Jordan: Hi, I'm Jordan Rubin, CEO of draxe.com, bringing you Ancient Medicine Today, where
we help answer all your health questions, and here is the health question we commonly
get.
Juicing, is it healthy?
It may be the rage.
It may be a way to get nutrients from fruits and vegetables, but is it actually healthy?
We're going to answer that and more on today's episode of Ancient Medicine Today.
And if you know someone who juices, all the time, you're in their house and you see all
the fruits and vegetables, and they say juice is the greatest, and they're buying juice,
and they're making juice, and they're at juice bars.
They need to hear this.
In fact, juice bars seem to be popping up everywhere.
There's a juice bar here, there's a juice bar there, but is juicing all it's cracked
up to be?
We're going to get into that right now.
What are the pros of juicing?
Easily consumable fruits and vegetables.
That's huge.
We all know that fruits and vegetables are good for you, and juicing is a quick and easy
way to get multiple servings in a concentrated form.
You can also easily absorb the nutrients.
When you juice fruits and vegetables, they are in a serum soluble form.
That means that they're in a liquid form that your body can use quickly and easily.
Let's understand, when you eat food or drink a beverage, your body brings it into solution,
it liquefies it no matter what.
When you remove the fiber, juice already has done the work for you, so separating the juice
from the pulp makes nutrients easily absorbable, and this is great when it reduces produce
waste.
You know that when farmers grow fruits and vegetables and they don't look perfectly,
a lot of times they get wasted.
See, we absolutely require, these days, a tomato to be perfectly round and red, and
orange has to be with no blemishes, apples have to be perfect.
That's not really how foods grow.
In fact, I like heirloom fruits and vegetables.
In fact, the uglier the better.
I was one day thinking about writing a book on heirloom foods calling it the ugly diet.
Eat ugly food.
U-G-L-Y, now, you've got an alibi.
I digress.
We're talking about juicing here.
We're talking about fruits and vegetables.
When you juice or allow your fruits and vegetables to be juiced, you reduce waste.
And if you use the fiber in other recipes, even better.
So those are the pros of juicing, they're really good pros, but there are some cons
of juicing.
Number one, despite popular belief, juicing alone won't help you lose weight.
Number two, if you juice fruits or sweet veggies, such as carrots and beet, it's a lot of sugar,
and it's in your bloodstream immediately.
Do you know that carrot juice could contain up to 30 grams of sugar per serving?
Sure, it's carrot juice.
Sure, it's got vitamins and minerals but it's still has a lot of sugar.
What do you do if you love juice?
Add some fat, maybe some fiber back.
You know, when you consume carrot juice in Europe, they add cream to it because it helps
absorb the nutrients and slow down the sugar rush.
Your body doesn't really need juice.
In fact, if you look throughout history, there are only a few juices people consumed, and
it would be grape juice in the form of wine, and the fermentation removes the sugar.
You don't need to juice, but if you don't get enough fruits and veggies certainly there's
a good reason to do it.
Why would juicing be an issue?
Because it's missing the fiber.
Fruits and vegetables were made to have fiber.
You need fiber, so juicing can be a challenge by stripping the fiber and overloading your
body with sugar.
So, let's get into some of the details.
What's the verdict here?
Good and bad?
Juices can be both.
What you're looking at right here, smoothie, probably good, maybe some fiber in it.
Orange Juice?
Thirty-plus grams of sugar, especially if it's pasteurized.
I know people think orange juice is so good for them.
I would argue with that.
Make juices a part of your diet, not the main course.
If you do juice, vegetables first, fruits later.
When you look at these juices you buy in the store today, they're almost always full of
fruit, such as apple juice, which is not all it's cracked up to be, especially if it's
pasteurized.
If you're buying juice or making it, it's got 20, 25, 30 grams of sugar per serving,
that's a challenge for most people.
So heavy on the greens, light on the fruit, may not taste as good but it will be good.
In fact, the juice that I like is a combination of celery juice and parsley, and then, I blend
up cucumber and mix it, so you've got some of the fiber, some of the juice, really, really
good and powerful greens.
If you replace a meal with juice, limit it to few times a week, so you get the bulk of
nutrients you need including fiber.
Juice can be a challenge for your blood sugar.
If you want a detox, instead of immediately going on a juice cleanse, remove the junk
from your dietary trunk.
You can also consume broth as a detoxing beverage, which gives great nutrients such as minerals
but without the sugar.
All right.
Is juicing actually healthy?
The benefits, get your daily fruits and vegetables, everyone agrees that's really good, easily
absorbable nutrients, and you reduce waste.
What are the cons?
It may not help you lose weight.
Usually loaded with sugar.
Your body doesn't technically need juice, you need vegetables, not juice and it's missing
fiber.
Bottom line folks, if you know somebody who is a juice junkie, that didn't sound . . . juice
healthy, they like juice, they buy juice, they make juice, they clean up after juice,
they tell you that you have to juice, or if you know somebody who really wants to understand
the skinny on juicing, share this video with them, and make sure to subscribe to this YouTube
channel.
draxe.com has a leading natural health website with thousands of articles including delicious
juice recipes, and every recipe you can think of for that matter.
We talk about organic, we talk about non-GMO, we talk about what you want to know about.
Also, you can join our Facebook page, our Instagram, and you can make sure to share
this video with anyone you know who wants to get the truth about juice.
I'm Jordan Rubin here for Ancient Medicine Today inviting you to join us on tomorrow's
broadcast where we will share with you powerful health information on how to use food as medicine.
Dr. Axe: Hi, Dr. Axe here.
I want to say thanks so much for checking out this YouTube video, and also don't forget
to subscribe if you want to get more great content on things like herbs, essential oils,
natural remedies and how to use food as medicine.
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Thanks for watching.