The Juicing Diet

Consuming more fruits and vegetables is definitely beneficial to your overall health.  Most of us don’t eat enough of this food group proportionately to the rest of our diet.  These two facts are well established and well publicized in many health articles.

Fruit and vegetable smoothies increase our intake of this food group in a quick and palatable manner and that is a wonderful thing.  Juicing your fruits and vegetables, according to television and internet advertisements, makes the body better absorb larger amounts of the nutrients.

They state that you will get more beneficial enzymes, better immune boosting, more antioxidants and even boost your metabolism by juicing your fruits and vegetables.

Smoothies and juices made from fresh fruits and vegetables are certainly a healthy drink.  The juicer enthusiasts state that juices are healthier than the solid form of these foods.  According to a newspaper article written by Michael Rozein, M.D. and Mehmet Oz, M.D., juicing your fruits and vegetables actually reduces the fiber of these foods and boosts the sugar content.

The doctors’ article states that juicing traps the pulpy fiber that is so beneficial to us when the juice is extracted.  They recommend just eating your fruits and vegetables whole, as a solid food.

The sugar content of these healthy fruits and vegetables is increased by the juicing process, according to their article.  This would be a concern for anyone on a carbohydrate restricted diet for weight loss.  More importantly, for a diabetic, who has to really modify their sugar intake or they will have serious health consequences, juicing their fruits and vegetables is not the way to eat them.

This doctors’ article refutes the claim that juicing fruits and vegetables gives them any special powers to absorb more readily in your digestive system or boosts their nutritional value in any way.

They recommend enjoying a good smoothie in moderation.  For the majority of the time, they recommend eating these same foods whole to get the optimal benefit for your health.  This way, you get all the fiber and the filling nature of the entire fruit itself, without the heavy calories that can sometimes come with smoothies.