Recently a woman in my office went on the Master Cleanse. I was tempted to call it a diet because she lost a bunch of weight, but actually the purpose of Master Cleanse is to rid the body of toxins.

The Master Cleanse is also known as the Lemon Cleanse, Lemonade Diet or the Maple Syrup Diet. These alternative names stem from the primary ingredients of the diet, which is…you guessed it, lemon juice and maple syrup. This cleanse was originally developed by Stanley Burroughs and was published in his book “The Master Cleanser” in 1941.

By following the directions in the book, people are able to adapt the cleanse to their detoxifying needs. The cleanse itself is very straightforward and includes drinking a large quantity of a “lemonade” concoction that includes water, lemon juice, maple syrup and cayenne pepper. The cleanse also recommends drinking a cup of Senna leaf tea in the morning or before bed and the occasional saline wash that involves drinking salt water.

The woman in my office who just tried this cleanse swears by it. She claims that it helped her body to purge all kinds of toxins and now she feels better than she ever has. It’s also true that she lost about 15 pounds in two weeks, but as the Master Cleanse book clearly states, at least half of this weight loss is water. I admit that my co-worker was pretty cranky some days while doing the cleanse, which is not usually her character, but she also seemed to have an unusually high amount of energy for someone who is not eating any solid foods. I’ll wait to see if she keels over in the next few days, but if not I think the Master Cleanse may be worth a try.