Juice Bar Detox 101

By Cate Stillman

Interview with Cate on Juice Bar Detox 101

I was asked a bunch of questions by Sarah Murray, a student reporting on the juice bars of Chicago for HUBBUB blog. You probably already know this, but just in case.juicebar

1. How long to juice fast?

That depends on the level of toxicity. A good place to start is 3 days. 7-10 days will effectively detox your lymph and blood. 21 days will get much deeper, and some people juice feast for one to 3 months. We’re all at different levels of mind-body integration. If you’ve been eating the standard american diet, you can ease in with a 3-10 day juice fast.

2. Why drink more juice?

Juice added to a Standard American Diet won’t make much of an impact. It’s more about what you’re taking out. Take everything else out – the coffee and muffin, the turkey sandwich, the chicken and rice, and glass of wine, and your body naturally starts to optimize. For most people, optimizing means detox. Fasting on juice versus water has the added benefit of flushing your cells and energizing your blood and brain.

3. Prepackaged vs. Fresh Juice?

One has usable nutrients from the plants and the other just adds calories without nutrients. Our ecosystem, where the plants (fruits and vegetables) come from is alive. The fewer steps between being plucked from the living plant to being chewed in your mouth (chew your liquids, drink your foods), The more alive the plants -the more the plants lend their intelligence and energy to your system. You get smarter and energized. The more processed and manipulated the plant is between harvest and consumption – the less intelligence and energy it can lend to you.

4. Do most juice bars use good ingredients?

They can’t. Organic juicing is very expensive, and much cheaper if you buy half cases of vegetables in bulk and do it at home. The next wave of what we’ll see is green smoothie bars. It’s much cheaper, it adds fiber, which is a scrub brush for your body. But, you need to start with where you are at. If you’re choosing between coffee and a green juice – one will take away nutrients (like calcium) from your blood and bones. The other will add nutrients and energy. The cost is short term (adrenaline rush vs. energy rush) and long term (adrenal depletion which will trigger endocrine disruption) or deep integration, disease prevention, and acceleration of wellness.