juice

[aseay]

i have started eating alot more veggies but do not like that many fruit-mostly apples and grapes. i like cantalope and pears, but its hard to eat it all without spoiling when you live by yourself. is juice made from concentrates and without sugar just as good as eating fresh fruit?

laura

 

[fit_fairy]

In general- no. If you drink the juice without eating the fruit you are missing out on the valuable fiber and some of the vits, mins and nutrients that goes along with it. That being said I don't necessarily think it's a bad thing to drink juice ( the right kind - no sugar added like you said). It depends on what your goals are. If you are really trying to lose weight I'd keep the juices to a minimum. Your body responds to juice much like sugar- because that's bascially what it is (it's just not processed or refined). So too much can stall your results. I'm sure that you can experiment and see what works for you. But if you drink a lot of juice and are not seeing the results you want, then taper off and see if that helps.

hth
Catherine

 

[kathryn]

What Catherine said! Plus: it's much easier to take in a lot of calories from juice than from whole fruits (mainly because of the fiber that is missing from the juices).

I usually only drink juice as part of a morning smoothie that has frozen fruit, protein/vitamin powder, and flax/glucosamine powder in it.

Apples and grapes are good fruits to eat. Try to get in some berries as well (blueberries, raspberries, stawberries. They're very tasty, and full of nutrients. Just try to add one new fruit a week and get used to the taste of it. (I can't imagine that you would like the taste of a juice and not like the fruit that it comes from. Is that what you're saying?)

As for juices, some are more nutritious than others. Apple juice is pretty low on the nutrition scale. Orange juice is better. (But, again, best is the whole fruit).

If you have something like a Vita-Mix blender, that can make juices out of the whole fruit, that would be much better than the juices than have fiber missiing.

 

[hippahips]

As a general rule, I don't drink juice. Too much sugar in those things. There's sodium, too, more in some brands than others. I'd rather eat fresh fruits. I'm the only one in a household of three who eats fruits. I try to get some into my son, and sometimes I succeed, but mostly, I'm the one who eats them around here, otherwise they spoil. I get enough fruit to last me a week, like 4-6 apples at a time AND a pound of grapes. The next week, I get different fruits, maybe a small cantaloupe and a small package of strawberries, for variety. This way, the spoilage is kept to a minimum. Also, apples last for a long time in the fridge. So you can stock up on those.

Pinky