So my roommate is trying the Master Cleanse and started it today. Supposedly it will detoxify you and make it possible to eat well and lose weight. He's strong willed enough to do it, but I feel like it's a bad idea.

Basically, you drink a liter of sea salt/water in the morning which will make you deuce. During the day, you drink a mixture of lemon juice, organic maple syrup, cayenne pepper and spring water. At night, you drink senna tea to prevent constipation. No food other than that. You repeat this for 10 days, then gradually work back to a regular diet over the following few more days.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Master_cleanse

People swear by this shit. Thoughts?

That sounds outright retarded.

This is something for people who have no idea what proper nutrition is. There aren't any "toxins" in your body that will prevent you from losing weight. All this "cleanse" does is make you shit a lot.

might as well just take loads of exlax.

I don't think anyone thinks the toxins are related to losing weight. Supposedly it will clear out the coagulation of stuff in your digestive system from all the preservatives/chemicals/etc over the years. I suspect that makes it quite unpleasant to go out and eat a greasy processed Big Mac once you're done, hence wanting to eat better. In the meantime, while drinking the lemon stuff, you're getting accustomed to eating less, so smaller portions are manageable in the future.

Obviously I'm not a doctor so I don't know what happens internally during this. It SOUNDS like a bad idea, and I don't plan on subjecting myself to that, but I can't find any major criticisms other than a short-term nutrient deficiency.

I'll keep you posted on whether or not my roommate dies.

Well, I don't know anything about the toxins, but that'll sure as hell make you lose weight. Obviously it's muscle suicide to not eat for ten days, but if you have fat you'll lose some of that too.

I guess it makes sense that your body will use up (that makes a lot more sense to me than "flush out") everything left in your system when you're not taking in many nutrients. I don't see why you can't just eat healthy during this time, though. It's so much better for you to get even a little bit of food. Tell him to at least eat fruits and vegetables.

My major criticism would be how far it must throw your digestive system out of whack killing off all the bacteria in there like antibiotics do. Which is more painful that most would realise. The chronic indigestion you will get puts you off. Also something like that runs a risk of developing a serious intolerance for preservatives and chemicals in the future. I don't recommend that, it hurts.

Detoxification just isn't necessary, the human body is actually pretty good at doing it for itself. So unless he has been on a diet that rivals Elvis's multiple cheeseburger habit I wouldn't have thought you would need more than a bit of milkthistle and a glass of water with lemon juice daily.

There's been a lot of discussion on this on the modeling site I'm part of. The general (researched) consensus is that it's absolutely horrible for you.

You're going to just lose water weight which in turn you'll put back on immediately. All those herbs and spices will rip apart your stomach as well. Plain and simple there's nothing about it that is in the slightest way good for you. A regular diet is a far smarter decision.

I convinced him to cut it short, so tomorrow he'll start the working back to food stages. He'll be eating a lot better though, which is good.

Oh, you don't even get to drink as much water as you want? That's pretty ridiculous. Water's great for getting rid of toxins and shit anyway.