Juicing is all the rage lately! There is a juice bar on every corner and $8 cold pressed green juices are flying off the shelf. Is this a silly fad? Why not just eat the fruits and vegetables? Juicing provides a high level of quality nutrition that many people may not be able to otherwise absorb. By bypassing the need for stellar digestion (which is uncommon nowadays!), we can help build our vitamin and minerals stores. Having optimum nutrient levels will naturally assist in weight-loss. Read on to find out how adding in a juice can help you slim down.
1) Easy Digestion
One of the best benefits of juicing fresh fruit and vegetables is that drinking them (as opposed to eating them) makes them really easy for your body to digest. Many of my clients find through functional lab work that they have “leaky gut” or intestinal permeability. With a compromised GI tract, it can be hard to digest and absorb the same amount of raw vegetables found in a juice. But by juicing those vegetables, you can absorb a dense quantity of vitamins, minerals, and nutrients really easily.
2) Reduction in Cravings
When you drink a glass of freshly made vegetable or green juice, you are loading every cell of your body with detoxifying minerals. By drinking your veggies and fruit, you are giving your body all the amazing nutrients that it needs to heal, stay healthy, and reduce the risk of illness. In turn, you will also find that you experience a reduction in cravings, particularly for sweets or processed foods. Often when we eat junk foods, we confuse the body. After eating, a message is sent to the brain announcing that it is still needing certain minerals and vitamin causing cravings. After drinking a nutrient dense juice your body is getting all that it needs and has no need to signal the brain. And it is pretty obvious how not having cravings can help someone losing weight.
3) Tasty Fuel
It is also handy to know that green juices taste great! You can make your juice really flavorful by adding in lemon, mint or ginger to add a tasty punch. You may enjoy the flavors of the juice so much that you choose to make a juice rather than eat another less healthy snack food. It is also worth noting that juice you make at home is a much better option than that which is store bought. Fresh juice made with a base of vegetables is going to contain much more nutrition than the kind that comes from a carton. Even fresh, store-bought juices often have sugars and other additives as well as preservatives added to the juice. On the other hand, a homemade vegetable and fruit juice delivers nothing but goodness that is healthy fuel for your body.
4) Crowding out
This is a principle we learned at the Institute of Integrative Nutrition and is my favorite approach to weight loss. By adding fresh juices into your daily regimen as either a snack or a meal, you are crowding out the junk that you would have otherwise eaten. Instead of focusing on what you cannot have which leaves people feeling deprived and just wanting that forbidden junk even more, we focus on adding in the good. Over time you start to realize that your body chemistry has shifted and you don’t reach for the junk food as often.
5) It is not a fad diet
Once you start making juicing a regular part of your lifestyle, and start to experience all the health benefits and begin losing weight without a struggle, you will realize that incorporating fresh juices into your life is definitely not a diet fad. Unlike regimented diets that are difficult to follow and which can often make you gain weight, juicing works in such a remarkable way that you will want to include juicing in your life forever. You will never feel deprived or hungry. Not only that, but other aspects of your health will also improve. You might notice your skin is clearer, your eyes are brighter, and your nails and hair grow more quickly. You will also have more energy and you will start to feel amazing. Juicing will become a way of life you will want to follow forever!
6) Fun and Variety
In order to lose weight and to stay motivated, life needs to be fun, right? Juicing is the ideal way to bring this into your life. As you start to get into juicing, you will find it great fun making new combinations of fruit and vegetables cocktails. You will make all kinds of unique and interesting drinks, and you will find that you never get bored from the endless variety of beverages that you can make for yourself and others. You will also want to share these drinks with others, which will mean getting encouragement and support from those around you as you continue your weight-loss goals. Support is extremely important when it comes to making, and sticking to, healthy changes in your life. Really, juicing is a fabulously fun, easy, and healthy way to shed those unwanted pounds without any struggle or deprivation. You have nothing to lose by starting to make green juicing a regular part of your lifestyle. To get you started, here is a delicious and easy juice to kick-start your weight-loss:
Green Ginger Juice
4 carrots
2 apples
1 cucumber
½ beetroot (peeled)
1 rib celery
1 lemon
1-inch piece of ginger (or more!)
Run the vegetables through your juicer and enjoy!
