Dr. Matthew L. Neddermeyer Let’s be honest: The biggest benefit of vegetable juicing is having the ability to easily consume entire vegetables while you are on the go. Slurping them up through a straw is way easier than trying to just…eat them. Chewing is hard work – especially in the mornings when the idea of eating something feels like a chore. It’s okay to admit it. We’ve all been there.
Yum!
So that’s the first benefit. What are the other five?
Sneaking Veggies Into Your Diet
For a lot of us, vegetables in their solid form have strong tastes that – if we’re being honest – we probably wouldn’t choose to experience if we didn’t need certain nutrients to survive. Juicing gives you the chance to doctor their taste a little bit so it’s more palatable. You get the health benefits you need and the taste you want. Basically, you’re your mom and sneaking vegetables into your food so you don’t get scurvy.
Just be careful that the doctoring you do for taste purposes doesn’t accidentally add a bunch of empty calories to your diet (a.k.a., don’t just dump a bunch of sugar in there).
Less Fiber
Yes, you need fiber in your diet, but a lot of fruit and vegetable fiber can be hard for the body to process. Juicers (the good ones) separate the juice from the fibery pulp of the food. This way you get the nutrients you need without forcing your body to have to break down the solids and fiber, which means that the nutrients get absorbed and “put to work” faster.
NOTE: Don’t just toss out that pulp! You can bake it into muffins and give yourself a healthy snack for later. You can also add it to sauces or use it to make a veggie broth that you can use for soups, stews, pastas, etc.
No Leftovers to Deal With
Experts agree that if you’re going to be juicing, you should only make as much juice as you can drink at any given time. Fresh juice doesn’t keep very well. It takes very little time for bacteria to set up shop and turn your food into a colony of yuck. This means you don’t have to worry about finding some place to store all of the extra juice you’ve made. It’s like having a Keurig…but for fruits and vegetables.
Helps With Weight Loss
Getting the nutrients you need when you’re dieting can be a huge challenge. Juicing is a good way to ensure that you’re getting the vitamins, minerals, and nutrients you need from natural sources without adding a bunch of extra calories to your diet. Sure, you could just use supplements, but…
Money Savings
Juicing is cheaper than buying supplements, especially when you consider that your body will actually use all of the juice you consume. Supplements, on the other hand, are mostly…eliminated.