Clean 9: The 160 Euro Starvation Diet That Forever Living Calls a “Detox”

Forever Living wants you to believe that spending €160 on a box of meal replacement shakes, laxative aloe vera gel, and unregulated weight-loss supplements will “reset” your body in 9 days. The reality is far uglier.

Let’s get one thing straight upfront: the human body does not need to be “detoxed.” Your liver and kidneys do that job automatically, every single day, for free. The entire concept of a “detox diet” is a marketing fiction designed to sell you products you don’t need.

But Forever Living — the same company that was just ordered by the US Federal Trade Commission to permanently stop lying about earnings — has built an entire product line around this fiction. It’s called Clean 9, and it’s a textbook case of exploiting desperate people for profit.

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What Is Clean 9, Really?

Clean 9 is a “9-day nutritional reset program” sold by Forever Living Products (FLP) — a multi-level marketing company that recruits distributors to sell aloe vera-based products. The program costs €159.71 in Greece. Here’s what you actually get for that money:

• 2 litres of aloe vera gel (96%+ water, with a known laxative compound)
• A box of meal replacement shakes (plant protein powder)
• Garcinia Cambogia capsules (linked to liver damage and pancreatitis)
• “Therm” tablets (raspberry ketones — only ever tested on animals)
• Fibre packets
• A shaker bottle

For the first two days, you’re expected to survive on almost nothing but these supplements — a calorie intake so low it would make a hunger striker blush. Days 3–8 allow one solid meal of 600–800 calories. Day 9 eases up slightly.

The “Evidence” Falls Apart

Healthline gave the Clean 9 diet an overall score of 0.9 out of 5. Let that sink in. A 0.9. For perspective, that’s like a restaurant getting a hygiene score of 9%. Their assessment?

“It’s a very low calorie diet that relies heavily on processed supplements and cannot be sustained long-term. Overall, its lack of scientific evidence and its overly restrictive nature make it a diet you should avoid.”

The individual supplement ingredients are even less impressive when examined:

Aloe Vera Gel

The star ingredient. It’s more than 96% water and contains anthraquinone — a known laxative. That “cleansing” feeling? That’s not toxins leaving your body. That’s the runs. Healthline notes there are “very few quality studies in humans” to confirm any of the claimed benefits. The one study that showed a 1% body fat loss used unreliable measurement methods.

Garcinia Cambogia

This exotic-sounding fruit extract has been linked to serious side effects including pancreatitis and liver damage. When you strip away low-quality studies, the weight loss effect vanishes entirely. The small effect seen in older reviews? About 2 lbs more than placebo — insignificant against the €160 price tag.

Raspberry Ketones (Forever Therm)

Nearly every study on raspberry ketones has been conducted on animals or in test tubes. The doses required for any effect would be unsafe for human consumption. The only human study was funded by supplement companies and had so many other active ingredients that it’s impossible to tell what actually worked.

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The Side Effects They Don’t Tell You About

Customer reviews gathered by independent sources paint a picture that Forever Living’s glossy brochures won’t show you:

• Headaches
• Nausea
• Dizziness
• Rapid heart rate
• Irritability and fatigue from extreme calorie restriction

These aren’t signs that the “detox is working.” These are signs that you are starving your body. The C9 booklet itself admits the program “may not be suitable if you are obese or underweight” and tells you to “consult your doctor.” If it’s not suitable for obese people — the exact demographic most likely to buy a weight loss product — who exactly is it for?

The MLM Trap

Clean 9 isn’t just a product. It’s a recruitment funnel. You buy the kit, try the program, lose some water weight, feel “transformed,” and then — surprise — your Forever Living distributor invites you to join the business. Suddenly you’re not just a customer; you’re a salesperson buying inventory, recruiting your friends, and making false health claims to sell overpriced aloe vera to your own social circle.

The Federal Trade Commission didn’t just slap Forever Living on the wrist for no reason. The company has a long history of deceptive earnings claims and misleading advertising. The Clean 9 program is part of the same playbook: promise dramatic results, hide the fine print, and use the product as a loss leader to recruit more distributors.

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The Bottom Line

Clean 9 works exactly the same way every other very-low-calorie diet works: you lose weight because you’re barely eating. The weight you lose is mostly water and muscle, not fat. And the moment you resume normal eating, the weight comes back — often with interest, because your metabolism has slowed down from the starvation period.

For €159.71, you could buy actual whole foods for a week, consult a registered dietitian, and still have money left over. Instead, Forever Living is selling you laxative water, under-researched supplements, and a ticket to the most expensive 9 days of your life.

Save your money. Eat real food. And if you want to lose weight sustainably, see a qualified professional — not an MLM distributor with a shaker bottle.

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Sources: Healthline Medical Review, clean9.gr, Bot Watch — FTC Orders Forever Living