You may have heard of juicing before. Juicing is just like it sounds - you're extracting the juice from various fruits and vegetables. Most people look to juicing as a sort of detoxification or cleanse to help them lose weight or get rid of toxins. Typically, a "juice cleanse" lasts about 1 - 3 days and consists of only consuming fruit or vegetable juice and almost nothing else.
Before you go out and grab a juicer and hop on this "juice cleanse" trend, you should first understand the pros and cons of juicing and how it can affect you.
Pros:
- Fruits and veggies are packed with vitamins, minerals, and other nutrients that your body needs to function properly. If you don't eat as much as you should on a regular basis, juicing may be able to help. Your body can absorb these nutrients more quickly, without having to digest fibers found in whole foods.
- If you don't love the taste of certain fruits or vegetables, juicing can help mask certain flavors. If you're going to be juicing mainly green vegetables, you can add in a sweet fruit, like an apple, to help with the taste.
Cons:
- If you're looking to add more fiber to your diet, juicing is not the way to go. Up to 90% of healthy fiber from fruits and vegetables is lost when juicing occurs. Fiber is also one of the main reasons that plant foods are good for you.
- If you're not careful, you can end up consuming too many calories and too much sugar from juicing, which can give you the opposite results of what you were expecting.
- If you're thinking of going on a juice cleanse specifically to lose weight, understand that any weight you lose from the juice cleanse may be gained back as soon as you start eating normally again.
- Juice cleanses can actually slow down your metabolism, resulting in potential weight gain.
- Juicing everyday may result in malnutrition as most of the fruits and vegetables your juicing contain little to no fiber or protein. Fiber is crucial for digestive health, and protein helps support your muscles, bones, and blood.
- There's actually no evidence that supports juice cleansing helps remove toxins from your body. Your kidneys, liver, and colon effectively remove toxins and other harmful substances on their own.
Still interested in a "juice cleanse"? If you're looking for an effective way to lose weight or rid your body of toxins, juicing may not be for you. There are many other more effective and efficient ways for you to go about living a healthier lifestyle. Check out some of our other blogs where we discuss things from essential vitamins and minerals to support your health to different outdoor workouts you can try.
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