What’s The Healthiest Way To Consume Your daily Juice?

We hear so much debate about juice in the media and whether or not we should avoid or consume it as part of a healthy diet, so in this week’s post, I hope to clear up the confusion surrounding juice once and for all.

Bottled Juice

In my view, commercially bottled juice is nothing more than sugary water and you really may as well pick up a confectionary bar or can of soft drink when it comes to the carbohydrate content of many brands, especially if it is made from fruit juice concentrate or contains added cane sugar.  Take for instance a 250ml bottle of fruit juice, the average serve contains between 26 – 34gm of carbohydrate, depending on the fruit flavour, a 250ml can of coke contains 26.5 gms of carbohydrate, so whilst processed juice may not contain the caffeine of coke and may have been rich in vitamins and minerals when the whole fresh fruit arrived to the juice factory, the processing method used to extract the juice and remove the fibre, involves heating or pasteurising, in order to kill bacteria and prevent the juice from going off, damaging many of the nutrients in the process.

Some commercial brands of juice require refrigeration at all times, however they are still exposed to a heating process, only for a shorter period of time, compared to brands you buy direct from the shelf.  So whilst these forms of bottled juice may be a preferable choice to say soft drink and bottled juice with added sugar or those that do not require refrigeration before opening, they cannot be seen as a healthy alternative for eating a whole piece of fresh fruit when it comes to nutritional value and impact on blood sugar levels.

The other issue surrounding bottled juice stems from the serving size.  Many brands of bottled juice are far too big,  thus delivering a mega dose of fructose – the naturally occurring sugar in fruit.  You have probably heard a lot in the media of late surrounding fructose being the most fattening form of sugar and how many processed foods are laden with fructose as a cheap sweetener.

Fresh Fruit Juice

One of the biggest misconceptions surrounding fresh fruit juice is that it is a health food!  Certain mega juice franchises are making a killing from promoting fresh juice this way, but the truth of the matter again, is that whilst the fruit may be juiced in front of you with no added sugar, concentrate or preservatives,  you usually end up consuming the juice of 5 – 6 pieces of fruit or more – up to 5 times more than the recommended 1 – 2 pieces of whole fruit per day.

To bring this into perspective a little more – your standard Mars Bar contains 38.4gms of carbohydrate per serve, around the same amount of carbohydrate as a 250ml serve of fresh pineapple juice.

So whilst fresh fruit juice may contain vitamins and minerals that confectionary or soft drink lacks and no added fat, the fibre in the fruit has been extracted in the juicing process, meaning the GI factor (insulin producing factor) is higher than if it were consumed whole.

Remembering that we really should be limiting our fresh fruit intake to two pieces  per day and preferably choose from the low to medium GI (glycaemic Index) sources.  These include :

Low GI Fruits

• Berries- blue berries, raspberries, black berries, mulberries
• Grapefruit, lemons
• Avocado – yes these are classified as a fruit
• Plums

Medium GI fruits -

• Apples
• Grapes
• Strawberries
• Papaya
• Kiwi
• Peaches
• Pears
• Plums
• Apricots
• Mandarins
• Oranges – although these are high in acid and should be eaten in moderation

High GI fruits –

• Banana
• Melons – watermelon, rockmelon, canteloupe or honey dew
• Dates
• Mango
• Pineapple
• Dried fruit

In all honesty the ONLY way to consume juice and not have it spike your insulin and glucose levels, is to juice fresh organic vegetables and add no more than one apple if you want to add a little sweetness to make it more palatable.   But as you ween yourself off a high sugar diet,  your pallet will change and you will no longer desire such sweet tasting food.

The best fruits and vegetables I recommend for juicing are:

Essentially any green vegetable that will give you a decent amount of juice. Vegetables are also HIGHLY alkalising and great to assist in detoxing and stimulating your bowel:

• Celery
• Cucumber
• Spinach or silver beet
• Lemons – these are LOW in fructose and add a lovely tang to your juice and are naturally alkalising to your system as well as great for stimulating liver detoxification and bile production for fat emulsification (digestion)
• Grapefruit
• Beetroot – remembering though these are higher in carbohydrate when juiced than greens, so limit your serve to a medium size beetroot max.
• Carrot – I tend to avoid juicing carrots because the GI factor increases dramatically compared to eating them whole, so although a rich source of beta carotene, eat them raw or blanched and eat with some protein to reduce the GI factor
• Aloe vera  – has a soothing, anti inflammatory effect on the lining of the intestine – great for those suffering IBS – irritable bowel syndrome – add a slurp of bottled aloe if you can’t source it fresh.
• Ginger – natural anti-flammatory properties and grounding to the nervous system
• Tumeric  - an even more powerful anti-flammatory agent, as well as a whole host of healing properties
• Parsley
• Lettuce

Of course you don’t have to include all these vegetables in your fresh juice but including at least 4 varieties is a good start.

My personal favourite combination:

• 1 medium sized beetroot
• 4 sticks of celery
• 1 cucumber
• 1 lemon
• 1 small to medium apple
• 1 – 2 spinach or silver beet leaves
• Small knob of ginger and or turmeric
• a slurp (20- 30ml) of aloe vera juice

Of course I only recommend juicing organic vegetables

You should avoid these juicing these vegetables regularly if you have or suspect you may suffer from an underactive thyroid as these are from the cruciferous family and can block the absorption of iodine from the thyroid – an essential mineral used to make  thyroid hormones.

• Kale
• Cabbage
• Broccoli
• Collards

Be sure to drink your freshly made juice immediately if you are using a traditional centrifugal juicer, as it will quickly oxidise from free radical damage, so avoid making it in bulk to store in the refrigerator for later consumption.

The best juicers are the twin gear juicers ( although these cost a lot more than a traditional juicer)as these preserve the nutrients more effectively and cause less oxidation, so the juice from these juicers can be stored in an airtight container and refrigerated for up to 78 hrs, whilst maintaining the bulk of their nutritional  potency .

I also recommend washing down your fresh vege juice with a  large glass of filtered water as vegetable juice combinations are quite rich and may irritate your bowel if you drink too much in one hit.

Coconut Water

I want to wrap up with a note on coconut water  - one because coconut is classified as a fruit and secondly because bottled coconut water is the latest craze to hit the market and has attracted a lot of hype as a slimming agent, especially with celebrities.

The coconut water usually featured in advertisements and snapped in the hands of celebrities by the paparazzi, is again processed in that it is heated before being placed in a can, bottle or tetra pack.  So whilst there may be nothing added and no concentrates or preservatives in some brands, just like bottled juice, bottled coconut water has undergone pasteurisation -  heating, to prevent it from going off.  The heating process reduces, if not destroys all of the naturally occurring nutrients .

Coconut water from young green coconuts is rich in minerals such as magnesium and  potassium.  In fact fresh coconut water contains up to 15 times more potassium than the average sports drink, hence why they have been labelled as natures electrolyte drink!  But these nutrients are only left intact when consumed from natures bottle – the coconut itself.  You can recognise the young coconuts by their  white husk with a pointy top, usually sold in the fresh fruit and vegetable section of super markets, although I have noticed some health food stores and even cafes selling them now as the craze takes off.  The only problem with this craze, after paying $1.50 – $2 a coconut I am noticing they have jumped to $4 each!!  Talk about the power of demand to hike up prices!

Personally I drink a fresh coconut water every day and then scoop out and eat the white flesh in side, as it is rich in good fat and a fantastic filling snack or a great way to nip a sugar craving in the bud!

The only down side with drinking fresh young coconut water – you will need the right type of knife to open it and a bit of elbow grease!  But after eating one a day for as long as I can recall now, I have it down to a fine art and can crack it open in the palm of my hand in 3 swift blows with the right knife – but I don’t advise you try this until you have been cracking them open on your kitchen table or bench for some time, as I wouldn’t want any or you to take a finger off in the process!  Just be sure to use a small meat cleaver instead of a pointy kitchen knife.  I bought mine from an Asian grocer for $16 as the Chinese use them to cut up duck.

But there really is nothing like cracking open a chilled, fresh coconut and sipping the sweet juice straight from natures bottle.  Remember you can also use the coconut water in smoothies instead of milk as well as adding natural sweetness without spiking your insulin levels and the best part – aside from the incredible taste and invigoration you will experience as you drink one – they only contain around 11- 12gms of carbohydrate per 250ml serve! That’s up to 25 gms less than a 250ml serve of fruit juice!

So just to recap – when it comes to juice – my top recommendation is fresh organic vegetable juice with no more than 1 apple or a fresh young coconut water.

Fresh fruit juice is fine as an occasional treat rather than a daily staple and try to limit it to a 200ml serve and choose low to medium GI fruits if possible.

To read more how to incorporate fresh green vege juices into a healthy and effective detox as well as healthy eating for life, check out my booklet Begin A Healthy Life In 28 Days

Til my next post , stay healthy and happy fresh vege juicing!

Sally x

© All Rights Reserved Sally Joseph 2011