Juicing Pros And Cons

Juicing Pros and Cons

Juicing machines, books about juicing - even juice bars - are starting to pop up all over the place. And the claims made about juicing are outstanding, enticing, and provocative. People in the developed world eat far too few fruits and vegetables (and way too many processed and junk foods), and juicing can make up for that by making it possible to get the food value of 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 for 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 good essential 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 entirely possible for a large serving of juice to contain all the enzymes, calories, water, trace elements, and natural sugars from five total pounds of fruits and vegetables. Can you imagine trying to eat five pounds of anything for breakfast - and succeeding?

2. Not only are the "juiced" nutrients more densely packed than they are in the whole fruit or vegetable. For many people, juicing is easy and fun and encourages them to try out new and potentially healthy additions to their diets they wouldn't have tried otherwise. There are now many juicing recipes 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 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 total food value for up to three days.

2. Though juicing fanatics might regard this as blasphemy, consider blending (yes, in an ordinary kitchen blender) instead of juicing occasionally. 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 (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 should 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 whole of the same food (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 kinds of juicing supplies are falling into these days. Then you'll know what's out there and how much it usually costs if you explore the many juicing specialty sites 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 get a lot of sugar in your diet, which can add up. Try to strike a balance between fruits and vegetables. (Nutritionists also recommend varying the colors of the foods you choose to get a good mix of nutrients.)

These days, many sites on the Internet 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 harmful bacteria that can make your juice go bad after sitting out for as little as half an hour and 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 add this morning's bacteria population to this evening's juice!

Also, wash all utensils, fruits, and vegetables to remove any dirt, pesticides, or bacteria, and keep all your implements and cutting boards scrupulously clean.

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

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