One morning, junior Chloe Simmons woke up feeling hungry, but instead of going to the pantry for cereal, she reached for her detox lemonade. Wanting to improve her health and possibly lose weight, Simmons was trying the Lemon Diet Master Cleanse.

A detoxification diet, or detox, is a process or period of time in which one abstains from or rids the body of toxic or unhealthy substances. The substances flushed aren’t all toxic, just leftovers from meals lingering in the intestinal tract.

The Lemon Diet Master Cleanse is a 10-day cleanse of nothing but a lemon water concoction. It consists of 8 ounces of warm water, 2 tablespoons of freshly squeezed lemon juice, 2 tablespoons of Grade B organic maple syrup and 1/10 of a teaspoon of ground cayenne pepper.

“This probably doesn’t sound appetizing, but it does get results,” Simmons said.

“I did it for a week. Seven days was all I could stand,” Simmons said. “It made me dizzy and tired after a while.”

Junior Kasey Marsh had planned on doing the lemon cleanse as well. Sadly, her stomach problems made it dangerous for her to consume acidic liquids.

“My stomach produces too much acid and it causes obstructions,” Marsh said. “The acid from the excessive lemons would make it worse.”

There are other health concerns that come with the detox liquid diet. Because of the lack of nutrients, most participants report feeling fatigue, nausea and headaches. Most doctors agree it is not healthy to deprive the body for so long to such extreme measures. These concerns can be minimal for an average person, but for anyone with preexisting medical conditions, a cleanse can be dangerous, especially with the extreme nature of a master cleanse.

“This detox was really difficult and taxing on my body,” Simmons said. “I wouldn’t recommend this particular diet to anyone, but I did feel a difference in my body afterwards.”

The master cleanse is fairly intense, but there are some milder options with reported good results as well. They include the Colon Cleanse, Liver Cleanse, Master Cleanse, 10-Day Smoothie Cleanse, Juice Cleanse, Detox Cleanse, Natural Cleanse, Dherb’s Full Body Cleanse, Blueprint Cleanse, Isagenix Cleanse for Life and 5-Day Fast Forward Cleanse as well as others promoted on the Internet and Pinterest.

“I did this detox because it was so simple and so cheap,” Simmons said. “I thought it was going to be easy, but the only easy part was mixing the ingredients.”

Some detox diets are more commercialized and tend to cost more money. The Juice Cleanse is a popular detox diet, but can cost from $99 for a three-day cleanse and up to $165 for a five-day cleanse. The Lemon Diet Master Cleanse is also highly commercialized but much cheaper than the Juice Cleanse. The Master Cleanse was popularized by Beyoncé when she lost 20 pounds in 10 days, coining it the “Beyoncé Diet.”

Hitting closer to home, Mountain Juicery in Arden sells freshly squeezed juices that have health benefits similar to a detox. Some of the juices include vitamins and nutrients.

After a cleanse, most people gain an average of 2 pounds back because the original water weight loss is regained. The weight lost is a mixture of water weight and food remnants in the intestines that are dissolved and then flushed from the system.

By Emily Treadway.