Fruit & Veggie Juice–Use with Care

Juicing fruits and vegetables extracts their water, sugar and nutrients. The result is an ambrosial nectar that, when fresh, sparkles with vitality.

This potent beverage is one to respect and use with care. The dregs include most of the food’s fiber and pulp and some nutrients and flavor, making juice a refined rather than a whole food. Consider, for example, carrot juice.

It takes three huge carrots to make one glass of juice. In a few gulps, the juice is gone. Imagine cramming three big carrots into your stomach in the same amount of time it takes to drink their juice.

Whole carrots do not cause a fast jump in blood sugar because their fiber slows digestion. However, carrot juice is a liquid form of simple sugars and so it raises blood sugar as quickly as does candy.

Try drinking carrot or fruit juice on an empty stomach and notice the rush of energy it gives. The downside of that buzz is an energy crash. Avoiding crashes is one way of taking good care of ourselves.

Where do juices fit into a wholesome diet? Enjoy juice for a special treat or use them medicinally as a specific healing tonic.

Current health recommendations to drink fresh juices daily lack historical precedence. Given today’s epidemic of obesity and blood sugar problems, this new experiment of guzzling juice daily is a dangerous one. Notice how toddlers and children who frequently drink juice or snack on sugary foods lack a good appetite at meal time and are often irritable or hyperactive.

But juice as a special treat or a kitchen remedy? Go for it. Pour the juice into a beautiful tumbler, and slowly savor the concentrated essence of carrots or apples. Juice is a treat.

The featured recipe, Better than Jell-O, is sweetened with fruit juice.

May you be well nourished,

Rebecca Wood