There is no denying the fact that juicing is one of the best ways to ensure that your body gets its daily dose of vitamins and minerals, antioxidants and enzymes. Juicing has proved to be very beneficial for bodybuilders and for those who wish to achieve optimal health. Juicing can also contribute to your weight loss efforts because it contains fewer calories.
It also boosts immunity and makes sure your body does not lack essential nutrients which can lead to nutritional deficiencies. Juicing basically allows you to enjoy a variety of fantastic nutrients which you would otherwise have to struggle to incorporate in your daily diet. But there are correct ways of juicing; else, you run the risk of not only wasting time and effort, but also sabotaging your fitness goals.
Common Juicing Blunders:
1. Excess Use of Fruits
Although juicing fresh fruits is highly recommended because they contain high amounts of antioxidants and vitamins, fresh fruits are also rich in sugar. Consuming whole fresh fruits is not harmful because the sugar in them gets absorbed slowly by the rich fibers contained in them. This can stop insulin levels from rising and causing abnormal blood glucose level fluctuations.
However, when you juice fresh fruits, you are actually removing much of the fiber in them. When you use a blender and consume part of the pulp, you still get some fiber. But a juicer will not offer you any fiber from the fruit.
However, when you juice fresh fruits, you are actually removing much of the fiber in them. When you use a blender and consume part of the pulp, you still get some fiber. But a juicer will not offer you any fiber from the fruit.
The idea behind juicing is to ensure that the qualities of the fruits reach your bloodstream directly. However, what really happens is that the sugar moves into the blood faster and causes a sudden increase in insulin levels. With increased insulin in the blood, the body is programmed to store fat. The best way to juice fruits is to use half of the fruits (having low glycemic index) such as apples and pears and blend them with bitter tasting vegetables to make them slightly more edible. The best choices for fruit juices would be berries like raspberries or strawberries because they have low GI and contain antioxidants.
It is a known fact that the human body needs a lot of fresh veggies every day to stay healthy; however, it is not possible to include a wide variety of vegetables in each meal, even if we are fond of eating them. Those who love the taste of vegetables also have their own preferences and stick to some favorites. These choices however will not offer you all the important nutrients; they will contain only a limited variety of these. For instance, the nourishment you get from dark red veggies and what you get from dark green leafy ones is not the same. The best way to include a wider variety of nutrients is to use new juice recipes with vegetables other than the regular ones.
Even well known weight loss programs recommend including a wide variety of vegetables in the daily diet, additional to the diet meals they deliver. For instance, Nutrisystem provides a grocery guide to all its dieters and insists buying the vegetables and fruits listed in the guide to complement the diet plan they choose. They recommend adding the non-starchy vegetables like broccoli, leafy greens spinach, asparagus, green beans, kale, carrots, bell peppers, Brussels sprouts, celery and tomatoes to the daily diet, which provide the essential nutrients that the body craves for. Some of these vegetables can also be juiced.
3. Inconsistency
Juicing needs to be done consistently in order to get benefits from it. Just like dieting for five days of the week and then binging on unhealthy junk foods during weekends can undermine your weight loss efforts, you are not likely to enjoy the advantages of juicing unless you drink juices regularly. Juices will offer some nutrients to your body on a daily basis but most of these nutrients are used up on that day itself; so juicing has to be carried out on a daily basis to ensure that your body is not deprived of these nutrients on the following day. Haphazard juicing will never help you lose weight and stay healthy.
4. Juice-only diet
The worst mistake you can make is to regard juicing as a diet solution. You need to understand that juicing alone cannot help you shed the extra pounds although it can accelerate weight loss. However, vegetables or fruit juices cannot and should not replace your regular meals. When you drink juices for a week, you can cleanse your digestive system effectively and lose weight in the process. It helps to increase your metabolism and stabilize your hormones. It boosts your health but this is a short term solution for weight loss.
To lose the body fat, you cannot rely exclusively on juicing. Incidentally, this can cause you to gain more weight in the process. This is because the body is deprived of foods and switches to a starvation mode; if this state continues for a few days, you automatically lose the will power to continue the juice diet. When you discontinue this diet, all the fat that you had lost earlier is bound to come back. Getting enough proteins through a juice-only diet is difficult and the body starts to use up the proteins in muscles. So, you are only likely to experience loss of muscle mass, fatigue and malnourishment in the process.
5. Final Words
If you can successfully avoid these mistakes while juicing, you can actually enjoy its benefits. Juicing works best when accompanied by a well-balanced diet. It will work wonders for your digestion, your immune system and hormone stabilization. There is no sense in opting for a juice diet; you need to use juicing as a supplement to an otherwise healthy diet.
Author Bio: Jessica Robert passionately blogs about weight loss ideas and diet tips. Her blog The Diet Circle displays helpful articles on easy dieting methods and weight loss ideas.
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