Eating more fruits and vegetables is the foundation stone of any healthy diet, with the national dietary guidelines recommending adults eat two pieces of fruit and five to six serves of veggies and legumes a day.
How do juices compare in terms of nutrition?
Skin and pulp are rich in fibre and other nutrients. Juicing is a great alternative to eating them. Juicing fruits and vegetables is better than avoiding them altogether.
The amount of fibre is very small in a glass juice unless you are eating the pulp left over from the juicing machines. It’s less than half a gram. Compare this to the two to three grams fibre that is in each serving of fruit or vegetables that were used to make the juice.
Because there is usually some liquid with the pulp, around 10% of vitamins and minerals are lost.
It is better to juice vegetables than not eat them at all. Will Power Studios
Flavonoids are natural pigments found in fruits and vegetables. They have been linked with many health benefits, including cancer prevention and heart disease reduction. The skin and pulp are rich in flavonoids, which can help prevent cancer and reduce the risk of heart disease.
Citrus fruits can contain up to five times the amount of flavonoids in comparison with an equivalent glass of orange juice.
Another potential downside of juice is that it is less filling than solid food. It’s also easier to drink many pieces of fruit within a few seconds than it is to eat the same amount. This means that there is a greater chance of consuming too many calories.
In a 21-week study, 34 lean and obese people were tested to see if juicing can cause differences in appetite or later food consumption. Each person consumed the same amount of fruits, vegetables, and juices (1680 kJ) in both solid form (raw) or liquid state at different stages in the study. The participants’ diets did not change.
In a food lab, overweight people reported feeling significantly more hungry after a meal when they consumed the juice before the meal, as opposed to when they finished the whole fruit. People with a healthy weight did not feel any difference in their post-meal appetite based on the type of fruit they ate.
Fruit in solid or liquid form was consumed less at the next meal, as expected.
What is interesting is that those who consumed juice before the meal ate less than those who drank solid fruit. When comparing the total amount of food consumed over a day, obese people ate more when drinking juice than they did when eating solid fruit.
A glass of juice only contains half a gram of fibre per glass. Will Merydith
While the effects of juice on hunger and feeling full were not as large overall, they were magnified by people who are overweight.
Eating fruits and vegetables in their whole form can help control your appetite by making you feel satisfied. The same foods, which are nutrient-rich, also have a lower calorie per gram when compared to other commonly consumed foods.
It is no surprise that those who consume a lot of fruits and vegetables have a healthier body weight.
If you are trying to lose weight, two easy changes that can be made include eating more fruits and vegetables and eating them on a plate instead of a glass.
