🍹Energy boosters "JUICES".🍹
With new juice bars popping up all over the country and many people stocking their kitchens with a home juicer, there's no doubt that juicing is the latest health fad. Freshly squeezed and freshly bottled juices have become a popular way to get the health benefits of fruits and vegetables, and are also popular with dieters looking to "cleanse" their way to weight loss. But do the health claims of juicing stand up?
🍹Health claims
Proponents of juicing claim that juicing is a good way to get plenty of fruits and vegetables and that it is easier to absorb nutrients from juice than from whole foods. This is only partly true. While you can literally squeeze out many of the vitamins, minerals, and phytochemicals found in fruits and vegetables by juicing them (and thus get a lot of these nutrients), you're also missing out on fiber—the component of fruits and vegetables (and other whole-grain plant foods) that makes you feel satiety and helps improve heart health and digestion.
🍹Pros and cons
Because you have to use much more fruit and vegetables to make a glass of juice than you would typically eat in a sitting, you get higher doses of micronutrients and phytochemicals, but you also get more sugar and calories without the fiber that helps slow the absorption of that sugar . You can minimize your sugar intake by drinking mostly vegetable juice—cabbage, cucumber, and celery are low-carb vegetables that are excellent options for juicing—or stick to a 4-ounce serving of fruit juice (that's the equivalent of a serving of whole fruit).
🍹Can you absorb more nutrients from juicing?
In terms of absorption, one study of fresh mango and papaya versus juice found that people absorbed carotenoids—one of the main nutrients in mango and papaya—well from both juice and fresh fruit. Another study found little difference between the absorption of carotenoids from fresh carrots and carrot juice.
🍹Does it help cleanse your body?
When it comes to cleansing, your body is already equipped to clean out toxins – that's what your liver and kidneys are for – so the best way to support this is to drink plenty of water and eat fresh foods. And while it's fine to go on a juice cleanse for a day, long-term juice cleanses lack nutrients your body needs (like protein and fat), so it's not a good idea.
🍹Are bottled and fresh juices the same?
Then there is the question of whether bottled pasteurized juice is nutritionally the same as freshly squeezed juice. Bottled juice has usually been heat-treated for pasteurization. This kills potentially harmful bacteria, but also degrades some – but certainly not all – of the nutrients in the juice. In addition, it can lose more nutrients when storing the juice. Still, studies have shown that even some processed juices (such as cloudy apple juice, Concord grape juice, and orange juice) have high levels of health-promoting antioxidants. And tomato juice really benefits from high heat during bottling. Tomato juice has higher levels of lycopene than fresh tomatoes because lycopene is actually more available to our bodies when it is processed.