Juice cleanses can scramble body's bacterial lineup

• One market research company valued the juice cleanse industry at $18 billion in 2023 and predicted the market would more than double by 2031.

The big picture: The research in the journal Nutrients found that a juice-only diet changed the body's bacterial makeup in just three days, increasing the amount of bacteria associated with unnecessary inflammation and other traits like cognitive decline.

What they did: Fourteen generally healthy young adults were divided into three diet categories for three days. Participants either had exclusively juice, juice and food or only plant-based food.

• The juice-only group had the largest change in their microbiomes.

The bottom line: Juicing fruits and vegetables removes most insoluble fiber from the foods, and fiber is key.

• "If you love juicing, consider blending instead to keep the fiber intact, or pair juices with whole foods to balance the impact on your microbiome," Melinda Ring, lead author on the paper and Northwestern Medicine physician, said in a news release.