Juicing

we got a juicer...luckily it was a free hand-me-down from my uncle. i like drinking fresh juice...my husband and son REALLY like it. but here would be my suggestion: don't buy a regular juicer. there is a blender that you can put whole fruit and veg in that will blend it all up to a slightly thicker juice. i can't remember the name of it, but montel williams had a special on his show about it once, so i'm sure you could google "montel williams blender" or something. the reason i suggest this is that with a typical juicer (we have the jack lalane), you end up with a butt-load of left over pulp from whatever you juice. you can use the pulp in recipes and stuff (i've even heard it's good to mix into your dog's food, but mine wouldn't eat it), but it is A LOT of pulp, so you would always end up throwing some away...unless, of course, you have a compost pile. and, the juicer is A LOT of clean up, whereas with a blender, you could just rinse it out a couple times before you wash it, and never have any waste. there is also a school of thought that not consuming the pulp is reducing your intake of the most vital nutrients and cooking the pulp kills some of those nutrients anyway. so, unless you have a compost pile you want to add to daily, i would try to find that blender. it's expensive, but if i had the money, i would get it...and probably will when i do have the money. just my two cents!!!

I bought the Jack Lalane!! It was recommended by a good friend of mine that lost 70 pounds juicing and walking everyday!

so, here's the thing. Juice is fine, but it's basically the fruit or veggie, minus much of the fiber (the pulp).

Juicing is basically a form of processing, just like the process of turning whole wheat flour into white flour (well, not just like, but it has similarities), juicing can destroy some of the benefits of fresh fruit and veggies.

So things to keep in mind if you make your own juice.


1) keeping the pulp is important, with no pulp you get no fiber, if it's fruit, removing fiber is a good way to spike your blood sugar (almost never a good thing).

2) Juicing basically does part of what your stomach does, which means less processing time for food and that means faster return of hunger.

3) if you don't drink juice IMMEDIATELY (and I mean literally immediately) then you're not going to get the vitamins and antioxidants that juicing pundants claim, because many vitamins are extremely susceptible to UV light and can die in seconds after being exposed. so worst case (I know this sounds stupid but it's true) is you should only juice in a low light area or an area with the shades down, and you should try to put it in a cup/glass that's NOT clear.

4) You really can't use juice as a replacement for all your veggies. Firstly, some veggies don't really juice well (I.E. peppers and broccoli are disgusting as a pulped drink, trust me!), and second, pulping veggies destroys (as mentioned above) a lot of the fiber strands, which defeats the purpose of ingesting complex carbs to a degree.

None of these are show stoppers, I'm all for using the juicer, but people like Jack Lelane like to tout juicing as the new way to stay healthy, I can tell you, you don't lose 70 lbs juicing, you lose 70 lbs by reducing calories, eating healthy (I hope) and exercising, and MAINTAINING that new diet and exercise.

ok I haven't juiced in a couple of weeks, so today I decided I was going to juice, and now I'm so full I feel like throwing up. Is this normal?