Micronutrient | The Souzapalooza Blog

Juice fast! — Image by add1sun via Flickr

This weekend I had the opportunity to attend a screening of Joe Cross’ film, “Fat, Sick, and Nearly Dead”. If you haven’t seen this film, you must. It is an amazing documentary about Joe’s life. Joe is an Australian businessman who suffered from Urticaria, a chronic autoimmune disease. After seeing all sorts of doctors, healers, acupuncturists, and even a witch doctor, Joe goes on a quest to heal himself with a juicing fast. His documentary follows Joe as he juices his way through the US while he shares his story and influences others.

The story of Phil, one of the men Joe meets on his journey, is one that I was especially moved by. Phil is a truck driver that Joe meets at a rest stop. Turns out, Phil has the same disease that Joe has, among other ailments. Phil reaches out to Joe for help. Phil learns to change his life following Joe’s lead. Phil’s transformation may actually be more inspiring than Joe’s! (Joe is amazing in his own right but you may

Joe Cross was there after the movie. He did a little Q&A and explained the way the body works while on a juicing fast. He used the analogy of your digestive tract being like a mail room. YOu throw a burger and fries down there and your body says “Let’s store this incase we have a famine” however, your cells are still looking for micronutrients that they will not get from the burger and fries, so your body triggers your brain to say that you are hungry again. By doing a juice fast, you are giving your system a chance to “reboot”. You are filling your body with micronutrients that your cells needs to fight off disease, however the extracted juice has no fiber. By removing the fiber, your body will tell your brain you are hungry because there is no fiber filling it up. As a result, your body will start using the storage that has been building up on your belly, thighs, and booty. While your body thinks it is going in to a famine, it begins to start thriving off your “storage”, it is also hightening your senses. Your mind does this to help you find food. It is really amzaing what the body is capable of. Most who has tried this, including Joe, says that the third day is the hardest. Once you can surpass that point, you really start to feel better, think clearer and feel the effects of the mirconiutrients being absorbed.

I’m not going to lie, I am quite motivated to try juicing. I don’t know if I could do it as long as Joe and Phil did but I would consider a 10 day fast. If you want to learn more about Joe, his film, his book, and the reboot program, check out the following sites:

www.fatsickandnearlydead.com

www.jointhereboot.com – (the site is being updated but Joe said it should be up in about 3 weeks)