Pretty close to being the most shallow treatment of this complex topic one might find

Jennifer and I have been on a few cleanses, and we have gotten many happy results from them. We've felt centered and cleaned-out and re-set. We also get to share intimate details about our gastrointestinal systems, which is important in building a strong partnership.* Even though we go through ups-and-downs during the 30-day cleansing period, in the end we find it highly valuable in some important physical and spiritual ways. Together, she and I have done two cellular cleanses.**

The other day, I came upon this treatment of one type of cleanse through slate.com. This short video is just about the most shallow treatment of the complex topic of cleanses that one could possibly imagine. Why? Because:

1) She doesn't talk to anyone who's had positive experiences with the cleanse.

2) She talks to a doctor who doesn't seem to know what he's talking about -- if she was really interested in this topic, she'd get a range of opinions on this issue.

3) She sets up the "black snake" as the great mystery of the master cleanse, yet she never makes any attempt to talk to anyone who might know what that phenomenon actually is.

4) Because of her lack of research, she falsely perceives the only motivation of a cleanse to be weight loss.

5) Her desire to cash in on the fad of the Beyoncé-style master cleanse leads her to look at the cleansing in general through the false frame of pop culture, which then leads her to the false conclusion that no cleanse is worth doing.

6) She doesn't set up any kind of quantitative measurement to attempt to gauge the degree to which she is or isn't getting any benefits from the cleanse.

7) She doesn't even have the journalistic curiosity to carry the cleanse out to its end, as she ostensibly set out to do in the beginning.

Essentially, the way I read this video, she was trying to do a Morgan Spurlock 30 Days-style thing, but lacked the intellectual curiosity, journalistic credentials, empathy, and personal discipline to do it. The result is that now there is a shallow, silly video out there in the world that will serve as the primary--and possibly only--perspective on the issue for, what, 1,000, 10,000 people? This result seems to fit into this observation of a lack of intellectual curiosity in our society these days.

-----------
* : )

** I make no claim in support of the capitalist empire that Mr. Ohlgren is building in connection with his cleanse -- I claim here only that we've had great results using the fundamentals of his cleanse techniques. I've only paid about $5 for a used copy of this book.

-