The Cayenne Pepper Diet: My Own Experience

The Cayenne Pepper Diet consists of fresh-squeezed lemon juice, grade B maple syrup, and cayenne pepper mixed with mineral or distilled water. I first learned of this diet about 10 years ago when I ran across this little book, called the Master Cleanse by a guy named Stanley Burroughs.

The Cayenne Pepper Diet immediately fascinated me, as I'm always looking for ways to improve my health, and have tried many detox diets and fasts in the past.

Ideally, the diet lasts for 10 days. During these 10 days you consume nothing other than 6 glasses of this mixture. Supposedly, this supplies enough nutrients to make it survivable.

My first go at the Cayenne Pepper Diet lasted about 3 days. Even though I'd fasted before, this time seemed extremely difficult.

At then end of the first day, I felt slightly irritable and dizzy. This is to be expected, but the next day was a work day, and I wondered how I'd fare on the job. Well, it wasn't pretty.

Driving to work that day, I sometimes saw tiny white spots. A guy cut into my lane on short notice and I honked and yelled, not typical of me at all. I missed my turn and got extremely angry at myself. I pounded on my dashboard.

At work, nothing was right. Even though I held my tongue, meaningless conversations annoyed me to no end. I mostly kept to myself that day. After work I immediately went to bed. I just wanted it to be over.

The third day the bottom fell out. Facing my first glass of the lemonade stuff, I almost vomited. I managed to choke it down, though, and packed a couple more for lunch.

The drive to work that day was an angry blur. My stomach let me know this was unacceptable. I felt nauseous the whole day, and my head hurt. At work, people thought I was doing drugs. Once, my supervisor said something that really made me mad, but I kept it together long enough for work to be over.

After work that day, I drove straight to the closest burger joint and devoured a quarter pounder with cheese. It was the tastiest meal I'd ever eaten.

Recently, however, a friend of mine called and said she was going on this diet/fast thing, and wanted to know if I would do it with her. After hearing a little more about what she was doing, I realized she was talking about the Cayenne Pepper Diet.

When I told her my experience with it, she kind of laughed and said that she couldn't believe I actually tried to do it that way. She said there's a new way to do the Cayenne Pepper Diet that's supposedly much more doable.

I was skeptical, but also curious. I agreed to meet with her to find out what she was talking about.

Sure enough, my friend had discovered this system that gives a realistic approach to the Cayenne Pepper Diet. She and I both started it about a week later. How'd we do?

Well, my friend, who had always been overweight, lost 26 pounds in 10 days. I lost 7, and my acid reflux, which had been with me daily for the last couple years or so, vanished.

So, do I think the Cayenne Pepper Diet works? Absolutely. Is it for everybody? The old way? No. The way my friend showed me? I have no doubt anybody can do this with awesome results.