Fruit Juicing
Why Fruit Juicing? Convenience! It is simply much easier to squeeze 5 fruits or vegetables in five minutes and drinking the juice from a glass than peeling them and eating one by one.
Juicing is a great way to get your daily vitamin and mineral requirements. Antioxidants are only available from plants in the raw state. And juicing is the best way to release the desired constituents on the skin of fruit and vegetables.
What About Fiber Intake?
It is argued that if you always juice fresh fruits and vegetables, you will not take in enough fibre in your diet as fruit and vegetables are two of the main sources of fibre. A daily good fiber intake of 25-30grams per day is important for a healthy digestive system and to avoid certain diseases.
It does make sense to eat fruit in its natural state. However if your diet already contains fruits, vegetables and whole grains then there is no harm in having your daily fruit juice as well. It is only a bonus.
On the other hand, the nutrients that you need are trapped in indigestible fiber. For instance, you can take in a lot more beta-carotene from carrot juice than eating a single carrot. You can digest juices easily, with very little effort from your digestive system.
Enzymes are not wasted to fuel the fruit digestion, your body can distribute the enzymes to other parts of the body to build, heal, restore and repair.
This is all great news for vegans and those that follow the raw food movement!
Fruit or Vegetable Juice?
• Eating whole fruits is a lot tastier than eating whole raw vegetables. That’s why some prefer to juice veggies to fruits.
• Juice of fruit tastes better than vegetable juice. There is nothing like a good dose of orange and grape fruit juice mix in the morning to get your system up and running!
• However fruits contain more sugar than vegetables and juices of fruits tend to be sweeter. It may be a good idea to add fruits into your vegetable juice. Please bear in mind that citrus juice doesn’t mix well with vegetable juices, but apple and grape juices do!
Juice and/or Blend?
Orange, grapefruit, apples, pears, grapes, water melon have high water content and are more suitable for juicing than bananas, avocados and strawberries, which are suitable for blending due to low water content.
It is a good idea to combine your fruit juice with blender friendly ingredients such as wheatgerm and bananas and blend them together to make high fiber smoothies. Fibre content will help you control the absorption of the fruit sugars into the bloodstream.
How Much Juice Per Day and When to Drink?
• At least one fruit drink a day, which will give you about 3 to 4 fruits out of your 5 a day.
• You will not get the benefits of your fruit juice if you have it after your meal while your body is trying to get rid of the foods you ate. Juice should be the first thing you consume or half an hour before meals.
