The benefits of juicing are incredibly interesting. With obesity on the rise, people are becoming increasingly health conscious. Many are looking for ways to improve their health and avoid the pitfalls of old age and disease.
Enter juicing.
There are so many benefits of juicing fruits and vegetables it is simply mind-blowing. Mind you, I’m referring to fresh juice, not store-bought juice that comes in a bottle. To make fresh juice, you’ll need fruits, vegetables and a juicer.
You can find a juicer at your local department store, and fruits and vegetables from the local supermarket. If you have the budget for it, go organic, but if not, go with whatever you can find. Some juicing is better than no juicing.
One of the reasons juicing is so powerful is the fact that fresh juice is raw and totally unprocessed. Scientific studies have shown that cooking and processing food effectively destroys the nutritional benefit. By heating food to high temperatures, vitamins, minerals, antioxidants and other important ingredients are damaged and destroyed, rending the benefit to your body quite small.
Almost every health authority recommends that people get 6 to 8 servings of fruits and vegetables every day. But the reality is that most people don’t make it even close. Unless you commit to a raw food diet, it would be quite hard to reach this amount just by eating.
But with something like juicing, you can add it to your diet and get the recommended servings with ease. You can even go beyond that, enhancing the benefits. Some people even go so far as to “juice fast”. If you’ve ever fasted before, you’d know what this means. Basically, a person doesn’t eat any food for a set number of days but drinks juice.
While it is certainly possible to juice fruits, if you have medical problems of any sort it is best to minimize the amount of fruit you juice. The problem is fructose, a natural sugar that occurs in many fruits. If you get too much of it, it can have a damaging effect and exacerbate the problems caused by diseases such as diabetes.
Here are ten of the most interesting benefits of juicing:
1. Feel incredible.
When you juice, you’ll be filling your body with abundant vitamins, minerals and nutrients. Do it enough and you’ll feel amazing, according to juicing proponents. You’ll enjoy greater energy and a strong sense of well being.
Our modern diet is often loaded with carbs and processed food that strains our digestive system and drains us of energy. By eliminating or at least minimizing the intake of these types of foods and maximizing your fruits and vegetables, you are guaranteed to feel incredible.
2. Save money.
Eating (and drinking) healthy is remarkably cheap. If you think about it, there’s a simple reason why – none of it is packaged in plastic or processed. It grows in the ground and it’s almost always cheaper than its packaged alternatives.
3. Help the environment.
With no packaging or plastic, one of the benefits of juicing is that you’ll be helping the environment. What you don’t use, you throw into the garden. Easy and simple.
Juicing is also much more sustainable, as you can grow fruits and vegetables yourself if you have your own veggie garden.
4. Lose weight.
Many people claim that juicing helps them to lose weight. This is probably because juicing is quickly digested and empowers the body to perform its functions well. Without junk food slowing it down, the body’s metabolism acts quickly to process food.
5. Prevent cancer.
Cancer is caused by carcinogens, which are found in highly processed food. One of the great benefits of juicing is that by filling your body with lots of powerful nutrients, cancer risk is minimized. This means you’ll enjoy life more and live longer.
6. Boost your energy.
As mentioned earlier, the typical modern Western diet puts a great strain on the human digestive system. This slows us down and makes us feel lethargic. By adding juicing to your diet, you’ll take the strain of your digestive system, which will result in surplus energy that can be spent elsewhere.
7. Sleep better.
Many people are now claiming that they have trouble sleeping. While not always, this is often related to diet and so can be rectified with something like juicing. With your body getting the nutrition it needs, the body will fall asleep faster and wake up quicker. Many people report needing less sleep after integrating juicing into their diet.
8. Get more done.
A result of sleeping better, waking earlier and boosting your energy is that you’ll naturally get a lot more done. When the human body doesn’t get the vitamins and minerals it so desperately needs, it makes it hard to get things done. But one of the best benefits of juicing is that you’ll end up being more productive and consequently, you’ll get a lot more from life.
9. Enhance liver function.
The primary job of the liver is to cleanse the blood. Every drop of blood is running continuously through the liver, which removes toxins and waste matter for every second that a person is alive. Fresh fruit and vegetable juice enters the bloodstream quickly and as a result, enters the liver quickly.
One of the main reasons that people don’t have enough energy is that their liver is clogged. With juicing, the liver is enhanced and given the nutrients it needs. This often results in a heightened sense of wellbeing and big boost in energy.
10. Detoxify.
If you move in nutrition circles, you would have heard about detoxing. A great benefit of juicing is that juices (in particular green juices) are packed with chlorophyll. Chlorophyll is a powerful detoxifier which makes our bodies strong, cleanses the liver, purifies and rebuilds blood cells, removes mold, parasites and myco/ecotoxins from the body.
Getting Started
A great juice to begin with is carrot, apple and ginger. It’s quick, easy and it’ll get you hooked on the benefits of juicing. You’ll need a juicer, or you can grab a fresh juice from your local juice bar.
Image Credit : Livestrong
