The Benefits of a Juicing Diet

Juicing for health is a practical, no-nonsense option to get all your essential vitamins, minerals and proteins needed to meet the required daily allowance. Besides, it is a tantalising treat for your taste buds; one that you will certainly delight in. Just let your imagination go wild. If you have never tried a juicing diet before, the benefits are outstanding; it can be used to promote health, weight loss, and build your immune system.

Our discussion on juice will combine the blending of plant sources, which some individuals may find distinct from pure liquid extractions. You can’t go wrong in either juicing or blending (retention of pulp example purees and “smoothies”), although blending retains close to 100 per cent of the properties of the food and may therefore have better nutrient value. The ability of juicing to retain more nutrients is related to the quality of the juicer. Check with the manufacturer.

A juicing diet is the process of extracting or creating (blending) the natural fluids from fruits, vegetables and proteins (yes, peanut punch yum!), that promotes health or achieves weight loss. There are many methods of juicing, from squeezing the juice manually by hand or with the aid of a miniature household appliance (example cone-shaped orange juicer) to more sophisticated variable speed motor-driven devices. Whichever method you choose, the concept is the same; it is extracting and liquefying the pure essence of the food of your choice, consuming its natural wholesome content and experiencing the change as it acts in promoting a balanced internal state. A big plus for many heath seekers is that with juicing or blending you can easily achieve the optimum amount of nutrients your body needs without feeling pressured to regularly sit down in front of a full plate of veggies.

If we were to follow the recommended dietary guidelines which include the majority of nutrients obtained from fruits and vegetables as the baseline to good health, we would all be exasperated; unless you are a vegan or vegetarian, who has a diet already rich in these foods.

Benefits of a juicing diet

Juicing can take many forms, according to your preference; one of the many benefits to blending together rich plant ingredients. You can have it thick in the form of purees and smoothies or you can have it much thinner as a refreshing drink or a combination of juice with fragments of fruits and pulp.

Extracting juice is popular with individuals in favour of natural and alternative approaches; raw foodists, vegans, and persons seeking healthy weight-loss plans. These proponents report the benefits of a liquid diet as having the ability to maximise nutrient intake, fight diseases, reduce the risk of cardiovascular disease, and mental illness. Incorporating juices is said to increase your life span as it strengthens cellular defence against free radicals (toxins associated with degeneration), encourages weight loss and decrease the need for medication.

In a study that evaluated 500 people who made fresh juices several times a day showed dramatic results. Eighty-per cent lost weight and had marked improvements in digestion, allergies, sleep, skin conditions and achieved mental and emotional well-being.

When you consistently drink fresh juices your whole internal environment changes, the anti-oxidant benefits cleanses the body of stored wastes and toxins encouraging better elimination, for a pure disease free system. Raw juices also contain biophotons, light rays of energy plants from the sun, which is an important preserve of nutrients. Most commercial juices don’t contain them mainly because they have been pasteurized.

The more juices you consume the greater the percentage of uncooked food will be in your diet. Cooked food residues clog up your digestive system, lower your immune system and encourage the build-up of toxins.

Juices are absorbed quickly into the bloodstream because only a small amount of digestion is required; it gives the digestive system a break and the nutrients they contain are almost 100% bio-available.

Considerations of Juicing

It should be noted that consuming juices alone is only ideal in the short term for cleansing, as an alternative treatment for health conditions, or to rev up your weight loss plan. Juices can be drunk throughout the day, every day as long as it is done in conjunction with other meals to ensure nutritive balance, particularly of proteins. Mastication of foods is an important consideration, which evidently does not occur with the intake of juices, and is a vital function of the jaw muscles (temporomandibular joints) as well as for oral health. Unless a person is told by his doctor not to chew his or her food due to illness or disease, chewing performs an important function in the normally healthy individual.

Drawbacks/Contraindications

The Mayo Clinic has responded to several claims of the positive benefits of extracting juice by noting that their effects are negligible at best. They articulate that juice extraction can either be helpful, benign or just counter-productive, depending on the person’s goal. Their main argument is the lack of conclusive scientific evidence that warrants the intake of a food in its liquid state, as opposed to consuming the plant source in its original form.

Other contraindications for a juicing diet came from a number of actual juicers who unanimously stated that they were tired all the time. But, they admitted not sipping their juices slowly throughout the day to avoid the inevitable crash that comes with consuming 30 grams or more of carbohydrates all at once. It is a lot of sugar, albeit natural sugars. They also said that they had lost a lot of weight initially after a 7 day diet (on average 9 pounds) but gained back almost half of the weigh soon after (approximately 2 weeks) returning to a more balanced diet.

It must be stated here that a juice diet containing high glycaemic index fruit juices is not ideal and should be balanced with low glycaemic fruits and vegetables.

Note that proteins are not found in high quantities in juice diets. Proteins help repair and build muscles, bone cartilage and blood for energy and normal function. It helps our body manufacture the haemoglobin it needs to carry oxygen to every cell in the body, without protein your body literally starts shutting down and you will feel lethargic.

A juicing diet has clear health benefits and can be done simply with some manual kitchen devices, or you can use the more elaborate and expensive juicers. However, as mentioned previously blending incorporates all the natural elements of a given plant and many foods can easily be incorporated using a relatively inexpensive appliance.

Either way it is how to supply much larger amounts of nutrients to our diets that most people don’t realise can have massive benefits on our health. So try it, you may be amazed at the benefits to your health!

Margaret Le Monnier has over 20 years-experience as a qualified natural health professional in the UK. She is now writing articles for a website solely devoted to bringing a comprehensive range of natural health advice to everyone. To find out more about juicer diets visit her website at Natural Health 4 Life.