Table of Contents
Juicing Diet
Juicing Recipes and Juicing Nutrition You Need to Do It Right
Lana Scholl
Copyright 2013 Lana Scholl
All rights reserved.
Introduction
Juicing diets have become a popular choice for just about anyone who wants to remove toxins from their body while enjoying fresh, natural foods. These cleansing beverages provide your body with plenty of liquid, keeping it hydrated and healthy. Because you can enjoy so many different kinds of juices, it's easy to stick to the plan without feeling excessively deprived or hungry. Many juice diets provide a small amount of weight loss, due to their inherently low-calorie nature.
This kind of diet plan has to be done correctly for optimum results, however. Simply replacing all your food with juice or going on a prolonged juice fast could deprive your body of essential nutrients, leaving you feeling more tired and unhealthy than you did when you began. That's why it's so important to drink a variety of juices throughout the day. This book will help you understand how to use juice to kick start a healthy lifestyle and keep yourself feeling healthy and energized through the power of juice. All the recipes are inspired by existing ones available on the Web, but they've been improved for this publication.
What Are Juicing Diets
It's important to understand what a juicing diet is and what it isn't. When used properly, juice diets last between three and 10 days and consist of carefully-chosen ingredients designed to keep your body operating correctly. They use only the freshest, best fruits and vegetables, including a variety of different juices every day. Ideally these foods are all made from organic produce that has been exposed to relatively few chemicals, in order to reduce the toxin load on your body.
While they can help you lose weight, juice diets aren't the right choice for large amounts of fat loss or long term use, since extreme use of juice fasting can actually cause damage to your systems. If you want to prepare your body for a healthy new routine and remove the toxins related to your old lifestyle, however, you can't go wrong with pure, natural juice.
The Benefits of Juicing
Juicing provides a number of benefits over other types of detox and cleansing diets. The liquid and fiber found in most high quality juices helps act as an appetite suppressant, preventing you from feeling hungry throughout the day. Unlike water fasts, juices provide some calories and plenty of nutrients, helping you avoid extreme tiredness. Juices can also improve your digestion and have even been shown to reduce total cholesterol over the course of the diet.
A short term juice fast is an excellent way to break bad habits and help you prepare your mind and body for a new, healthier way of living. It has been used to aid meditation and other relaxation techniques, especially when you combine it with travel or a retreat designed to reduce your overall stress levels. This kind of diet change can also help you shed excess water weight and clean out a sluggish digestive system, leaving you feeling fresher and lighter.
Juice diets aren't just for people who want dramatic changes, however. You can also use a modified version of many diet plans to help you include more fruit and vegetables in your diet, improve your caloric intake, or avoid unhealthy foods. Many juice recipes will help you get your recommended daily fruit and vegetable intake in just one drink. Juicing is a healthy choice that can work for almost everyone.
Getting the Nutrition You Need
Fruit and vegetable juices are nutrient-dense, but they also contain large amounts of water. That means you'll stay hydrated, but it can make it difficult to get the proper nutrition if you stick to just one or two types of juice. Many people take supplemental vitamins and herbal preparations while enjoying a juice fast to ensure that they won't suffer from any nutritional deficiencies.
You can also make a point of choosing juices that include the essential nutrients your body needs. For instance, green juices containing spinach can boost your iron intake, while broccoli can help you get the protein and calcium you need. Avocado provides many essential fats and can make your normal juices into delicious smoothies. While it might take a little while to get used to drinking your vegetables, all these juices can provide you with a great-tasting natural source of the vitamins and minerals you require.
Your Caloric Intake
Adding juice to your diet or using it to replace other foods can greatly affect your caloric intake. This can be beneficial if you're hoping to lose a little weight, but it's important to know what you're consuming. Sugar-heavy juices such as apple and orange contain a little more than 100 calories per cup. If you add that to your normal diet, you could find yourself gaining weight. Supplementing your normal food with juice is an excellent choice if you struggle with low bodyweight and have trouble eating enough, but it could cause problems if you're trying to lose weight instead of gaining.
Using juice as a meal replacement could cause the opposite problem if you don't monitor your intake. If you consume the same volume of juice as you would ordinary food, you may have trouble getting enough calories to keep your mood up and your body healthy. While replacing food with juice for a short period of time is a good idea if you want to lose a little, it can be disastrous if your intake drops too low.
Make sure you consume a larger volume during your juice fast than you would if you were eating normally. You'll feel better and your body will reward you with more energy. Drinking between 10 and 20 cups of fresh, delicious juice every day will help you meet your caloric needs and still lose weight. Just adjust the amount for your appetite and activity level.
Should You Try a Juice Diet?
While juice diets are a great choice for most people, they won't work for everyone. Doctors advise against using any kind of liquid diet if you are pregnant or nursing. This kind of diet is also usually a poor choice for children, people who have immune deficiencies, or anyone who normally suffers from fatigue or anemia. While these people can add juice to their diets for better health, doctors advise against even short term juice fasting.
If you suffer from hypoglycemia or diabetes, you may need to adjust a normal juice diet to accommodate your disorder. While this can feel like cheating, it helps prevent strong fluctuations in blood sugar levels and ensures a healthier, safer cleansing process.
Modifying Juice Diets for Special Needs
If you consider yourself to be relatively healthy and aren't aware of any disorders or metabolic issues that might affect your diet, try a normal juice fast to start with. Don't afraid to adjust your diet if you experience dizziness, mood changes or feelings of excessive tiredness, however. You can add moderate amounts of fresh fruit, nuts or similar raw foods to your diet without causing problems.
If you are very active, you may also need to modify your juice diet to include low fat dairy or some meats. Just make sure you introduce these foods slowly and carefully, since they can interfere with the cleansing action of juice. If you're not sure how to modify your juice fast, talk to your doctor or nutritionist for professional advice. The best juice diet is the one you can sustain, after all.
Adding Juice to a Normal Diet
If you're not ready to try a juice-only fast, you can still get a lot of benefits by including juice in your normal diet. This is an especially good idea if you're tempted to skip meals or you know you have trouble consuming the amount of fresh vegetation your body needs to be healthy. Just make a glass of juice in the morning or evening and consume it instead of a meal or along with a light snack. The juice will help you avoid feeling hungry and will provide the nutrients you normally lack. It even works as a pick-me-up instead of chips or other unhealthy food in the afternoon.