Wednesday, October 19, 2011

Juice Fast

I'm thinking about starting a juicefast tomorrow. It sounds easy when I think about it now, though. Behaviorial economists like to call it "present bias naiveté". It's about how we, the eternal simpletons, naively assume that we will be more self controlled, disciplined individuals with healthier habits, tomorrow. I'm mildly deviating here, but I'd like to quote St. Augustine of Hippo, who famously said, in the oldest known example of present bias - "Grant me chastity and continence, but not yet."

Anywho, getting back to the point about the juice fast. After a bit of recon work on the interweb I found the following:

1. What makes you hungry?

  • Affected by this tiny portion of the brain called the hypothalamus.
  • 6 primary triggers:
- Light of the day to determine body rhythm and physiological create appetite
- Olfactory stimuli
- Natural Steroidal activity
- Neurally transmitted information
- Blood borne chemicals such as insulin, leptin
- Stress

2. What does a juice fast do?

  • Breaks the natural rhythm of hunger
  • Stops inappropriate appetite simulation
  • Cleanses gastrointestinal tract of accumulated residue of years of bad diet
  • Cleanses hypothalamus of learned chemical mediators that can increase appetite
  • Breaks the cycle of eating habits that can lead to weight gain

3. How to do a juice fast?

Okay. Let's not get into the ridiculous concoctions that you're expected to drink. First, from my point of view - eating healthy is expensive and time consuming. So, I will start of with a simple orange juice diet. I will outline the nutrition information of the Tropicana Orange and Mango because
a) it tastes slightly better than orange juice
b) I have a carton of it on me right now

Per 1000 ml

Energy - 480 kcal

No salt /fat
More than the recommended daily allowance of sugar - which is bad!

Tomorrow's diet

- 1 L of Tropicana - 480
- 1 yoghurt - 75
- Eggs - when craving for salt arises

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