When people find out we’re plant based, and care about
eating healthy foods they have a lot of questions! The first one, as most vegans are aware of is:
“where do you get your protein?” That
question has been answered enough though, and we can really break it down again
if anyone needs it another time.
Interestingly, the second most common question we get is “do you juice a
lot?”
This question comes from so many directions, and while we’re
not certain of the origin, let’s get right down to business.
Juicing is OK, for SOME PEOPLE, under CERTAIN
CONDITIONS. That’s right, in short,
juicing is not all good, or all bad, but it is commonly misunderstood.
We are both athletes that consume an above average amount of
calories every day and neither of us is trying to lose weight. We will juice or drink juice every once in a
while (once or twice a month), but more frequently we just drink juice when we
have a cold or something when a concentrated nutrient/sugar boost helps kick up
our system (in addition to our G2 (garlic/ginger magic drink we’ll discuss
later)). Additionally, we would rather
buy raw vegetables or a plant based meal then spend $8 on some juice.
The Good:
The one major upside to juicing is the amount of vitamins
and other nutrients you can cram in just one glass. While not all the nutrients make it in the
juice, you are ingesting a serious shot of liquid nutrition. You can also get the minerals from plants you
may not otherwise eat. Think of it as
taking a natural multi-vitamin.
The Bad:
Rule number 1 of juicing: do not supplement your diet with
tons of juice if you’re trying to lose weight!
We really can’t stress this enough.
The high amount of sugar in juice, and low (zero) amount of fiber is a
bad combination for those trying to shed pounds. It basically tricks your body into thinking
that you didn’t eat anything at all and just drank liquid, when in reality you
just got an insane amount of calories in the form of fruit and vegetable sugars
(yes veggies have sugar! although not as much as fruits). It’s not going to fill you up like a normal
plant based meal. Think of it as the
natural form of soda, seriously…it can be dangerous if you don’t use it
properly. You’ll find plenty of reading
material raving about this juice cleanse and that, but from what we’ve seen
those cleanses create temporary change, while the best way to keep your system
clean is consume copious amounts of fiber found in plants. If you want a short term boost or weight
loss, feel free to do a juice cleanse.
The Ugly:
One other problem with juicing is that the chewing process
is skipped in the digestion process.
When you drink juice, your body doesn’t activate the usual food
digestion, so it’s short circuiting your natural digestion and rushing into the
rest of your system before it had time to prime itself. Basically you are priming your body with a
sugar high, and then crashing because your body is confused by this process. We are not going to get into the chemistry of
it, but just think about it for yourself.
There are some types of masticating juicers which simulate the chewing
process as opposed to the cheaper, pulverizing ones. These are better in this regard, but still not
as great as the human digestive system.
In summary, if you do choose to have a juice, keep these few
tips in mind: use 80-90% vegetables,
10-20% fruits. Use your pulp for compost
or bake it into bread. You’re being more
sustainable, and utilizing all those great fibers. Also, if you do undertake a juice cleanse be
careful, and make sure you’re drinking enough fluids and getting enough
calories.
Cheers!
.jpg)
