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Juicing


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Most people will benefit from adding fruits and vegetables to their diet. One of the primary risk factors related to obesity is a diet that does not include recommended portions of fruits and vegetables.

You're right in that fruits and vegetable juices are high in sugar and carbs. However, one or two glasses of juice shouldn't hurt your diet. Personally, I use it as replacement. Instead of buying OJ at the store, now i'll buy oranges and make fresh juice. As Inscribed noted, instead of drinking coffee (filled with cream and sugar), he's drinking a mix of carrot, tomatoe, kale, celery, and cucumber juice (along with whatever else he's running in there).

Context is the important thing here. Juicing can be a great part of a balanced diet, but if you're diet is out of whack and you're just adding juice to the equation, then perhaps you should re-evaluate your intake.

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In all honesty, I find this new craze to be somewhat dangerous.

I can't and wont disagree with the clear numbers indicating improved health with higher intakes of vegetables and fruits over meats. To me, however, juicing seems like an extreme solution to a simple problem.

Humans have developed the ability to digest numerous kinds of food to meet our dietary needs. This is because there are many kinds of foods that we require to remain healthy.

For instance, people who eat meat widely tout it's protein count, but fail to realize meat only contained about 60% protein, if I'm not mistaken. Meat and dairy products are, however, a common and acceptable means of obtaining essential amino acids, which are required to maintain proper body functions.

Can you get this from other sources of food? Certainly, but most people have only a very basic knowledge of dietary needs, much of it false (read: meat is protein!). This is why I think juicing can be very dangerous. If you DO choose to try the juice diet, PLEASE consult with a dietitian and work out a plan to ensure you get everything you need.

A very recent example of this was a friend of mine who started the juice diet. He set out to try all juice for 60 days. For the first month, his energy was through the roof, and he felt great. However, in the second month he began to get increasingly bad headaches, lost FAR too much weight in WAY too short a period of time (yes, you can lose weight too fast, your body needs time to adjust), and lost all of his energy.

He has since returned to amend his diet to include solids and important supplements in his diet as well as the juicing. My point is, the body is an exceptionally complicated machine which can adjust as needed to the circumstances it finds itself in, but which requires intake of many essential materials to keep it running in top shape. What you feel at the outset may be your body adjusting, but not necessarily for the best! All things in moderation.

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All things in moderation is important, but there really is nothing that nutritionally beats raw fruits and vegetables, especially nothing on a store shelf. Jack LaLanne, the godfather of fitness, was a big advocate of juicing raw foods, and the only meat he ever ate in his diet was fish. Keep in mind, this is the man who, at 54(!), beat a 21 year old Schwarzenegger in an informal body-building contest, and at 70 years old, to celebrate his birthday, managed to tow 70 rowboats with passengers over a mile with both hands tied behind his back. Now, I am by no means a vegetarian, and I love my bacon cheese hamburgers, but I can appreciate the health benefits of a veggie/fruit heavy diet, and am looking to incorporate that into my daily routine. I highly recommend trying it out.

Jack_9.jpg

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I can understand the health benefits, and I have no doubt that you could make some delicious fruit juices. But wouldn't straight juiced veggies taste kind of gross? Is it a matter of just forcing it down and accepting the nutritional benefits, or can you actually make nice tasting vegetable mix juices?

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I juiced 3 beets today and it was ok tasting, but left a terrible feel in my mouth. Won't be doing straight beets any more.

Straight carrot juice: thumbs up

Straight apple juice: thumbs up

Straight orange juice: thumbs up

Pear juice: Not impressed

Mango, kiwi, pineapple, & mint juice: thumbs up

Will keep you updated.

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