The best healing properties of juicing

Juicing typically requires using a machine or equipment in order to turn raw fruits and vegetables into a liquid. Home juicing machines may cost anywhere from $30 dollars to more than $300 dollars. By using special blades, most juicers chop up your fruits or vegetables into tiny pieces and spins them in a way to separate the juice from the pulp, which eliminates the majority of the fiber. You can ask around at local stores or consult Consumer Reports to find the juicer that’s best for you.

There are many health benefits of drinking freshly juiced fruits and vegetables, and it’s a great way to add nutrients from the fruits or vegetables that you normally wouldn’t eat. Fruit and vegetable juices retain most of of the vitamins, minerals and plant chemicals (phytonutrients) that would be found in the whole versions of those foods. These nutrients can help protect against cardiovascular disease, cancer and various inflammatory diseases, like rheumatoid arthritis. Valuable compounds called flavonoids and anthocyanins are abundant in a variety of fruits and vegetables and guard against oxidative cellular damage, which comes from everyday cellular maintenance and is exacerbated by exposure to chemicals and pollution.

What Juice Can I Drink If I Have Diabetes
https://www.juicingpoint.com/what-juice-can-i-drink-if-i-have-diabetes-7-diabetic-juice-recipes-included

However, beware claims that juicing is the only way to stay healthy, that you should avoid solid foods, or that juicing is a substitution for a medical diagnosis or treatment. There’s not much research out there that proves that juicing is healthier than eating the whole fruits and vegetables; however, juicing does makes them easier to consume on a regular basis.

Some advocates for juicing may claim that your body absorbs more nutrients from juices than the whole fruit because the fruit’s fiber gets in the way. However, there isn’t much research out there that supports that claim. Your digestive system is designed to handle fiber and extract nutrients from a variety of foods. Plus, fiber is important for digestive function and has a multitude of health benefits.

Juicing Safely

When making your own juice, try to make only as much as you can consume at one time. Juice that isn’t consumed right away can harbor bacteria and cause food poisoning. Exposure of the drink to air, bacteria and other pathogens can not only make you sick but threaten the nutritional value of the juice as well.

What Juice is Good for Gout
https://www.juicingpoint.com/what-juice-is-good-for-gout-answered-plus-how-to-have-it

Also, before using juicing your desired fruit, you should wash them thoroughly to remove any dirt, pesticides or bacteria. Make sure your cutting board and utensils are clean as well. E. coli is a very dangerous bacteria that can live on your fruits and make you sick. The problem is that it can only be killed with heat, which can also damage the nutritional content of the juice. If you don’t want to boil your juice on the stove, you’ll have to wash the fruit thoroughly before juicing. Learn more about the best ways to wash your fruit.

If you decide to pursue a diet that predominantly consists of juice, like a juice cleanse, make sure you consume at least 2000 calories or more per day depending on your metabolic needs. Don’t starve yourself! It’s important that your body gets a sufficient amount of calories, vitamins, nutrients, protein, fat and carbohydrates.

Also, make sure you eat fiber, to keep your digestive system working smoothly. You can add dissolvable fiber powder to your juices or supplement with a suitable number of fiber-rich solid foods (like prunes or pears) to compensate.

Can You Mix Fruits and Vegetables When Juicing
https://www.juicingpoint.com/can-you-mix-fruits-and-vegetables-when-juicing

Whatever you like to call them, juice ‘fasts’, ‘cleanses’ or ‘detoxes’ have taken the dieting industry by storm over the past few years. In exchange for a diet that's heavy on 'healthy' juice (think: a mix of fruit and veg made in a juicer), we're promised healthy, young, radiant skin, potential weight loss and an improved clarity of mind.

But is juicing actually that good for you? To answer this question – and more – I spoke with top nutritionist Kyla Williams to get her opinion on a subject that continues to divide the fitness community.

Scott Laidler: Is a juice fast just another diet fad or is it actually good for us?

Kyla Williams: You often hear opposing opinions on the topic of juicing. One camp promotes extreme juicing [where you only consume juice] as a way to cleanse your body for around 10 days. That's quite controversial. The other camp thinks that juicing should be treated as a handy supplement to your daily diet; allowing you to increase antioxidant intake from an avalanche of vegetables that you wouldn't otherwise consume in one day.

Why do we need to increase our antioxidant intake? Surely if we have a good diet, we're already getting what we need?

Not necessarily. The thought that we can obtain all of our nutritional needs from our diets alone is now somewhat of a long lost dream. Nutrient levels in the foods we eat are much lower than they once were, thanks in part to over-farmed soil and the often ridiculously convoluted routes to market that some of our fruit and veg undergoes.
We also live in increasingly polluted environments, and experience high levels of stress – both of which increase our requirement for antioxidants. The truth is that the Government's 5 a day recommendations only scratch the surface when it comes to optimum antioxidant intake. Active people should ideally aim for 8-10 portions of fruit and vegetables per day, predominantly vegetables. But that's impractical, which is where juicing comes in.

How often do you get these ingredients into your daily diet?

That sounds sensible. So why does juicing get a bad rap?

Everyone likes to have opinions on the latest dietary 'fad'. A common negative comment on juicing is that it "contains too much sugar and not enough fibre" – which has more than a grain of truth to it, if you are drinking fruit juices without other fibre in your diet [fibre is found in whole foods and slows the release of sugar into the bloodstream].
And then there's the accusation that it's "not natural" – ie we should be eating the fruit and vegetables whole because that's how Mother Nature intended it. That way we get a healthy hit of antioxidants – and the fibre that our bodies need to regulate their assimilation. Again, this is informed by sound thinking.

 So we'd be better served eating the fruit and veg whole?
Almost definitely – but that doesn't by extension make juicing a bad thing. The truth is that humans alter the state of a lot of ingredients. Think about the oil that comes from olives, which certainly doesn’t do us irreparable damage. Far from it.

best masticating juicer under $200
https://www.juicingpoint.com/best-masticating-juicer-for-all-requirements-and-budget

Of course, food is best consumed in its wholefood state, but we seem to be able to adapt reasonably well when it's processed into something else.

The problem with juicing is that people mistakenly think that all juices are created equal. Downing a litre of concentrated pasteurised orange juice that's depleted of nutrients and enzymes is almost comparable to drinking sugared water. Pasteurised, cheap fruit juices which can happily sit on the shelves for months unchanged offer little to no nutritional content except for a fast release of glucose into the blood stream, which causes an insulin spike, encouraging fat storage.
In contrast, juice containing raw, cold, pressed vegetables and low sugar fruits – think: kale, celery, spinach, pear, lemon, and ginger as a start – provide a host of antioxidants without that insulin spiked. But it might not taste quite as nice the first few times you try it if your taste buds are used to high sugar fruit juices!

Orange juice is high in sugar content - which is why it tastes so lovely

Can you juice as a meal replacement?

One of the biggest misconceptions about juicing is that juices can replace a large quantity of your meals in a healthy manner. It almost goes without saying that a refreshing drink beaming with antioxidants is healthy – but juices as meal replacements is another thing entirely. Fruit and vegetable juice just does not provide adequate fibre, protein or fats in the long term.

You may hear from a keen juicer that green vegetables have more protein gram for gram compared to a steak. However, this relates to the dry weight of a green vegetable. As most vegetables contain over 90pc water, you'd need to eat ten times the vegetable's normal weight for it to come with a high protein source such as meat or fish. The argument basically falls flat – especially when you take into account the importance of complete proteins, and other macronutrients.
Replacing one meal a day with a juice in the long term would not necessarily cause harm, as long as the remainder of your diet is extremely nutrient dense, providing adequate protein and healthy fats.

How about as a means to lose weight?

Following a juice cleanse for several days will help most people to drop a kilo or two, as you generally consume around 600-1000 calories from drinking 3-5 juices per day, which leaves you with a calorie deficit. However, this is very difficult to sustain for more than a few days. Try to avoid juice cleanses that go below 800 calories, as such a low calorie count will considerably lower your metabolism, resulting in difficulties losing weight in the long term.

If you are looking to kick start a completely different way of eating by following a new weight loss programme, a juice cleanse for a few days is actually a great way to reset your dietary habits. For example, let's say you are the type of person who grabs a snack on the go without keeping track of what you are eating: a juice cleanse, even for just 3 days will really make you realise just how often you go for that snack without realising it.

Solely juicing for a few days also prompts your brain into realising that you don’t actually need that extra biscuit at 11am.

Juicing can help to banish ‘food panic’ – i.e. the feeling that you need something to eat when you can’t find anything healthy to hand (it often leads to poor nutritional decisions). At the end of few days juicing, you will become very aware of the food you eat, your taste buds will be highly sensitive, helping you to appreciate every mouthful, and foods will taste sweeter, helping you to curb your sweet tooth.

So, juicing is a good but far from perfect way of losing weight – and it's difficult to sustain. If you do want to pursue it for more than a few days, perhaps consider taking a protein shake, fatty acid supplements and a multivitamin and mineral supplement to ensure that you are receiving your body’s basic nutritional requirements to maintain muscle mass and to support your immune system.

You'd also want to steer clear of delicious, sugary fruits like mango and pineapple and stick to green vegetables as much as possible instead.