“ … and a weight-loss fast of this nature can never be healthy and will inevitably result in the person becoming fatter in the long run.”
Really?
Well firstly, it’s not a fast. I hate it when I hear of people describing this plan as a “juice fast.” It’s a contradiction in terms. You cannot be fasting while you are having freshly extracted juices. A fast is where a person drinks only water and takes in no nutrients from food whatsoever. Juicing furnishes the body with the finest, easiest to ingest nutrients on the planet, and juicing retains 95% of the nutrients in fruits and vegetables. Let me reiterate that:
Juicing Retains 95% of theNutrients in Fruits and Vegetables
And given that these highly charged macro- and micro -nutrients are often much more bio-available to your cells (meaning more of the nutrients will get to where they are needed), there is no way on earth that this program can be described as a fast.
Secondly, it’s ironic that any program that feeds every cell in the body with precisely what it requires for optimum health could possibly be called unhealthy. I find it mind blowing when people tell me that this program is not only unhealthy but—wait for it—dangerous. Yes, DANGEROUS! I kid you not. This program has actually been described by a few uninformed doctors and dieticians—the very people who are meant to be in charge of our health and vitality—as dangerous. Now call me Mr. Are You Flipping Kidding Me, but how on earth can ridding yourself of junk food, caffeine, alcohol, and other crap from your diet and pouring in nature’s finest super foods for a week be described in any way, shape, or form as dangerous?
This bothers me more than anything else. I feel like shouting out, “LOOK, THESE PEOPLE WERE FAT AND ILL AND NEEDED HELP!” I feel like yelling, “LOOK AT THESE PEOPLE—THEY’RE JUST ONE MORE DOUGHNUT AWAY FROM DIABETES, HEART DISEASE, A STROKE, EVEN CANCER!”
Diabetes was relatively unheard of when I was growing up. Now we are in a situation where over 21.1 million people in the United States have diabetes—that’s a 600% increase from 1958. And this is just the people who know about it. It is estimated that at least 7 million more have diabetes but don’t know it. The United States has the highest rate of diabetes among developed countries, along with the highest rate of obesity. Globally, cases of diabetes have risen from 55 million in 1955 to 150 million in 2004, and are projected to grow to 300 million by 2025. In the US alone an estimated 79 million more people are at risk of becoming diabetic. This isn’t some slightly inconvenient disease either: type 2 diabetes (the most common) causes more amputations a year than even smoking-related diseases. Yes, amputations! On top of that, diabetes is directly responsible for many losing their sight. Diabetes can make you blind!
Heart disease has now overtaken cancer as both the US and UK’s biggest killer and, like diabetes, very few cases are hereditary and nearly all cases are caused directly by what we eat and drink! Even the World Health Organization admits:
85% of Western Disease is Caused Directlyby What We Put into Our Mouths
Given these facts, I just cannot understand why any doctor or dietician would be against anyone going from a diet of junk to some of nature’s pure super foods or why they might even consider it to be dangerous. You would think all doctors would love an approach to weight loss that only involved nature’s finest healing foods and didn’t involve a drug of some description. One reviewer, a well-known dietician who writes for a British national newspaper, went so far as to claim that the program is not only nutritionally questionable but also makes anyone who practices it hungry and unhappy.
However, my research—which involves thousands of real people who have given their feedback on my juice program—suggests otherwise. Here are a couple of examples:
“I started at 199 lbs (90 kg) and weighed in a fantastic 189 lbs (86 kg)—an amazing 10 lbs (4 kg) loss in just 7 days. Brilliant, amazing, incredible! All those words and more. I cannot thank Jason enough for developing such an amazing plan. I have gone on to your next stages and have lost almost 28 lbs (13 kg) in 8 weeks. People are absolutely bowled over when I tell them and they can’t get enough information about how it all works. Two of my colleagues have already bought the book and lost 7 lbs (3 kg) and 10 lbs (4.5 kg) respectively. Sincere thanks, a verrrrry happy C.”
“C.” was 199 lbs (90 kg) in weight to start and within eight weeks of reading the book he was 28 lbs (13 kg) lighter. How on earth is that either dangerous or the sign of a man who is feeling miserable and can’t wait to eat crap again, given that he signed off “thanks, a verrrrry happy” camper?
Here’s another piece of correspondence that I hope doctors and dieticians read. It illustrates the power of rapid weight loss on one’s mind:
“This program is a lifesaver … there’s simply no other way to describe it. I’m hooked and believe me, if I can do it, anyone can do it. The truth is when you get quick results, your motivation is skyrocketed and you can see a light at the end of what was once a very dark tunnel. I’ve lost as much weight in the first four days as I did in four weeks on my last ‘diet,’ where I felt deprived, discouraged, and frankly defeated. Thank you, thank you, thank you! D.”
These are just two of thousands of examples of people who have either shed loads of weight and kept it off, or who have seen impressive results quickly that have inspired them to continue. I have known people to lose over 100 lbs (45 kg) in weight after reading my book. As mentioned, Lord Harris of Peckham, no less, lost 42 lbs (19 kg) in just three months and dropped 117 points from his cholesterol after reading the book. Quick, healthy weight loss, along with the right frame of mind, inspires people to long-term good health and weight loss—IT IS NOT DANGEROUS!
What is dangerous is not taking action, not changing your lifestyle, not changing your diet. What is dangerous, I feel, are the countless dieticians and doctors who constantly tell people it’s not healthy to lose more than 2 lbs (1 kg) a week because it’s apparently been scientifically backed up. I say “apparently” because it’s nonsense—there is in fact no scientific evidence whatsoever to back this up. It’s a notion no more and no less, based on thin air. Even it were “scientifically” backed up—which, in case you missed it, it isn’t—that alone hardly makes it fact. Let’s not forget it was also scientifically backed up that smoking helped relax you! Science isn’t always what it’s cracked up to be. If you weigh 200 lbs (90 kg) and you lose 2 lbs (1 kg) in a week, you don’t feel good. You don’t feel inspired to continue. You don’t feel fired up. More often than not, you will fail at your diet. It’s madness that when I’m on the shopping channel they’re not even allowed to show the front cover of this book in the UK and no doubt the same will apply in the US. Why not? Because dieticians and their kind have somehow convinced the watchdogs that losing 7 lbs in 7 days is dangerous. They have managed to do this while we have the most serious obesity crisis in history. The world has officially gone bonkers.
What is also very dangerous, in my opinion, are the people in charge of advising us on health describing a program such as this as dangerous while handing out antiobesity drugs at the same time. These drugs, let’s not forget, often hit the front pages of newspapers due to the often horrific side effects. The day I read a front-page headline reporting new research that shows fruits and vegetables to be bad for us is the day I pack all this in and start agreeing with the “if they’re ill give ‘em a pill” culture. Until that day, I’ll follow Hippocrates’ advice:
“Of several remedies, the physician should choose the least sensational.”
This then is perhaps the biggest irony: some doctors say that it is dangerous to have a “quick fix” attitude to weight loss and health, while that is precisely what they try to achieve with the drugs they hand out so liberally. After all, instant gratification is precisely what the medical drug culture is built on. For years most of the medical profession has handed out antibiotics like M&Ms for ailments such as flu—a virus against which antibiotics do nothing. Let’s not forget that since “obesity” has been classified as a disease in its own right, the fight by drug companies