Juice Feasting™ | The Preparation Course

Juice Feasting: Questions and Answers

Welcome to Juice Feasting Questions and Answers! 

What you are accessing here is the best information that has come to us from years of experience on our own part, and well beyond our own. You will find here the distilled wisdom of Juice Feasting coaches and practitioners worldwide over many decades.

One of the strengths of Juice Feasting is our Global Community.

If you would like to post a question about Juice Feasting, we have Forums set up for you. We have created:

+ Juice Feasting Motivation (free)
+ The Juice Feasting Facebook Page (free)
+ The Juice Feasting Green Room (members of the 92-Day Juice Feasting Program; Green Room Members)

If you have a more private or personal question on your health, please reach out to us on our Contact Page, or reach out to a Juice Feasting Coach for consultation. We are here for you!

These spaces are here for you, so that you can discuss with our community the Topics you are reviewing on The 92-Day Juice Feasting Program, and keep up with fellow Feasters who are on the same stage of the Journey as you are.

Support, support, support. It is critical, illuminating, meaningful, and fun!

Due to the volume of excellent questions we have received since 2004, we have distilled the most often-asked questions and posted them here in the Juice Feasting Prep Course.

See if we have the answer to your questions here first, and then go to our Discussion Forums for more in-depth Q&A and Community Support.

P.S. If you did not see it above: If you have a more private or personal question on your health, please reach out to us on our Contact Page, or reach out to a Juice Feasting Coach for consultation. We are here for you!

Nutrition Questions

Q: Am I going to get enough nutrients on a Juice Feast?

A: Juice Feasting involves drinking the juice of 12-20 pounds of fruit and vegetables every day, in addition to using Vitamineral Green, spirulina/chlorella, bee pollen granules, and 1-2 Tablespoons of high-Omega-3 content oils. For most of us, no matter what our dietary history before a Juice Feast, this is more nutrition – and more bioavailable nutrition – than we may have ever received in our lifetimes, save our months/years of breastfeeding.

Q: Where do I get my protein? My doctor says there is no/not enough protein in produce.

A: Protein is made from amino acids as building blocks, and amino acids are in everything. Our best protein sources on the Juice Feast are: the 2lbs of leafy greens which are approximately 30 percent protein; Blue-Green Algaes such as Chlorella, E3Live AFA, and Spirulina (65% protein); Green Superfood Powder Concentrates such as Vitamineral Green and Pure Synergy; and bee pollen. The World Health Organization estimates that we need around 35 grams of protein each day, and we meet or exceed these protein requirements on a Juice Feast. In fact, I (David) have done weight training and muscle building while Juice Feasting, which would have been impossible with any lack of protein. See Day 29 of the Juice Feasting Program for more on weight training during the Feast. Finally, It is commonly known among the world of Plant-Based eaters that if you are consuming enough calories in a day, it is impossible to be protein deficient. For more on Protein, see the very informative Day 28: Proteins for a definitive file and answer to this question.

Q: What about B-12? I hear that you cannot get enough B-12 on a plant-based diet? How can I get B-12 on the Juice Feast and beyond?

A: This is such a great question. Dr. Gabriel Cousens of the Tree of Life Rejuvenation Center, and Brian Clement of Hippocrates Institute in Florida have been researching this issue for decades. Both are in agreement that everyone should be supplementing their diet with B-12, no matter what their diet has been, or is now. I have spoken personally with both Dr. Cousens and Brian Clement about this issue. Dr. Cousens has written an excellent article on B-12 which you can find on Day 17: Bee Pollen and B-Vitamins. Brian Clement has told me that he has data showing that persons who eat a meat-based diet have more B-12 deficiencies than persons eating a plant-based diet. This is significant new information, as the conventional wisdom has been that meat-eaters have more B-12 in their system from eating meat. According to Brian Clement, his data shows otherwise. Those of us in the world of plant-based nutrition are waiting with B-12 baited blood for that data to be made public.

Sources of B-12 are sea vegetables and blue-green algaes, but we probably cannot access B-12 in sufficient quantities from these sources. Supplementation is easy. You can take a supplement sublingually (under the tongue) or get B-12 injections once a month (ouch). We prefer the sublingual route. For that, you can get liquid, living B-12 from the Tree of Life Rejuvenation Center or Hippocrates Health Institute, or you can buy a sublingual B-12 from Source Natuals called Advanced B-12 Complex. We advise every Juice Feaster to take one of the above B-12 supplements each day of the Feast, and for the rest of their life. When you read the B-12 file on the Program, you will not want to be without it again. Thank you for listening to this important aspect of our Q&A.

Q: Will I suffer any oxygen deprivation from Juice Feasting?

A: One of our greatest sources of oxygen is the living water that we drink, and there is nothing more hydrating than the living structured water we find in plants. Moreover, our blood tends to be a poor carrier of oxygen when it is burdened by yeast overgrowth, heavy metals, and other forms of toxicity. Finally, many of us are somewhat deficient in Iron, particularly women. Drinking 2 lbs of greens each day, in addition to the spirulina/chlorella, and boosting our assimilation of iron by removing uneliminated waste matter from the intestinal wall all serve to boost the oxygen-carrying capacity of our blood during a Juice Feast.

Q: I am taking a multi-vitamin. Should I continue to take it?

A: Probably not, unless it is food-based, and even if it is, you are consuming 12-15+ lbs of freshly juiced produce each Day on your Juice Feast, which means that a multivitamin has officially become nutritional child’s play at best. Your multivitamin is now the produce, green superfood powder concentrates, blue-green algaes, hemp oil, and bee pollen.

Q: Don’t I need fiber? 30-92 Days sounds like a long time to be without fiber. Can’t I just drink green smoothies instead?

A: Great question!

Allright, fiber is an essential nutrient, so why would we want to take it out in the Juice Feasting program? And then why have I (David Rainoshek) put something in that looks like a bulking agent? Why not just drink Green Smoothies and go that route? Here is the answer:

Normaly, fiber is great for moving things through the intestinal tract and colon and an appropriate pace, but when the body must separate out juice from fiber, there is an energy expenditure there that is significant. One of our main aims in the Juice Feast is to reduce this burden as much as possible – give the body a vacation from solid food – so that the saved energy can be transferred to cleansing processes.

The reason that fasting works is that you are giving your body physiological rest from digesting food. This rest allows the body to go about the process of “housecleaning” with the energy saved from the usual act of digestion. Juice Feasting works with the same principle. When you remove the fiber from your produce and drink plant juices, you give the body physiological rest. This principle is also known as “Physiological Compensation.” A mentor of mine, John Rose writes about Herbert Shelton’s explanation of this principle:

Physiological Compensation – “Energy saved in one department may be expended in another.” When we give our bodies a “solid food vacation” by only drinking freshly made fruit and vegetable juices, the energy that would have been used to convert the solid food into liquid is then redirected or re-channeled to the elimination cycle. Even though no solid food is going in, there will be massive amounts of uneliminated waste matter coming out of our intestines. Once our colon, which is our major channel of elimination, begins to free itself from its toxic load, then every cell in our bodies will start dumping out its accumulated waste matter into our system to be eliminated.

Also, you will be using some bulking agents during the Feast, such as Intestinal Drawing Formula and the Green Superfood Powder Concentrates such as Vitamineral Green or Pure Synergy.

Next, why are we then putting in Intestinal Movement Formula (IMF) and Intestinal Drawing Formula as an apparent bulking agent to replace the fiber?

We are not replacing any fiber or compensating for its lack, and this is important. By drinking juices, we have purposefully placed the body in a physiology of cleansing at a level that you cannot achieve by drinking smoothies, and this is critically important for healing years-long health challenges and eliminating deep cellular toxicity. Once this process has started, we need to support the organs of elimination and make sure that toxins released are not re-introduced into the body via the permeable membrane of the intestinal tract or colon. In the interest of doing this, we have included IMF to encourage bowel movements commensurate with the level of toxins being released and to encourage old uneliminated waste matter in the intestinal tract and colon to separate from the walls and move out. In tandem, we have included Intestinal Drawing Formula to hold onto any released toxins so that they are not reassimilated. This release of toxins could not be achieved on smoothies as you will not enter a significant cleansing state while taking solid food. Finally, the IMF and IDF included in the Juice Feasting Protocol do not arrest the cleansing process, but actually enhance and support it.

So, to reiterate, Juice Feasting places your body in a significant cleansing physiology not achieveable by the eating of solid food including Green Smoothies, and that cleansing must be supported to reduce or eliminate cleansing reactions and healing crises, hence the use of IMF and IDF. Green Smoothie Feasting is creative, and if you are not needing or looking for the level of cleansing that Juice Feasting allows, please by all means drink loads of Green Smoothies. They are one of my favorite things in all the world – Katrina and I drink a quart of deep Green Smoothie every morning for breakfast, and sometimes for dinner. Leafy greens should be at the center of your Plant-Based cuisine.

Thank you for such an excellent question, and I hope this clears up this question and leaves you with the information you need to take your health to the next level.

Q: What happens to my metabolism during the Juice Feast and Post-Feast? What kind of cuisine will be appropriate for me after the Juice Feast?

A: Great question!

The less your body has to work on digesting food, the lower your metabolism goes and the more efficient your body becomes. When you are only drinking juices your body doesn’t need to work as hard during digestion and this is why the metabolism decreases. Think of the metabolism as an engine of a car. The more you rev the pedal the more energy is exerted and the faster the car goes. The less solid food you eat, the less you have to “rev the engine of your body” to digest it. For a car engine and the body, the more you rev the engine during its lifetime, the earlier it is going to burnout and die.

The more you leave out of your diet, the less energy is exerted in digesting food and the lower your metabolism becomes. The further you go down this step ladder, the more your metabolism decreases:

Carnivore
Vegetarian
Vegan
Whole Food Vegan
100% Raw Food Eater – Unbalanced (eating all day long)
100% Raw Food Eater – Balanced (consistent)
Blended Raw Food Diet
Juice Feasting
Juice Fasting
Water Fasting
Air

Juice Feasting IS a GREAT thing. You expel masses of waste on a cellular level during this process. Since you have less obstruction on a cellular level, your body becomes a more efficient biological machine, absorbability increases, and you need less food to maintain even higher energy levels. Isn’t this what we want??? The metabolism doesn’t need to work as hard and therefore you are going to live longer (you are not revving that car engine so much, shortening its life).

Physically, it can be very easy to maintain your weight after a Juice Feast. Your body DEMANDS the food that will keep you well after the feast. It can’t handle those older processed foods anymore and it is far more likely that someone will make better solid food choices, after Juice Feasting.

The issue lies where some people emotionally can’t keep up with their physical body and they can’t handle eating less food responsibly. If the “100% Raw Food Eater – Unbalanced” goes on a 92 day Juice Feast, they would do well to aspire to become a “100% Raw Food Eater – Balanced”, or there is a possibility that they may gain weight. The majority of raw food eaters are not balanced on their diet and they eat all day long, overlapping meals before they are digested, which creates excessive fermentation. After a juice feast, some people continue to indulge all day long on dried fruits, bananas, avocados, nuts and seeds. This may result in weight gain. I have seen it happen. Their body just doesn’t need all that food.

In my opinion, Juice Feasting is far superior and safer than water fasting. Your metabolism won’t slow down as much as if you did a water fast, because water fasting is further down the step ladder. The poisons released on a cellular level during a fast are HIGHLY ACIDIC and create free radicals. The alkaline juices help neutralize these acidic poisons, preventing free radical damage.

People are able to take care of their daily responsibilities on a Juice Feast because they have less energy spent on digesting their foods and have masses of energy. Additionally, the toxins are what slows someone down during a fast and the juices help alkalinize the system, making those toxins less harsh on the body while providing all the nourishment needed by the body. Additionally, cleansing the colon on a periodic basis is highly recommended on a Juice Feast. If people are pulling the toxins out with enemas, they have even MORE energy; those toxins won’t be slowing them down.

Your body will become a more biologically efficient machine if you do a Juice Feast. Your metabolism will become MORE EFFICIENT, which is a GREAT thing. Try to prepare yourself when you come out the other end.

Age Considerations

Q: Can my child with [insert health challenge here] do a Juice Feast?

A: Children should not do a cleansing programme like a Juice Feast, unless under a Medical Doctor’s supervision. Children are still growing, and cleansing such as in a Juice Feast is too strong for a growing child. That being said, we have loads of parents out there experiencing the healing of their children by removing the top offending foods (meat, dairy, wheat, processed sugar, and soy) from their diet and implementing a plant-based diet. If this is a new idea to you, cool. Go check out www.rawfamily.com and read about the Boutenkos. That will give you a nice introduction into the real potential here for our children.

Also, children love juice, and believe it or not, Green Vegetable Juice. If your child is having health challenges, you can more gently CLEANSE-REBUILD-REHYDRATE-ALKALIZE by getting in more fresh green juices and smoothies, which children love. Kids love chlorella and spirulina too, and goji berries, etc. etc.

Q: Is there an upper age limit for Juice Feasting?

A: People have Juice Feasted in their 90s. I (David Rainoshek) am writing about Juice Feasting as a means for lessening the health challenges of our later years. Juices are the most bioavailable form of nutrient-dense nutrition that a grown person can access. We have assimilation problems as we age, and deficiencies, and we get dehyrated, and toxic… all taken care of by Juice Feasting. You get the picture. As with any healing programme, consult a health professional for personal, individualized guidance.

Teas

Q: Can I drink tea on the Feast? What kinds?

A: Hot tea can be a delight on a Juice Feast, a boost to your immune system, can help you access the specific healing/balancing/tonifying properties of herbs, and offers you a taste change from the juices you will have consistently throughout the Program. When doing teas, stick to non-caffeinated herbal teas. Black teas will wear on your kidneys and adrenals, and imbalance your blood sugar. Our favorite teas on a Feast are ginger and lemon, peppermint, licorice, Roobios (red tea), and Good Earth Original. Ron Teegarden also has some wonderful teas at www.dragonherbs.com.

Q: Can I drink Kombucha Tea on a Juice Feast?

A: Kombucha Tea is an excellent transitional element in shifting into a cuisine of living foods. It is loaded with probiotics, and many people achieve some benefits in their health as they shift. That being said, Kombucha is made with processed sugar and black tea, and has a caffeine content to it that is not desireable on a cleansing programme. Please hold off on the Kombucha until you are completely broken out of the Juice Feast, and then drink in moderation – a few ounces a day max.

Pharmaceuticals and Over the Counter Medications

Q: Can I Juice Feast while taking my pharmaceuticals? Can I get off my medications?

A: This one requires prudence, and we suggest medical guidance. We understand that half of all Americans are on pharmaceuticals, and the rest of the westernized world is not far behind. We can also say that from our education and experience in Juice Feasting and Live Food Nutrition, most, if not all, of the pharmaceuticals prescribed merely palliate and address symptoms instead of removing underlying causes. Many, many Juice Feasting students and adherants of Plant-Based Live Foods have left their pharmaceuticals behind for good. One of your coaches, David Rainoshek, M.A. did:

That being said, there are tens of thousands of pharmaceuticals out there, and we cannot advise you, our many wonderful students, on each and every one, and whether it is safe or not to Juice Feast while taking them. We are not medical doctors. Please, please, please consult your physician or health professional about your pharmaceuticals and Juice Feasting before embarking on this Program. Log in to our website, and go to Day 64 for a list of excellent health centers that understand Juice Feasting, cleansing, and Live Food Nutrition and can adequately guide you on this important question.

Other Substances

Q: Hi there! I’ve inspired my neighbour to cleanse but his inquiry was whether he’d be able to smoke marijuana during the cleanse?!!? I’m curious as to what peoples’ views are on this one. Thanks.

A: You can let your neighbour know that marijuana is usually craved by people who are over-acid due to the fact that smoking it creates an alkaline state in the body. If he is quite emotinally attatched to smoking it, you can let him know that he can start by adding in lots and lots of greens into his diet, then when he feels balanced enough to let it go, he can start Juice Feasting!

Here is what David Wolfe says in Sunfood Diet Success System about marijuana;

“The alkaloids in the marijuana smoke neutralize the acid condition, relax the body, and tune into a resonant consciousness. But smoking marijuana actually perpetuates the same biochemistry that created the desire for alkalinity. Because smoking marijuana interferes with the ability of the blood to carry sugar. The more one smokes, the more sugar the body desires. Also, the higher one gets the more acid-forming foods the body asks for to come down. This cycle can be broken by eating significantly more green-leafy vegetables and wild herbs which alkalize the body, loosen the tissues, and open the mind.”

There you have it, smoking weed is not the best cycle to be in and can be left behind with a proper understanding of how it all works! We definitely do not encourage the use of marijuana at any time, but in particular cleansing and smoke are not a good mix!

Time Considerations

Q: How long should I Juice Feast? I see lots of programs for 7, 14, or 21 day fasts and cleanses. Why so long? And how do I know when I am finished with the Feast and should break it?

A: Excellent questions. First, it is important to recognize that the health challenges that you are transforming have probably taken years to develop. Hering’s Law of Cure states that we heal in the reverse order in which we took on our challenges. That means that the older the challenge, the longer you will need to Juice Feast in order to experience significant or complete healing. On balance, we go back in time 120 days for every day we Juice Feast for programs over 30 days, so you can get some idea by determining how long you have had your challenge.

There are a lot of 7-21 day programs out there, and anyone who tells you that you can completely push the reset button on your physiology in 21 days probably also has a bridge made out of broccoli that they can sell you.

Here are the top reasons that we have created a 92-Day Program:

1. Most people need more than 7-21 days to heal their health challenges.

2. Most people can heal their health challenges, provided that they place their body in a cleansing physiology long enough with the right food and lifestyle ingredients added in.

3. You can accomplish this with time and food and lifestyle ingredients by drinking fresh juices for 60-92 days.

We feel that to give you anything less than this information would be to just suggest half-measures when you are looking to heal yourself as completely as possible. We also feel that just offering half measures is another way of creating false hope and cultivating disdain. We want you to know what you can do on your own in an atmosphere of self-empowerment and abundance informed by the best nutritional and lifestyle choices available.

YOU ARE THE BOSS
That being said, you may not be looking to transform every last health challenge you have, or may find that juicing for even 30 days is enough for you because you already eat the best diet possible (a live plant-based diet). Don’t feel like you need to go for 92 Days just because the Program is that length. You need to assess for yourself how long is appropriate based on your own understanding of Juice Feasting and history with cleansing, your current level of health, how much you weigh, and how long you have had your health challenges.

Let’s look at weight as an indicator of your time need. You will lose about 1/4 lb a day on a Juice Feast – more at the beginning, less per day as you go along. This will be determined based on your age, activity level, and whether you are drinking enough juice. People who drink more juice actually return to a healthy physiology and weight than people who drink less juice than they need. Why? Because your metabolism will slow if you drink less than you require for maintenance. The Feaster drinking all the food they need for the day will experience an increase in their metabolism, and thus return to a healthy weight and physiology more efficiently.

If you are Juicing down to your ideal weight, then here is how to calculate that: Give yourself 100 lbs for the first 5 feet of height. For every inch over 5 feet, you can add 5 lbs. So, a person who is 5 foot 7 inches is looking at a ballpark ideal weight of 135, or 100 lbs for the first 5 feet and 35 lbs (7×5=35) for the seven inches.

Q: I think I really want to do a Juice Feast, but how do I know WHEN I should start Juice Feasting? How will I know I am ready?

A: _______________________

Juice Questions

Q: I can't seem to palate green juice. I just can't drink it! What should I do? Can I continue doing a Juice Feast on fruit juice?

A:

Q: What is the difference between a Juice Fast and a Juice Feast?

A:

Q: Can I make a day's worth of juice and keep it in the fridge without a detrimental enzyme, vitamin, and mineral loss?

A: Yes. Almost everyone who does a Juice Feast makes everything in the morning, and takes it in a cooler to work. For even better preservation, get a Food Saver device and suck the air out of your mason jar with their attachment. I found out about this trick with a recent student who had an old Food Saver, and said his juice kept better by removing the extra oxygen. Make it in the morning, rather than the night before. Making it the night before will add another 8 hours or so to the time that your juice is sitting and this is not ideal. 

Q: Can I make a week's worth of juice all at once, and then freeze it for use during the week?

A: Nice thinking, but no. The juice will be ruined by freezing - the enzymes cannot take it. Also, your juices will taste horrible. Make your juice each morning - it only takes about an hour, and you are done for the day. If you are traveling, make extra, and don't drink juice more than 36 hours old. It will be bad juice... Find juice bars in the area you are traveling to, or take your juicer with you and get to a grocery store!

Q: Can I add in the occasional nut and/or seed mylk to drink with my juice? What about eating nuts and seeds?  

A: Great question. We encourage you to not do any nuts, seeds, or their milks for the duration of your Juice Feast. This includes chia seeds. 

Nuts and seeds will completely arrest the cleansing/healing that you would get out of a Juice Feast. They will also tend to constipate you, are mucus forming, acid forming and are not part of the Juice Feast. By all means enjoy these in the context of a maintenance cuisine after your Feast!! 

Q: What Juice should I start the day with? End the Day with?

A: I always start the day with Green Vegetable Juice. The reason for this is twofold. One, we do not tend to gravitate towards GVJ, so drinking a quart first thing in the morning while we are still waking up means there is only one GVJ left sometime later in the day. Secondly, most of us are over-acid, and a little nervous about our day as we get going. GVJ has a calming and alkalinizing effect on our whole system, and this is advantageous in starting our day well.

Ending your day with GVJ is also advisable, for the same reasons: calming and alkalinizing. If you feel alkaline, you feel at ease, and this is best at the end of the day as preparation for a good night's rest. If you are having trouble sleeping, apple-celery-spinach is very calming, followed by some chamomile tea.

During Your Juice Feast

Q: What about nausea or sour stomach during a Juice Feast? I was feeling great, and then after ___ Days my stomach started hurting a bit, and I did not want juices as much? What is going on, and what can I do about it?

A: Nausea can be the result of many things, so I will run down those with you, and you can use your insight as to what may be speaking to you. Then I will suggest some things you can do when feeling nauseous on a Juice Feast. This is a great question, and I hope our response below will help solidify you and make for a more enjoyable Feast. 

POSSIBLE UNDERLYING ISSUES WITH NAUSEA

1. Nut Mylk Bags. Make sure you soak your nut mylk bags in 3% hydrogen peroxide about every 5-7 days. This is the stuff in the brown bottles at any supermarket/drugstore. I just place them in a glass and put a spoon on top to weight down the bags, and let them sit for the morning after I have juiced. This will destroy any anaerobic bacteria hanging out in the material.

2. Water. Dehydration can create nausea with the juices - particularly Green Vegetable Juice (GVJ). If you are in a period of drinking less juice (juice fasting), you can be a little short making up for that liquid with water. Also, you water may be less than the best. If you are drinking tap water, your body is more sensitive to it now that you are drinking so many wonderful juices - please begin drinking Reverse Osmosis water or Spring Water or distilled water with lemon in it. This can make a world of difference, and you can notice it within minutes or hours of changing your water.

3. The Juice and Time. Old GVJ can get, well, old. You get tired of it, and your body may not appreciate it. This can create some nausea.

4. Juice Vegetable Ingredients. Celery juice can get to be too much for some people after a while, as can complicated GVJ with lots of ingredients. You might also consider the greens you were using, and whether or not you were responding negatively to one particular kind of green.

5. Juice Fruit Ingredients. Apples  can be hard on the stomach. If you were using these in any of your juices, try next time to sweeten your GVJ with thawed blueberries that you have squeezed through a Nut Mylk Bag. Carrots and Yam are also excellent sweeteners for your GVJ. You may need to lay off the citrus juice for a day or two, as well. Finally, some Feasters find pineapple juice harsh. This will require just a little experimentation to see if this is the case for you. Simply eliminate one thing at a time from your day, and see how you are doing!

6. Deeper Cleansing. Your body may be satisfied and not wanting food. It also may be in a place that it wants to take the cleansing to a deeper level and juice fast, or even water fast for a day or so. This may have been the case for you. We have not yet made instructions for recognizing this aspect of Juice Feasting clear, but it is important to know that in the context of  a Juice Feast, juice fasting and water fasting generally arise naturally for everyone. If juice is making you nauseous, choose the first available day off from work (or short work day) to juice fast or water fast with total rest. This will deepen your cleansing, and get you primed for juice again.

7. Bile Reflux. You could be suffering from a temporary bile reflux, which is bile produced by the liver backing up into the stomach from the small intestine. Read the following (courtesy of the Mayo Clinic), and then we will discuss this in the context of a Juice Feast:

Bile is a greenish-yellow fluid that's essential for digesting and absorbing fats and for eliminating worn-out red blood cells and certain toxins from your body. It's produced in your liver and stored in your gallbladder in a highly concentrated form. Eating a meal that contains even a modest amount of fat signals your gallbladder to release bile, which flows through two small tubes (cystic duct and common bile duct) into the upper part of your small intestine (duodenum).

At the same time, food enters your small intestine through the pyloric valve, a heavy ring of muscle that sits at the outlet of your stomach. Ordinarily, the pyloric valve opens just slightly — enough to release about an eighth of an ounce (about 3.5 milliliters) of liquefied food at a time, but not enough to allow digestive juices to flow back (reflux) into the stomach. In many cases of bile reflux, the valve doesn't close properly, and bile backwashes into the stomach, where it causes irritation and inflammation (gastritis).

Drinking oil and juice at the same time does give some people problems with stomach upset during a Juice Feast, and it would appear that it is bile reflux at work. Two things you can do: If you are using hemp oil (which we still find is one of the best long-term oils to use), switch to a flax/borage oil or use Udo's Oil with DHA. This may solve your problem right away. Secondly, take your 1-2 Tablespoons of oil about 1 hour away from your juices, so that the bile reflux issue is solved - as it happens in conjunction with food intake.

ADDRESSING STOMACH UPSET DURING A JUICE FEAST

Here is what I do promptly if I am feeling stomach upset while Feasting, and this is discussed in greater detail on Day 2 of the 92-Day Juice Feasting Program. The items listed above should go a long way to preventing a future need for the following:

1. Drink extra water. Sometimes elimination slows down because a person is not drinking enough water. Without water the body has no medium to use for removing toxins.
 
2. Drink fresh ginger juice. Simply take ginger root and put it through the Samson juicer. Put a tablespoon of ginger in a glass of water with some lemon, and drink. Ginger will open the pyloric valve and create a "flushing" effect in the stomach--everything will flush out.
 
3. Peppermint Tea is great to make, sip slowly, and this will have a settling effect on the stomach. You can also rub peppermint oil on your belly.
 
4. Take an Enema. Get into the bathroom and move anything out that you may be re-assimilating through the wall of your colon because it has not moved out efficiently enough. Use some warm water, and do several times until the water comes out fairly clear. This can work miracles. Go to Day 4: The Human Digestive System on The 92-Day Juice Feasting Program for the download called "Enemas" and complete instructions!
 
5. Take a hot/cool shower (description below, and file download today). After you have had that enema, get into the shower and stimulate the flow of lymphatic fluid to make sure that toxins being released are not building up in the lymph. Hot/cool treatments and hydrotherapy are reliable ways to help the body's eliminative processes.
 
6. Make a Bentonite Shake. Using liquid bentonite and psyllium, make a shake using at least 1 tablespoon of hydrated bentonite and approximately 1 teaspoon of psyllium. The Bentonite works as an absorbent. This will arrest diarrhea in all cases, as well.

After the Juice Feast

A: Feast-Breaking is explained in full detail on Day 84 of the Program, and in sufficient detail in the Juice Feasting Intro pages. Basically, this is a straightforward move into eating plant-based foods that will wake up the digestive system to solid foods and prompt a bowel movement.  The conventional wisdom has been that after a long cleanse the need is to introduce foods slowly into the body because you don't want to upset at, but actually, the more important thing is not to introduce foods that are going to upset the body in an unnatural way. For example, you would not want to break out of the Feast on a hamburger, because that's not really good for the body. In fact, you could send yourself to the doctor or hospital doing that. So we break out of the Juice Feast with appropriate foods, that agree with the body. This involves eating soaked prunes for the first couple of days to encourage peristalsis and prompt bowel movements, and then for two more days of using juicy fruit, preferably low glycemic juicy fruit, and then for the final two days incorporating green leafy salads or taking those salads and blending them into soups with avocado. Until you have completed the six days of Feast-breaking, we do not eat nuts or seeds, because they are more difficult to digest, and can be constipating.  We also added ginger root and white oak bark to help shrink back the colon and repair prolapsus.  You'll see the explanation for how to do that on Day 84: Feast-Breaking.  We also have directions for how to break out of the Juice Feast on the Juice Feasting Introduction available to everyone on JuiceFeasting.com.

Q: After I have Juice Feasted to completion, and have achieved an extraordinary level of health and healing, how am I going to maintain it? Are you going to teach me how to eat afterwards? Do I have to be a culinary expert?

A: This is one of the most often asked questions by our students. So many of us have been on diets that have had moderate success, only to fall back into old stuff again and regain weight, health challenges, etc. Welcome to a whole new reality. By drinking 12-15 lbs of produce each day for up to 92 Days, you are retraining your body at the cellular level to ask for foods that will keep you in the best health possible. But we go further. Years of coaching and trial and error by many experts in the field of live food nutrition has helped us create a new paradigm of eating a real-world, raw food diet that we are discussing in full in an upcoming book called The Four Means to Get Your Greens. This is an exciting way of eating that does not require a culinary degree, and can be made and eaten by even the busiest person, using only a blender, knife, cutting board, and nut mylk bag. The Four Means to Get Your Greens are:

1. SALAD: Eating Your Greens

2. SOUP: Blending Your Salad

3. SMOOTHIE: Blending Greens and Fruit

4. JUICE: Making Green Vegetable Juice

Doing this will make possible the individualization of your diet so that you can be successful and happy on nutrient-dense live foods for your whole life. We are now teaching people who have been eating live foods for years to use this approach, with huge success. Watch for the upcoming book, and log in to JuiceFeasting.com to access a more full explanation of the Four Means on Day 83.

Q: What if I don't stay with a diet of plant-based foods and return to eating my standard diet before I Juice Feasted? What will that be like?

A: First, it is extremely valuable to understand that the person that you are now, and the person that will be eating food after the Juice Feast, are two different people. We have developed a cellular memory over years of eating processed foods laden with excitotoxins (substances like MSG, aspartame, artificial colorings and flavorings) that have trained us to eat those foods. During the Juice Feast your body is going to release this cellular memory significantly, making it much less likely that your physiology is going to prompt you to reach for the foods that have been doing you less than the best. Drinking 12-15 lbs of produce each day is a cellular retraining as well. Many Juice Feasters find that they are craving live plant foods at the end of the Juice Feasting Program, due to the flood of amazing nutrition they have been pouring through their body.

You are also going to experience a level of health that you may have never known in your adult life. People will comment on how great you are looking. Your mind will sharpen. Your libido will increase. Your heart of love and compassion for yourself and the world will open up wider than before. These are things that are maintained by eating a living plant-based diet, but will be diminished by processed, dead foods. You are going to achieve a level of health that is desireable, that is enjoyable, that is attractive to those around you, and chances are you will not let this go lightly. We are going to encourage you to stay on this path as well as you can, and toward the end of the Juice Feast we will advise you on choosing a cuisine that suits you. But remember, who you will be, and who you are now, are two different people. Do not make the mistake of choosing for your future self anything but the general and beautiful goal of having the best health, and eating the most life-affirming diet possible for you. Leave the discovery of what that is for after the Juice Feast.

Finally, we have had discussions with Dr. Fred Bisci about this aspect of Juice Feasting, and given his 40+ years of experience practicing live food nutrition, your ears should perk up. Dr. Bisci is in full support of Juice Feasting, and his concern stems from how effective the Programme is. When you cleanse the body to this extent, you become a clean machine. It also means that you are more sensitive to everything. Colors are brighter, sounds are clearer, in short, all of your senses are heightened. Also, your assimilation of everything you eat is made far better. Now, if you are eating the best foods ever (plant-based live foods) then that is great. But if it is agrochemical-laden, cholesterol-filled, trans-fat, artificially colored, bleached, cooked, salted, preservative preserved so-called food, then you are going to assimilate that into your tissues at a massively increased rate, as well. I use a graphic example for my students. Take the two circles below. On the left is your average westerner eating McEverything, and on your right is one of our Juice Feasting students after 92 Days of the best juices ever had in human history.

The lines in the McEverything circle represent the toxins that are gumming up the insides of this person, blocking their absorption of most of what they eat, from the wall of their intestines to every cell in their body. The Juice Feaster is clean and clear, ready to assimilate. Now, let's put some text in there to represent eating a burger, fries, soft drink, and some ice cream.

The McEverything person is so filled already with toxic matter they hardly experience the effects of their food. It is important to note that they will not feel much effect from eating healthy food right away, either. Our Juice Feaster experiences everything full on, however. That means that the disease-causing, weight-gaining, mentally exhausing effects of eating this meal are harder on the Juice Feaster, both in the present moment of eating, and down the line if this kind of food is eaten consistently.

Dr. Bisci, Katrina, myself, and all of your Juice Feasting coaches out there are advising you to carefully consider this reality: Once you Juice Feast, returning to a toxic diet will be potentially far more damaging to your body, mind, and spirit than it is even at this moment. By Juice Feasting, you are making a positive lifestyle choice to draw in the best things possible into your life. As Katrina has said:

 "The purpose of detox is not to go out and then retox."

If you need to, read through the information on some of the days of the Program, read about others' experiences, carefully reflect on your current health reality, and what is your true potential, and enter the Juice Feast with the confidence that this is the Hero's Journey to a life of health and well-being that you crave as an Act of Love and Abundance.

Juice Feasting: Economic Considerations

Q: I don’t have much money, but I really need to do this. What does a budget Juice Feast look like?

A: Juice Feasting has been designed with you in mind first. Most of the United States is now lower class, and having the time and money to cleanse at a clinic – particularly for the kind of time most of us require to push our reset button – is out of the question for most of us. Also, half of all bankruptcies in the U.S. are due in part to medical expenses, so Juice Feasting is an excellent way to improve your health significantly and help avoid being part of that statistic.

1. Seasonal Produce. Our first consideration is to Juice Feast during the harvest months of April – September when produce is more reasonably priced and available.

2. Conventional Produce. Secondly, while using all Organic produce is definitely suggested, it may be out of your price range. In this case, you want to prioritize which produce you buy Organic, and what you use that is conventional. My suggestion to you is to use organic vegetables, and when it comes to fruit, buy these things conventionally:

Oranges – Lemons – Grapefruit – Watermelon – Pineapple

That will provide a lot of cheap juice for you. In terms of dollars per gallon, nothing beats a watermelon in season. You can make a gallon of watermelon juice for around $3-4, which is about 1/3rd the cost of a typical gallon of juice.

3. Farmers! Third, go to a farmer's market. Make a deal with a local farmer, and let them know that you are going to be a good customer given the 12-15 lbs of produce you are juicing each day.

4. Buy in bulk. All produce can be acquired more cheaply this way. Most produce managers and farmers will make a deal with you.

5. Garden. Grow some of your juiceables, and link up with other gardener/farmers in your area.

For inspiration on changing your economic reality, read Think and Grow Rich by Napolean Hill and Awaken the Giant Within by Anthony Robbins. And if you have not done it yet, watch The Secret.

Health Considerations

Q: My diet is the worst ever, and I have eaten like Morgan Spurlock in Super Size Me for years. Can I go right into a Juice Feast?

A: The conventional wisdom – back in the days of only water fasting – was that no one wanted to enter a fast unless they had already cleared some of the old stuff out. This was actually good advice, because water fasting, as we have said, does not support the organs of elimination, and a re-entry into your system of years-old toxic McMatter is very unpleasant, to say the least.

Juice Feasting allows us to play by different rules. We can go from any diet right into a Juice Feast without any cleansing/health preparation beforehand. Green Vegetable Juices, of which you are drinking a minimum of 2 quarts each day, act like Liquid Plumber to help the uneliminated waste matter in your intestinal tract and colon move right on out. We are also employing the use of Intestinal Movement Formula and the Intestinal Drawing Formula to isolate and move out toxins, in addition to enemas, hot/cool showers, exercise, Natural Cellular Defense (to grab industrial chemicals, agrochemicals, and food additives), etc. so that all these things move efficiently from your system. Also, because you are actually feeding yourself everything you need, the cleansing process at the cellular level is slowed just a bit over water and juice fasting, and this means that the McMatter there will release more slowly, reducing significantly cleansing reactions and healing crises. However, because of the quantity of Green Vegetable Juice that you are drinking, you will find that your intestinal tract and bowel cleanse more efficiently than on a water or juice fast, due to the liquid plumber effect of all that amazing Green Vegetable Juice!

Q: Does the speed of Juice Feasting make my liver work harder than if I was water fasting or juice fasting? My liver really can’t work any harder at this point.
 
A: The Juice Feast is going to ease the work of your liver, because it is not going to be burdened by a high fat diet, or the stress of over/under eating. We are also going to enable it to detox gently with Green Vegetable Juices, proper hydration, and the use of Natural Cellular Defense. Your liver regenerates every 3 months, so by the end of the Feast, you will essentially have a new liver!
 
On cleansing speed, here is the deal: If you water fast, your body will release fat and the toxins in your fat much faster, and this creates a huge toxic dump into your system that can lead to multiple healing crises and cleansing reactions, which is unpleasant. Compounding this is that your elimination is not as good on a fast - many people do not have bowel movements much at all during even a 30-day fast. We are all about supporting the organs of elimination, so that you do not re-absorb anything that is on its way out. So a Juice Feast acts like liquid plumber, and your intestinal tract and bowel clear out first - instead of your fat deposits. The reason for this is that on a fast, the body must look to itself for energy, and goes to the fat for conversion to glucose. When we Juice Feast, the body does not need to go to additional fat stores for much energy, so fat loss goes along at a more reasonable pace, and toxins that are stored there are released more slowly - a great benefit to our liver. Also, when we Feast, we eliminate first the most important matter - the uneliminated stuff in our intestinal tract and colon. This creates a vacuum effect - and the rest of the body gets the message that there is room in the colon for more matter - in the blood, lymph, and cells - to be sent down for elimination. This is a much more favorable process, we have found. Lastly, we add in Break-Stone tea from Days 30-60, which gently and effectively breaks up liver and gallstones, and help the liver to purge itself of old toxic matter.

Q: Can I Juice Feast while I am pregnant? What about while I am breastfeeding?

A: Great question, and the answer is no on both accounts. It is not advisable to do any kind of cleansing program while you are pregnant and breastfeeding – the body needs all the energy it can muster to help your child grow. Also, you could release a heavier dose of toxins back into your system which could affect your baby. Cleansing is best left for the time when your baby no longer relies on your body for nourishment.

However - this is valuable information - we can apply Juice Feasting as a cleansing program before conception, and this is extremely powerful information. The healthier and more non-toxic you are before conception, the better it will be for your baby. It would be wise, therefore, to do some nutritional planning before conception by Juice Feasting starting 6 months before conception, and once your 1-3 month Feast is completed, to move into a Plant-Based diet of Living Foods using the Four Means to Get Your Greens to get in 1+ pounds of green leafies each day. For more on the subject of Nutrition and Pregnancy, see Conscious Eating by Gabriel Cousens, M.D.; and for raising your own children on a nutrient dense plant-based diet, see "Raising Rainbow Babies" in Rainbow Green Live Food Cuisine by Dr. Cousens.

Finally, you would be well advised to drink loads of Green Vegetable Juice during your pregnancy, and beyond. Greens are the most nutrient dense foods we can eat, and you need assimilable nutrients, including protein (which greens are approximately 30%) during and after your pregnancy. Also start taking a DHA supplement now. Deficiency in DHA is the main contributing factor to postpartum depression. Your baby's brain is made out of the Omega-3 fat derivitave, DHA. Go to Day 27: Macronutrients: Fats for your file on DHA.

Q: Should I Juice Feast if I have cancer?

A: This is a great question, and very, very important. First, you need to know that the conventional methods of cut, burn, and poison are hardly the only options you have, and very likely not the best options. Our colleague and friend Mike Adams has an excellent article on what to consider when you get a cancer diagnosis, which you can read here:

After a cancer diagnosis: Crucial questions to consider about chemotherapy vs. naturopathic cancer treatments by Mike Adams

Next, it is important to understand the Seven Stages of Disease, as cancer is something that develops over time, not something that you get. It has causes and conditions, and you can remove those causes and conditions if you know what they are. So, educate yourself on what your cancer prerequisites were and are so that you can better understand a healthy means for transforming and removing those underlying causes to transform your cancer. For this information, search for the Seven Stages of Disease online, or become a member of JuiceFeasting.com and go to Day 39: The Seven Stages of Disease for an excellent file we have developed for you on the subject. Also know that we have huge files for you on breast, prostate, and colon cancers in the 92-Day Program.

With the understanding of the Seven Stages of Disease, please make sure you have read through this website, and know what Juice Feasting does with all its supplemental elements. Juice Feasting on Green Vegetable Juices can be an important element in removing the underlying causes of cancer, but of couse we will never claim that it cures cancer. How do we know that Juice Feasting works so well? Because the first person to apply juicing in the transformation of such health challenges was Max Gerson, M.D., who wrote A Cancer Therapy: Results of 50 Cases, and showed conclusively that you can remove the underlying causes and transform cancer. Another great book is written by Charlotte Gerson on the Gerson therapy as practiced today and outlined in The Gerson Therapy: The Proven Nutritional Program for Cancer and Other Illnesses.

A lovely public case was the transformation of bowel cancer in former Houston Rockets basketball coach Rudy Tomjanovich, supported by John Rose. Rudy T went on to coach the LA Lakers. Author/lecturer Brigette Mars healed lumps in her breasts using loads of juices back in the 70s, when not many people even knew about juicing and Live Food Nutrition. These cases go on and on… simply look to healing centers such as Hippocrates Health Institute, the Tree of Life Rejuvenation Center, Ann Wigmore Foundation, The Gerson Institute, and others - all of which have used juices for decades to remove the underlying causes of cancer and help clients restore their health cancer-free. Juice Feasting is endorsed by many leading MDs and NDs because it uses the same baseline approach as they have used for years of removing causes and re-nourishing the body with juices, supplements, and superfoods.

Use all of this information and find a health care practitioner who understands the underlying toxicity and nutritional causes of cancer, and how to ameliorate these realities so that you can realize health again. We suggest seeing a Naturopath, or getting to a health center such as Hippocrates Health Institute in Florida.