Does "juicing" really work???

Fibergurl

I have a vitamix I blend everything, fruit nuts and veggies! Yes I have lots of energy and I feel great. No bread , milk or meat..doing it raw for now. Good luck on your journey!

violetsue

Juicing is a mess and I prefer smoothies (blending the whole fruit). You get more fiber and stay full longer. Also, I came across a website for "green thickies", and I started adding a little uncooked ground oatmeal (grind in a small grinder) to my smoothies. What a difference. Keeps me full until lunch. Yummly has some good recipes too.

Otterluv

I've never fully understood the juicing concept. If I'm going to go to the store and buy fruits and vegatables, why not just, I dunno, eat them? Why would I want to buy an expensive blender, stuff all my fruits and veggies into it, drink them, and then have to clean up the blender and glass? Someone please tell me how all these extra steps make sense.

So much ^^^^ this.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't juicing basically just stripping all the nummy fibrousy (also known as the most healthy) parts off of the fruits and veggies and pretty much only leaving the sugars and some of the vitamins/minerals? If so, that doesn't sound like the most nutritious way to go.

At least with blending you are still keeping the good parts when you liquify it. It still isn't how I choose to get my veggies and fruits in, but for people who hate eating them but like drinking them, I can see how it could work.

RainHoward

You didn't actually expect any helpful or non childish replies did you?

Juicing is good for what it is. You can make some great, healthy juice with one. The problem is you lose all the fiber and much of the nutritional value unless you add the pulp back in.

judydelo1

Personally I don't juice, but I do like to make smoothies in my blender 3 or 4 times a week for an easy breakfast. A cup of frozen fruit (some from our own trees), a half a banana, maybe some unrefined coconut oil, a few Tab of seeds (chia, flax, hemp), half a cup of high antioxidant juice like Just Blueberry, Just Black Current, Just Cranberry . . . 30 seconds or so in the blender and I have a satisfying breakfast filled with omegas, vitamins, etc. to sip on while I wake up. Oh, and starting tomorrow I'll add some vegan protein powder. I've never been one to eat much in the morning so this suits me fine.

Juicers are a pain to clean up and yes you are throwing the pulp away. BUT you do get a lot of vitamins, no doubt. When my mom was recovering from breast cancer I bought her a special juicer that preserved the vitamins (not all juicers are alike). And she'd be able to drink a bag of carrots worth of vitamins in one day, etc. So if you want to do a juice fast, or if you're recovering from an illness, or clearing up a condition and juicing is indicated as a therapy then I can see how valuable juicing is.

bumblebums

Blending > juicing.

When you juice fruits, you are left with sugar and no fiber. Fruit juice has as much sugar as soda. Fiber keeps you full and has many health benefits. When I am too lazy to chew my fruits and vegetables or just want some variety, I toss everything in a blender.

what blender do you use? i've been thinking about either saving up for a blender or juicer myself.

I use a simple Classic Osterizer--it has a single toggle switch, "on" vs. "off" vs. "pulse". It's lasted me many years and is easy to clean and cost me only $50. I've heard all sorts of amazing things about Vitamix, but I am not convinced it's worth the $500 investment...

judydelo1

Blending > juicing.

When you juice fruits, you are left with sugar and no fiber. Fruit juice has as much sugar as soda. Fiber keeps you full and has many health benefits. When I am too lazy to chew my fruits and vegetables or just want some variety, I toss everything in a blender.

what blender do you use? i've been thinking about either saving up for a blender or juicer myself.

I use a simple Classic Osterizer--it has a single toggle switch, "on" vs. "off" vs. "pulse". It's lasted me many years and is easy to clean and cost me only $50. I've heard all sorts of amazing things about Vitamix, but I am not convinced it's worth the $500 investment...

My husband and kids chipped in and are buying me a Vitamix for Christmas! I haven't gotten it yet, lol, but it's coming. (My son has a friend that got a job at Whole Foods and he is giving us his discount once he's been there 3 months). ANyway in the meantime I use The Bullet. It's a cheap piece of crap that is made with plastic parts. I'll be lucky if it lasts another month. I've only had it a couple of months.

bumblebums

Blending > juicing.

When you juice fruits, you are left with sugar and no fiber. Fruit juice has as much sugar as soda. Fiber keeps you full and has many health benefits. When I am too lazy to chew my fruits and vegetables or just want some variety, I toss everything in a blender.

what blender do you use? i've been thinking about either saving up for a blender or juicer myself.

I use a simple Classic Osterizer--it has a single toggle switch, "on" vs. "off" vs. "pulse". It's lasted me many years and is easy to clean and cost me only $50. I've heard all sorts of amazing things about Vitamix, but I am not convinced it's worth the $500 investment...

My husband and kids chipped in and are buying me a Vitamix for Christmas! I haven't gotten it yet, lol, but it's coming. (My son has a friend that got a job at Whole Foods and he is giving us his discount once he's been there 3 months). ANyway in the meantime I use The Bullet. It's a cheap piece of crap that is made with plastic parts. I'll be lucky if it lasts another month. I've only had it a couple of months.

This is kind of why I like the Osterizer. It's cheap, but there is no plastic. The top part is thick glass, the bottom is metal. And I also love that it only has one button. Fewer things can go wrong with just one button.

Mokey41

Juicers are a pain to clean up and yes you are throwing the pulp away. BUT you do get a lot of vitamins, no doubt. When my mom was recovering from breast cancer I bought her a special juicer that preserved the vitamins (not all juicers are alike).

You don't get anymore vitamins than if you ate the fruit or veggie. That must have been one smart juicer that could detect the vitamins!

bumblebums

Juicers are a pain to clean up and yes you are throwing the pulp away. BUT you do get a lot of vitamins, no doubt. When my mom was recovering from breast cancer I bought her a special juicer that preserved the vitamins (not all juicers are alike).

You don't get anymore vitamins than if you ate the fruit or veggie. That must have been one smart juicer that could detect the vitamins!

Yeah, there is probably some magical thinking or cynical advertising behind that claim.

agidavis

Just bought our first juicer and I can’t believe that we haven’t done it earlier. The sugar coming from fruits and vegetables should not be anybody’s concern.

I do juicing in addition to my breakfast and feel great full of energy. Even if I don’t eat breakfast with my juice I am not hungry because I get all my nutrition from the juice.

If you are looking to beat cravings, get healthy and get more energy without coffee juicing is the way to go. I only started so I can’t report on weight loss but I have more energy for my workouts so that’s good.I do carrots, apples, oranges, pear, bananas, all of it and you would not believe how tasty they are!!!!!!!!! Go for it!!!!!!!

judydelo1

Juicers are a pain to clean up and yes you are throwing the pulp away. BUT you do get a lot of vitamins, no doubt. When my mom was recovering from breast cancer I bought her a special juicer that preserved the vitamins (not all juicers are alike).

You don't get anymore vitamins than if you ate the fruit or veggie. That must have been one smart juicer that could detect the vitamins!

You can't easily eat a bag of carrots every day. Especially if you're ill, that kind of robust eating can't really be done. So by juicing in these circumstances (like cancer) you can get the nutritional value of the the carrot without all the bulk of the pulp. So in this instance it can be very helpful. In a normal circumstance, I prefer eating the whole carrot. But I don't see anything wrong with juicing.

kdiamond

I prefer smoothies for fruit (although I can eat fruit all by itself, I love it) and I like to puree the "yuckier" veggies into soups that I make, or rice the cauliflower and use it as a base for stews and chili. It is all about hiding the veggies for our house, because my kids are hard to fool. :laugh:

Tyggress73

My husband and I have a Vita-Mix blender that we have had for about 8 years now. Absolutely LOVE it.
Difference: It blends/liquifys the whole fruit, preserving the pulp and fiber. Much better than just juicing.
I can also make hot soups, nut butters, and all manner of healthy, nutricious foods.

A co-worker is juicing right now and has been for about 2 months. He has lost like 50 pounds. Call me cynical, but I am waiting for him to gain it all back again when he starts eating real food.

assblaster69

i wish i dared to get on juice

LesaLu4

Bump

SoberAlley

I just bought a juicer and after experimenting with it for a few days, I found what works (and makes the most sense) to me. I don't juice fruit because I had all the fruit cut up and ready to go into the juicer and I found myself snacking on it before it went in. I was like "I'll just eat this". But what I do juice is the leftover parts of veggies that I don't really eat. Like, I have a head of cauliflower... I cut out the white part for salads, but the leaves and the stem part? That's going to be thrown out anyway. Stuff like that gets thrown into the juicer with some other veggies I won't just pick up and eat for fun (like Kale), and rather than being wasteful, I'm eating more nutrients than I would, without juicing.

I love food way too much to skip meals for juice.

366to266

Juicing is mostly stupid.

Fruit is sugary enough without removing all the fibre that slows down the digestion and then drinking all that sugar. Might as well drink a glass of Coke and pop a vitamin C pill!

If you eat the pulp too then what is the point of juicing? Probably means you get a bigger sugar hit in one go - again, a bad thing. Chewing on all those apples and pears is a much better idea. And why lose the experience of all those different textures in your mouth - banana, mango, raspberries all have a distinct texture.

I kind of "juice" my veg by boiling cabbage, cauli, leeks, mushrooms into soup and blending, but all the bits and fibre are still in it, and whereas it's a GOOD thing to get more low GI veg inside us, it's a BAD thing to encourage the quick and large consumption of fruit.

KANGOOJUMPS

YEP!, all for it!

Cr01502

Edit sorry I misread it.

If you like juice and want to juice your fruit and veg to include more more of it in your diet that's fine. The only issue is that I think you might be missing out on a lot of dietary fiber.

Don't listen to the people talking about a "sugar rush" and "low GI" unless, of course you have a medical reason to watch your sugar.

Just track you're overall carb intake and as long as you stay under that you'll be solid.

:flowerforyou: