Clean — Expanded Edition audiobook

Back in March I met up with a couple of good friends, Kevin and Kristie (Kristie, I have known for almost 30 years) at a restaurant called The B Spot. Fantastic! Check out the menu....During dinner Kristie mentioned that they had just finished this cleanse from this book, Clean, for the second time. They explained, in short, what it was. You eliminate certain foods from your diet, stuff that can cause inflammation and allergic reactions. Then during a three week period you have a liquid meal in the morning, a smoothie, a full lunch (of stuff you can eat) and a liquid meal for dinner (juice, or a soup). That's it. Easy right? I didn't think I would be able to do it. It sounded perfectly awful. No caffeine (what, no coffee?). No alcohol, that's right, you heard me. I had friends "LOL" me when they heard I was going to attempt it. Thanks guys.But I decided that I was going to read the book and try this cleanse. Sure I might fail on the second day, but I had never tried anything like this before and I thought "what could it hurt?"I surprised myself! I did three days of the elimination diet first (eating normally, but only the foods you can eat on the cleanse), and then I made it right through to the very end and it wasn't a struggle at all. I don't know how it happened.I noticed a lot of changes for the better.I lost weight. 7 lbs on the first three days of the elimination diet alone. 15 lbs in all.My blood pressure normalized....it ran a bit high.My moods balanced. I have a bit of an anxiety/depression issue, that went away. Huh.I gained energy and was able to wake up easier.Lots of good things. Now that I'm done, I'm sticking with the smoothies in the morning, cause they are yummy. No processed or fast food, because I don't want it. Some things that I noticed when I brought back foods that were off limits. Coffee, it didn't taste good and I didn't finish it. I noticed that later in the day I was feeling anxiety for no good reason. Huh.Sugar... I ran into a friend who works at the Starbucks at Kroger, she was raving about things that were on Starbucks secret menu (I didn't know they had one, I guess because it's a secret) and insisted on making something for me that was supposed to taste like a Werther's candy. Not to be rude, I took it, tasted it and it felt like someone punched me in the face. Terrible!! Too damn sweet. I said it was fantastic (lied) and threw the rest out as soon as I could. I'm sure I would have liked it just fine before doing this cleanse. That's how much sugar we are eating, so much we don't even notice anymore. I had read in Salt, Sugar, Fat that big food would test kids by adding sugar to cereal until they said it was too sweet, and the formula they would use would be the one directly before "too sweet". And they would do this test every so often, and the sweet tolerance would steadily increase over time. So, I'm staying away from the sugar.Alcohol? Not a problem, so I'll keep it, until I do this again in a year.....************I just finished re-reading this in preservation to do a second cleanse starting on Monday. After all the crap I (as everyone tends to) ate over the holidays, I'm actually looking forward to it. Is that weird?A thought crossed my mind as I re-read Clean, I realized I haven't had a major cold or any other illness since I did this cleanse back in April (and working with the public, I would get sick often). Huh.I don't know if the two things have anything to do with each other but I find it to be interesting.

This book completely changed the way I think about food -- and I already eat a pretty healthy diet. Dr. Junger provides some eye-opening information on how the standard American diet -- full of processed foods, fast foods, and other unhealthy items -- puts our bodies into a constant state of inflammation as it tries to fight off the dangerous chemicals and artificial ingredients we are consuming. As a result, the body can never fully enter into detoxification mode, and we are left with a host of health problems that are often misdiagnosed. The book is full of amazing stories of people who have cured chronic disease and other health problems by adopting a diet that allows their digestive system to rest and their detoxification system to kick into action. Even problems that seem unrelated to diet, such as seasonal allergies, are often resolved by eliminating certain foods. I highly recommend this book and encourage everyone to think differently about what they are putting into their bodies. It saddens me to see other reviewers stating that Dr. Junger's advice is unrealistic. Are three weeks of healthy eating really that much to ask in return for improved health, more energy, weight loss, and the resolution of chronic health problems?

This book is the Cleanse that my husband and I used to jump-start or new eating philosophy. The book is clear and well -written. It is very easy to follow and has all that one needs to do the cleanse and make important dietary changes. We decided to do a cleanse because my hasband was having joint pain frequently and we were convinced that it is diet related.As the Clean Program has you eliminate all known allergens from your diet, it was a good choice for us, as during the reintroduction pahse, post cleanse we were able to learn exaclty what food impacted my husband. The idea behind this cleanse is to allow your body the space and time and seasonal eating to optimize your body's natural detox function. The cleanse made sense for us, but it is a commitment. While I cook the majority of our meals, I had to cook ALL of them and it took me to a whole new level of meal planning! So here are the basics: 2 weeks of 3 meals a day eating from the Elimination diet. After that 2 week period, 21 days of a liquid breakfast(fresh fruit smoothies and fresh vegetables juices from the eleimnation diet) a complete lunch and a soup for dinner- all items used to create meals are from the elimination diet. While doing this, you also take 2tbs of olive oil each night, take a probiotic, antimicrobial and a liver support (if you are not already). You also allow your body 12 hours between your last meal of the day and your first of the following day- to optimize your body's natrual detox. After completing the 21 days you begin to slowly introduce items that you have avoided to see if you have an allergy. The results for us were amazing! We slept amazingly, our bodies were defintily in synch- our skin and hair looked amazing and as a by product, we both lost weight. We learned that my husband has a severe reaction to starches and have eleminiated most high starch foods. It has changed our relationship with food, made us healthier and energetic and greatly impacted our eating. We continue to have liquid breakfasts except on weekends, and we tend to have soups for dinner still. This program actually changed our lives and if you can make the commitment and feel the need to shake-up your sluggish system and re-energize- I highly recommend it!

If you've ever suffered from any health condition, big or small, this book will change your life. It is, at least, starting to change mine. I've been battling chronic, debilitating conditions my entire life and no one has ever been able to help me or offer me any answers.Although this may look like just another detox fad, it's not. It's a whole new way of approaching wellness. It reveals the holes in Western medicine, and illuminates the path to true wellness. If you think that sounds like fluff, then you've never suffered much. Lucky you. For the rest of us, who are sick and tired of being sick and tired, READ THIS. I dare you to walk away the same person.P.S. I did dock this book a star because I think Dr. Junger could have done a better job of explaining what kind of symptoms we might go through when we change our diets. I also would have appreciated more tips on how to integrate these radically new habits into our lives. It hasn't been easy to change cold turkey, but I envision myself healthy and well for the first time in my life, and it gives me the motivation to keep going.

Any nutrition book that gets me to put down the madeleines and stop drinking coffee (3 days and counting!) automatically deserves a fourth star. I don't have the willpower to follow this program to the letter, but I certainly got the message. This book drives the point home about just how many bad things we are putting in our bodies, through our air, water, and food, and how it's starting to become a toxic epidemic for humans in the same way toxins are polluting the earth. Pretty interesting if you are into nutrition and the green movement; pretty revolutionary if you're curious about the next best phase for human health. P.S. I give 5 stars to this new SF food chain: http://www.dailycandy.com/san_francis... . Keep your fingers crossed that one opens near you.P.P.S. I have a feeling this is going to be an equally good read: The Unhealthy Truth: How Our Food Is Making Us Sick - And What We Can Do About It by Robyn O’Brien

My husband and I did the clean detox about a month ago. Neither of us had previous detox experience. We did not buy the kit (I didn’t find it too heavily advertised as others have said), but we did utilize the clean website. We made it the full 3 weeks. At the end I didn’t feel amazing, but I have to admit I felt pretty darn good. It eliminated about 90% of my IBS. I lost about 8lbs, my husband lost around 22lbs. Some of the recipes felt like fear factor: detox edition. But we loved the almond smoothie and green juice (I even had green juice today for breakfast). The book was very informative, and I found myself really trusting the source. Only negatives were it was a bit repetitive and long winded at times. Also the chapter that details every toxin you come across in an average day. It’s supposed to be a selling point to do clean, but I felt a little like locking myself in a bubble after that.

If you don't want to know how good you feel when you don't eat sugar, wheat, dairy, caffeine, soy, corn, nightshades, and much more, then don't read this book and don't do this clease! We followed the cleanse in this book for 3 weeks and it changed the way I interact with food emotionally, physically, and mentally. And I admit, not always for the better! But, we will definitely do this cleanse again and I am currently integrating some of the aspects of the diet into my every day food life. Highly recommended if you can make the committment!

I picked up this book at the library after reading that it is the new fad cleanse program a la the Master Cleanse and the Martha Vineyard diet. This book actually made a lot of sense. The early chapters focus on the “science” of why the body needs to detoxify. I put “science” in quotations because I don’t have the inclination to figure out if what the authors claim is true. True or not – some of the claims make sense. For instance, the author explains how our cells aren’t meant to deal with all these toxins from our food - toxins like pesticides, steroids, chemically created foods. The process that cells go through to rid the body of these toxins creates byproducts like mucus and that creates inflammation. There have been links between people with increased inflammation and cancer. Logically that makes sense to me. The rest of the book discusses prepping for a cleanse and the actual clean diet regime. Of all the books I have read on detoxification – this was by far the best and seemed the safest. I am even considering purchasing it as a reference guide to which foods are more suited to decreasing inflammation. If the cleanse movement is something that has caught your attention, I would definitely pick up this book to educate yourself on one method of doing. Obviously, don’t make any major changes to your diet or exercise regime without consulting your physician. (Apparently, webmd.com does not count as a physician – so keep that in mind.)

This book made a lot of sense to me. Very well written and motivational, and an easy read as well. It is definitely time to start thinking about how our typical American diet is effecting our bodies, not to mention all the toxins in our homes and environment. Our bodies couldn't have adapted to all these toxins so quickly. This is where the detox steps in. The author encourages you to adopt his "fast" for 21 days. The fast is made up of two liquid meals a day (vegetables and fruit smoothies and juices and soups) and one solid meal at lunch. 12 hours between dinner and breakfast accelerate the bodies ability to detox. As a sufferer from gout, (possibly from too much lead) I am definitely going to give this a try.

4.5 stars actually. This book has a LOT of really good information. I highly recommend it. Many modern diseases can be prevented or reversed with nutrition. More than half of all American deaths are from cancer and heart disease. "If you do what most American's do, how can you expect anything different?" Do yourself a huge favor and read this book. I actually listened to the audiobook read by the author and he has a really lovely reading voice so if you get a chance, that would be an option.