In Defence of Juice Diets

it seems juice diets, or the lifestyle choice of swapping solid food for juice only for a day or two a week is really in the public eye and has its fair share of fans and detractors, this is of course only natural, but one thing I like about juicing is that for most people, most of the time, it simply works really rather well. As soon as people write books and package 'juicing' into a one day plan, three day, week, 7lbs in 7days plan or whatever, there tends to be a backlash motivated more by the feeling that someone is trying to sell you something, rather than from a logical unemotional viewpoint. Writing a book can just mean you have struck on something that you want to share and this is a good way to get the information out to people, it can also help people make a start on something positive. So let me address the main criticisms that I have come across: 1) There is no fibre in the juice: Oh yes there is, fibre can be soluble and insoluble, so the soluble fibre from you produce will be in the juice naturally, and so will a reduced level of insoluble fibre as all juicers have small holes in their cutting baskets or juicing screens, these inevitably let a level of insoluble fibre through into the juice. Some machines have a choice of coarse of fine screens so you can adjust fibre (or pulp) levels. OR if you really want more fibre, stir in some additional pulp. 2) The weight loss is all water/temporary/faecal matter: Not really, juices are high nutrition/low calorie food stuff. The aim of juicing is not to dehydrate, quite the opposite in fact, but to switch to a highly nutritious, low calorie diet, this will probably mean you'll burn more calories than you take in, potentially triggering your body to consume its own energy stores or body fat. Yes a break from solid food may lead to a good clear out of your system, although this element of weight loss may be temporary, do not get confused, this is still a good thing! 3) You'll 'mess up your system': I'm not quite sure what that means, nor do I think do the people offering this up, juicing is the refinement of fruits vegetables into a liquid format, it makes the goodness super available without much effort. To me it seems like a superb tool for general health and for coping with the strain of face paced living. By my understanding, fasting or juice fasting or juice feasting (juice fasting while enjoying unlimited juices) gives our systems a rest from the high energy consumption matter of digestion. Sure the longer you maintain the fast the more extreme it becomes. But typical one to three day fasts are fairly mild, or swapping one meal a day for juicing of smoothie making is highly unlikely to mess up anything. Apart from you needing some new clothes of course! 4) Juices are too high in sugar: This can be true, but this is why most plans are heavy on vegetable juices light on fruit juices. I certainly recommend this too as vegetables, particularly leafy green are the nutritional Holy Grail. Plus high water content fruits are easy to eat and digest, so the advantages of juicing them are less. I'll happily eat an apple, but prefer to juice 15 kale leaves, simply from a time perspective. 5) People are trying to 'sell you something' unless you are a green grocer, probably not, the main spend with juice diets is of course the produce, let's not be cynical about the sharing of information for the betterment of civilisation! One last point I have is about the word 'diet' I prefer a healthy lifestyle, building things in to my daily routine rather than blitzing things for a week or two as an emergency measure. Generally consistency is the key, a fast or health retreat is great to make a new start, but trying to incorporate healthy habits into life gives a better long term result.