Spring Cleansing

      Spring is coming and people are going to be looking for a quick fix to their weight woes. (a few suggestions: abolish the skinny jeans trend and accept we aren't seventeen anymore!) One of the pieces of advice I consistently read in the blogosphere is that celebrities are "going on a cleanse." This magical sounding Hollywood experience is code for fasting and using enemas or drinking sludge to make your colon purge itself in horror. Cleanse does sound better, right?   
  
     The most famous of these is the Master Cleanse, a regimen of drinking a mixture of lemon juice, cayenne pepper, and grade B maple syrup. No solid food is eaten the entire time you're on it, which is typically ten days but can be much longer. This must be the reason so many Hollywood marriages fail! After ten days with no solid food I can only imagine what a train wreck I would become.

     The most recent news in cleansing is Megan Fox's assertion that after a night of eating junk food, she takes a table spoon of apple cider vinegar to cleanse away the bloating. She says:

     "It just cleanses out your system entirely."

  
       "It will get rid of ... for women who retain water weight from your menstrual cycle and all that ... it gets rid of it really fast. see Megan Fox diet advice
  
       Forget that she's twenty-three and not a nutritionist. And forget about downing the vinegar! Unless you're  willing to go on a starvation diet, it's not going to work for you. That doesn't stop advertisers from trying. Just go to twitter.com and you'll see ad after ad for colonics and cleansing products such as "The Bowtrol Colon Cleanser." and type in "colon cleansing."  You'll see scores of ads for products guarenteeing instant results.  Numerous studies have shown that purging your colon can make it lazy and dysfunctional (like someone who thinks a tbsp of vinegar will replace healthy habits) and can cause irreversible damage. For a comprehensive overview, see Stephen Barrett's "Quack Watch."
  
      What purpose do these adds serve on Twitter? Who are they selling to? According to Steve Rubel's "The Steve Rubel Lifestream" blog, thirty seven percent of internet users ages 18-24 use Twitter.  Only ten percent in the 45-54 age group. These cleanses are not only dangerous, but are being pushed on the people with the least amount of life experience who may be less equipped with the knowledge of the risks.