Juicing vs. Raw Fruits and Vegetables: What Is Better?
Juicing is a very popular trend in the mainstream health movement at the moment, but is it better for your health than just eating raw fruits and vegetables? Upon closer study, you’ll find that it is not. Juicing is many things: convenient, popular, space-saving and more– but it isn’t the healthiest. Juicing isn’t unhealthy either, but the question does indeed warrant some further consideration.
The main thing missing from a juice is fiber. This is a drawback but it doesn’t make juice totally worthless as a component of a healthy diet. It also matters what goes into your juice. If your juice is heavy in fresh greens and other vegetables and can be thickened up with some healthy protein, such as hemp, then it can be useful to your body. Juice takes all of the pulp or meat out of whatever is producing the juice. This does indeed reduce the material down to a portable and liquid form, but it doesn’t always get the best parts of the material into your body.
If you do wish to go the juicing route, try to minimize the carrot and beet content as both of these vegetables include high levels of sugar and can make the juice detrimental from an overall health aspect. Load up on more vegetables than fruits as well especially on the green, leafy side. Nearly anything fruit-based is going to contribute a lot of sugar content into your juice which makes it entirely off-limits for people who suffer from diabetes and other sugar-related illnesses.
Another important distinction to make is between blending and juicing. If you’re strictly talking about juicing, then you’re losing a good portion of the nutrients out of the fruit or vegetable when you throw out the pulp. On the contrary, if you use a blender and keep the pump from the plant material in the juice, then eating raw and juicing are essentially the same.
If you would otherwise avoid a fruit or vegetable all together then juicing it is a great way to get it into your diet. If you are weighing both options — juicing and eating the same ingredient raw, the raw route will always be the best way to go. Keep juicing in your diet if it is a positive and enjoyable way for you to get the fruits and vegetables that are parts of those juices. If you can find ways to consume these ingredients in whole, raw form more often — all the better.