The Truth about Juice

‘Thank goodness for juice! There is only one word that really springs to my mind when I’m drinking a fresh green juice – Gratitude. It’s as if every single cell in your body is smiling up at you, and for a moment there is a glimpse of that so often elusive feeling – the feeling of optimum wellness.’

The above is an extract from an article I wrote four years ago for Wellbeing magazine. As a student of naturopathic nutrition at the College of Naturopathic Medicine, I felt very passionately about the health benefits of drinking raw fruit and vegetable juice.

I still feel the same now as a practising nutritionist and I often find myself speaking just as passionately about juice to my clients, especially when I encounter various misconceptions regarding drinking juice as part of a healthy lifestyle.

In this series of posts, I hope to deliver a truthful message that will help clear up all those misconceptions about juice.

When I speak about drinking juice, I am referring to homemade organic fruit and vegetable juice and not shop bought juice. The shop bought juices are produced with a shelf life in mind and can be full of additives and refined sugar and are often preserved using a heating process called HPP, (high pressure pasteurisation), that destroys some of the delicate micro-nutrients, trace minerals and enzymes present.

Homemade juice on the other hand maintains the raw ingredients and delivers the pure nutrition speedily to the bloodstream. A plethora of phytonutrients (phyto - meaning plant in Greek), are delivered to the body in a pure form that the body can recognise and use immediately. In order to function efficiently, our bodies require a particular concoction of nutrients and a particular environment to perform their efficient duties and Juice delivers them.

Let’s talk about fibre as this seems to be a big concern when I talk about juice. I often hear people say - what about the lack of fibre in juice and will drinking juice cause a spike in my blood sugar because of the lack of fibre?’

All good questions that have to be answered.

So, if the juice is the fluid part of the fruit or vegetable with the insoluble fibre having been removed, then is there is still fibre remaining in the juice?

Yes, and that fibre is called soluble fibre.

Just as insoluble fibre binds to toxins and waste material in the digestive tract ready for elimination through the bowels, soluble fibre is water-soluble and acts like a gel binding to cholesterol and taking it out of the body.

And what about my blood sugar? I hear you ask.

The soluble fibre will also slow down carbohydrate absorption just like insoluble fibre slows down digestion, so that blood sugar remains stable as the body takes in the valuable nutrients.

When we extract the insoluble fibre and are left with the fluid part of the fruits and vegetables, it becomes easier to assimilate and absorb the vitamins, minerals and other important phytonutrients across the digestive tract. In this way the digestive system can take a rest from breaking down fibre and allow the body to be flooded with the pure nutrition delivered straight to the blood stream from the juice.

Let’s talk about the sugar content in juice as this seems to come up a lot when discussing Juice.

Fruits and vegetables are wholefoods which means that they contain a whole spectrum of nutrients that the body can easily recognise, use and assimilate. They also contain natural sugars that the body needs and uses as fuel. Your body breaks down foods into a simple sugar called glucose and every cell in your body runs on it. 

The sugar in juice is of the highest quality and is not to be confused with the sugar found in refined foods and drinks, which the body does not recognise as a sustainable fuel and causes all sorts of imbalances throughout the body.

In fresh organic homemade juice, you can receive all the essential nutrients needed to keep your body working efficiently and provide an ideal way to cleanse your body naturally and slowly.

And if this isn’t enough to get you into drinking juice, the water content is of the highest quality from organic raw fruit and vegetables and is full of enzymes that are ‘alive’ and very bio-available to the body, so juice is one of the best ways to hydrate your body.

It is especially important at this time to boost your immune system with a high intake of vitamins, minerals and phytonutrients found in juice.

Adding a raw juice to your diet everyday will go a long way towards protecting, defending and building a balanced relationship with your whole body. To read the full article on the health benefits of raw juice please click here.