Juicing up your health

By nelly Obadha

Juices can be used in weight loss or dieting programmes. Vegetable and fruit juices also help in detoxification.

Vegetable juices contain a slightly lesser percentage of sugar and fat, making them healthier. The advantage of juice over other foods is that the body does not have to work hard to break it down because the nutrients are easily absorbed into the body.

Vegetable juicing

Fresh vegetables have a large variety of nutrients and minerals useful to the body. Some of the readily available vegetables include carrots, cucumber, beetroot, spinach and tomatoes.

Although many people do not like the taste of vegetable juice, it can be improved by adding apple juice, tomato or grape juice.

Fruits

Fruits are widely known for their nutritional benefits. They can either be taken directly or blended to make juice. Fruits such as oranges are popular because they are rich in vitamin C.

A juice diet should only last a few days though in some cases the nutritionist may advice you to take it for a longer period.

Health benefits

Juicing is beneficial because it restricts consumption of solid foods for a period of time, which helps the body to detoxify and get rid of the extra weight. Juices also provide nutrients necessary for the body’s proper functioning.

It is important to take the juice immediately after making it to ensure you get all the nutrients before they depreciate.

The juice should be taken three to four times a day or whenever you feel hungry. And since its main purpose is to cleanse the body, juice fasts or diets should be temporary — taken for a specified period of time — because the body also needs the other nutrients such as proteins, fats, fibres and carbohydrates.

Before embarking on this form of diet, consult your doctor or a nutritionist, as there may be circumstances that may prevent you from indulging into it.

The terminally ill, diabetics or pregnant women may not be advised to engage in juice diets.

How to return to normal eating

After a good and healthy juice diet, one has to revert to eating normally. A lot of caution is required to ensure you take a healthy and balanced diet and not go back to your unhealthy eating habits.

Start with solid fruits and vegetables to enable your stomach to adjust to digesting solids then slowly go back to your healthy solid foods.