Tag: jus

Why Juicing is Bad For You

Juicing here as in people doing the juice diet. I’m not talking about “juicing” as in using roids, HGH, insulin etc., although I don’t recommend most people doing it either. I’m talking about the practice of drinking the juice from every fruit and vegetable and just throwing away the most nutritious and healthy bit out of it. Based on IBIS world research, juice market globally has grown to 3 billion USD in 2019 and expected to grow further. In 2015 I went to a health fair and one of the juice cleanse peddler complemented my shape before remarking “you must have done regular cleanse yourself and can recommend us to your friends!” Eumh… how about no? And let me tell you all why its actually bad:

1. Its actually bad for you

A doctor friend would forbid me from drinking coke, but she herself likes to drink orange juice. Because orange juice and all these other juices are healthy right? Except that these juices are high in fructose. Your body doesn’t care if the fructose comes from corn syrup or from freshly squeezed organic orange. And fructose has been linked to obesity and metabolic syndrome. These juices is actually blocking your way towards your ideal body. People that eat lots of fruit and vegetables don’t get the same problem.  The fibers in the fruit and vegetables will help slows down the fructose absorption rate not experienced from simply drinking the juice.

2. Your body already has an amazing cleansing organ

Yes, you don’t need to do a yo-yo diet to clean your body. The body comes pre-equipped with its own cleansing organ called the liver. The liver is so powerful in fact that if only 25% of itself is left, it can still regenerate to its full size.

3. Juicing throws out all the good parts from the fruit and vegetable

the pulp you throw away when you juice contains all the healthy fiber, minerals and fat your body needs. And those fats are essential for certain type of vitamin absorption. i.e. Juicing might lead to nutrient deficiency even though you are drinking the vitamins in excess. Most of those minerals are also not located in the juice, they are in the pulp!

4. Cooking actually helps your body absorb more nutrients

Yes, in the advent of the Paleo movement, everything raw became trendy again. So why did all dominant civilizations across the globe somehow develop cooking indigenously? Because cooking helps your body absorb more nutrients. It even change the phytochemical compounds in the vegetables and term it into a more biologically ready form. Something you don’t get from chugging it raw.

5. It is also bad for the environment

Remember about those wasted pulp in point 3? Well, when you just throw them out and ended up in landfills, it will rot and release methane, 71 to 100 times worse than carbon dioxide in trapping heat in the atmosphere. More people juicing simply means more of the good stuff heading to the landfill. If you think going vegetarian will help the planet, well, juicing is like going the opposite direction, with a rocket.

So there you have it folks, next time, think before you buy that juice and you know, maybe you should just eat the fruits and vegetables instead, better for you and the planet.

Cheers!