The Master Cleanse, aka Lemonade Diet

The Master Cleanse, also called the Lemonade Diet has been around for decades and I personally have done it at least 4 times. Some recommend doing it 4x a year however for me, I prefer 1-2 times a year. One of the reasons I am writing about it is I am gearing up to do it again beginning the first day of spring. After each cleanse I always feel LIGHT, ENERGIZED…and HYDRATED…oh yeah, with an added benefit of dropping an average of 6-8 pounds of “bloat” and lots of inches….in areas where I tend to store my fat. (Many people I know have lost up to 15 pounds and a ton of inches) J

The Master Cleanse was created by Stanley Burroughs who was an early advocate of natural health, and believed in the body’s natural ability to heal itself. The results people have experienced by going on this ‘diet’ have been nothing short of amazing.

Chronic health problems people have suffered with for years vanish in as little as 10 days on the Master Cleanse.

You can still find Stanley Burroughs book at most health food store, or online. It’s a small 50 page paperback book that has not changed much since it was first back in the 1940’s. There have been several “knock offs” on the Master Cleanse but I believe they were modified for either selling other products to use with the Master Cleanse or to make it easier to adhere to the original program. HOWEVER if you veer from the original Master Cleanse by adding other supplements or foods of any kind, you will compromise the results.

The Master Cleanse Master

Hats off to Peter Glickman, who wrote his book based on Stanley Burroughs book, Lose Weight, Have More Energy & Be Happier in 10 Days as this book made it easy to understand what to expect BEFORE beginning the cleanse and also how to adhere to the program from day 1 onward. The book is full of the most commonly asked questions and answers regarding the Master Cleanse, also known as the Lemonade Diet. I found this book to be extremely helpful in both understanding the process of the cleanse but also to know what I was experiencing each day was absolutely normal.

Purpose of doing the Master Cleanse

• To dissolve and eliminate toxins and congestion which have formed in any part of the body.
• To cleanse the kidneys and the digestive system.
• To purify the glands and cells throughout the entire body.
• To eliminate all unusable waste and hardened material in the joints and muscles.
• To relieve pressure and irritation in the nerves, arteries, and blood vessels.
• To build a healthy blood stream.
• To keep youth and elasticity regardless of our years.

When to Use It

• When sickness has developed – for all acute and chronic conditions
• When the digestive system needs a rest and a cleansing.
• When overweight has become a problem.
• When better assimilation and building of body tissue is needed.

How Long and Often?

Follow the diet for a minimum of 10 days or more – up to 40 days and beyond may be safely followed for extremely serious cases. The diet has all the nutrition needed during this time. Three to four times a year will do wonders for keeping the body in a normal healthy condition, again I tend to do the cleanse 1-2 times per year. The diet may be undertaken more frequently for serious conditions.

 

How to Make a Lemonade Cleanse

• 2 Tbsp. fresh squeezed lemon juice (can substitute limes)- organic is best
• 2 Tbsp. genuine Grade B Maple Syrup (I have a great source in Vermont)
• 1/10 tsp. cayenne pepper (red pepper) or to taste
• Water, cool or medium hot (spring or purified water)

Combine the juice, maple syrup, and cayenne pepper in a 10 oz. glass. Use fresh lemons or limes only, never canned lemon or lime juice nor frozen lemonade or frozen juice. Use organic lemons when possible.

 

Take from six to twelve glasses of the lemonade daily during the waking period. As you get hungry just have another glass of lemonade. NO OTHER FOOD SHOULD BE TAKEN DURING THE FULL PERIOD OF THE DIET. As this is a complete balance of minerals and vitamins, one does not suffer the pangs of hunger. Do not use vitamin pills.

All solid food is turned into a liquid state before it can be carried by the blood to the cells of the body.

The lemonade is already a food in liquid form.

For those who are overweight, less maple syrup may be taken. For those underweight, more maple syrup may be taken. For those who are underweight and worried about losing more weight, REMEMBER, the only things you can possibly lose are mucus, waste, and disease. Healthy tissue will not be eliminated. Many people who need to gain weight actually do so near the end of the diet period.

Never vary the amount of lemon juice per glass. About six glasses of lemonade a day is enough for those wishing to reduce. Extra water may be taken as desired.

Helping the Cleansing Along

As this is a cleansing diet, the more you can assist Nature to eliminate poisons, the better. If your system feels upset, it is because you are not having sufficient elimination. Avoid this possibility by following the directions completely. Above all, be sure you have two, three, or more movements a day. This may seem unnecessary not eating solid food, but it is Nature’s way of eliminating the waste it has loosened from the various cells and organs in the body. They must leave the body some way. It would be just the same as sweeping the floor around and around and never removing the dirt from the house if the wastes were not passed out. The better the elimination, the more rapid will be the results ‘

A LAXATIVE HERB TEA (I use “Smooth Move”) is found to be the best helper for most persons. It is a good practice to take a good laxative herb tea right from the beginning – the last thing at night and first thing in the morning. There are several good laxative teas. They are best taken in a liquid form. Buy them in your health food store. Another option is to drinking one half gallon of a salt water flush first thing in the morning using 2 TBS. Celtic Sea Salt mixed with warm water. See below…

 

Another Cleansing Aid: Internal Salt Water Bathing

As it is necessary to bathe the outside of our bodies, so it is with the inside. Do not take enemas or colonics at any time during the cleansing diet or afterwards. They are unnecessary and can be extremely harmful.

There is a much superior method of cleansing the colonic tract with- out the harmful effects of customary colonics and enemas. This method will cleanse the entire digestive tract while the colonics and enemas will only reach the colon or a small part of it. Colonics can be expensive while our salt-water method is not.

DIRECTIONS: Prepare a full quart of lukewarm water and add two level (rounded for the Canadian quart) teaspoons of uniodized sea salt. Do not use ordinary iodized salt as it will not work property. ( I use Celtic Sea Salt- which is course and grey in color, from a health food store) Drink the entire quart of salt and water first thing in the morning. This must be taken on an empty stomach.

The salt and water will not separate but will stay intact and quickly and thoroughly wash the entire tract in about one hour. Several eliminations will likely occur. The salt water has the same specific gravity as the blood, hence the kidneys cannot pick up the water and the blood cannot pick up the salt. This may be taken as often as needed for proper washing of the entire digestive system.

If the salt water does not work the first time, try adding a little more or a little less salt until the proper balance is found; or possibly take extra water with or without salt. This often increases the activity. Remember, it can do no harm at any time. The colon needs a good washing, but do it the natural way – the salt water way. It is quite advisable to take the herb laxative tea at night to loosen, then the salt water each morning to wash it out. If for some reason the salt water cannot be taken in the morning, then the herb laxative tea must be taken night and morning. Personally I did the salt flush in the morning (using 3 TBS. salt) and the tea in the evening. For me, the most difficult thing of the entire cleanse is the salt flush but I have to admit, once it is consumed and runs through you, you do feel less toxic and “better”. Your reward is also a delicious lemonade drink! Now that I am working from home it won’t be such an ordeal to do in the morning as I don’t have to leave the house and go out to “work”. Keep in mind, you ALWAYS want to give yourself enough time to have the salt water flush through you as when you have to eliminate, you will!

 

Why the Master Cleanse Works:

1) It’s fasting

2) It’s a detoxification “diet”

3) It offers a restriction in calories

4) It rehydrates the body!

 

The Master Cleanse was designed for detoxification. People in our modern world are subjected to biological and artificially created substances that disrupt health. Many of these substances are eliminated through the normal function of the body’s detoxification and elimination systems. Sometimes, however, the normal detoxification ability of body is not enough on its own.

Ok….so now you know a little more about the Master Cleanse. If you want more support you can go to http://TheMasterCleanse.com – and sign up for a free weekly newsletter. Peter is great and his info is always useful.

 

Look forward to being healthier in 10 days….Now that you have decided to do the Master Cleanse and are beginning your preparation, please read the info below as it is equally as important as the RECIPE and cleanse itself.

How to Break the Lemonade Diet

Coming off the lemonade diet properly is highly important – please follow the directions very carefully. After living in a semi-tropical and tropical climate for many years, I find that people have increasingly turned to a raw fruit, nut, and vegetable diet. Following is the schedule for people who normally follow such a natural vegetarian diet:

FIRST and SECOND DAY AFTER DIET:

Several 8 oz. glasses of fresh orange juice as desired during the day. The orange juice prepares the digestive system to properly digest and assimilate regular food. Drink it slowly. If there has been any digestive difficulty prior to or during the change- over, extra water may be taken with the orange juice.

THIRD DAY:

Orange juice in the morning. Raw fruit for lunch. Fruit or raw vegetable salad at night.

You are now ready to eat normally.

For those who have characteristically lived the unnatural way of meat, milk, refined and devitalized food, it may be best to change over as follows, gradually adopting the raw fruit, nut, and vegetable diet:

FIRST DAY:

Several 8 oz. glasses of fresh orange juice as desired during the day. Drink it slowly.

SECOND DAY:

Drink several 8,oz. glasses of orange juice during the day – with extra water, if needed. Sometime during the afternoon prepare a vegetable soup (no canned soup) as follows:

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Recipe for Vegetable Soup

Use several kinds of vegetables, perhaps one or two kinds of legumes, potatoes, celery, carrots, green vegetable tops, onion, etc. Dehydrated vegetables or vegetable soup powders may be added for extra flavor. Okra or okra powder, chili, curry, cayenne (red) pepper, tomatoes, green peppers, and zucchini squash may be included to good advantage. Brown rice may be used, but no meat or meat stock.

Other spices may be added (delicately) for flavor. Use salt delicately as a limited amount of salt is necessary.

Learn to enjoy the natural flavor of the vegetables. The less cooking the better. Read the special article on salt in the September 1977 issue of National Geographic magazine.

 

Have this soup for the evening meal using the broth mostly, although some of the vegetables may be eaten. Rye wafers may be eaten sparingly with the soup, but no bread or crackers.

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THIRD DAY: Drink orange juice in the morning. At noon have some more soup; enough may be made the night before and put in the refrigerator. For the evening meal eat whatever is desired in the form of vegetables, salads, or fruit. No meat, fish, or eggs; no bread, pastries, tea, coffee, or milk. Milk is highly mucus forming and tends to develop toxins throughout the body.

(Milk, being a predigested food, has been known to cause various complications in the stomach and colon, such as cramps and convulsions. The calcium in milk is difficult to assimilate and may cause toxins in the form of rheumatic fever, arthritis, neuritis, and bursitis. The resulting lack of proper digestion and assimilation of the calcium allows it to go into the blood stream in a free form and it is deposited in the tissues, cells, and joints where it can cause intense pain and suffering.)

FOURTH DAY:

Normal eating may be resumed, but best health will be retained if the morning meal consists of our type of lemonade or fruit juice; and, of course, if a strictly fruit, vegetable, seed and berry diet is followed. If, after eating is resumed, distress or gas occurs, it is suggested that the lemonade diet be continued for several more days until the system is ready for food.

 

Recap of the steps to be taken in the diet. This is very important!

Be careful to read the entire instructions so that the diet will be of the best benefit to you. I strongly suggest Peter Glickman’s’ book which can be purchased at http://TheMasterCleanse.com

First prepare yourself mentally to follow in detail the entire directions and continue as long as is needed to make the necessary changes. One of the best signals of the completed diet is when the formerly coated and fuzzy tongue is clear pink and clean looking. During the diet it becomes very badly coated.

 

The Night Before starting the diet take the laxative tea.

In the morning do the salt water flush (or) laxative tea.

Now ENJOY the lemonade formula

Breaking the diet. Be absolutely sure you follow the directions very carefully to prepare your body for normal eating (our way). Do not over eat or eat too soon. Serious problems (nausea) can occur if detailed directions are not followed.

Interesting info about Lemons

The lemon is a loosening and cleansing agent with many important building factors. The ability of the elements in the lemon and the maple syrup working together creates these desired results.

Its potassium strengthens and energizes the heart, stimulates and builds the kidneys and adrenal glands.

Its oxygen builds vitality.

Its carbon acts as a motor stimulant.

Its hydrogen activates the sensory nervous system. Its calcium strengthens and builds the lungs.

Its phosphorus knits the bones, stimulates and builds the brain for clearer thinking.

Its sodium encourages tissue building.

Its magnesium acts as a blood alkalizer.

Its iron builds the red corpuscles to rapidly correct the most common forms of anemia.

Its chlorine cleanses the blood plasmas

Its silicon aids the thyroid for deeper breathing.

The natural iron, copper, calcium, carbon, and hydrogen found in the sweetening supplies more building and cleansing material.

It truly is a perfect combination for cleansing, eliminating, healing, and building. Hence, supplements are not needed during the diet and may actually interfere with its cleansing action.

About Maple Syrup:

The maple syrup is a balanced form of positive and negative sugar and must be used, not some “substitute. “There are three grades of maple syrup and the Grade to use for the Master Cleanse is GRADE B.

Grade B is the second run with more minerals plus more maple taste. It is more suitable for the diet and is less expensive.

The maple syrup has a large variety of minerals and vitamins. Naturally, the mineral and vitamin content will vary according to the area where the trees grow and the mineral content in the soil. These are the minerals found in average samples of syrup from Vermont: Sodium; Potassium; Calcium; Magnesium; Manganese; Iron; Copper; Phosphorus; Sulphur; Chlorine and Silicon. Vitamin A, Bl, B2, B6, C, Nicotinic acid and Pantothenic acid are also present in the syrup. Information on the need and effect of these properties will be found in the Biochemistry in the back of the book, “Healing for the Age of Enlightenment.”

 

References:

The Master Cleanse by Stanley Burroughs

Lose Weight, Have more energy & be happier in 10 days by Peter Glickman

Healing for the Age of Enlightenment by Stanley Burroughs

 

Dave & Joy

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