About 6 years after developing the 92-Day Juice Feasting Program, I began to see beautiful and enterprising souls from coast to coast in the U.S. upstarting businesses offering Juice Delivery Cleanses (what I call Juice Mule Service) to your door. You simply call the place in your major city offering a Cleanse by Juice Delivery, and every day (or every few days) fresh cold juice arrives at your door automagically.

These Juice Delivery Cleanses (or Juice Mules) have become particularly popular in LA and NYC, and the locations are spreading to major cities like Miami, Kansas City, and are even available at premium prices via overnight mail delivery.

Over the years, I have always thought that for anyone to make that much fresh juice and deliver it across any major U.S. city at the crack of dawn was not just a business, it was an act of love – but (as you will see) one fraught with difficulty, waste, expense, limitations for the person doing the cleanse, and more.

Today it will become abundantly clear that we need:

• Smart Upgrades on how these Juice Delivery Cleanse businesses operate

• Wise use of juice-making businesses that are doing a great service

• An understanding of why Juice Feasting is created from an even greater vision and holds more in store for you and the healing of western society than Juice Delivery Cleanses can ever hope to accomplish.

Now, the arrival of Juice Delivery Cleanses was an old idea to me. In 2004, I considered juice delivery for Juice Feasters in either Houston, Texas or Albuquerque, New Mexico, the two places I started my health practice and teaching.

But I opted way back then to not do it, for some very, very good reasons that are more true today than ever. In fact, we are seeing those reasons playing out now with these new businesses.

Largely, the reasons I did not start Juice Delivery Cleanses in 2004 had to do with what was best for YOU and all of US. We are going to get into those details today.

Happily in the last decade I have seen that my vision for Juice Feasting as a homemade, scalable practice of self-reliance – that can be done by anyone in any small town or major city coast-to-coast for little cost – is becoming more self-evident as the right choice with each passing year.

What I am about to show you is that the beautiful intentions behind Juice Delivery Cleanses don’t add up to what the designers may have intended: your health. In fact, they end up mimicking some of the worst forms and results of American Consumer Culture and the underlying causes of why we are broke, sick, and looking at an ocean of plastic.

With that inflammatory remark, let’s compare Juice Feasting vs. Juice Delivery Cleanses.

[Container Waste]

Juice Feasting: 4 Glass Quart-Sized Jars, Reusable Forever
Delivery Cleanses: 240 16oz One-Time Use Plastic Bottles a Month

Imagine 240 of those plastic 16oz containers as waste in our oceans or on our beaches.Most of our plastic – even the stuff we think is getting recycled – ends up in landfills or the ocean. Remember The Story of Stuff Video? Check out The Story of Bottled Water, below. About 3:55 in she talks about the plastic bottles.

Now, with that in mind, think about the re-usable, non-toxic, beautiful, cheap Glass Mason Jars you can use over and over and over again.

I spent two years thinking about what the Official Container of Juice Feasting would be, and in the end, it was a no-brainer. Mason Jars. Glass, cheap, sealable, non-toxic, easily recycleable if they ever break, multi-purpose, and useable over and over. Loved by everyone, available everywhere, accessible to everyone.

The reason that Juice Delivery Cleanse operations are using plastic is that they don’t have to take the containers back and wash them, which takes time and costs them money. So, they place the burden on you and our environment (and we thought this was about cleansing!). But we can do better than plastic no matter where we get our juices, so see below in the “Recommendations” section of this post.

[Non-Renewable Energy Usage]

Juice Feasting: 1 Trip to the Grocery Store/Farmer’s Market Every 5-7 Days
Delivery Cleanses: Personal Daily “Juice Mule” Car/Van Delivery Every 1-3 Days

To my knowledge, no one is delivering Juice Cleanses via bicycle (or actual mules). All are coming by car or van across great distances in major urban centers every 1-3 days with the juice you ordered. This means a lot of petroleum burned (and money for hand delivery).

YOU on the other hand can walk, bike, or go to your nearest grocery store a short distance away from home in minutes to get your produce. Most Juice Feasters shop for 5-7 Days of produce at a time, reducing time, travel costs, and petroleum burning to far below what you will encourage having your juices delivered via the internal combustion Juice Mule system.

You will also have fresher juices, our next topic.

[Freshness]

Juice Feasting: Fresh, 0-8 Hours, Max
Delivery Cleanses: Old, Up to 3 Days Old

Since the dawn of the natural hygiene movement, and proven by the Gerson Institute on cancer patients, we have known that the fresher our juices are, the better the healing qualities.

Many Juice Delivery Cleanse businesses will tell you that because they cold-press their juices in stainless steel machines, the juice will stay fresh up to 3 Days. While it may stay drinkable for up to 3 days, there is no doubt that the juice you make at home on a Juice Feast will far exceed the enzyme content and overall nutrient content found in 1, 2, or 3-day old juice.

Fresh juices only a few minutes or hours from pressing will also taste far better.

When you make your juices at home on a Juice Feast, you are drinking your juice within minutes, or a few hours. When it comes to getting the most out of your time, the valuable produce you have juiced, and out of your cleanse, the freshest juices possible are of utmost importance.

In other words, you are going to do best making your own juices, or getting them fresh from a Juice Bar.

[Individualized?]

Juice Feasting: You Get Exactly What Your Body is Asking For, Every Day
Delivery Cleanses: Nope. You Get What Everyone Else Gets

Notice if you do a Google Image Search for Juice Cleanse that the Delivery guys make pre-made juices. You are doing what everyone else does, and no matter how long you juice cleanse for, it is going to be virtually the same juices day in and day out the whole way through.

It’s homogenized, not specific to your needs, and will get booooooring.

Juice Feasting on the other hand has been designed with YOU in mind. Your needs at every stage of the Juice Feast are taken into consideration and met because YOU are buying the produce and YOU are tailor-making your juices to suit your tastes and what your body is encouraging you to drink through all the stages of healing along the way.

For example, you may have some lung healing to do. If that is the case, more than likely you are going to LOVE Parsley juice, and really load up on that leafy green because Parsley helps heal the lungs. On the other hand, you may have a thyroid condition and find that early on during your Juice Feast that Kale is just not your thing (as kale can further lower thyroid function if your thyroid is already slow). BUT, and here is the amazing thing, as your Juice Feast goes on, your thyroid health may improve to the point that Kale becomes desirable and wonderful for you.

Further, your tastes change over the course of a juice cleanse. Your sensitivity to sweetness will increase, and lower-glycemic Green Vegetable Juices are going to taste better and better. If YOU are making your juices, you will dial down the sweetness in response to your body’s changing biochemistry day-by-day. No one in a juice factory can do that, and it is really important for your healing and self-knowledge.

Finally, you may want MORE juice on any given day. But if you are stuck with their 6 little plastic bottles and no knowledge of making your own juice, you are stuck or will have to strike out on foot to find a local juice bar. You have been crippled in developing your own self-reliance to make juices for yourself.

SO, how can anyone but YOU tailor your juice cleanse to account for all the variations? They can’t, and that is why these Juice Delivery Cleanses are second-rate, at best, particularly when you want to go the distance with your healing.

[Nut/Seed Mylks?]

Juice Feasting: No Mucus-Forming NutMylks, Just Fresh Green Vegetable Juice and Fruit Juice (Optionally)
Delivery Cleanses: 16 oz a Day, Creating Mucus on a Cleanse

I have tried this. I had my Juice Feasting clients try this years ago. Hemp Mylk. Almond Mylk. Sesame Mylk. Brazil Nut Mylk. Hemp-Almond-Sesame-Brazil Nut Mylk with Coconut Water. We all got mucus reactions almost every time. And many of us wanted to jump off the cleanse and go back to eating with the fatty experience of the Nut and Seed Mylks during a Juice Feast. Some people experienced stomach discomfort.

In other words, the results were lackluster to poor. Juice Delivery Cleanse businesses have put Nut and Seed Mylks on their menus for three reasons:

1. To entice you… hey, there’s milk on the program!
2. It’s cheaper to make than fresh juice
3. They don’t know much about cleansing

It may be good for business, but it is not good for what you want to achieve on a good cleanse. I love a good Nut or Seed Mylk, but they are not in the best interest for people needing to heal during a cleanse.

They are also taking up valuable space on your juicing menu – space that should be held by a beautiful, alkaline Green Vegetable Juice.

[Juice Quantity: Juice Fasting or Juice Feasting?]

Juice Feasting: 4-6 Quarts of Mostly Alkalinizing Green Juice Every Day
Delivery Cleanses: Most are 2.5 Quarts of Juice, 1/2 Quart Nut Mylk

As you can see in the photos at the top of this post, many of the Juice Delivery Cleanses out there provide 6 16oz plastic bottles of juice and nut mylk. That is 2.5 Quarts of Juice and .5 Quarts of Nut Mlyk. Probably a little less than 1,000 calories, which would put anyone over 5 feet tall in a fasting physiology.

What is wrong with that?

If you are making cleanses for people who are on the street, in their cars, at work and living their daily lives, the need sufficient caloric intake is paramount. No one should be fastingand driving a car, for example. A fasting physiology means a slower metabolism, much slower reflexes, slower thinking, and even the use of lean muscle for energy since too few calories are coming in dietarily.

Juice Feasting as a skillful cleanse has been designed to provide enough calories for daily maintenance (1,200 – 1,500 calories a day in 4 Quarts of mostly Green Vegetable Juice). This keeps your metabolism up, your mind sharp, and your physical functioning at optimum levels.

Any cleanse with less than 4 Quarts (128 oz) of fresh juice has someone in a fastingphysiology – it is a fast, not a Juice Feast.

Juice Feasting has been designed to eliminate the classic issues with fasting (slower metabolism, much slower reflexes, slower thinking, and even the use of lean muscle for energy since too few calories are coming in dietarily).

And with an abundant level of nutrients and caloric intake on a Juice Feast, we have broken the ceiling on the length of time one can cleanse, which is our next consideration.

[Duration of the Cleanse]

Juice Feasting: 1-92 Days, As it Has Been Since 2004.
Delivery Cleanses: Limited by Your Ability to Afford It (See the next point)

We have been coaching Juice Feasts up to 92 Days since 2004. Long before websites, books, films and Juice Delivery Cleanses were made attempting to copy the tenets of Juice Feasting.

As I pointed out in the “Individualized?” and “Juice Quantity” sections above, significant healing requires a cleansing practice that you can take the distance, if necessary. We have designed Juice Feasting to be just that cleanse, and it is superior to Juice Delivery Cleanses in that you have more juices at the ready, it is individualized to you (making it more biochemically appropriate and less monotonous), and the cost is far, far cheaper than paying for Juice Mule service, making it far more likely you can Juice Feast as long as your health requires.

[Cost/Expense]

Juice Feasting: Around $200/week (Organic) or Less for Non-Organic
Delivery Cleanses: Around $500/week

Now this will vary based on location, organic vs. non-organic, etc. But on balance we are seeing a Juice Feast of 4 Quarts of Fresh Juice a day at around $200/week vs. a Delivery Cleanse of 4 Quarts a Day at around $500/week. Now if you get a new pair of Lululemon yoga pants every time you go to yoga or paid premium eBay prices for that new Gold iPhone, that increase in cost might be okay with you. 

But when you look at the economic realities most of us – even college graduates with college loans, car payments, house payments, insurance payments – when you look at what we are saddled with already individually and as a nation… we need a cleanse that works well and is accessible to nearly everyone.

If need be, anyone can Juice Feast with conventional produce out of a Safeway or Piggly Wiggly for $10-15 a Day. Now we’re talking. That is the vision behind Juice Feasting: 4 Quarts a Day to Health for EVERYONE no matter where you live.

Which leads us to the next point…

[Cultivating Self-Reliance]

Juice Feasting: Yes, Your Homemade Juices are Tailor-Made for YOU by YOU (The Proverbial “Teaching You to Fish, and Feeding You for a Lifetime.”)
Delivery Cleanses: No, Everything is Made and Delivered For You (The Proverbial “Giving You a Fish, and Feeding You for a Day.”)

Our health in the western world is going down the shitter, and the reason is that we have given over the underlying causes of our health to other people. Doctors, pharmaceutical companies, supplement companies… often anyone but us. And we eat out more with every passing year, giving over the responsibility for the preparation and quality of our meals to other people. And look where it has gotten us.

Farming our food and health out to other people has created $3.5 Trillion (that’s Trillion with a “T”) in yearly U.S. medical expenses. 70% of Americans are overweight or obese, and 70% are also on at least one pharmeceutical. Among the top over-the-counter medications are antacids, pain killers, laxatives, and Slim Fast.

As a society, we need Life Practices that encourage us to get in touch with ourselves, and help us to on our own recognizance remove the underlying causes of our health challenges. Having everything handed to us is not doing it. It is making us lazy and ignorant.

Now I know that on the scale of “things being handed to us” that fresh-made and delivered juice is evolutionarily superior to Domino’s Pizza or pharmaceutical drugs… but when it comes to truly knowing how to heal your body in a deep and significant way, wouldn’t you rather know how to do it yourself? Wouldn’t you rather the self-confidence that comes from knowing you can source the right produce for YOU and make the freshest juices YOURSELF that you can access anytime, at low cost, for as long as you need to, to heal and maintain excellent health?

That is true revolutionary self-reliance.

[In Touch with the Produce?]

Juice Feasting: Yes, You Get Intimately Acquainted with Colorful Abundant Produce and Those Who Provide It
Delivery Cleanses: No, You Never Visit a Farmer’s Market, Farmer, or Produce Section

About 1% of the U.S. population farms, and 80% of that 1% don’t live on the land they farm. 95% of our food dollars in the U.S. are spent on processed food. What this means is that we are largely out of touch with the soil, fresh food, and the produce section. Juice Feasting aims to change all that.

We have found it a valuable asset in the Life Practice of Juice Feasting to get reacquainted with the Produce Section, Farmer’s Markets, Farm Stands, and Farms and Farmers themselves if you can. The closer you are to your food and those that provide it, the more likely you are to take care of your health and be involved in a significant way in the culture of your community.

Food is even an important part of our mythological heritage. A whole book has been written about it that is one of my favorites called Nectar and Ambrosia: An Encyclopedia of Food in World Mythology.

Culture, Ecology, Mythology, Community, and Health. Don’t be denied a deeper experience of these things by being separated from your food by Juice Delivery Cleanses. Go to the market, the farmstand, the land, the farmer, or the produce section and be in direct contact with that which heals and nourishes your body, mind, soul, and culture.

[Nationwide Vision and Viability?]

Juice Feasting: Nationwide Vision. For Everywoman and Everyman, in all locales, out of any Kroger, Safeway, PigglyWiggly, Whole Foods, Farmer’s Market or CSA for 1/10th to 1/2 the cost.
Delivery Cleanses: Local Vision. Everyone Can’t Do it… only in locales, and with lots of $$$

Juice Feasting was created to be infinitely scalable to all locales, economic strata, and anywhere you find even the most basic grocery store. I don’t want healing only for the rich or those that don’t care about the environment (see the plastic bottles and petroleum inputs of the Juice Mule approach). I want Juice Feasting, healing, and health for ALL, no matter what small town, village, or major city you are in.

Delivery Cleanses are limited to a Narrow and Local realities. You have to be in a major city, and you have to have a huge amount of financial resources to pay up to $25 a Quart – yes you read that right – to do one of these cleanses delivered. Juice Feasting with juices made at home can be had for as low as 1/10th the cost.

So the vision that we created Juice Feasting with is a global vision. Cleansing for Everywoman and Everyman, Everywhere. And thank you for doing it. The world needs more people like you who are dedicated to taking care of their health in a spirit of self-reliance and love.

[Best Recommendations]

Juice Feast at Home. There is nothing simpler, fresher, and better for your health, your pocketbook, and the environment.

Bring Your Glass to Juice Bars and Juice Businesses. Honestly, they don’t want to serve plastic, either. But their current business model in terms of economics of time and money may not allow for the recycling of glass. So bring your own.

Encourage Glass. Our family’s Raw/Live Vegan restaurant in Victoria, BC, Canada called Cafe Bliss has been in business for over 5 years, and from Day 1 it used nothing but glass. Glass Mason Jars of different sizes from 8 oz to 32 oz depending on the drink or food item. Customers understand the ecological ethic, find it cool, and willingly pay a deposit for the branded “Cafe Bliss” jars that they can take out and return later for a new drink, or keep at home as a groovy item from Bliss.

Tell your local Juice Business you want them to switch to Glass. Let them know how much you hate thinking of our plastic oceans and beaches, and all the hormone disruptors and mimickers (known as xenoestrogens) entering our water supply and oceans from plastic.

Juice Businesses: End the Nut Mylk. Nut Mylk is GREAT, but years and years of experience has shown that on a Juice Feast (or any juice cleanse) Nut and Seed Mylks create mucus and are acid-forming in the body beyond what is desireable. You want a significant cleansing physiology, and Nut and Seed Mylks on a cleanse work against that cleansing physiology.

Juice Businesses: Offer Enough Juice! Obviously everyone is on their own recognizance, but if you are making cleanses for people who are on the street, in their cars, at work and living their daily lives, the need sufficient caloric intake. They should not be fasting and driving a car. Juice Feasting has been designed to provide enough calories for daily maintenance (1,200 – 1,500 calories a day) and any cleanse with less than 4 Quarts (128 oz) of fresh juice has someone in a fasting physiology. A fasting physiology means a slower metabolism, much slower reflexes, slower thinking, and even the use of lean muscle for energy since too few calories are coming in dietarily.

Juice Feasting has been designed to eliminate these classic issues with fasting. If you are not offering 4 Quarts, let people know they are fasting and to adjust their lifestyle during the fast accordingly. Better yet, make sure everyone is Juice Feasting by providing 4 Quarts of Juice.

Final Thoughts

It is exciting to see more and more people offering, making, and drinking fresh juices. Looks like soon the days of crazy Hollywood diets and dangerous weight loss fads will be over, replaced by the drinking of fresh juices and smoothies.

We are all in an evolutionary process. Juice Delivery Cleanse businesses will continue to upgrade their programs, and I hope that this article will serve them well in doing so.

Juice Feasting is also in constant development as it has been this last decade. We keep improving things. In fact, we just did a major update and re-release of the 92-Day Juice Feasting Program, so check that out here.

And most importantly, you are in an evolutionary process. Access every last good thing you can to benefit your health, and keep upgrading and improving your self-reliance for your benefit and that of us all. Learn how to Juice Feast, and when appropriate, get to your Local Juice Bar and have them press you out some fresh juices into your Glass you brought. Thank them for running a business that is a true act of love.

And let them know they should move beyond the plastic!!!