Juicing health benefits begin with the amount of fruits and vegetables you can consume in a glass of freshly juiced produce. While most people realize they require three to five 1/2-cup servings of vegetables each day and two to four servings of fruit, most people don't consume that much. That's just the minimal requirement to maintain health.
If you're like many people that start a health regimen, you've spent years abusing your body with improper diet and now need to consume even more health giving fruits and vegetables. One estimate is that people require a pound of raw vegetables per day for every 50 pounds of body weight. That's a lot.
Juicing Veggies and Fruits
Juicing the veggies and fruit can help you increase your consumption. If you juice four cups of raw carrots, you'll get about one glass of carrot juice. That means you can intake the nutrients of four times the amount of vegetables as you could if you ate them raw. While you don't get as much fiber, there will be enough to maintain a healthy body since some of the fiber is in the juice. You also have bits of skin, pits, and in the case of citrus fruit, the albedo or pith, which is the white layer directly beneath the orange peel. Most people avoid eating this part since it's slightly bitter but it mixes into the juice and you never realize it. The pith contains the most bioflavonoids, in addition to other health giving, cancer fighting phytonutrients.
Health Benefits of Juicing for the Digestive System
When you juice a fruit or vegetable, the juicing does some of the work of the digestive process, making it easier to absorb the nutrients in the juice. This helps the digestive system get back on track and can lower your colon cancer risk. You not only consume more fruits and vegetables, giving you more nutrients, you also make the nutrients more readily available to the body.
Specific Juicing Health Benefits
Juicing can reduce constipation. Constipation affects you more than just the discomfort you feel. Normal bathroom schedules are important as a method of eliminating toxins from the system. Allowing the toxins to build can cause them to reabsorb. When you add fiber to your diet, it adds bulk and can help you eliminate easier. However, you can also get the same effect with juicing.
People often use prune juice for constipation. The juice contains some of the fiber contained in the fruit but also has higher amounts of sorbitol, a sugar that increases the moisture in your stools making it easier to eliminate.
Weight Loss and Detox
Juicing is also good for detoxing and weight loss. It aids in elimination, makes the nutrients more readily available and is easy to digest, allowing the body to cleanse and shed a few pounds in the process. Adding cabbage in your juice drink can help liver function, which is the main player in detoxifying the body.
Prevents Diseases
Juicing can aid in cancer prevention by providing more phytonutrients, minerals and vitamins. Lower high blood pressure and normalize cholesterol, depending on the fruits and vegetables you select. You enhance any value you receive from those selections because you can consume more in the form of juice.
Some people find juice diets for specific ailments beneficial. If you have low potassium and/or magnesium levels, you can add fruits or vegetables high in those minerals, such as magnesium, to your daily juice. While you might substitute a glass of juice for every meal, you can substitute it for a snack or one meal a day to maximize the juicing health benefits.
