Master Cleanse Diet Dangers

Many people want to believe that there is a shortcut to health and fitness, and to those people, eccentricity is a siren's song. Few diets are more eccentric than the Master Cleanse. Although the diet promises weight loss and an improved sense of well-being through its purported "detoxifying" effects, there are several dangers that you should consider before embarking on the Master Cleanse.

About the Master Cleanse

• The Master Cleanse is a "detox" diet, which means it aims to rid your body of impurities accumulated through years of exposure to environmental toxins in the food, air and water. The crux of the diet is its requirement that you subsist for up to two weeks or more on nothing but a combination of fresh-squeezed lemonade and maple syrup.

Malnutrition

• The first risk inherent to the Master Cleanse is that of malnutrition. Any period where your body is consistently deprived of essential vitamins and nutrients is a period where you can succumb to the dangers of malnutrition. As the cleanse does not provide for a multivitamin or consumption of any fruits or vegetables beyond lemons, you cannot possibly meet your daily nutritional requirements while on this plan.

Dehydration

• Although the cleanse is a liquid diet, dehydration is still a possible side effect stemming from extended use of the Master Cleanse. According to Dr. Sam Klein, the president of the American Society for Clinical Nutrition, dieters using the Master Cleanse have an increased risk of both dehydration and imbalance of electrolytes.

Metabolic Impairment

• Despite what you might think, metabolism is not a stagnant process---in other words, your metabolism can speed up or slow down depending on the conditions to which it is exposed. According to Canadian nutritionist Dr. John Berardi, one of the key rules of metabolism is that it "chases intake." That is to say, when you eat more, your metabolism speeds up, and vice versa. As the Master Cleanse is a week or more of negligible caloric intake, your metabolism is likely to suffer. Thus, if you are using the cleanse for dieting purposes, you might find it increasingly difficult to drop additional weight after finishing the Master Cleanse.

Loss of Lean Body Mass

• A final danger of the Master Cleanse is loss of lean body mass, or muscle tissue. This occurs due to the starvation-level of calories being fed to the body. While you might think that this problem would be more of an issue for males than females, it affects both sexes equally, as this can also contribute to metabolic slowdown. Lean mass is metabolically demanding tissue. The more lean mass you have, the more calories you burn, even while standing around doing nothing. Thus, loss of lean mass is a loss of opportunity to burn calories.