3 Day Fruit Diet – Cleansing benefits, weight loss and healing the gut

The 3 day fruit diet isn’t your normal, restrict yourself and lose weight kind of diet. I’m also NOT dieting in any way. I want to talk about the benefits on your gut eating this way. And yes, a great side effect might be losing a bit of weight, but, like I said, that’s not my main focus.

What is the 3 day fruit diet?

I consider the 3 day fruit diet a perfect opportunity for the body to cleanse itself, recharge and work properly again.

The 3 day fruit diet is as simple as it sounds. Just eat fruit and only fruit for 3 days. That’s it. Well, of course drinking a lot of liquids is necessary as well. But only reach for unsweetened teas and water!

Gastritis patients should concentrate on light fruits that can be digested easily, like bananas, steamed or cooked apples or pears (skin can be left on), fruits naturally containing digestive enzymes such as bromelaine in pineapples or papain in papayas. Do not eat raw fruit, because they’re hard to digest or berries, since they’re highly acidic.

For all other ‘dieters’ there aren’t any restrictions besides your own allergies and/or intolerances. It’s good to eat a variety of fruit, because every fruit contains other vitamins or minerals.

Here’s a little overview of vitamins in different fruits:

• Vitamin C:
  black currants, strawberries, all citrus fruits, honey melon, raspberries, pineapples, blackberries, cherries, avocado, apples, bananas, peaches, apricots, watermelon, plums, pears, grapes
• Vitamin E:
  blueberries, black currants, avocados, mangoes, lingonberries, peaches, raspberries, plums, red currants, blackberries, grapes, apricots, physalis, apples, pears, tangerines
• Vitamin A:
  honey melon, persimmon, apricots, mangoes, guava, passion fruit, plums, blackberries, cherries
• Vitamin B5:
  avocado, strawberries
• Vitamin B6:
• avocado, banana
• Vitamin K:
  kiwi

The problem with only eating fruit is: Even if fruits are nutrientdense, there are some vitamins and nutrients completely missing or simply not meeting the daily recommendation in a diet relying solely on fruit. These essential vitamins are missing.

• Vitamin B:
  fish, seafood, mushrooms, yeast products, nuts, sunflower seeds, soy products, leafy greens, broccoli
• Vitamin B1:
  whole grains, legumes, nuts, potatoes, liver, fish
• Vitamin B2:
  meat, fish, whole grains, yeast products, eggs, green veggies
• Vitamin B9:
  yeast products, sprouted grains, legumes, liver
• Vitamin B12:
  dairy products, mackerel, tuna, oysters, mussels, liver, kidney
• essential fatty acids:
  fatty fish like tuna, sardines, salmon, linseed oil, hemp oil, walnuts
• Biotin:
  nutritional yeast, egg yolk, liver, oats, peanuts, soy, salmon

Benefits

The digestion of fruit is very easy for our bodies. Fruits are broken down fast, nutrients absorbed quickly and energy usable almost instantly.

Because digestion is so easy, the body can concentrate on its detoxification process. Fun fact: This is also the reason why it’s recommended to break fasts with fruit.

Since there isn’t any salt consumed with this diet, the body stops to store water which of course means you loose weight. But bear in mind, this weight is just water and not fat.
Returning to normal eating habits will result in gaining ‘lost pounds’ back.

This 3 day fast is an opportunity to give your body a break, to give it some time to heal from possibly consumed conservatives, additives, convenience food etc. and will boost its productivity and metabolism, thus recharging your energies.

Consequences

As you might have already figured out, eating only fruit for a long time is not a good idea.

It’s really hard to meet the recommended daily calorie intake. This would only be possible eating high sugar or fat containing fruits en mass like bananas, dates, mangoes or avocados resulting in a spike of blood sugar which ,again, is not healthy for long periods.

Eating a mostly plantbased whole food diet and exercising regularly is a proven long-time results way for losing weight and maintaining overall health.

There’s nothing wrong following this diet for short periods, 3-7 days. It’s ,however, not a short fix for weight loss or healing year long lifestyle culprits.

PS: What do you think of the 3 day fruit diet? Leave a comment 🙂

*This post is based on research and personal experience. All products (if any mentioned) are bought and tried by myself if not written otherwise.