Juicing is all the rage these days, and for good reason.  It is a great way for your body to quickly and easily get a massive dose of nutrients.  I personally got a juicer two years ago and really love having it.  For me, it never replaces a meal, but instead is a great start to the morning, pre smoothie/eggs, or a great pick-me-up with my afternoon snack.  Also, when you’re having juices regularly, your skin gets an awesome glow!! All that being said, there are a few things you should know in order to get the benefits of juicing.

The 80/20 Juicing Rule:

When you juice a fruit or vegetable, you are removing all the fibre, which for fruit in particular, is what helps balance out your blood sugar when you eat the sugar.  So, it’s very easy to quickly make a juice that has almost as much sugar as your local grocery store’s Tropicana.  Also, some vegetables actually have quite high sugar content when juiced, like beets and carrots.  So my advice is to juice 80% veggies, and 20% fruit.  For me, the 20% is actually a lemon, but you may need to work up to that.  Your 20% could be 1/2 a pear or 1/2 an apple.

Juice Cleanses:

Juice cleanses are also ALL the rage.  I personally have mixed feelings about them.  There are numerous people who have incredible success stories through juicing, including truly ridding their bodies of diseases; however, there are also people who do them and cave on Day 2 with potato chips…so are no further ahead.  What I found with my three day juice cleanse was that the lack of fibre seriously messed up my pooping schedule (sorry, TMI?), and that I lost a lot of muscle.  You also have to be very careful with preset  juice cleanses because many are not following the 80/20 rule, and can end up being SUPER high in sugar, which just wreaks havoc on your blood sugar.

Stay tuned for my next post on what type of juicer I use, and my favourite beginner’s juice recipe!