...well, not forever. Technically, only for 21 days, along with all animal products, caffeine, sugar, alcohol, and gluten. Oh, right: and she's calling it a "cleanse," in hopes that it will prepare her for her "inner makeover." Now, giving up alcohol, caffeine, and animal products is a difficult decision, and one that shouldn't be taken lightly.
But, (big surprise), I have several issues with this. First of all, I dislike the word "cleanse." It's often associated with that ridiculous maple syrup/cayenne pepper diet, and don't even try to convince me that it works, because depriving yourself of food is simply unhealthy, I don't care if you feel "amazing" or not (most likely, that "amazing, high" feeling is the effects of oxygen depletion to your brain, sweetie).
And like I said, while changing your diet to be as healthy as possible can be a very good, positive step, I'm afraid that in this case, Oprah's fans (many of whom are sponges and cling to her every word) may see her choices as a way of food restricting or trying to get skinny, and start depriving themselves of necessary nutrients (or, more importantly, occasional fun indulgences). Won't this subsequently and inevitably lead to more food hang-ups among legions of Oprah worshipers?
To her (or her nutritionist's) credit, the recipes seem halfway decent. But the cleanse feels to me like another "certain foods are evil" campaign. I mean, yeah, so maybe we don't need to eat french fries and chocolate cake every day of our lives. But what ever happened to "everything in moderation?" Have we taken all the joy out of food and eating? It no longer seems like a way to bring people together or to relax; instead, it's a hurdle, a burden, a trigger, a crutch.
Can't we all (us and food) just get along?
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