Ladies' Room

The lemonade diet

A detox diet invented 60 years ago has a new generation of fans. But is it safe to live on lemon juice, maple syrup and water?

If you throw a dinner party this month, dont be surprised if a guest turns up with a bottle of what looks like pee, declines your home cooking and swigs the yellow liquid instead.

For an extreme fast that requires you to live on nothing but a home-made concoction of lemon juice, maple syrup and cayenne pepper for at least ten days has become the word-of-mouth detox du jour.

Devotees say that the Lemonade Diet - also know as the Master Cleanse and Lemon Cleanse - has helped them to lose weight, give up smoking, think sharper, sleep better and generally feel amazing. Some claim cures for a slew of aliments including migraines, digestive problems, blood pressure, cholesterol, allergies - even infertility and cancer.

Apparently a hundred thousand people do the fast each year.

But while those who have tried it say that the regimen will change your life, dietitians argue that it is an extreme fad, which denies the body essential nutrients and could be dangerous. And, they say, there is no sound scientific reasoning behind it, let alone evidence that it works.

How it works
The Lemonade Diet instructs you to mix two tablespoons of freshly squeezed lemon juice, two tablespoons of organic maple syrup and a tenth of a teaspoon of cayenne pepper into a quarter of a litre of spring water.

The result tastes "like nectar" according to those who have tried it - which is fortunate, as you are required to drink eight to twelve glasses of the stuff a day, along with similar measures of mineral water.

And thats all, except for a cup of laxative tea each evening and, hardest to stomach - literally - a morning saltwater "flush" in which you drink a litre of water mixed with two level teaspoons of non-iodised sea salt.

Source: The Times