Can Juicing Help You Lose Weight?

-
Your mother always told you to eat your vegetables, but now everyone seems to be drinking them. Should you make like Gwyneth Paltrow, Jessica Alba, and Salma Hayek and start juicing? We test-drove the trend (learn from us and go easy on the leafy greens!), then asked experts how it can help you achieve your health goals. We have a feeling Mom would approve of their advice.

Posted originally By Jessica Girdwain

Drink to Your Health
A month ago I decided to start juicing. Call me lame, but those celebs with totally covetable bikini bodies are always toting around algae-colored concoctions. I figured that juicing, aside from breathing, is about the only thing we could have in common.
So I bought a juicer and an entire basket of produce and went to town. My first batch was gnarly (I don't love kale that much), but eventually I got the hang of it. Now I feel like one of those women who does yoga at 6 a.m., whips up her own face scrub and meditates -- without actually doing any of those things.

While I could just buy juice at the store, a lot of bottled varieties contain added sugar. Also, they're pasteurized (heated to kill off bacteria and extend their shelf life), which fresh-juice fans say degrades nutrients, though there isn't much research to back up their claim. Bottled juice may contain a bit less vitamin C (thenutrient breaks down the longer it sits on a shelf), but "the difference probably isn't large enough to have a significant impact on your health," says Luke Howard, PhD, a food scientist at the University of Arkansas in Fayetteville.

One thing everyone can agree on is that juice made minutes before you drink it tastes way fresher, and that's a big reason so many people are converts. Plus, juicing helps you sneak in a bunch of produce. Because about 70 percent of women struggle to meet the USDA's quota of four to four and a half cups a day -- including me, and I've never met a fruit or vegetable I didn't like -- that's key. "You'd be hard pressed to eat three carrots and half a bag of spinach in one sitting, but you can easily squeeze that much into a juicer," says Dawn Jackson Blatner, RD, a FITNESS advisory board member and the author of The FlexitarianDiet.

Juice isn't a replacement for whole fruits and veggies, of course, but it does let you fit in ones that you might not eat otherwise, like beets or carrots, especially at breakfast, which is usually a no-vegetable zone. And the more produce you consume, the better. People who got just three servings of vegetables a day lived nearly three years longer than people who avoided veggies, according to a study in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition. Upping your intake can protect against cancer and help you drop pounds too (produce is low-cal and full of water, which fills you up). Plus, because the cells in fruits and veggies are broken down by juicing, their nutrients are easier for your body to absorb, says Nicole Cormier, RD, a coauthor of The Everything Juicing Book.

Making your own juice can also serve as a reset button, say Zoe Sakoutis and Erica Huss, the founders of the juice company BluePrint. For instance, I've stopped snacking on Sour Patch Kids, which is probably because juicing is putting me in a healthier mind-set.

Want more info? Read my other blog: blogonlosingweight.com


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

What's the Mediterranean Diet?

-
Image
The Mediterranean diet is based on the traditional foods eaten by people living in the Mediterranean region, especially Greece. It's loaded with healthy foods and research findings suggest following this diet may help reduce some of the risk factors for heart disease.  According to the Oldways Preservation & Exchange Trust, the Mediterranean diet was introduced in 1993 by Oldways, Harvard School of Public Health and the World Health Organization.  The diet includes: Olives and olive oil Whole grains, mostly in bread and cereal rather than pasta Very little red meat Fish and seafood Some cheese, but less milk Lots of vegetables and fruit Plenty of legumes and nuts A little red wine The Mediterranean diet is high in fiber and antioxidants from vegetables, legumes and nuts, far greater than the typical Western diet, and low in saturated fat. Very little red meat is eaten in this region, and milk consumption is limited as well, exc...
Read more

Changing Your Life To Lose Weight

-
Image
I can let you in on the ultimate secret for successfully making a change in your life. A century’s worth of psychological research reveals an interesting paradox in who we are. On the one hand, once we reach adulthood our basic personalities remain unchanged for the rest of our lives. We keep doing the same things—and feeling the same ways—over and over. But, on the other hand, every day we change our behavior drastically in response to different environments. Most of us are one person at work, for example, and another person at home. It is easier to change our environment than to change ourselves. So, if you want to change yourself, change your environment. Said differently: Whenever possible, don’t try to fight temptations – avoid them! The easiest way to make a change in your life is to modify the world around you in ways that will naturally drive you toward making, and maintaining, the change you want. There are many ways to change your environment, but let’s focus...
Read more

Cancer and High Protein Diets

-
On the Fox TV Network the other night, one of the big stories was about high protein diets. A new study has shown a link between the over consumption of animal protein and how it can stimulate the growth of cancer cells. It seems we all have cancer cells but they don’t normally grow, unless we consume too much animal fat, dairy or fats from processed foods. Before I continue I want to explain about the link to cancer. After all, Man has been eating red meat for millions of years, right. That's true but todays red meat is not the same. Most red meat that we buy in the supermarket comes from Steers that have been raised in feed lots on a grain diet that is full of hormones and other chemicals that shorten the growing time and put more fat on the animal. These hormones and other chemicals stay in the meat and what you're buying will contain the chemicals that the animal ate. Normally a grass feed Steer that lives on the range in big herds will take 18 to 20 months to grow to ...
Read more