Just about everyone you know has gone on the Miracle Cleanse at one point or another and talked your ear off about it, but in case you live in a bubble, Double X editor Samantha Henig took some cameras along as she went on the diet, er, cleanse to find out what the big deal is. Four days in, she’s bubbly enough to be cracking puns (“I’m starting to drink the lemonade a bit on this”), and she says she feels superior to mere mortal masticators. A shrink that specializes in eating disorders tells her it’s a classic case of “orthorexia” (the need to be pure and clean), and a gastrointestinal doctor tells her there’s little to no scientific evidence to substantiate beliefs about the cleanse (including the idea that you extrude a rubbery coil of toxins known as the “black snake” at some point in the diet) — but not until she starts feeling dead tired and a tightness in her chest does Henig decide the cleanse is a “training program for becoming anorexic.”
After quitting on the seventh day, she concludes: “Doing the master cleanse gives you this taste of the control high and the isolation and even the superiority that come from not eating. And that’s a little scary.” Strangely, Henig doesn’t mention what we’re all wondering: How much weight did she lose? (She tells us she didn’t really keep a clear count.) And how did it effect her approach to eating afterward: If she hadn’t gone on the cleanse, would she be eating a hamburger instead of just a handful of figs? Anyone who’s been on the cleanse care to weigh in?
I Survived the Dreaded Master Cleanse [Double X]
