Is Vegetable Juice Worth the Squeeze, Press, Blending?
My approach to health and vitality is to rely largely on real food that is easily recognisable to both our digestive and immune systems. With the exception of the hardcore carnivore chargers, the lion’s share of health authorities are in support of vegetables and fresh vegetable juices.
Although juicing produce has been around for decades, like all health trends, we love to push them to their limits, ultimately defeating their purpose. Vegetable juicing when done without lots of fruits to camouflage the somewhat bitter taste can be healing and beneficial to our wellbeing. But how many of us actually drink our pure vegetables? Personally, I think there’s far more nutritious and satisfying way to include vegetables in our day.
But by wringing out our fruits and veggies to get all ‘the good stuff we’re leaving out a crucial component of eating -mastication. Mastication or chewing releases the flavours and chemicals of food and mixes it with saliva so the body can create the appropriate digestive enzymes. Additionally, it sends signals to the brain about what kind of food, and how much, is on its way. This is all super important to the complete working of our digestive system.
If your consuming your vegetables in liquid form with the belief that you are assisting your detoxification pathways, you’ve been led down a questionable path. Detoxification requires amino acids, consuming a bucket load of mostly fibrous carbohydrates, with minimal protein likely isn’t a wise move. You’re NOT detoxing. You’re actually adding additional stress to the detoxing organs, the kidney, and the liver.
Steaming, blanching, and boiling, best preserve the healthful compounds in most vegetables. All three cooking methods liberate antioxidants in vegetables as compared with raw veggies!
That being said, ultimately the maximum nutrition comes from eating everything, not just raw and not just cooked!
In a nutshell, if your digestion and detoxification health is optimal, supplementing with vegetable juices can be a great addition to your health. The key takeaway is ‘addition’.
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