Is juicing really that beneficial and worth it? (vegetables, smoothie, supplement)

[Lover of Animals]

Is juicing using a juicer really that beneficial? Can't you get the same nutrients and benefits from just eating fresh fruit and vegetables? Also....doesn't juicing lose the fiber benefit?

[Auntie77]

I don't know about losing fiber, but it does just seem simpler to eat the fruit and vegetables. By the time you do all the juicing then cleaning of the juicer, drinking your vitamins seems no more convenient than just eating them.

[Lover of Animals]

Originally Posted by Auntie77

I don't know about losing fiber, but it does just seem simpler to eat the fruit and vegetables. By the time you do all the juicing then cleaning of the juicer, drinking your vitamins seems no more convenient than just eating them.

I am inclined to agree. I bought an expensive juicer and have been trying it,but don't know if it's worth it. I've been thinking about returning it if no one can convince me that it's worth it.

[Auntie77]

I got one five years ago, got sick of cleaning it, and it has sat on the shelf ever since.

[Lover of Animals]

Originally Posted by Auntie77

I got one five years ago, got sick of cleaning it, and it has sat on the shelf ever since.

Fortunately,I got mine at a place where you can return it no matter how long you've had it as long as you have the receipt.

[OpenD]

Originally Posted by Lover of Animals

Is juicing using a juicer really that beneficial? Can't you get the same nutrients and benefits from just eating fresh fruit and vegetables? Also....doesn't juicing lose the fiber benefit?

Here's the major premise... by separating the juice from the indigestible cellulose matrix, you can take in concentrated nutrition.

As an example, I simply could not start my day by eating a pound of raw carrots every morning. But I can easily juice a pound of carrots into a tasty glass full and get all the vitamins and nutrition, minus the 3/4 pound of what is essentially leftover "damp sawdust" that's just going to pass through my digestive system unchanged in any case.

So that's the premise. Get the benefit of eating lots of fresh produce without actually having to eat all that.

On the downside, a lot of people drift towards juices that aren't necessarily great for you, but which taste good because they contain a lot of sugar, versus juices that have proper nutrition balance, but may not taste wonderful, especially green leafy vegetables like kale and spinach. And if you are not using juicing as a nutritional supplement, but use it instead of eating properly, you can actually get out of balance. I had a roommate once whose skin turned orange from drinking too much carrot juice, for example. I doubt anyone could ever reach that level of overdose eating whole carrots.

[fibonacci]

Yes you lose the fiber benefits if you juice. If you eat a lettuce leaf you don't poop out a leaf. Your body actually has to work more to break it down from larger biomass than if you were to chop it up into a liquid. The work that has to be done and that "damp sawdust" is what cleanses your colon and can help prevent colon cancer.

[weltschmerz]

Your body needs that "damp sawdust". Otherwise, you'll plug up your colon with something akin to cement.

[weltschmerz]

I much prefer to make fruit and vegetable smoothies. All the nutrition, none of the waste.

[hey teach]

I had a friend who started juicing. She was amazed by her weight loss and how "healthy" she was becoming. Sadly, she found out 6 weeks into juicing that she had ovarian cancer, which was the real cause of her weight loss. She only lived 7 weeks after her initial diagnosis. Be careful.