JUICING DIETS: WHY YOU SHOULD AVOID THEM
OVERVIEW
Juicing is looked at as this magical elixir that will fix one’s health woes and concerns with a foul swoop. Juicing is easy to make (at least with the JUV Press ;) and easy to consume – and it’s great for you. So, it’s a natural candidate as a go-to one stop solution for being healthy. And we often hear people saying they’ll go on a juicing diet because they need to get healthy.
But should juicing be the only tool in your arsenal to getting healthy? In this post, we're going to explain why a juicing diet likely is not the best course of action for you.
BENEFITS OF JUICING
Let’s take a step back. There's no doubt that juicing has its benefits. The nutrients, vitamins, minerals, enzymes, and everything in between. Everything you find in juice are things your body needs to function at its tip top shape. Ensuring that we get enough of them in our daily diet is important to our overall health. But…
JUICING AS A SUPPLEMENT VS. REPLACEMENT
Juicing as a replacement to holistic health (i.e. dieting) – rather than a supplement to holistic health– is a slightly flawed approach. Diet’s get the bad reputation of not working and simply being fads. We believe this to be true because they are not sustainable. Diets generally involve a severe shift in habits in the form of replacement. For example, replacing eating meals with significantly reducing calories. A dramatic shift like this is hard. It’s hard on your willpower and also on your body.
So when we think about juicing diets, no amount of juicing is going to fix bad eating habits (like eating burgers every day. Ultimately, we should be looking to find ways to eat more of the stuff that is good for us (veggies and fruits) and less of the stuff that is not (processed and high fat foods). And juicing can be used to supplement and support this healthy shift in mindset and approach.
THE ECOSYSTEM OF OUR BODY
We need to think about our bodies as an ecosystem. And much like all the ecosystems around us a drastic change to one part has an impact on the rest of the eco system. Extreme weather patterns exemplify this perfectly. Sun light is considered great for vegetation, but if you give too much sunlight you can hinder vegetation growth and create sub-optimal conditions.
Our bodies are no different. Consuming too much of anything – including a massive influx of juice through a juicing diet – will throw off the balance in your body. Yes, we do believe there are benefits you’ll still get from juicing diets, but our point is it is an extreme and shock to the internal ecosystem.
FINDING THAT BALANCE
We believe juicing should be sprinkled into our diets/bodies like watering plants – a little over a long period of time. Being healthy is a long-term game. A shotgun approach may give you the benefits of a juicing diet in the short run. But it fails to install the building blocks your body needs for long term health benefits. Think about this another way, why only focus on being healthy for a few days when we live on average about 25,562 days (assuming a 70-year life expectancy). Wouldn’t you be better off ensuring you have the bedrock needed to support a consistent healthy lifestyle over that long stretch of life? That comes with a holistic approach to juicing, not short term diets.
ROOT CAUSES VS SYMPTOMS
We also need to be mindful of root causes vs. symptoms. Addressing symptoms of a problem have short term benefit – relief is only provided in the short term. But, as long as the root cause exists, the symptom will only be temporarily subsided inevitably re-surfacing again. Juicing diets tend to focus on solving the symptoms (short term thinking) than they do on addressing root causes. Tapping into fixing root causes involves going layers and layers deeper than the symptom. And the best way to do that is develop a long-term plan. Continuously feed your body the goodness of juicing over a long period of time. Your body will take these benefits over time and build its fortress of defense and immunity (rather than trying to fight the immediate concern of the symptom).
FINAL THOUGHTS
We believe juicing is one part of a holistic healthy approach- not the be all end all to health. Short of a better analogy, we’re running a marathon not a sprint when it comes to juicing and being healthy. Weave juicing into your healthy lifestyle, not your healthy lifestyle around juicing. Get your JUV on and happy juicing!