Juicing: 5 Things You Need to Know

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Are you juicing your fruits and vegetables or have you thought about it? Juicing has slowly become a fad, every fitness ‘expert’ talks about it and how beneficial it is to weight loss. Beyond weight loss though, is this really a healthy lifestyle for you?

I began juicing about a year or two ago and I can tell you that I lost weight. In less than a year, I’d lost close to 10 kg. I substituted entire meals, including breakfast for juiced fruits and veggies and it worked beautifully – for a while anyway. After I got to a certain stage, I was not losing anymore. I began to feel weak and tired all the time and eventually, the weight began to creep back in.

To Juice or Not to Juice

Actually, it is not an either or situation. Juicing in itself is not a bad thing; as a matter of fact it is a great way to take in your daily requirement of nutrients. Research has shown that taking up to 7 servings of fruits and vegetables daily can have a huge impact on your lifespan. So if juicing helps you to take in more fruits and veggies, then that’s a good thing right? Right. So what is the problem?

 

Juicing is not a substitute for a balanced diet

Doing away with healthy food (proteins, carbohydrates, etc) and just juicing might lose you some weight at the beginning, but it is not sustainable and you will be doing significant damage to your body. Starving your body of key nutrients for an extended period will only make you start craving food later on and you will most likely end up binge eating and taking in more calories.

Not all fruits and veggies are good for juicing

The general rule is that you should not mix fruits and vegetables together because it will affect your digestion. If you want to juice veggies and you feel the need to add some fruit (you know, so it’s a bit tasty), then green apples are your go to. Also you actually get the most nutrients out of tomatoes when they’re cooked. Imagine that.

You can’t store juice

Seriously, you should not make a huge batch of juice and then store it for days. That is just a recipe for disaster. Fruits easily get contaminated and juice even more so. If you are going to juice, make enough to consume immediately.

Finally, just blend it.

Juicing is great, but it deprives you of important stuff like the fiber that is found in the skin of the fruits and vegetables. This is very important in helping you feel full. More importantly, you do not lose any of the vital nutrients that are in the fruits and veggies.

I decided to stop juicing and instead I throw everything into the blender and that’s it. So, what are your favourite juicing recipes? Share with us in the comments. 🙂