You want to have a healthy diet? Why not introduce juicing? You can find dozens of reasons why you should or shouldn't introduce juicing (these are mostly excuses of the lazy). Some people will claim that it can cure cancer others say its the best thing you can do for your body and you should go on a juicing only diet. A bit extreme for me, but it can definitely be a good way to get extra nutrients and vitamins.
On the other hand most of the articles I've ready will say there are risks to juicing such as bacteria and calories. Really? don't those risks exist for most of our daily existence. To put it another way, do you avoid going outside because there's a risk you might get hit by a car? Of course not, the risk is small and can be virtually eliminated with caution. The same can be said for anything food related including juicing.
Now to be fair about this here are a few pros and cons I've encountered in my research on juicing all taken with a dose of reality.
Health Benefits
You'll hear that juicing can do everything from curing cancer to reducing weight and probably a dozen things in between, I'm surprised it hasn't solved the mysteries of quantum physics based on some of the things I've read. I will agree that juicing can help you get concentrated doses of vitamins and nutrients for your body and depending on your existing diet this could be a huge help.
Juicing is only part of the equation and should only ever be considered that, I would go so far as saying it will probably only be a small part of your dietary equation; it is for me. It is merely a way for you to get nutrients which you can get by eating the whole fruits and veggies.
Juicing doesn't solve long standing problems, it can't cure cancer but it can be part of a healthy diet and help towards these ailments. But if it helps you cure something like cancer, then that's awesome. Its the diet that really helps people and not just the juicing.
Health Risks
Both reading and now writing about the risks of juicing seems a bit ridiculous to me. Are there risks to juicing? Yeah probably, but there are risks to crossing the street and people do that safety every day, even the people who are plugged into their phones. The main issues these articles pointed out were around the preparation and bacterial risks. The only answer I have to this is: no shit! Use some common sense.
The articles make references to the risks of bacteria and pesticides on the fruit - yet at the same time they suggest that maybe eating the whole fruit would be better. This just blows my mind; would you not wash the fruit or veggie either way?
The calorie risk in drinking a juice - there seems to be some common sense missing reading all of this information as a collective. Does juicing concentrate sugar calories from the food? Yes of course it does but it also provides you with concentrated nutrients. Unless you use the juiced fruit to make smoothies there is no processed sugar going in so the sugars you're getting are probably reasonably good for you in moderation and your body can process them. But if you drink a gallon of juice every day it's going to have an impact; I would figure this is common sense.
Finally many of these articles mention that juicing removes the fiber from the fruit and that you loose the benefits of this. I'm not sure who the target audiences are but this is pretty obvious! Some of them go on to mention that people don't get enough fibre in their diet. To this I have to say how? How can people not get enough fibre in their diet, the stuff is almost everywhere.
Weight Loss
When investigating juicing in more detail, there were mentions to a weight loss diet involving juice but I didn't investigate further because I'm sure it would have sent my blood boiling. Any diet in the extreme will be bad for you over time even if it comes with short term gains. Can you use juicing as part of helping lower your weight, of course you can but as I've mentioned before its only part of the solution. If you're a fat slug that does nothing and takes in 10,000 calories a day it doesn't matter if it comes from juice or McDonald's.
Clean-up and Prep
To be perfectly fair, I'll be lazy if I can be. Efficiency of motion is ideal so for me the biggest drawback to juicing is the clean-up. Juicers will vary and some will be easier to clean than others but at the end of the day I would say that this is the biggest pain in the ass for me. But the benefits outweigh my laziness (most of the time).
My Take - Juicing in the Norm
I like to think I look at most things from a place of moderation and normality so when I looked at juicing I applied those same principles. I juice a few times a week primarily to add the benefits of the nutrients of the produce to my diet.
I've mentioned I'm not a health nut but I also don't I eat badly. I noticed that I could probably get a few extra fruits and veggies into my diet and this seemed like a good and relatively easy way to do it. I'm not replacing anything in my diet I'm just adding juices a few times a week. Juicing is just a supplement to make sure I do get a few extra fruits and veggies in that I wouldn't have otherwise. Nothing more, nothing less. .
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