33 Juicing Recipes for Weight Loss - Part V - Juice Fasting and Diet Replacements

While food hygiene and cleanliness is very important, it’s just one of the considerations that you need to learn when starting out with juicing. When we talk about juicing in this book, we’re talking about a long term health choice and lifestyle change. For many people, juicing easily becomes a constant in their daily lives and it’s a delicious break from the overly rich and often unhealthy food that they end up having when they’re not at home. For others, it’s a total food replacement and a quick way of detoxifying their digestive system while still getting the nutrients and energy that they need. I would recommend a combination of both.

While I am an avid juicer, I would strongly advocate against completely replacing food with just juice without consulting a physician first, a process that other juicers call juice fasting. At most, a juice fast and detox can last for a maximum of two days. During this time, it is important for you to pay close attention to the kinds of ingredients you will be using so that they can adequately replace your body’s daily nutritional needs that you would usually get from solid food.

Juice fasting can be healthy if done once a month with the right set of ingredients. If you’re seeing a physician or a nutritionist, I would strongly suggest that you consult with them first so that you can discuss your personal health needs. There are cases where a longer and more continued detox process and juice fasting may be called for but that’s not something that you should try without getting an expert’s opinion. Keep in mind that those cases have special circumstances that may not apply and may not be necessary for all juicers.

Most case studies on juicing show that using juicing to supplement your regular diet is a much better approach. For example, drinking juice before breakfast and in between meals is a good way to give the body the nutrients that it needs so that you won’t feel as hungry. The best time to drink pre-meal juices is an hour before the meal to give your body time to efficiently absorb the vitamins and minerals in the juice and to reduce your hunger pangs. If you plan on totally replacing any of your meals with juice, it’s best to replace dinner. That’s when your body needs the least amount of energy and would actually benefit from eating less. Don’t replace your breakfast with just juice – eating a healthy breakfast is a must for any health program.

As a general rule, fruit-based juices are best for the earlier half of the day when the complex carbohydrates will do you the most good as an energy source. Later during the day, you will do better to drink juices that are less sweet and have more vegetables, like partial- or full-green juices. Fresh juices also don’t last as long as treated juices from a box or can. After juicing fruits and vegetables, drink them right away or at least within the day (but make sure you keep them chilled and in proper containers).  

This is a sample from the book 33 Juicing Recipes for Weight Loss--to get the complete recipes you can get the book here: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00NB0RD8I