The reasons why everyone should juice
Lets demystify some of these questions.
Firstly juicing increases your nutritional intake. A juice that replaces a meal for men will generally be about 750ml and for ladies around 500ml. To make that amount of juice a large number of vegetables needs to be used. As a matter of fact, it is so much that nobody would be able to fit all those veggies in during one sitting. We estimate that often one juice contains more veggies than the average person eats in a week. Whilst it s impossible to to eat such big volumes it is quite easy to concentrate the nutrition into a juice and drink it down.
This brings us to the next point. Juicing removes the fibre. Whist fibre is an important part of a persons diet as it keeps the digestive system active and also sweeps it cleans on the way through, most doctors are very happy for their patients to do some juicing. It is actually a good thing to rest the digestive system once in a while. A nutribullet does not extract the fibre. It is essentially a blender and all the elements of a food are retained including fibre. Ultimately the amount you consume is the same as if you were eating the food so there is no increase in nutritional intake.
For people who decide that they want to do a juice fast there is an extra benefit. Because the insoluble fibre has been removed, the body after a several days the body figures that it is fasting. On the flip side the nutritional intake is higher than ever. During this time the digestive system takes a rest. Because the digestive system uses a large amount of the bodies energy expenditure and the energy is not being utilised it is made available to the immune system. In combination with the massive amount of micro nutrients consumed during this period and with the extra available energy the immune system receives a massive boost. This is especially beneficial for people who have chronic conditions as the immune system is able to do some serious repair work.
This question that needs to be answered is which juicing method is better? There are two options. The most common because the machines are cheaper are the centrifugal juicers. They are usually loud but also very quick. Secondly there are masticating juicers, more commonly know as cold press juicers. These are considered a better option because the juice retains more nutrients as fruits and vegetables aren’t shredded with blades, which exposes the produce to air and speeds up oxidation.
You also get more juice from your produce. A centrifugal juicer doesn’t extract as much juice gram per gram, and therefore using a masticating model can save you money on produce. When using a masticating model, the juice you end up with retains more pulp. Because of this, pressed juices have more fiber and even a little protein.
There is one rule in juicing. Limit the fruit. Whilst fruit can be very tasty it also has high levels of sugars. It may be natural but it is still not a good idea to overeat even natural sugars. The rule is to make sure that no more than 20% of any juice is fruit. Many people like to keep the fruit intake down to about 10% of their juice.
If health is important to you then certainly juicing can be an important addition to your diet.
Happy Juicing!
