Thursday, July 12, 2012

Juicing For Health - With Less Sugar

I remember reading years and years ago that juicing can help you absorb all the nutrients from the vegetables and fruit more efficiently since your body doesn't have to digest the fibre in them first. I wanted to try it out too but didn't want to stop eating vegetables or fruit since I know I still need the fiber. I just wanted to add the juices to my overall diet. So none of that celebrity crash dieting stuff for me, thanks.

I had been eyeing different juicers for a while when I saw a small article on one of the magazines I had bought, introducing a JuicePresso slow juicer. According to the article a slow juicer is superior to the traditional juicers especially in preserving the enzymes, minerals and vitamins. I found only one reseller in Finland, so I ordered mine from Hobby Hall and started juicing. I had previously bought a "Super Drinks" (Superjuomat, 2003) recipe book for juices and smoothies so it was fairly easy to start. In addition I searched for some recipes online. Making fresh for example orange-watermelon or grape-apple-carrot juice with breakfast or a pineapple-apple-kale-broccoli-alfalfa sprout-wheatcrass-watercress-parsley juice (yes, you read correctly, all that in the same lovely green juice) after work felt so great and refreshing.



BUT: I had a chat with the Personal Trainer to have a look at my eating habits based on the food diary I had kept last week and what should be done to it to help my project. I was happy to hear that overall I had a pretty healthy and balanced diet, but I had a feeling she might say something about the juices (after all, some days I could drink up to three different juices) and especially the more fruity ones. And I was right. I completely understand that the juices with grapes, pineapple, oranges, apples etc. have a lot of sugar and carbs, so I should a) limit my consumption of the juices and b) use vegetables and berries instead of sugary fruits. Fair enough. Time to remove the fruits from my recipes.

Funnily enough, I noticed a couple of weeks after getting my JuicePresso a very familiar looking package carried by actress Jennifer Lawrence, somewhere in Hollywood. The brand seems to be different, though according to some websites Hurom Slow Juicer is basically the same product as my Coway JuicePresso. I'm all confused with these different brand names. Juicing seems to be quite popular at the moment, even among celebrities but I guess quite a few are using them for detoxing or crash-dieting.


OK, back to finding recipes with less fruit and more vegetables and berries... If you have any favourites please do let me know!

1 comment:

  1. Tuo muuten tuntuu olevan aika yleistä Yhdysvalloissa! En ole koskaan kokeillut. Mä innostuin uudestaan smoothie/fruitie -juomista ystävän innostamana. Hän tosin syö paljon terveellisemmin kuin minä ja kokeilee välillä uusia juttuja, mm. kale-sipsejä naposteluun. Toistaiseksi oon tehnyt ilman maitoa/jogurttia käyttäen kotoa löytyviä marjoja ja hedelmiä (yhdistelmä vaihtelee) ja jotain mehua. Sauvasekottimella vaan sileäksi. :)

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