What?? I thought Juices were good for you?
This is the typical response I get when I tell patients to NOT drink any juices.
With all the Vitamixes, Nutribullets, and Ninjas available now, you can’t walk through a big box store without seeing someone demonstrate and sample some tasty, “good for you” juice.
Juices have contributed to the obesity and diabetes epidemic in the United States. Yes! Juices…
O.K., I might have been a bit harsh about juicing but in general, the rule is
- eat your food, don’t drink it.
The USDA recommends 2-4 servings of fruits and 3-5 servings of vegetables daily. This is sometimes misinterpretted by people and they go for 5-8 servings of fruits. Why you ask. Because fruits taste good, sweet, juicy, and yummy…and if you can get all 5-8 servings into a juice drink then even better, right? WRONG.
Fruits are made up of mostly SUGAR. It does not matter where the sugar comes from, fruit or cane sugar. Your body will process it as sugar and treat it as simple calories – 4 calories per gram of sugar. Aside from the calories, simple sugar also stimulate non desirable hormonal state and promote fat storage.
Let’s compare some of the more popular “healthy” juices
The Naked Juice – per 10 ounce serving
- Naked™ Orange Juice: 27 grams
- Naked™ Berry Blast: 32 grams
- Pepsi-Cola™: 34 grams
- Naked™ Green Machine: 35 grams
- Naked™ Mighty Mango: 35 grams
- Odwalla – “the original superfood” smoothie : 49 grams
Thus juicing has little place in weight management program and absolutely no place in a weight loss program. Eat all your vegetables and then you can eat a few good fruits with it (like the berries.) Say no to sugar and fat. This will help you stay lean and healthy.
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