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 servings of veggies and legumes a day.
How do juices compare in terms of nutrition?
Skin and pulp are rich in fiber and other nutrients. Juicing is a great alternative to eating them. Juicing fruits and vegetables is better than not eating any at all.
The amount of fiber is very small in a glass of juice unless you eat the pulp left over from the juicing machines. It’s less than half a gram. Compare this to the two to three grams of fiber 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 to 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 juices 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 ate 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 consumed.
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 consumed solid fruit. When comparing the total amount of food consumed over a day, obese people ate more when drinking juice than eating solid fruit.
