Juicing helps you absorb all the nutrients from the fruits and vegetables you should be eating, but may not be. This is important, because most of us have impaired digestion due to making less-than-optimal food choices over many years. This limits your body’s ability to absorb all the nutrients from healthy fruits and vegetables.
There are many health benefits of drinking freshly juiced fruits and vegetables, and it’s a great way to add nutrients from the fruits or vegetables that you normally wouldn’t eat. Fruit and vegetable juices retain most of the vitamins, minerals, and plant chemicals (phytonutrients) that would be found in the whole versions of those foods. These nutrients can help protect against cardiovascular disease, cancer, and various inflammatory diseases, like rheumatoid arthritis. Valuable compounds called flavonoids and anthocyanins are abundant in a variety of fruits and vegetables; helping to guard against oxidative cellular damage, which comes from everyday cellular maintenance and is exacerbated by exposure to chemicals and pollution.
7 Health Benefits of Juicing
My favorite expert on juicing for health and detoxification is Cherie Calbom. Known as “The Juice Lady,” TV chef, and celebrity nutritionist, as well as the author of 32 books on the health benefits of juicing, Cherie has been a pioneer for the fresh juice movement around the world.
While we all know that eating fruits and vegetables is good for us, many of us simply do not enjoy them. For those of you who feel this way, juicing may be a fun way to add them to your diet or to try fruits and vegetables you normally wouldn’t eat. You can find many juicing recipes online or mix up your own combinations of fruits and vegetables to suit your taste.
If you need more convincing, here are just 7 health benefits of juicing:
- General Body Detoxification
- Targeted Sugar Detox
- Weight Loss
- Sleep Better
- Reduce Chronic Fatigue
- Reduce Chronic Illness
- Reduce Chronic Inflammation
With all of that said, you should beware claims that juicing is the only way to stay healthy, that you should avoid solid foods, or that juicing is a substitution for a medical diagnosis or treatment. There’s not much research out there that proves that juicing is healthier than eating the whole fruits and vegetables; however, juicing is a quick and easy way to ingest these healthy foods, making them easier to consume on a regular basis.
A Cautionary Note
Some advocates for juicing may claim that your body absorbs more nutrients from juices than the whole fruit because the fruit’s fiber gets in the way. Again, there isn’t much research out there to support such a claim. Your digestive system is designed to handle fiber and extract nutrients from a variety of foods. Plus, fiber is important for digestive function and has a multitude of health benefits.
As with so many things, juicing for improved health and wellness is one of many steps you can take to feel better every day.
