Big Gulp

Juice fasting makes you feel healthy, even if it isn't

Hannah Whitaker for TIME

Kale, a favoured ingredient in juice cleanses, is packed with vitamins and fiber

What is the opposite of a Bacon cheesesteak? It's a question the remorseful and the portly have asked themselves for years, usually around the time they finish the last bite. The answer to many Americans these days seems to be a big, bitter glass of raw-vegetable juice. And then another. And then another.

It's unclear whether juice cleansing will go down as a fad, like the macrobiotic regimens of the '70s or the Atkins mania of the early aughts, but the trend shows no sign of slowing. At any given moment, half of Hollywood seems to be on a juice fast....

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