Juicing: Pros and Cons

With the holidays quickly approaching, it’s difficult to miss the gift ads raging about the latest kitchen gadgets. Everywhere you turn, you may see an infomercial about the newest juicer or powerful blender that grinds greens and fruits. Dietary Guidelines recommend two servings of fruit and three servings of vegetables daily, but most of us struggle to meet this recommendation.  So what does juicing mean? And what are some pros and cons to utilizing juicing?

Most juice diets encourage a liquid diet for a specific number of days without consumption of whole foods. Working with a registered dietitian is crucial to your understanding of what juicing can provide. Juicing alone is not a healthy diet approach, but can be a helpful tool to increasing fruit and vegetable intake.  Being aware of extra liquid calories that add up in juicing are one of the many reasons consulting a registered dietitian is beneficial before juicing. While juices provide vitamins and minerals found in whole fruits and vegetables there are also disadvantages to these regimens.

Pros:

• Boost fruit and vegetable intake
• Convenience

Cons:

• High sugar content
• Little to no fiber
• Low calories
• Limits food categories

If you are going to utilize juice, stick to one piece of fruit in a juicer instead of multiple pieces of juice to avoid added sugars and try to balance it out with some protein. Juice alone is not nutritionally complete, so participating in a juicing cleanse is not something we would encourage because it’s not helpful for your overall health or long term weight loss goals.

If you’re interested in more ideas to help you with your weight loss journey, or want to make your juices and smoothies more nutritionally balanced, please contact one of our registered dietitians to work on a plan that meets and compliments your nutrition goals!

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