I’ve never done a juice cleanse before, but I’ve been seriously thinking about it for the last few months. When making all major life decisions, it’s always important to weigh the pros and cons. As a young professional in New York, my life is crazy so it’s not always easy to eat healthy. Therefore, I’ve become very interested in the juice cleanse craze. But, wonder if it’s really the diet phenomenon it’s made out to be or just a silly fad.

Pros:

• Cold-Pressed Nutrients: Many of the juices used in juice cleanses are cold pressed so they are packed with nutrients. There are many benefits to cold-pressing juices, but the most significant is that the pressing action won’t oxidize the fruit and vegetables like grinders often do keeping the nutrients and enzymes intact. Not boiling the juice also keeps in the optimal amount of nutrients that your body craves. These nutrients are also said to give you extra energy.  
• Weight Loss: Since permanent and healthy weight loss is based on a lifestyle of exercising and making the right food choices, you shouldn’t do a juice cleanse just to lose weight. However, immediate weight loss is a pleasant side effect.
• Healthy Eating Reset: All of my friends who love juice cleanses always say that introducing raw foods somehow resets your body into craving healthy nutrient rich foods rather than high-calorie splurges. So once the cleanse is complete it’s easy to continue eating well and losing weight.
• No Cooking: I don’t know about you, but I’m not a huge fan of cooking. I usually don’t make anything that can’t be prepared in the microwave. So doing a juice cleanse would eliminate cooking altogether giving me a preset menu of delicious juices.

Cons:

• Hunger: Though the juices used in most juice cleanses are rich in amazing nutrients, I can only imagine that days of being on a liquid diet can often leave you hungary.  
• No Drinking: Not only can you not eat on a juice cleanse, drinking anything, but water also must be given up. Like any socialite, I’m going to miss my champagne. Though I love a good cocktail, I think the drink that I would miss the most is coffee.
• Lack of a social life: Eating isn’t only necessary for survival, it’s also a major social activity. When you’re invited to go out to eat with your friends or co-workers, it’s not going to be fun drinking your juice while everyone else orders rounds of drinks to go with their favorite dishes.
• Super Expensive: At an average of $65 a day, a juice cleanse is a major investment.

Conclusion:

After taking a look at the pros and cons, I’m still very interested in trying a juice cleanse. Diet fad or not, I love the idea of resetting your system with raw cold-pressed nutrients from fruits and vegetables. Since I don’t think I could handle not eating for more than 3 days, I’m looking to do one of the 3-day cleanses from either BluePrintCleanse or Liquiteria. Before committing to a juice cleanse, it’s important to try all the juices first to make sure they taste good. I’ve tried both BluePrintCleanse and Liquiteria and can tell you that they are both delicious.

In order to avoid the temptation to break my cleanse early, I’m going to pick a weekend to do it where I don’t have anything going on. As long as you time the cleanse well avoiding holidays, birthdays, or vacation getaways, a juice cleanse is absolutely worth trying. Though a juice cleanse isn’t good to do during a wedding or vacation it’s great to do one before to give you some extra energy and a slimmer look. Even if you decided that a full juice cleanse isn’t for you, you can still be part of the juice craze by drinking a juice as a meal replacement or with a healthy meal to take in the nutrients.

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