Have you heard that juicing is GREAT for you, your health and your weight loss efforts? That simply going on a 30 Day Detox is the key to your salvation? If so, then you’re going to want to read this before investing a lot of time looking up juice recipes, and a lot of money on an expensive juicer and a whole bunch of fruits and vegetables you wouldn’t normally eat…
It’s another cool, sunny Spring day here on Long Island, and I’m writing this to you shortly before my cleaning guy (Yeah, it’s a guy — Don’t be sexist!) arrives to get the place spic and span for the weekend ahead. No reason other than my girlfriend and I are busy, and this helps lighten the chore load a bit :-)
Now then, back to the topic at hand: Juicing! Is it good, is it bad, do I recommend it, and who the hell is Marine Le Pen?
Let’s look at the good, first, the bad second, my recommendation third, and I don’t discuss politics here, so you only get three things :-p…
Juicing is a semi-quick and easy way to get healthy micronutrients into your diet. If you’re not a big fan of eating fruits and vegetables, then a juice combining a few may be all you need to get your greens in for the day. I personally bought a big expensive juicer with my girlfriend over the summer, and we did the juicing thing for about a week. Since I’m personally not a huge fan of eating very many whole fruits or veggies, I enjoyed the convenience of combining different healthy foods together without having to sit there and eat them whole.
What I didn’t enjoy was the cleanup!
Like I mentioned, we bought an expensive juicer that needed to be washed pretty thoroughly after every juice was made. The skin and peels would be distributed into a little basket below the juicer, and there were a bunch of tiny parts that needed cleaning with tiny brushes, etc. Loose skin and peels from the fruits and veggies being juiced would get caught in the tiny crevices of these tiny parts, and it was just a giant pain in the ass.
The main reason we gave up on juicing after a week was that it was a 30 minute process every single time, and we’d spend more time cleaning the damn thing than actually drinking the juice!
Additionally, for many fruits and vegetables, the skin offers you certain vitamins, minerals and other micronutrients that are NOT found in just the juice of the fruit or vegetable. This is why I highly recommend eating real, whole, organic fruits or vegetables, rather than blending or juicing them.
If you’re making a protein shake or the occasional smoothie, it’s fine to throw in some fruits and vegetables, as well, but just know that you’re not getting the full benefit of those fruits or vegetables if they’re being ground up into juice versus being eaten whole.
On top of that, depending on the fruits you’re using, these juices can be incredibly sugary, and thus NOT helpful for you on your weight loss journey!
I’ve mentioned the importance of knowing the Glycemic Index (GI) rating of any fruit you eat. If the GI rating is 0–49, you’re in the clear. If it’s 50–100, you might want to reevaluate using that particular fruit in your juice.
Now, if you were to ask me which was worse: A piece of watermelon (a VERY high glycemic fruit) versus a chocolate bar, I’d tell you the chocolate bar all day. The chocolate bar isn’t just loaded with a similar amount of sugar as the watermelon, but it’s also loaded with a bunch of processed, artificial ingredients that can do harm both to your health and to your weight loss efforts.
Additionally, the ‘skin’ or whatever you want to call the part you eat of the watermelon has fiber and other essential micronutrients in it, which makes it the healthier alternative. It’s sugary, but it kind of makes up for the sugar content with the positive health benefits…
When you juice, most of the ‘skin’ that you’d eat is eradicated from the juice, so you’re drinking a less nutritious form of sugar water. If you were to ask me the same question as above, except substituting the piece of watermelon for watermelon juice, I’d still say the watermelon juice was healthier, but not by much!
Moral of the Story: Juicing CAN be a quick way to get your fruits and vegetables in. Keep in mind that if you buy a juicer, you’re missing out on quite a bit of the nutritional value found in the WHOLE fruit or vegetable, and you’ll need to be willing to invest quite a bit of time and money on prepping, cleaning, and ultimately, buying the juicer!
Until tomorrow.
Sincerely,
Pete Weintraub
pete@weightlossbypete.com
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