Juicing is a quick and convenient way to receive the nutrients your body need. Vitamins and minerals, as well as phytonutrients and electrolytes, are found in fruits and vegetables, which help us stay healthy.
Because these nutrients are often destroyed by cooking, juice produced from raw fruits and vegetables helps to ensure that you get your full ration of fresh, raw goodness.
But is it all good news for your health?
Not necessarily.
Let’s break down the pros and cons of juicing to find out if this trendy diet can help or hurt your body.
The Many Benefits Of Juicing
When you juice, you are eating high volumes of fresh fruits and vegetables all at once. Many more than you could comfortably eat if you were eating the un-juiced items. Which leads you to ingesting large amounts of enzymes, vitamins, minerals, antioxidants and phytochemicals, all at once. And this is a good thing! Besides that, there are many other benefits to juicing, which include:
Makes Healthy Eating Fun For The Whole Family
From your child to your grandparents, juicing has the potential to be beneficial to everyone.
It is well known that children are notoriously finicky eaters, particularly when it comes to veggies. Juicing is a practical way for them to get more vegetables into their diets without having to make a fuss – and without them even realizing it!
Kids will never know there’s a veggie in this glass!
For older persons, chewing and digesting vegetables may be challenging, due to dentures and an aging digestive system. These seniors do, however, still require the nutrients that fruits and vegetables provide, so a refreshing glass of juice can help them maintain their health and well-being.
Helps Your Liver Detox:
A juice diet can help your body cleanse toxins that have built up over time. Antioxidants and anti-inflammatory substances are required for our liver to perform all stages of detoxification, so the liver’s task is made easier by nutrient-dense foods like juices.
Allows Your Digestive System To Take A Break:
Numerous people suffer from stomach and intestinal discomfort as a result of allergies. Drinking juices is a fantastic way to get rid of meals that include wheat and gluten, such as bread; dairy foods, such as cow’s milk and cheese; and fermented soy products or other foods that may cause digestive problems.
As the bloating and soreness subsides, you will be able to gradually reintroduce those foods into your diet, in order to determine which ones are causing the difficulties. While you’re at it, why not abstain from coffee and alcoholic beverages as well? Allow your digestive system to take a well-earned vacation.
Helps Maintain A Healthy Gut:
A juice diet has also been shown to have incredible advantages for the intestines, aka “the gut”. A juice cleanse has the potential to alter your gut microbiota while also increasing your overall sense of well-being. The human microbiota (microbes in the intestines) has been the subject of much research, and it has been shown that we all have a unique collection of species living in our gut.
A diet that is heavy in meat and poor in vegetables can upset the delicate balance of these microbes. The bacteria in your gut help to keep your body healthy and your immune system robust when you eat a consistent diet of fruits and vegetables.
The Best Hydration:
Water makes up a major portion of fruits and vegetables. However, unlike tap or bottled water, the water in fruits and vegetables is packed with many of the important elements your body requires to be healthy. It is, without a doubt, the healthiest water available.
After all, the majority of our bodies are made up of water. The benefits of drinking fruit and vegetable juices on top of this is basically like having a booster shot for hydration.
A Quick Energy Source:
Besides being quick and handy to make, juices are also an easy-to-digest alternative. Considering that they contain a substantial quantity of electrolytes, they are an ideal choice for eating before or after physical activity.
A further advantage that juice offers is the boost in energy that the juice delivers as a result of its use. Due to the fact that the body has speedy access to the nutrients that are necessary for the maintenance of our vitality-giving processes, this is true. To put it another way, juice gives you energy!!
Juicing Does Have Drawbacks
Maintaining a diet with enough fruits and vegetables is important for countless reasons. But overdoing it by drinking only juice comes with it’s own set of problems. They include the following:
High in Sugars
One of the biggest disadvantages of juicing is the high sugar content, especially when juicing fruit. Too much fruit sugar or fructose can contribute to diabetes and raise blood pressure and cholesterol if consumed regularly.
Juiced fruits are high on the glycemic index, which means that they are quickly converted into sugars by the body, which can lead to weight gain.
Lack of Fiber
When you juice, all the fiber in fruit and vegetables is removed. In reality, it may be much healthier to eat the whole fruit or vegetable in order to get all of its essential fibers. Losing the fiber may keep you from feeling full and curbing overeating later on.
Fiber also helps to regulate blood sugar levels, which means that when you juice all the sugars are absorbed into your system at once, which can cause your blood sugar to spike. Fiber is also helpful if you’re struggling with constipation or a slow-moving digestive system.
A better solution: Try blending some fruit and veggies into a smoothie, without removing the fiber.
Tooth Decay
Another disadvantage of juicing an excessive amount amount of fruit, especially an excessive amount of acidic fruits such as citrus fruits, is that it can lead to tooth decay, owing to an elevated level of acidity in your mouth, which gradually wears away at your tooth enamel over time.
Low Nutritional Value of Store-Bought Juices
Store bought juices lose most of their nutrients in the process of being made. Most commercial juices are pasteurized , which kills even more nutrients by heat. As a result, when you drink fruit or vegetable juice from your local grocery store, basically all that is left is sugar and water, and nothing more.
Final Thoughts
While it is definitely advisable to drink fruit and vegetable juice as part of a balanced diet, overdoing it can have negative consequences. It’s best to mix up your juicing routine with whole fruits and vegetables as well to ensure that you’re getting all the nutrients your body needs.
So before you rush off to buy a juicer, use this helpful list to understand what’s good, and not so good, about juicing and make an informed decision about whether or not it’s worth trying for yourself.
