master cleanse- life science perspective

kellyannekellyanne Raw Newbie

the following are excerpts from rawfoodexplained. anyone considering a master cleanse should read all of this.

Maple Syrup

http://www.rawfoodexplained.com/sugars-and-other-sweeteners/the-cousins-of-sugar.html

"If it comes from a tree, it must be okay for you to eat, right? Wrong. While maple syrup comes from a natural source (like fructose and sucrose for that matter) and it does contain some nutrients, it still is a nutritionally unbalanced food. It undergoes high-heating and adulteration in its processing and manufacture.

Besides being concentrated and deadened by high heat, maple syrup may also be contaminated by paraformaldehyde which is used during the tapping process to destroy bacteria. Formaldehyde compounds are poisonous and certainly should not be eaten in food.

Maple syrup is rarely a pure food; other sugars and sweeteners may be mixed in and added without telling the consumer. Sugar, corn syrup, and other refined sugars can be used to stretch out the more expensive maple syrup. Maple syrup is not a pure and unprocessed product; high heating alone makes it inferior and undesirable in an optimum diet. The sugars present in the syrup have become concentrated beyond their natural strength by the introduction of heat in its manufacture. Maple syrup seems to be especially popular with vegans (people who eat no animal products, such as honey), however, they should be aware that maple syrup is still a refined sweetener that has no proper place in the human dietary."

Cayenne Pepper

http://www.rawfoodexplained.com/condiments/specific-condiments.html

"Hot peppers are often used to spice up dishes, especially in Mexican, Oriental and Indian cooking. Cayenne or red pepper is perhaps the most popular, and it is also often recommended by herb enthusiasts as a general "cure-all."

Jethro Kloss, an herbalist and author of Back To Eden, described cayenne pepper as "one of the most wonderful herb medicines we have...it is good in all forms of diseases, and is almost a certain remedy for all maladies." He and other herbalists have advised us to gargle with cayenne pepper, put it on open wounds, use it for ulcers and to sprinkle it in our socks to keep our feet warm. There has been a lot of promotion for cayenne pepper and many people have been convinced that it can be used for all manner of ailments.

The truth is that cayenne pepper, along with all other hot peppers, chilies, etc., contain harmful alkaloids which are even more injurious than the common black pepper. When cayenne and hot peppers are eaten, the body is thrown into an emergency state in an attempt to eliminate the toxic oils and substances in the peppers.

Suppose a young child eats a hot pepper, what happens? Most likely, he will cry, he may vomit or experience diarrhea, and he will certainly feel like his mouth and stomach are on fire. He will not be anxious to repeat the experience. A child's body is still pure and sensitive enough to detect the harmful substances in hot peppers. An adult who has abused his digestive system for a number of years on a conventional diet merely experiences that momentary burning warning which is the weakened body's signal to avoid the hot pepper.

All hot peppers contain a poisonous alkaloid called piperidin and a harmful crystalline substance known as piperin. Hot peppers also have acrid resins and volatile oils which irritate the digestive and urinary tracts. Cayenne pepper also contains an alkaloid called capsicin which irritates the body so severely that circulation is rapidly increased in order to remove it from the system.

This is why hot peppers make you feel "warm"

Comments

  • joannabananajoannabanana Raw Newbie

    This was really interesting because I tried this cleanse for a day and practically fainted by the end of it. I think the drink tastes good, but honestly, how healthy is it to eat large amounts of maple syrup and cayenne pepper??

    Great post!!

  • kellyannekellyanne Raw Newbie

    thank you! i am so glad i never tried it. i just couldn't see how it was possible to cleanse your body with maple syrup and an irritant.

  • Thanks Kelli, that's good info to consider! Some people who have not tried and experienced the postive effects of the MC may decide not to try it and may look for other alternatives. To each their own and we need to only do what it is we are comfortable with. Having done the MCand knowing how it felt and how my body reacted, and directly knowing friends who have done longer than I did and more times and had amazing results and experiences from it also, AND reading the hundreds and hundreds of people who have posted about their positive experiences and better health resulting from it on numeorus forums, I will say that the MC seems to be legitimate in itsbenefits. Water fasts are great for a shot term fast, from my understanding, but are not the most healthy for longer term as no nutrients are being taken in... but the MC provides nutrients in a simple form (same as a Watemelon Diet, and juice fasts/feasts) so you are able to go for longer periods letting your body detox. Eating raw, pure foods is a form of detoxing, just much slower than kicking it up a notch with the fast/detox-cleanses, too.

    It's interesting that it says cayenne pepper causes mucus, because I always have some mucus in my throat almost every morning, but when I did the MC I quit having any after the first 2-3 days. The amount of cayenne pepper taken is very tiny.

    As with anything, it is always best to throughly research any of these types of cleanses very thoroughly before deciding to undertake any, of course.

    JoannaBanana- (cute name, btw) did you happen to read any books on the MC before trying it or did you go soley off of info found on the internet? I tried it once previously, but didn't drink enough drinks like recommend (minumum of six 10 oz drinks a day, which is only 6 cups) and got really light-headed, naseuous, and dizzy and had to eat something. If you do not follow the simple directions to the tee, you will run into problems like I did or longer detox symptoms, etc. it is also important to read a book on it to understand it thoroughly, not just get the measurements of the drink contents off the internet and so on. :)

  • kellyannekellyanne Raw Newbie

    the difference between a juice fast or any other fast besides a water fast is that you are still taking something in your body which means that your body has to use some energy to digest and/or assimilate it. it especially needs to use energy if you are putting in irritants because it now has to protect itself and cleanse itself of the added toxins.

    i know people can lose weight from a master cleanse because of the low amount of calories but given all the evidence of cayenne being an irritant it isn't logical to conclude that it could be used to cleanse and heal.

    if you take a fresh cayenne pepper and cut it open and handle it with bare hands your skin will BURN and i mean BURN. so why would it be any different going through your delicate digestive tract? the more you use it, the less sensitive you become because your body starts to produce a thicker membrane to protect itself.

    a lot of people seem to experience benefits from a master cleanse because their diets are really unhealthy in comparison. they are also taking in a lot less calories than usual which means that their bodies are able to use more energy to heal. it has nothing to do with the maple syrup, cayenne, and lemon. nothing can heal or cleanse the body better than the body.

    a healthier option would be a watermelon or banana diet in which there are no irritants or syrups. you get fiber, fructose for energy, water, vitamins and minerals and no spike in blood sugar (like you would have with the maple syrup because their is fiber to help the sugar get released slowly) and no side affects like mucous production from the cayenne.

    we really have to be logical when we are thinking about using such things.

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