Matt Bomer had been working 70-hour weeks for months straight and badly needed a break. But instead of hopping on the next plane to the Seychelles, the 34-year-old star of White Collar on the USA Network gave up solid food for three days and put himself on the LOVEdeep Cleanse from Organic Avenue, a regimen of chlorophyll shots, grapefruit juices, and pressed-vegetable drinks. “I thought it would be a nice indulgence for my body to recuperate and reset,” he says. “I don’t know that it’s for everyone.”

Maybe not, but cleansing, which once attracted only anorexics and wheatgrass zealots, is the new national dietary obsession. According to the research firm Mintel International, the number of food and drink products that claim to detoxify the body has grown nearly fourfold since 2003. Most cleanses are liquid fasts (liquids of choice vary from cashew milk to pressed vegetables to the Master Cleanse’s mix of maple syrup, lemon, and cayenne pepper) and typically run from three to five days. Read more.