Understanding Juice Cleanses

Just mention a juice cleanse and you'll see a polarizing effect — devotees will rave about its effects and detractors will complain about another health fad. But we wanted to go beyond the opinions and get the whole story on juice cleansing, so we spoke with the founders of BluePrint, Zoe Sakoutis and Erica Huss, about their cleanse.

Huss explained the core of what a juice cleanse actually is: "A juice cleanse really is a nutritional juice program. We send your daily supply of juice," she says. "And you're drinking nothing but raw, unpasteurized juice, water and some herb tea — really just kind of flushing your system. And you can decide how long you want to do it, whether its three days, five days or a week."

Sakoutis also wanted to dispel some of the rumors about juice cleanses. "I think the biggest misconception is that you're going to be tired and not have enough energy," she says. "The truth is you're actually feeding your cells instead of stuffing them. Think of the nourishment you get from 500 calories of bagels. You compare that against a bottle of a green juice that contains 6 pounds of produce; your body is receiving that differently."

For more, watch the video above, and if you want to try  for yourself you can always sign up for the BluePrint Cleanse or test their individual juices with their BluePrint Juice collection.