You can take fruits as whole, blend them with the pulp or juice them. Juicing is the process of squeezing the juice out of fruit or vegetable without the pulp.
When juicing, you are restricted on the food groups and maybe calories. Many people are skeptical of the health benefits that come from juicing.
However, if you are looking forward to losing weight, juicing is a great way to achieve your objective quickly. This is especially true if you make juice out of vegetables and reduce fruits with high sugar content like mangoes and bananas.
Health benefits of juicing
1. Juicing ensures more nutrient absorption in the body. This is because the body doesn’t have to digest fiber. When you take the juice, nutrients are introduced directly into your blood stream. Juicing therefore ensures effective absorption of nutrients without having to eat too many vegetables during the day.
2. Juicing allows you to intake a wide variety of vegetables. You can juice carrots, kales, spinach, celery and so much more. There are so many recipes and options; you are only limited by the vegetables and fruits available to you.
3. Juicing can improve digestion by introducing healthy enzymes which make the gut work optimally. Introducing good bacteria to the gut and removing toxins improves your overall body health. Vegetables and fruits are rich in prebiotics which introduce healthy enzymes and bacteria into the gut.
4. Juicing lowers high cholesterol levels in the body. While juicing, you significantly reduce your intake of high cholesterol foods and your body turns to fat for energy which lowers cholesterol and overall body fat percentage. But it is not the juicing in itself that lowers high cholesterol; it is the overall change in diet! Avoid intake of fried foods and unhealthy fat.
5. Juicing helps to detoxify the body. It removes toxins from the gut and replenishes the same with nutrients. Juicing also gives your digestive system time to rest since there is no intake of fiber that the gut needs to digest.
Juicing and Weight Loss
In a study to show whether juicing aids weight loss, 20 healthy participants consumed 6 bottles of different juices a day for three days. After the three days, the participants lost an average of 1.7 kgs. Two weeks after the cleansing, it was found out that their weight remained an average of 0.91 kgs less than before.
Juicing is effective in aiding weight loss; and it works even better when accompanied with a complete change in diet. You should also engage more in physical activity and avoid a sedentary lifestyle.
There are many juice blends or recipes you can use when juicing. You can also choose to do juicing together with a diet: only take juices for a certain period or take them together with supplements. However, it is important to note that juicing is not a long term solution to weight loss or wellness. It should be done occasionally to improve gut health or aid in weight loss.
