The Lemon Juice Cleanse that is The Master Cleanse requires the MOST CRITICAL component of The Lemonade Diet, freshly squeezed lemon juice to be just that; FRESH!. If you don’t drink your Lemon Juice Fresh, you will not be getting the active enzymes that lose vitality over time, partly through exposure to light and air.
This leads to 2 of the biggest Master Cleanse Mistakes: Pre-Mixing your Lemonade, or using store bought Lemonade. Both of these DO NOT provide the benefits that you get from drinking your lemon juice fresh. In fact not drinking Fresh Lemon Juice could have dire consequences for those who are critically ill as was explained to me by Master Cleanse Practitioner, Tom Wolohsyn, when I was interviewing him for my Ebook: Successfully Starting The Master Cleanse.
I should note, that the first 3 times I did The Master Cleanse, I pre-mixed my lemonade, and I didn’t have nearly as much energy as I did once I corrected my behavior and drank my lemon juice fresh.
Enzymes in Lemon Juice
Lemon Juice really is a unique juice. It is acidic, but when consumed it has an alkalizing effect on the body because of high levels of magnesium, calcium and potassium. By now you probably realize that nearly all packaged foods are almost completely devitalized; they are “dead”.
“Live” food has active, living elements. Dead food has been cooked, and processed and contains only calories –no “living” enzymes. These enzymes break apart and put together cells. Enzymes are not technically “alive”, but rather are active or inactive.
The acids in the lemon juice have the ability to break down calcified substances including gallstones and kidney stones. Fresh Lemon Juice also has similar properties as does our saliva and bile which are digestive aids that our bodies produce. This helps with the process of Autolysis which Tom describes as “self-digestion”, or the breaking down of unhealthy cells which our bodies can then use to regenerate itself.
Lemon Juice as a “Cleaner”
Lemon is a natural cleaner. Why do you think all our dish soap started as a lemon variety (now replaced by lemon smelling chemicals), which, is also why it is great for preventing illness from cold or virus that is beginning to set in.
You probably already know, but Lemons are high in vitamin C, and have many other vitamins in lesser amounts such as B-5, B-6, Niacin, Riboflavin, and Thiamine.
I hope you can understand how drinking the Lemon Juice fresh is critical. If you have to pre-mix your lemonade because of work or other lifestyle considerations, then only use the Lemonade Concentrate (which mixes only the fresh lemon juice and the pure maple syrup).
Use Room Temperature, Ripened Lemon Juice
Don’t keep your lemons in the fridge. If you buy 50 at a time, take 10 out to ripen, and store the rest in the fridge, making sure to take more out at least a few days before you will juice the lemons. Storing the lemons in the fridge prevents them from ripening. You want ripe lemon juice. Also, the cold puts the enzymes in a sort of hibernation that makes them less active. Enzymes are your friends. Help them help you.
You can put the fresh lemon juice that you can’t use in a day or so into ice cube trays. Each frozen cube will be 2 oz which is just what you need.
Well I guess I have to throw away my Juice and start all over. I juice lemons for 10 days and mixed with the maple syrup and cayenne pepper. 10 days prepared only to add the water. Please say it isn’t so.
Technically, if this mixture was kept in a black-out, airtight container, you could potentially be okay. The only issue would be that your mixture is going to be very HOT from the cayenne that you’ve essentially allowed to steep in the mixture and it will continue to do so over the 10 days. Not ideal in my opinion. That would really suck to waste all those lemons though…
I peeled about 7 lemons and ran them through my juicer. I was able to get about 2 cups of lemon juice from them. I placed the 2 cups into a dark, sport bottle. Should I leave the bottle out on the counter or refrigerate? I do not want to spoil the juice nor do I want to destroy any enzymes.
This cracks me up. Here is a whole article saying why fresh lemons are so important, and yet there are people posting if it’s OK to use pasteurised concentrates. THINK PEOPLE. Why are you so sick and fat to start with ? It’s from taking short cuts, eating processed food that leaves your body nutrient starved ! And — for a CLEANSE you want to put only FRESH REAL NON PROCESSED foods into your body !!! And then to keep up that idea afterwards too !!!
Stop the “can I use this xxx substitute” questions already. Just DO WHAT THE ARTICLE SAYS and have a good fast. If you don’t, you will get headaches and low energy and your body will be filled with only toxins.
USE ORGANIC LEMONS TOO. NOT ENOUGH IS SAID ABOUT THIS. Why fast on toxic Chemicals ? Use Organic.
Perhaps a little harsh, but true :)
I have heard that if you are not eating the peel of a fruit (or vegetable), then you don’t need to worry about using organic. Is this not true?
What about limes? Can you use limes. Lemons are out of season now and hard to find nice ripe ones. I was going for the santa cruz not from concentrate but I saw it was pasteurized and bought limes instead. I am on day 2 and I just bought enough for the next day, would love to get a reply while I am doing this as to what is better, juice store bought not from concentrate or limes.
Is it ok to juice whole lemons, peel and all, using an electric juicer? Does this provide any different effects than just hand juicing the ‘meat’? Thank you
is it ok to use ReaLemon lemon juice (bottled from concentrate)? The ingredients are water, concentrated lemon juise, sulphites and lemon oil.
It’s REALLY BEST to use fresh lemon juice from fresh lemons to get the MAXIMUM benefits & best results. I have done the cleanse many, many times and have used a substitute like the RealLemon juice….but only if I was in a real pinch and used it for just one drink to hold me over. It was basically a situation where it was use that or fall off my cleanse.
My advice is to be prepared and use real lemons!
Our refridgerater has a filter for our water, does that do the job or is it better to buy the filter that you recommend? I saw this lemon diet on the Housewives of Beverly Hills, so I looked it up and now I am anxious to try it. I look forward to your reply. Thank you Ronnie
You are right that cooked food has no living enzymes, but did you know that raw food doesn’t have living enzymes either? Enzymes are not alive. Never were, never will be. Anyone, including Mike, who tells you they are alive, or can be killed, is flat wrong.
Thanks Jeff, that’s been covered here before. It’s a easy to understand term. Active is a better one. We’ve changed the presence of that term in most post/pages. Thanks for pointing that out here.
What do you do with the lemons after you have used them for the two table spoons? Do you wrap the reminder in the fridge for the next lemonade or do you leave it out?
The average lemon yields about 2 tablespoons of juice. Just get what you can out of it and use it all in your drink. You can adapt the rest of your ingredients to that or just don’t worry about it. A little extra won’t hurt you.