It seems like everywhere you go these days, you hear mention of juice: cold-pressed juice, juicing machines, all-natural juice. But we all know by now to be wary of words without a clear definition, and attributing juice with the words "natural" and "fresh" doesn't necessarily mean anything at all. So let's set the record straight: is juicing healthy?To get more news about blueberry cleaning, you can visit hl-juicer.com official website.
To get to the bottom of the debate, we enlisted the help of several experts and asked them the burning question: Is juicing healthy? What we discovered may surprise you.
Experts agree that juicing does add some benefits to the diet of the average American, particularly those who are having a hard time eating their five-a-day. "If you take a look at your diet and you are really not eating kale and celery and beets, juicing them is far better than not eating them," says Robin Asbell, author of "Juice It! Energizing Juices for All Times of Day.""Juicing allows you to get the amazing nutritious plant chemicals, like cancer-preventing antioxidants, in concentrated form, in a tasty drink. For some people, this is more palatable than eating a big pile of raw vegetables at every meal."
Lisa Sussman, author of "Cold Press Juice Bible: 300 Delicious, Nutritious, All-Natural Recipes for Your Masticating Juicer," agrees that juicing is a good idea for those who don't find eating the USDA recommended 9 daily servings of fruits and veggies all that exciting. "Unless you are a herbivore who spends your day grazing, this means that pretty much everyone can benefit from drinking their veggies and fruits once a day at least," she says.When you hear about the cons of juicing, the first word on most nay-sayers' lips is "sugar." And it's no surprise: sugar has long been a bad guy for weight loss regimens and general health, and fructose is one of the main elements of juice.
But let's set things straight: first off, fructose isn't all bad. "A healthy body typically needs 15 grams of fructose a day," says Lisa. "This is then converted to glycogen (liver starch) and stored for a shot of quick energy after, for example, an intense work-out."We have a tendency to consume too much fructose - not surprising since it is in practically everything from agave syrup to tortilla chips," says Lisa. "Too much fructose from any source and our digestive system - specifically the liver - becomes overwhelmed and unable to process it fast enough for the body to use as sugar." This can lead to all sorts of problems, including heart disease, high cholesterol, liver disease, type-2 diabetes and even certain forms of cancer.
But the fructose in fruit isn't quite as dangerous as the high fructose corn syrup we find in many processed foods. Some have even gone so far as to call fructose a "good sugar," though that myth has recently been debunked by many sources. But Rafael Avila, Manager of Research and Development at Natural Organics, Inc. and a former scientific editor, writer and contributor for national wellness magazines, hits the nail on the head when it comes to striking a balance between quaking in fear when fructose is mentioned and over-eating (or drinking!) foods containing fructose.
"The great risk is in guiding the public down the wrong path, as many others seem to be doing, by fostering the misconception that fresh fruits and fresh fruit juices should be avoided due to the adverse effects of fructose," he says. "Consumers tend to latch onto the nutritional villain of the month and let the associated sound bites govern their understandings and behavior. This has had some dire consequences when it comes to the natural sugars present in fruits and vegetables."
In short, the fructose naturally present in fruit and vegetables isn't all bad. In fact, we need natural sugars to survive. The question is how to get it into our systems, and according to Danielle Omar, author of "Skinny Juices,"juice is a viable option. "The sugar in homemade juices also comes packaged with nutrients and fiber from the fruits and vegetables themselves. Contrary to popular belief, there is soluble fiber in juice!"
In other words, the fructose present naturally in fruits and vegetables is not necessarily the same Big Bad sugar you've been hearing about. "Most of the fructose in junk foods/beverages is mislabeled," Rafael says. "High Fructose Corn Syrup (HFCS) is actually about 50%:50% fructose and glucose, which is the same ratio you find in table sugar, glucose."
Natural fructose, on the other hand, is a whole different animal. "Mother Nature is very conservative of energy and thus conservative of how much sugar she puts into fruits," says Rafael. "She needs fruits to be sweet and appealing to animals so they will spread the seeds far and wide. But producing sugars is metabolically costly. So she has endowed fruits with natural constituents, such as citric acid, malic acid, and many other similar molecules, in order amplify the sweetness of the sugars in fruits."
So what does this mean for the supposedly dangerous sugar content of juice? Basically, the sweetness of a juice takes less sugar to convey to our taste buds than the sweetness of a processed product, so a sweet, flavorful fruit juice probably doesn't contain nearly as much fructose as you'd think.
It seems like everywhere you go these days, you hear mention of juice: cold-pressed juice, juicing machines, all-natural juice. But we all know by now to be wary of words without a clear definition, and attributing juice with the words "natural" and "fresh" doesn't necessarily mean anything at all. So let's set the record straight: is juicing healthy?To get more news about blueberry cleaning, you can visit hl-juicer.com official website.
To get to the bottom of the debate, we enlisted the help of several experts and asked them the burning question: Is juicing healthy? What we discovered may surprise you.
Experts agree that juicing does add some benefits to the diet of the average American, particularly those who are having a hard time eating their five-a-day. "If you take a look at your diet and you are really not eating kale and celery and beets, juicing them is far better than not eating them," says Robin Asbell, author of "Juice It! Energizing Juices for All Times of Day.""Juicing allows you to get the amazing nutritious plant chemicals, like cancer-preventing antioxidants, in concentrated form, in a tasty drink. For some people, this is more palatable than eating a big pile of raw vegetables at every meal."
Lisa Sussman, author of "Cold Press Juice Bible: 300 Delicious, Nutritious, All-Natural Recipes for Your Masticating Juicer," agrees that juicing is a good idea for those who don't find eating the USDA recommended 9 daily servings of fruits and veggies all that exciting. "Unless you are a herbivore who spends your day grazing, this means that pretty much everyone can benefit from drinking their veggies and fruits once a day at least," she says.When you hear about the cons of juicing, the first word on most nay-sayers' lips is "sugar." And it's no surprise: sugar has long been a bad guy for weight loss regimens and general health, and fructose is one of the main elements of juice.
But let's set things straight: first off, fructose isn't all bad. "A healthy body typically needs 15 grams of fructose a day," says Lisa. "This is then converted to glycogen (liver starch) and stored for a shot of quick energy after, for example, an intense work-out."We have a tendency to consume too much fructose - not surprising since it is in practically everything from agave syrup to tortilla chips," says Lisa. "Too much fructose from any source and our digestive system - specifically the liver - becomes overwhelmed and unable to process it fast enough for the body to use as sugar." This can lead to all sorts of problems, including heart disease, high cholesterol, liver disease, type-2 diabetes and even certain forms of cancer.
But the fructose in fruit isn't quite as dangerous as the high fructose corn syrup we find in many processed foods. Some have even gone so far as to call fructose a "good sugar," though that myth has recently been debunked by many sources. But Rafael Avila, Manager of Research and Development at Natural Organics, Inc. and a former scientific editor, writer and contributor for national wellness magazines, hits the nail on the head when it comes to striking a balance between quaking in fear when fructose is mentioned and over-eating (or drinking!) foods containing fructose.
"The great risk is in guiding the public down the wrong path, as many others seem to be doing, by fostering the misconception that fresh fruits and fresh fruit juices should be avoided due to the adverse effects of fructose," he says. "Consumers tend to latch onto the nutritional villain of the month and let the associated sound bites govern their understandings and behavior. This has had some dire consequences when it comes to the natural sugars present in fruits and vegetables."
In short, the fructose naturally present in fruit and vegetables isn't all bad. In fact, we need natural sugars to survive. The question is how to get it into our systems, and according to Danielle Omar, author of "Skinny Juices,"juice is a viable option. "The sugar in homemade juices also comes packaged with nutrients and fiber from the fruits and vegetables themselves. Contrary to popular belief, there is soluble fiber in juice!"
In other words, the fructose present naturally in fruits and vegetables is not necessarily the same Big Bad sugar you've been hearing about. "Most of the fructose in junk foods/beverages is mislabeled," Rafael says. "High Fructose Corn Syrup (HFCS) is actually about 50%:50% fructose and glucose, which is the same ratio you find in table sugar, glucose."
Natural fructose, on the other hand, is a whole different animal. "Mother Nature is very conservative of energy and thus conservative of how much sugar she puts into fruits," says Rafael. "She needs fruits to be sweet and appealing to animals so they will spread the seeds far and wide. But producing sugars is metabolically costly. So she has endowed fruits with natural constituents, such as citric acid, malic acid, and many other similar molecules, in order amplify the sweetness of the sugars in fruits."
So what does this mean for the supposedly dangerous sugar content of juice? Basically, the sweetness of a juice takes less sugar to convey to our taste buds than the sweetness of a processed product, so a sweet, flavorful fruit juice probably doesn't contain nearly as much fructose as you'd think.