Should you be Juicing Your Fruits and Veggies?
Juicing is making a big comeback, and it’s no wonder everyone wants to get their hands on these vibrant, colourful, and delicious drinks.
But the big question stands, is it better to juice your fruits and veggies, or is eating them whole the way to go?
Our Move With Us dietitians give the lowdown on the pros and cons of juicing, and share 3 of our favourite new juice recipes from the MWU App.
Health benefits of juicing
Anything that helps you consume more plants is something we're into.
Juicing is a delicious and nutritious way to increase the variety of fruits and vegetables you have in your diet, which has great impacts for your gut and overall health. Our new Beet It juice recipe for example, adds 5 plant varieties to your day before even making it to breakfast.
Juices also boost your vitamin and mineral intake, which is another big yes from us.
Hitting your daily micros is an all-round win, as this helps support each and every process in your body - from energy production and immune system functioning, to regulating fluid balance and facilitating recovery.
Juices also contribute to hitting your daily hydration target as they have a high water content, however you should still aim to get most of your intake with regular H20.
Other perks of juicing
Health benefits aside, juicing offers a number of additional practical perks such as:
- Using up any excess fresh produce you may have and reducing your food waste
- Providing a tasty way to try new fruits and veggies, especially if you're a picky eater but keen to explore new foods
- Adding a quick and convenient source of digestible energy to your day (depending on the ingredients used), which can be useful after a tough workout or to help meet elevated energy requirements.
The cons of juicing
There's always 2 sides to every story, so before you go swapping all your whole foods for juice, let’s get into some of the downsides.
The process of juicing, unlike blending into a smoothie, removes most of the fibre from the fruits and vegetables. Dietary fibre is super important for our digestive health and regular bowel movements, so hitting your fibre requirements is not something to be neglected.
Having a higher fibre intake also keeps us fuller for longer. A juice isn't likely to satisfy your hunger, so you might find yourself reaching out for some actual food in no time.
When you remove fibre from your fruits, this means you're getting a direct rush of natural sugars from the juice which might give you a momentary “sugar high”, but only to be followed by an energy slump.
If you're opting for a juice but still want to make sure you're getting your fibre in, we recommend adding some of the pulp back into your juice after making it.
If you're not a fan of a pulpy texture, turn your leftover pulp into some tasty Juice Pulp Muffins with our recipe below!
Juice Pulp Muffins
This recipe makes 1 large or 2 small muffins. Simply multiply the ingredients by the number of serves you'd like to make.
NUTRITION
Calories: 290
Protein: 5g
Fat: 11g
Carbs: 44g
Fibre: 1g
INGREDIENTS
-
35g Plain Flour
-
10g Vegetable Oil
-
15g Honey
-
15g Egg Whites
-
½ tsp Baking Powder
-
¼ tsp Vanilla Extract
-
¼ tsp Ground Cinnamon
-
40g Fruit & Vegetable Pulp
DIRECTIONS
- Preheat oven to 180°C and apply a light spray of oil to a muffin tin. Alternatively, line a muffin tin with a cupcake liner.
- In a bowl, mix together all ingredients with a pinch of salt until well combined. If mixture is too thick, add a dash of water until a cake batter is achieved. If mixture is too thin, add additional fruit and vegetable pulp to thicken.
- Pour batter into muffin tin and bake for 12-18 minutes, or until slightly brown on top and centre springs back to touch. Muffin will be quite dense.
- Muffin can be served with yoghurt or custard on the side, if desired.
*This dessert can be stored in an air-tight container and kept in the fridge for 2-3 days.
When juices are consumed excessively, the concentrated combination of acids and sugars in juice can have harmful effects on your teeth. Over time, it dissolves the hard protective layers of the enamel which increases your risk of dental decay and abnormal sensitivity.
Juices, especially those containing fruit, can also be quite high in calories. For example, 3 medium-sized oranges will barely make a cup of juice, so compared to eating an orange, your calories essentially triple.
If you don't consider juice towards your daily nutrition totals, the liquid calories can quickly add up and make it easy to go over your targets, especially if you're working towards reducing your body fat percentage.
A little tip for those in a calorie deficit - serve your juices on ice or dilute them with water to reduce your serving and mitigate the cons above, while still getting all the wonderful health benefits in.
Depending on the ingredients used, juicing can also get pretty expensive as it takes a fair bit of produce to make a serving. If you're on a budget, our suggestion is to buy seasonally. This might mean skipping the more exotic fruit and veggies, but you can still make delicious tasting juices from even the most basic and affordable ingredients like carrots, celery and apples.
The lowdown
Provided you are incorporating a wide variety of whole fruits and vegetables in your diet, juicing can be a great way to increase your plant intake and boost your micros!
However, juicing is not a direct substitute to eating your produce - instead, think of it as an addition to a balanced diet.
Enjoy your juices in moderation, and don’t be afraid to experiment with different flavour combos and additions to find your perfect match.
To get you started, we’ve added a few of our favourite juice combos from the MWU App below.
Beet It
NUTRITION
Calories: 272
Protein: 5g
Fat: 0g
Carbs: 63g
Fibre: 22g
Note: Fibre content is per whole ingredients. Juicing removes most of the fibre which remains in the pulp.
INGREDIENTS
- 200g Beetroot
- 300g Apple
- 120g Cucumber
- 100g Carrots
- Ginger, to taste
DIRECTIONS
- Process all ingredients using a juicer.
- Serve over ice and add water, if desired.
Aloe Glow
NUTRITION
Calories: 110
Protein: 4g
Fat: 1g
Carbs: 23g
Fibre: 7g
Note: Fibre content is per whole ingredients. Juicing removes most of the fibre which remains in the pulp.
INGREDIENTS
- 120g Cucumber
- 200g Honeydew Melon
- 250g Celery
- 80g Aloe Vera
TIP: use remaining aloe vera skin as a hydrating and cooling skin treatment.
DIRECTIONS
- Process ingredients using a juicer.
- Serve over ice and add water, if desired.
Revitalise
NUTRITION
Calories: 225
Protein: 7g
Fat: 0g
Carbs: 49g
Fibre: 14g
Note: Fibre content is per whole ingredients. Juicing removes most of the fibre which remains in the pulp.
INGREDIENTS
- 100g Kale
- 350g Apple
- ½ tsp Spirulina Powder
- 50g Lemon
DIRECTIONS
- Process ingredients using a juicer.
- Serve over ice and add water, if desired.
For more tasty juice creations, check out our brand new collection of juice recipes now available in the MWU App. Simply search for Juice in the Recipe Library to try them today.
