea that a fruit-focused cleanse will provide you with many essential micronutrients is ironic, she points out, since they also deprive you of key macronutrients. ‘Protein, carbs and fats are just as important as micronutrients for your body to function optimally, and they’re vital for your brain as well as your energy levels.’ As for those essential nutrients, if you opt for juicing – which removes skin, remember – the process can also downgrade the proven health benefits of certain produce.

Apples, for one, are stripped of so much of their vitamin, mineral and antioxidant content when liquidised. And you can forget fibre – the gut microbiome-supporting, blood sugar-stabilising and bowel movement-regulating benefits of which go out in the compost along with the mound of leftover roughage. That’s before you consider the sugar content – a single serving of juice contains somewhere between 5g and 20g of sugar per 200ml, which makes up most of the 30g daily limit for adults, as recommended by the World Health Organization.

Claims that cleanses of all kinds – be that juices, smoothies or lemon water – have the power to ‘detox’ your body also wither under the microscope. Humans already have the most efficient, in-built system to get rid of toxins, notes Fiuza – the kidneys and liver. What’s more, without adequate fuel, they won’t be able to do their job – and there have been very rare instances of organ failure. ‘Never mind that there’s no research showing cleanses are effective,’ she warns. ‘There’s no evidence to suggest they’re safe.’ As for ‘boosting immunity’ – a health goal that, for obvious reasons, has rocketed up the priority list over the past year and a bit: ‘The gut is one of the main components of your immune system – so the idea that you would want to give it a “break” is counterintuitive,’

‘Never mind that there’s no proof they’re effective, there’s nothing to say they’re safe’

she adds, noting that you’d be terrified if someone suggested you give your brain or heart a time out. ‘These cleanses are promoted with clever, enticing language – but they’re not grounded in science at all.’

If all that’s not enough to put you off, the central paradox with cleanses is that they often sabotage the very health goal they purport to help people attain. Because while driving down daily calories to between 800 and 1,200 will indeed result in you losing pounds, it’s neither a healthy nor sustainable way to lose weight. ‘While protein powder is often added to

smoothies, which is crucial for weight loss because it preserves your muscle mass and keeps your metabolism working optimally, a juice cleanse sees protein cut out completely, ’ adds Fiuza. ‘Instead, your body goes into starvation mode through calorie restriction – as part of an evolutionary mechanism designed to protect you during periods of famine.

Your metabolism slows down in order to reduce the number of calories your body burns, causing weight loss to stall. Once you resume eating, weight regain tends to occur.’ So, after you’ve completed what is, essentially, a crash diet by another name, your system will be actively working against your aim. Wrapped up in this, adds registered dietitian Roslyn Gray – who specialises in helping people with disordered eating – is that cleanses could exacerbate pre-existing conditions, like anorexia or bulimia, or provide a gateway into a problematic relationship with food.

TOXIC A-PEEL

It all adds up to a compelling case for giving this particular trend a wide berth. So if there’s no evidence to suggest that cleanses are healthy – and plenty to suggest they aren’t – what’s prompted their revival? Dr Christy Fergusson, chartered health psychologist and nutritional therapist (@thefoodpsychologist), believes they never went away. ‘The mindset hasn’t changed – it’s just that the “remedy” has evolved over time into a different guise,’ she explains, of how Atkins, keto and juice and smoothie cleanses are essentially one and the same. ‘Whether it’s restricting calories or restricting food groups, it’s diet culture in a fresh guise.’ She believes that key to the appeal of a cleanse in particular is the promise of fast results – messaging we’re particularly vulnerable to right now. In September last year, a parliamentary report by the Women and Equalities Committee found that 53% of adults felt worse about their appearance over the first lockdown than they did before the pandemic, while an October study by Anglia Ruskin University uncovered a link between coronavirus worries and body dissatisfaction, as well as a desire for ‘thinness’. And when you’re in this state of mind, you’re more at risk of making poor dietary choices, notes Gray. ‘Research conducted prior to the pandemic found that higher body dissatisfaction is associated with a risk of unhealthy eating behaviours and eating disorders,’ she says. ‘Add in the pressures that come with the relaxing of restrictions and the resumption of socialising, and apparent quick fixes – like juice cleanses – seem all the more attractive right now.’

The resurgence of cleanses also comes at a time when experts have already warned about a ‘tsunami’ of eating disorders due to the pressures of the pandemic. Recent research, published in the journal Appetite, linked such psychological distress to being more preoccupied with food, with women thought to be particularly at risk. Gray, whose own eating disorder team has seen a sharp rise in referrals, points to how national eating disorder charity Beat saw a 173% rise in requests for support between January 2020 and February 2021. ‘Eating disorders thrive on isolation,’ she says, noting that recovery can be hard without the usual support systems in place, such as family or friends, while being away from the workplace or place of education means it can be easier to hide if there’s a problem. ‘But what I’ve seen from sitting in on assessments of those in their teens and twenties, in particular, is the rise of Tiktok,’ she notes, pointing to the ‘what I eat in a day’ style videos – the format of

Lizzo’s controversial clip. ‘People don’t realise how influential they are actually being online – particularly celebrities,’ she adds, of how emotive music and can’t-look-away images that play to the platform’s algorithm can hook people in.

A BETTER BLEND

While the cultural landscape provides fertile ground for cleanses to boom in popularity this summer, our experts are unequivocal: if you enjoy a juice or smoothie now and again to help you along the way to your daily fruit and vegetable target, knock yourself out. A recent Harvard study concluded that two fruit and three veg is the most longevityboosting mix; blitzing your fruit and veg

‘Whether it’s restricting calories or restricting food groups, it’s diet culture in a fresh guise’

in a blender to create a smoothie is preferable to juicing (less faff, more fibre); and giving over 75% of your juice to veg, instead of fruit, will help keep a lid on the sugar content. Just don’t, warns Fiuza, substitute your whole diet for them.

As for protecting yourself from the messaging you’re being exposed to right now – be that in your digital spaces or in the pub with friends? ‘Steer clear of content containing language such as “quick fix” and “detox”, as well as anything that promises that you’ll lose a certain amount of weight over a period of days or weeks,’ says Gray, adding that you should also exercise caution around diets that involve cutting out whole food groups. Be mindful of where you’re getting your nutrition advice, too. ‘Consider, is it a celebrity or influencer – someone recommending a product or way of eating for monetary gain?’ You can be sure to find qualified advice from dietitians – a protected job title. While many nutritionists are also properly trained, anyone can call themselves one. If you’re unsure, find one with legit qualifications on the Association for Nutrition’s voluntary register.

The calls for moderation might be less ripe for likes than a rainbow-hued liquid in a ’grammable glass; less likely to go viral, too. But then again, the nutrition advice that, when followed, helps you build up – bit by bit – to the healthiest version of you; the stuff that’s truly rooted in science? It rarely does.