Juice Fasting and Detoxification: Use the Healing Power of Fresh Juice to Feel Young and Look Great [Paperback]

Steve Meyerowitz (Author), Michael Parman (Illustrator), Beth Robbins (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 1999

This book explains how to fast using raw fruit & vegetable juices while maintaining a nearly normal work and living schedule. Includes: Juice recipes, detoxification techniques, exercises, weight loss, water fasting; about the organs of elimination; how to handle a "healing event," and how to exit a fast safely.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Dear Steve. I don't know if you remember me, I attended a workshop of yours about 12 years ago. I have long been a fan of your sprouting books including your hysterical kitchen garden cookbook. But that is not why I am writing you now. Today I am on the 22 day of fasting and I can't believe that I'm doing this. What is even more incredible is that I feel quite normal. Really, better than normal. And why I'm writing is mostly to say thank you. Your new fasting book is awesome. I've read Ehret and Airola and they're great. But yours is easily the best fasting book I've read. I always knew I needed to detoxify. But how?--that was scary for me. Your book helped me like a guide holding my hand." -- B.J. Williamson, New York, NY

"I just want to thank you again for your books. You infuse such enthusiasm into your writing. I can feel the pages smiling at me. Your fasting book inspired me to begin my health renewal program which I can truly say is the best thing I've ever done for myself. At 48, I am more active, more alert, more flexible than my 30 year old sister-in-law. Even my memory has improved and more unbelievable, my eyesight is slightly better, too. My sister-in-law wants to know what I'm taking. "Nothing!" That's the point! It's what I'm not taking! I never even considered fasting until I landed upon your book. I stopped after achieving 50 day--a true marathon. But now I'm religious about one day a week. Please put me on your mailing list for your workshops in my area and any new book announcements. Again, a heartfelt thank you for your dedication and all the support you've given (through your writing) me." -- Meloni T. Jennings, Scottsdale, AZ

From the Author

Food is one of the most powerful addictions in life. At 900 billion dollars per year, we spend more on food than on our homes! It is our second greatest living expense surpassed only by the medical care we sometimes need to correct our dietary overindulgence. With all this food and overconsumption, is it such a wonder that the #1 best selling drugs in America are names like Tums, Pepto-Bismol, Alka-Seltzer, Rolaids, and Digel?

Man can survive on only one third of his daily food intake. The other two thirds goes to benefit the health insurance and medical care industries.

The human body, if not compromised by overconsumption, bad food, bad air, polluted water, stress and emotional trauma, has an incredible capacity for healing and longevity. Within it is an innate intelligence more powerful than any drugs or a surgeon's knife. Fasting gives your body a well deserved vacation and the potential to repair itself. It's easier than you think. Even just one fast day per week provides 50 rejuvenating days per year. Give your cells and yourselves the opportunity to cleanse, nourish, rejuvenate and heal.

Fasting helps increase energy and improve mental alertness; Heal chronic ailments without drugs; lose weight without the hassle of diets; maintain stamina with absolutely no hunger. Fast at home or at work---it's perfect for a busy lifestyle and all the while enjoy dozens of quick and delicious juice recipes.

The best of all medicines are rest and fasting. ---Benjamin Franklin

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Product Details

• Paperback: 168 pages
• Publisher: Book Pub Co; 6th edition (April 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1878736655
• ISBN-13: 978-1878736659
• Product Dimensions: 8.6 x 5.5 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (80 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #609 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #4 in Books > Cookbooks, Food & Wine > Drinks & Beverages > Juice
  • #9 in Books > Health, Fitness & Dieting > Alternative Medicine
  • #64 in Books > Health, Fitness & Dieting > Diets & Weight Loss > Diets

More About the Author

Steve was pronounced "Sproutman" by Vegetarian Times Magazine in a 1979 feature article that explored the why's and wherefores of his 100% sprout diet. While over 2 decades time, most diets change, Steve is still a big "believer" in healthy diet and lifestyle.

Steve got interested in natural foods after a 20 year effort to correct chronic allergies and asthma with conventional medicine. He made dramatic changes in his diet and within two months of eating a strict "living foods," vegetarian diet, his lifelong symptoms vanished. He continued to practice a 100% raw foods diet (nothing cooked, packaged, canned, frozen, or processed) for five years. During that time, he also experimented with other extreme diets such as fruitarianism (just fruit), juice fasting for as long as 100 days, and briefly, breatharianism (no food, no water).

Steve's innovative kitchen gardening techniques and the cuisine he developed from them, gave rise to a "School for Sprouts." He began teaching indoor gardening 12 stories above the streets of New York City. He called his no-cooking school, The Sprout House, since so much of his cuisine included vegetables from his kitchen garden-sprouts. Steve invented two home sprouters, The Flax Sprout Bag and a tabletop greenhouse called, Sproutman's Kitchen Garden Salad Grower. He also supplied his growing kits and a full line of organic sprouting seeds via mail order.

Steve has since sold the mail order business and he and his family now breathe fresher air in the Berkshire mountains of Massachusetts. Much of the information from his teaching years have been related in his books. He has the most popular books on sprouts, including Sprouts the Miracle Food, Sproutman's Kitchen Garden Cookbook, and Wheatgrass Nature's Finest Medicine, to name a few. But he also has other books on subjects such as fasting and raw juice therapy.

Steve has been featured on PBS, the Home Shopping Network, TV Food Network, and in Prevention, Better Nutrition, and Organic Gardening magazines. In 3 minutes on QVC, 953 people ordered his Cookbook and Kitchen Garden Salad Grower. You can visit him at http://www.Sproutman.com/

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

214 of 216 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Particulars of Fasting, March 8, 2002

By 

Jena Ball "Jena Ball" (North Carolina, United States) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Juice Fasting and Detoxification: Use the Healing Power of Fresh Juice to Feel Young and Look Great (Paperback)

This book is both informative, and an easy, pleasant read. In sharp contrast to several other books I've read, Meyerowitz doesn't force feed raw food diets or fasting down your throat with threats of disease and disaster. His approach is simple, direct and well-organized. The book begins with a discussion of what fasting is and why it can be beneficial and continues on to descriptions of how to begin, how long to continue and how to come off a fast. Other important sections include a systematic description of how the body detoxifies, what to expect as this occurs and what can be done to help the body during the cleansing process. All in all I found this to be a well-balanced and informative book that I would wholeheartedly recommend to anyone who is new to the concept of water or juice fasting.

429 of 440 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars The FAST Track to Healthy Living, June 13, 2001

By 

"aawehr" (Milwaukee, WI USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Juice Fasting and Detoxification: Use the Healing Power of Fresh Juice to Feel Young and Look Great (Paperback)

Poisons sting twice: once on the way in and again on the way out.

Expect to experience the toxins leaving your body in the form of headaches, light-headedness and fever.

A one-day fast hardly interrupts your schedule, but it give's the body's organs a moment of peace in a hectic world to remove toxins and NOT be busy with the work of digestion. A one-day-per-week fast gives your body 50 days out of the year to cleanse and heal.

Meyerowitz believes that fasting is the fastest way to restore your health. He goes into detail on short fasting and what it takes to safely experience long fasts of more than two weeks. Give your cells and yourselves the opportunity to cleanse, nourish, rejuvenate and heal.

(1) Increase Energy and Improve Mental Alertness (2) Heal Chronic Ailments without Drugs (3) Lose Weight without the Hassle of Diets (4) Maintain Stamina without Hunger (5) Fast at Home or at Work --- Perfect for a Busy Lifestyle (6) Make Quick and Delicious Juice Recipes

How Long to Fast According to Meyerowitz, the duration of a fast depends on:

(1) Fasting Experience (2) Physical Strength and Condition (3) Nature of ailment if Any (4) Previous diet (5) Mental Attitude (6)Level of Toxicity (7) Schedule of Work and Activities (7)Environment and Weather (8) Age

Chemically speaking, a long fast is divided into three stages, which Meyerowitz describes in some detail. The first few days is primarily devoted to body reorientation, as your system starts to change the pH of your stomach. During the second phase, the liver starts to purge itself of its chemical and toxic load. The third phase involves deep tissue cleansing.

Drinking only water is what most people think of when fasting is mentioned. Rest and inactivity is very important during a long water fast. Choose clean fresh air in a relaxing environment for this kind of fast. There are good suggestions and guidelines in this chapter for both water and juice fasting.

Juice Fasting is an ideal way for first timers to start. The juice supplies nutrients and calories and thus protects you if you must continue to work during the fast. This chapter contains valuable information on the various fruit and vegetable juices, including Weatgrass --- The Queen of Juices.

Remember your water must be pure! Whether filtered water that contains all the minerals or distilled water that many describe as dead water ---- do not drink water from your tap without removing the chemicals from it.

Coming off the Fast According to our author, fasting is easy --- but the transition back to eating is what is hard. He has suggestions for your transition from a long fast and which foods are good to start eating first. Knowing when to stop is discussed as is the phases in the road back. Break fasts with soft, high water content foods like juicy fruits, light soups, etc. Watermelon is a good choice.

This is the second book that I purchased by Steve Meyerowitz. I was so impressed with "Power Juices Super Drinks", that I had to order "Juice Fasting & Detoxification". At 137 pages, this is not a very big book. But I highly recommend it if you are considering fasting as a part of your lifestyle. Each page is full of valuable information. It is a reference guide.

Steve Meyerowitz Background In the mid-1970's. Steve Meyerowitz was nicknamed "Sproutman" ...He found no help for his allergies and asthma via traditional methods and turned to a vegetarian and fruitarian diet. He lives in the city yet grows much of his own food.

234 of 249 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Reader, alternative practitioner, February 7, 2005

By 

Reader - See all my reviews

This review is from: Juice Fasting and Detoxification: Use the Healing Power of Fresh Juice to Feel Young and Look Great (Paperback)

I've been very interested in and have personally conducted fasts on my own for the past 25 years. I am currently an alternative health practitioner and have helped people work through many health issues using fasting. For these reasons, I buy every book I can find on the subject.

Juice fasting, has been my favorite type of fasting so I was particularly interested in this book prior to receiving. Unfortunately, I wasn't as enthusiastic after reading it.

I found this book in congruent, disjointed and incomplete. It had a lot of anecdotal and miscellaneous information that might be interesting for trivial knowledge about the subject but not congruent enough to be useful when conducting a proper fast.

If you want to read a book on juice fasting that's complete, to the point and relevant, I've never read anything better than the old standard by Paavo Airola "How to Keep Slim, Healthy and Young With Juice Fasting". It's amazing how ahead of his time Airola was, after all these years, it still the best book on the subject.