Juicing... Friend or Foe?

april41981

So my husband and I just watched a documentary on Netflix called Fat, Sick & Nearly Dead. Has anyone else seen this? My husband is completely convinced that he and I should buy a juicer and do a juice "reboot" as soon as possible. If you have done it, what do you think? I thought the documentary was amazing and definitely opened my eyes, but I'm still a little leary. If you haven't heard/seen the documentary, go to: http://www.fatsickandnearlydead.com/ I'm really curious to hear what you all have to say! Thanks!

Schwiggity

Barry Bonds would agree with your husband.

Janie5605

OH! Hubs and I watched it last night and we're going to buy a juicer today! HAHA honestly i dont know if i can cut out food completely but i miss juice...anything from the store is just so unhealthy.

smrtcar

I cut juice totally from my diet and eat whole fruits. I find juices have so "filling power" and are too high in calories for my liking. I drink water with 2-3 tsp of realemon juice and it has 0 cals.

FitCoachJen

Depends on your goals. Most people are looking to lose weight so they're better off eating a whole piece of fruit instead. It's more filling and you're not eliminating the fiber, which helps manage the sugar influx.

Your body reboots itself for you constantly. Eat more fruits and veggies and drink more water :-)

thomasdyre

I watched it. I got a juicer and have been juicing a week. I have more energy and am defienlty getting the reccomended amount of vegtables and fruit everyday. If you start juicing make sure you use organic pesticide free produce. I still might try a juice fast if I get stuck, but right now I have worked into my meals. I use beet, spinach, celery, carrot, and apple in my juice. It taste great.

thomasdyre

I watched it. I got a juicer and have been juicing a week. I have more energy and am defienlty getting the reccomended amount of vegtables and fruit everyday. If you start juicing make sure you use organic pesticide free produce. I still might try a juice fast if I get stuck, but right now I have worked into my meals. I use beet, spinach, celery, carrot, and apple in my juice. It taste great.

thomasdyre

I watched it. I got a juicer and have been juicing a week. I have more energy and am defienlty getting the reccomended amount of vegtables and fruit everyday. If you start juicing make sure you use organic pesticide free produce. I still might try a juice fast if I get stuck, but right now I have worked into my meals. I use beet, spinach, celery, carrot, and apple in my juice. It taste great.

kandrews24

Several years ago, I underwent a juice only diet for over 100 days once for the purpose of regaining my health and increasing energy. It was a huge success and remains one of my fondest memories. First three days were very difficult. The first 10 days were tough. There is no reason that a person can't receive all that they need from juice and this does give the digestive system a respite, but take care to note that:

- this is no guarantee to lose weight (it is all about the calories) - and I don't recommend it for weight loss; a juice diet has to have a purpose; whereas a diet should be something that you can sustain for life = a new lifestyle (I lost about 9 lbs unintentionally over a four month period, but received many health benefits);

-be sure to eat lots of veggie juice (most people drink too much fruit juice when they undertake a juice diet);

-start out with about 8 oz of juice every 2 hours to minimize withdrawal;

-you have to keep your water intake up (or you will be sorry, because constipation is no fun);

-obviously social functions are impossible; I just avoided them all together (and I did not talk about my juice diet with anyone; was not interested in their criticism/skepticism), I was too busy to socialize anyway; and

-I was cold all the time, but just wore more layers.

I was pleasantly surprised that my health improved drastically and that I had way more energy (after about two weeks). I was very surprised by how great I looked!!! My skin glowed. My eyes sparkled. I got lots of compliments. Most folks thought I was dieting and exercising, but I wasn’t. I was working full time, going to school full time, and had just has my second child. I was getting sick all the time and my life was near disaster (because I could not quit any of those things and recoup). I did not have time to diet or exercise. I really appreciated the extra time in my life (from no meal preparation, dishes, meals per se). In my case I purchased all of my juice, because I did not have time to juice it myself. Slightly less healthy, but worked very well. My husband (stay at home dad) used to pack me a cooler full of juice + straws each morning and off I went for my crazy day. I would not have survived that period in my life otherwise.

Hope this helps. Good luck.

mescla

Yes, hubby and I watched it too.. I have been juicing since July 20th and so far lost 8lbs prolly more since TOM is here. I feel better and have done it differently than most. I have juiced all day and have one solid veggie meal at night. My diary is open if you want to have a look. Breville is also a great juicer, and the one they use in the documentary.

aj_rock

I also started juicing. It was terrible for weight loss! On the other hand, I gained about 20 pounds of muscle!

...

Oh. You meant FRUIT JUI-

I'll be on my way now.

GreenTeaForDays

Check out this thread:

http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/292205-juice-fasting?page=15#posts-4057676

it's 15 pages and counting and full of information from people who are doing the reboot and other variations now.

momburntdinner

My husband and I watched this documentary. (I even blogged about it here: http://tinyurl.com/3cjbdp2 if you're interested)

Juicing is something I tried and it didn't work out for me.

Hubby bought a juicer the next day, and started juicing. At the end of the second day, he felt sick, which they say is normal, but I don't think he felt the kind of sick that they mean for you to feel.

We called the doctor (which you should really go to before you start this anyway) and the doctor said (no more monkeys jumping on the bed?) that juicing wouldn't be condusive to his lifestyle because of the medicine he takes.

We compromised with the doctor and now he does 1-2 juice meals a day and then 1-2 healthy, balanced meals. He's lost 28 pounds now.. in a month's time.

taem

I saw that movie many times, it inspired me to lose weight because Joe changed his dietary lifestyle to a vegan lifestyle after the fast. So I knew that juicing was to lose weight but not a permanent deal.

However, the more I learned about juicing, the more afraid I became. 1) The movie does not talk about the ketogenic diet which you default to. It is essentially no carbs and only nutrients. 2) A fast like this is not safe for diabetics. 3) Juicing does not keep you feeling full, but it can lead to increasing calorie intake (that is if you juice and eat and not just juice)

I went out and bought my juicer as well and I realized that all that fiber was being thrown away in the garbage and I thought this can't be good. Why am I throwing out the fiber? Isn't fiber good for us?

So I decided to take the long road to health. I began reading McDougall, Barnard, Campbell and other plant based doctors. Why? because Joe was eating veggies and plants.

I realized that juicing is a diet, like other diets, it is meant for short term weight loss. This is my opinon.

What needs to happen is that good nutrition has to be achieved for the weight loss to be maintained.

When I came to mfp, I did not know there were such advocates of low a carb, high fat & high protein diet.

So to wrap this up, I think a juice fast is good idea but it depends on your health condition. However, it is not a permanent solution, so buying a juicer is really money spent on a diet tool, so be aware of that because they are not cheap.

I still might go on a juice fast to accelerate my diet, but that is a last resort for me now.

I did join the reboot community and their fast recipes are listed on their web site, you can take a look at it. It is different than the movie.

thomasdyre

Good Points taem! I don't think juicing should be a diet. I think the movie meant it as a way to revitilze your body. Losing wieght is a benifit of jucing not the goal of juicing.

UnderCoverShyGirl

I definately like the health benefits from juicing, but do find the "all sweet" and lack of fullness/waste of fiber to be discouraging. I think i'm going to buy a blender and tackle some of the "green smoothies" in the Green for Life book I found by Victoria Boutenko. She is a raw food person, and can't remember her background, but suffice it to say she had the ability to evaluate nutrients and diets from ages ago etc. in an effort to change her own health and found that we are missing so much "green" in our nutrition profiles. She discovered by trial and error that adding dark leavy greens and such to fruits made delicous "green" smoothies that were pumped up in nutrition without losing all the fiber/filling part of the fruits and veggies because she was blending. That makes a lot of sense to me, and also solves the "juice is a drink, i still want to eat" part....not to mention i could imagine eathing a warm green smoothie as soup, and having sweeter colder ones at other times. I'm not going to divert to 100% green smoothies for all meals, but i definately am going to use it as meal replacements/snacks in order to up my nutrition and health and stay within my calories, etc.