DIET SCIENCE

Juicing Pros and Cons

by Dell Allen

Juicing machines, books about juicing - even juice bars - are starting to pop up all over the place. And the claims made about juicing are amazing, enticing, and provocative. People in the developed world eat far too few fruits and vegetables (and way too much processed and junk foods), and juicing can make up for that by making it possible to get the food value of many, many servings of fruits and vegetables in a single glass. The proponents of juicing - which involves removing all or almost all pulp and fiber from these foods and making them into a drinkable "juice" - have said that drinking these juices allows greater nutrient intake and density, more exposure to antioxidants (which can retard the aging process), can kill pain, and reduce the need for medication. What's the real story?

Pros of juicing:

1. Some people simply don't like to eat fruits and vegetables. So they avoid them as much as possible, missing out on a lot of good basic nutrition and trace elements. Such people also tend to fill up on other foods to compensate, which in some cases can lead to excessive calorie intake, weight gain, and nutritional imbalance. Juicing can make it quick and simple to get many servings' worth of vegetable or fruit goodness in a single quickly-prepared glass. For example, it's quite possible for a large serving of juice to contain all the enzymes, calories, water, trace elements, and natural sugars from five full pounds of fruits and vegetables. Can you imagine trying to eat five pounds of anything for breakfast - and succeeding? I didn't think so.

2. Not only are the "juiced" nutrients more densely packed than they are in the whole fruit or vegetable, but for many people juicing is easy and fun and encourages them to try out new and potentially healthy additions to their diets that they wouldn't have tried otherwise. There are now a huge number of juicing recipes that you can find on the Internet, and thousands of other juicing enthusiasts have discovered combinations that, they say, make the most prosaic of veggies taste delightful. And, whatever recipes you might find, you can add your favorite ingredients to the blend and find the mix that's just right for you!

3. It's possible to add protein to the mix for more complete nutrition and even better flavor. Some high-protein ingredients are yogurt, flax seed, peanut butter, finely ground nuts, and almond milk.

Cons (and things to watch out for):

1. Juiced fruits and vegetables can go bad very quickly. The same good stuff that your body craves is attractive to microorganisms too. And juiced veggies and fruits don't have the chemical preservatives that processed foods and drinks do, so they start to rot almost immediately. So, to prevent your new juice blend from going bad, make sure and make just enough for you and your family to drink that same day (and immediately freeze whatever portion you're going to drink later). In fact, for maximum freshness it's best to make just enough to consume right there on the spot (and make sure your sources, like your farmers' market or grocery store, provide absolute freshness too). Frozen juice can keep its full food value for up to three days.

2. Though juicing fanatics might regard this as blasphemy, consider blending (yes, in a common kitchen blender) instead of juicing on some occasions. Blenders retain the fiber, unlike juicers which remove it. And fiber is very, very good for you. So why eliminate all of it, all the time? Fiber adds bulk and helps fill you up too (especially important if you're trying to lose weight).

3. Be very skeptical of "too good to be true" claims: they probably are "too good" and "not true." High-pressure sales of juicing products, even sometimes with celebrity endorsements and multi-level marketing, accompanied by claims of "total life-changing" or "cheating death" experiences, should make you leery. These kinds of sales pitches are almost always linked with wildly overpriced juicing products. And you should discount claims that you ought to avoid solid food and subsist only on juice; that could lead to serious nutritional deficiencies. Claims that juicing gives you more nutrients than you'd get from eating the same foods whole (because, supposedly, the fiber that juicing removes "gets in the way" of absorption) are also suspect, and decrease the credibility of those making them.

4. Look around the major online marketplaces like Ebay and Amazon to see what price ranges the different kind of juicing supplies are falling into these days. Then you'll know what's out there and how much it usually costs if you decide to explore the many juicing specialty sites that are online these days.

5. Don't neglect health and juicing discussion forums on the Internet. There you can find uncensored and (usually) unbiased personal stories and reviews by those who've tried juicing and juicing products.

6. If you concentrate your juicing efforts mainly on fruits (and many do), you'll be getting a lot of sugar in your diet, and that can add up. Try to strike a balance between fruits and vegetables. (And nutritionists recommend varying the colors of the foods you choose, too, to get a good mix of nutrients.) These days, there are many sites on the Internet which give calorie counts for almost any conceivable food. Remember, you're in charge, and you're doing this to take control of your own nutrition, so take the job seriously and do the research.

7. Make sure and thoroughly clean your juicer after each use. The bad bacteria that can make your juice start to go bad after sitting out for even as little as half an hour also start working - just as fast - on the food residues and particles in all the nooks and crannies of your juicing machine. You don't want to be adding this morning's bacteria population to this evening's juice! Also wash all utensils, wash the fruits and vegetables themselves to remove any dirt, pesticides, or bacteria, and also keep all your implements and cutting boards scrupulously clean at all times.

Bottom line: Juicing doesn't give you anything that eating non-juiced whole veggies or fruits wouldn't give you. And there's a lot of healthy fiber that you don't get if you just consume juiced fruits and vegetables - the juicing process removes it all. But, if you already have enough fiber in your diet, and if you have historically been doing very poorly at eating a healthy number of servings of these essential foods, then juicing can be an easy way to ramp up your consumption of some of the healthiest foods you can eat, and you can have a lot of fun in the process! Just don't go too hog wild on the fruits and ignore the vegetables, since many fruits have a high sugar content that can lead to weight gain and other problems if carried to excess. Juice away!

REFERENCES

Nguyen, Anna. "Juicing for Health and Weight Loss," WebMD, http://www.webmd.com/diet/features/juicing-health-risks-and-benefits, retrieved April 5, 2014.

O'Neil, C.E., et al. "100% Orange juice consumption is associated with better diet quality, improved nutrient adequacy, decreased risk for obesity, and improved biomarkers of health in adults," National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, 2003-2006. Nutrition Journal. 2012;11:107

Duyff, R.L., American Dietetic Association Complete Food and Nutrition Guide. 4th ed. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons; 2012.

Rampersaud, G. "A comparison of nutrient density scores for 100% fruit juices," Journal of Food Science. 2007;72:S261

The Truth About the Zone Diet

One of the most effective ways to safeguard your health, live longer, and alleviate the impact of aging on your body is to eat a good diet. The Conscious Evolution Institute offers strong diet and nutrition plans in combination with our various Hormone Replacement Therapy options in order to help you maximize the potential benefits of therapy. The Age-Free Zone Diet is one of many viable diet options if you are looking to improve your health and reduce your risk of a number of Age-Related Medical Conditions

Age-Free Zone Diet

This diet was created by a man named Doctor Barry Sears. The goal of this diet is to simultaneously help you lose weight and help you live an optimized life full of vitality. The central premise of the Age-Free Zone Diet is that there certain factors which contribute to the aging process which can be controlled, and that four of the factors which speed up the aging process the fastest are free radicals, cortisol, blood glucose, and insulin. The goal of this diet is to control and reduce the levels of these Aging-Associated Factors through lifestyle and diet so that you can balance them in order to significantly reduce your mortality risk.

Zone Diet Overview

• Goal of the diet is to balance hormone levels in order to slow down aging

• Calorie-restricted diet high in protein and low in carbohydrates

• Involves the use of diet supplements

Who Should Consider the Zone Diet?

This diet is best for individuals that love meats like chicken, fish, and pork, and also for individuals that don't feel that they can completely restrict their carbohydrate consumption but would be able to limit their consumption modestly.

Who Should Not Consider The Zone Diet?

This diet is not suitable for individuals that need to limit their protein consumption, such as individuals with kidney problems. If you have Type-Two Diabetes, you should discuss this diet with your physician before initiating your plan because most medical professionals recommend eating slightly more carbohydrates than are allowed in this diet.

The Specifics of the Zone Diet

This diet is not explicitly designed as a plan to lose weight, but caloric-restriction plays a significant role in the diet, making it also effective for people that want to lose weight. Sears is a fan of caloric restriction because he is of the opinion that restricting calories is an effective means to limit the impact of aging even in individuals at a healthy weight.

The Age-Free Zone Diet is a combination of lifestyle changes and diet, which combine in an effort to optimize health and wellness. The three primary factors of this health plan are dieting, moderate physical activity, and meditation.

Although lifestyle choices play a big role in this diet, the primary focus of the plan is scaling back calories consumed in the daily diet by avoiding simple carbs and limiting total carb consumption. By tightly controlling the consumption of carbohydrates, the body does not rely so heavily on insulin, which is responsible for converting carbohydrates into glucose.

In addition to controlling insulin, the diet plan also impacts the balance of a number of different hormones, including Melatonin, DHEA, Testosterone, Human Growth Hormone, Progesterone, Estrogen, and Thyroid Hormone, all of which are important to maintain properly in order to optimize one's health. In men, for example, efforts are made to optimize Testosterone and Human Growth Hormone Secretion and to limit DHEA and Estrogen Levels in the body.

How Does the Zone Diet Slow Down the Effects of Aging?

Based upon the theory behind this diet, Caloric Restriction is an effective means both to lose weight while also limiting the negative impacts of elevated Insulin and Blood Sugar. Living by this health plan also limits the impact of Free Radicals on health. Free Radicals are the byproducts of oxygen reactions in the body which can damage cells if not controlled effectively.

Sears does not recommend severe caloric restriction, however. The goal of his diet is to intake just enough carbs to function optimally without experiencing unnecessary side-effects of over consumption. Maintaining these limited-yet-optimal levels will still give your body all the energy it needs to sustain itself effectively while also keeping Insulin, Glucose, and Free Radicals in check.

A high-protein, low-carb diet is the central feature of this diet plan, but the Zone Diet also involves the use of anti-aging supplements and antioxidants. In spite of these recommendations, Sears insists that exercise and foods play the most significant role in balancing hormone production in order to enhance longevity.

How is the Age-Free Zone Diet Organized?

The Zone Diet takes a common approach to stimulate metabolism: spreading out meals and snacks throughout the day. In the case of this particular method, the dieter will ideally eat breakfast, lunch, and dinner with two snacks distributed between meals. Every meal will involve four courses per meal for men, and three courses per meal for women. Each meal will have one source of fat, one source of carbohydrates, and one source of protein. This diet plan even comes with a diet cookbook which provides fourteen days worth of meals as well as a number of additional, helpful recipes.

To provide a more clear vision of what you can expect from your meals with this diet, breakfast might involve fruit salad, low-fat cheese, and soy patties. Lunch would involve reduced-fat cheese, turkey breast, lightly dressed tossed salad, and a fruit choice. An example of a Zone Diet Dinner would be grilled fish, grapes, green beans, and tomatoes topped with olive oil and Parmesan cheese.

In addition to meal plans, the Age-Free Zone Diet Book will provide you with examples of a number of quality choices for your meals and snacks in general, and provide you with knowledge needed to maintain a healthy diet.

The Rules of the Zone Diet

• Eat within an hour of waking up.

• Never wait for longer than five hours between meals and snacks. Eat something light even if you aren't hungry.

• Every snack and meal should involve protein.

• Place an emphasis on vegetables and fruits and make strong efforts to cut back starches, grains, pastas, and breads.

• Never skip snacks.

• Consume at least sixty four ounces of healthy drinks every day.

• Always have a small snack a half-hour before physical exercise.

How Do Nutrition Experts Feel about the Age-Free Zone Diet?

Experts agree that there are a lot of good ideas behind the Zone Diet, but there are certain aspects which have not been fully proven. One niggling point with regard to the Zone Diet is that Sears asserts that an important aspect of the diet is discovering ideal carbohydrate consumption to slow down aging, but he makes no special effort to help the potential dieter to discover what that personal limit is. The Diet Plan also provides no specific information regarding how to make the diet fit the needs of the individual.

A lot of what Sears supports is backed by compelling medical research. Responsible caloric restriction is highly correlated with reduced mortality. Elevated Insulin Levels do wreak havoc on the body and increase the risk of conditions such as diabetes and hypertension. Finally, free radicals do have the capability to damage healthy cells and increase the rate of aging from wear and tear as well as potentially damage the genes themselves.

The potential issue with regard to these scientifically-backed aspects of Sears' diet approach is that he takes the basic scientific wisdom and goes further, inferring benefits that may or not be the reality. One major issue that many nutritionists have with this diet is that the Zone Diet involves a lot of unneeded supplements that are sometimes combined in potentially damaging ways.

The Zone Diet is based on 1,500 calories per day for males and 1,200 calories per day for females. This level of caloric restriction will guarantee weight loss for individuals that are overweight or obese, but his plan does not provide necessary levels of certain nutrients, such as calcium and B-Vitamins, from nutrition alone. The lack of these vitamins from the diet is mitigated through the use of mineral and vitamin supplements.

In general, this diet recommends too much protein and not enough fiber and carbs. The result of this is that you may experience constipation and fatigue. Also, Sears believes that this diet is ideal for men and women with Type-Two Diabetes, but most experts with experience with diabetes patients generally advocate a diet with more carbs than the Zone Diet recommends. Of course, you could take the advice of the Zone Diet and alter it slightly to account for these dietary discrepancies in order to amplify the positive potential of a diet of this kind.

Still, the diet is too high in protein and too low in complex carbohydrates and fiber, which could leave you low on energy and constipated. And while Sears advocates the diet for people with type 2 diabetes, most diabetes experts recommend a diet much higher in carbohydrates than the plan provided in the book.

Age-Free Zone Diet Approved Recommendations:

Healthy Fats, Limited Complex Carbs, Proteins with Every Meal, Vegetables, Fruits, Caloric Restriction

Age-Free Zone Diet Things to Avoid:

Low-Fiber, Processed, High Fat, and High Carb Foods

The Schwarzbein Principle

Every diet and nutrition plan presents itself as the new solution and the easy way to lose weight and be healthy. Don't always trust the information that you read in these diet books however. There are a number of diets which can produce real benefits, including the Origin Diet and the Eat Right, Live Longer diet, but many can actually be bad for your health. This is especially true for certain fad diets.

One diet that we strongly suggest to avoid is the Schwarzbein Principle. The title of the book that contains this weight loss plan is “The Truth about Weight Loss, Health, and Aging.” The stated goal of this diet is to help you lose weight, reverse or soften the effects of aging, and strengthen the body's resistance to disease through changes in diet. We are going to explain why this diet is a bad idea.

The Schwarzbein Principle at a Glance

• High fat, high protein diet

• Denies foods with a high glycemic-index, including processed carbohydrates

• Purports to be able to balance Hormone Levels in the body

• Places an emphasis on foods that you could hunt, gather, pick, milk, or fish for

Who Should Consider the Schwarzbein Principle

No one should consider this diet.

Who Should Avoid the Schwarzbein Principle

Pretty much everyone should avoid this diet.

The Basics of the Schwarzbein Principle

The Schwarzbein Principle is a diet that was invented and proliferated via an Endocrinologist named Diana Schwarzbein. Her diet is a variation on diets like the Origin Diet in that it is both Low-Carb and High Protein, but there are a number of differences between the two diets as well. She claims that the diet has the ability to control Insulin.

Avoiding high insulin levels is the central tenet of the Schwarzbein Principle, and she considers high insulin levels incredibly dangerous, leading to a number of different adverse medical and health issues, including weight gain, low metabolism, mood swings, and accelerated aging. It also increases the intensity of food cravings. She says that elevated insulin levels are directly the result of the combination of a low fat and high carbohydrate diet.

Many diets, as well as the diet recommended by the USDA, utilize a food pyramid, but Schwarzbein's diet revolves around a food box which includes four classes of foods – carbohydrates, non-starch vegetables, fats, and proteins. She believes that these four groups need to be eaten simultaneously in particular amounts in order to properly balance the hormones of the body to encourage longevity and promote Anti-Aging.

Schwarzbein is also an adamant believer in the idea that refined sugar is both addictive and dangerous. In addition to her diet plan, she also advocates heavy use of supplements, including Omega-3 and Omega-6 Fatty Acids, 5-hydroxytryptophan, calcium, magnesium, and a multivitamin.

The Rationale of the Schwarzbein Principle

The principal idea behind Schwarzbein's nutrition plan is that a diet that is high in healthy fats and proteins while low in carbs helps to balance insulin and prevent insulin spikes as well as regulate levels of Glucagon. Glucagon is a peptide hormone secreted by the pancreas that directly stimulates an increase in blood sugar. Increased Glucagon Levels lead directly to increased Insulin Levels, which can be a terrible cycle is your Insulin Levels spike too often. The author of the diet believes that by controlling and balancing the body's hormones, it is possible to limit cravings for food and increase metabolism through diet.

There are a number of ways that she claims that it is possible to reduce hunger pangs and food cravings. A big part of balancing hunger under this system is to eat lots of fiber and “good” fats and oils. Balancing serotonin levels also plays a role in Schwarzbein's diet, and serotonin levels can be controlled by avoiding sugar, chocolate, refined carbs, caffeine, and alcohol. She claims that regulating serotonin can reduce cravings.

The Schwarzbein Principle calls for regulation of Carbohydrates, because the diet revolves around the belief that there is no way to overeat “good” fats and proteins. Only carbs have the ability to spike insulin levels, which she believes is the leading cause of weight gain. She believes that sugar is the culprit of most of the physiological ills related to aging, because it causes Insulin production to stay high and it prevents the body from utilizing nutrients with maximum efficiency.

The Meal Plan of the Schwarzbein Principle

The book that accompanies this diet plan includes a month's worth of daily menus in order to show how to institute a “healing” program which claims to balance hormones and encourage health and weight loss. The goal of this first month of meals is both to enhance your metabolism and to increase your insulin resistance. She also includes a month of daily menus and recipe options for vegetarians.

The primary goal of these menus is to balance Insulin and Glucagon production while balancing the glycemic index. It attempts to accomplish this by only including fifteen grams of carbs with each meal and including meals from her four specified food groups provided in her recommended portions.

Under the Schwarzbein Principle, a days breakfast would be along the lines of oatmeal with cream and butter, sausage, sliced tomatoes, and scrambled eggs. Lunch would consist of an olive oil-dressed cobb salad and an apple. Finally, an example of a Schwarzbein dinner would be roasted pork loin, asparagus and brown rice topped with butter, and another salad with olive oil. This diet does not recommend snacking, but allows it, providing examples such as almonds with string cheese and sunflower seeds.

Expert Opinion on the Schwarzbein Principle

The diet outlined with the Schwarzbein Principle shares a number of similarities with other diets. There are a number of effective and safe weight loss and anti-aging diets that suggest both low-carb consumption and high levels of protein.

One thing that experts are very quick to point out with regard to this diet is that hormone manipulation plays no role in any weight loss that occurs as a result of this diet. Any weight loss accomplishments earned while on this diet would explicitly be the result of caloric restriction, no thanks to the increased fat consumption and severely limited carbs. Although it is healthy to be conscientious with carbohydrates, it can actually be counterproductive and even bad for your health to limit them to the extent outlined in this diet plan. One of the major issues that people on this diet would face would be fatigue and exhaustion, because a diet with severely limited carbohydrates would not provide sufficient calories for day to day activity.

Besides the issue with severely limited carbs, the other major issue with this diet is that it recommends far too much saturated fat and cholesterol. Nutrition experts and medical professionals are quick to caution that there is no significant evidence that severely limiting carbs and eating a lot of fat will exert any positive pressure over your hormone balance. Even more specious is the idea that this diet will be able to enhance weight loss gains or have any Anti-Aging effect.

There is No Guarantee that You Will Lose Weight with the Schwarzbein Principle

It may be possible to lose weight on this diet if portions are controlled effectively, but the Schwarzbein Principle does not include any discussion of portion control as a means to lose weight. The example menus don't include calorie counts or portion sizes, and they usually include a lot of butter and other fatty ingredients with a lot of calories. The author simply does not place sufficient emphasis upon the link between caloric consumption and weight gain (she actually claims that the link is exaggerated), which is significantly if not infinitely more important than balancing hormones through fat consumption.

While it may be possible to lose weight with this diet if portions are tightly regulated, based specifically on the nutrition plan provided, it would actually be very easy to start gaining weight on this diet, if one ate portions that were too large. Even if you did manage to lose weight on this diet, you would lose weight very slowly, even if you ate a sensible number of calories each day. This is because the diet actually limits the consumption of a number of foods which are nutrient dense and can help with weight loss, and can lead you to be deficient in a number of vitamins and minerals, including Fiber, Folic Acid, Vitamin D, and Calcium.

What Type of Calorie Count is Recommended on this Diet?

With the information provided in the Schwarzbein Principle, there is no real limitation on caloric consumption. Because there are no recommendations with regard to serving size, there is absolutely no way to estimate the number of calories that you would be consuming with this diet.

Recommendations of the Schwarzbein Principle

Range-Fed Poultry and Meat Untreated with Antibiotics or Hormones, Limited Starch Vegetables and Whole Grains, Foods High in Fat and Protein

Things to Avoid on the Schwarzbein Principle

Foods with Hydrogenated Fat, High Sodium, Processed Sausage, Vegetable Oils, Foods with a High Glycemic Index, and Processed, Refined Carbohydrates