Vegetable and fruit juices may sound healthy – they are excellent sources of vitamins and antioxidants, but we have been warned many times that it is possible to sip a lot of juice (and calories) while sitting down without knowing it still experiences many of the disadvantages.
What do experts say?
Experts recommend as many fruit juices as possible, but that doesn’t mean you should avoid fruit drinks altogether – juices can provide your diet with additional antioxidants, vitamins, and minerals hidden in the plants. Some juices lack the fiber found in whole fruit and vegetable juices because the process deprives fruits and vegetables of their fiber content, said Sarah Rueven, MS. RD. Founder of Rooted Wellness.
She recommends reaching for a piece of fruit and a glass of fruit juice. If you prefer to drink your products directly, consider mixing whole fruits or vegetables into a smoothie to retain the fiber lacking in the juicing process.
If you want to drink juice, it should be cold-pressed with fresh fruit and vegetables, says nutritionist Heather Hanks, who specializes in holistic nutrition at USA RX. Cold-pressed juices are produced using a hydraulic press that presses the juice from fruits and vegetables before undergoing a high-heat pasteurization process. Cold-pressed juices are not heated to high temperatures, which means that they contain most antioxidants and vitamins that are killed by pasteurization. With most juices, we often ask ourselves what the best liquid we can drink is.
The heat and oxygen used in pasteurization kill harmful bacteria in the liquid but also destroy many nutrients. The advantage of pasteurized juices is that they have a longer shelf life than cold-pressed juices, which must be consumed within one to two days. Hank says that if you’re making your own juice, make sure your juice doesn’t contain any added sugar, colors, or food dyes.
How to eat healthily and avoid the world’s 100 unhealthiest foods some fruits and vegetables provide a healthy juice and nutritional research points to this. Sour cherries contain anthocyanins, a red-violet plant pigment that has potent antioxidant activity and reduces inflammation. Fruits and vegetables do not contain fillers or preservatives.
In an animal study published in the Journal of Medicinal Foods, rats were fed a high-fat diet, frozen sour cherry powder, and a control diet with the same calories of tart cherries. Those fed frozen cherries powder experienced a 9% reduction in abdominal fat and other markers of metabolic disease.
Tart Cherry Juice
Tart cherry juice promotes sleep because anthocyanins and tryptophan, a compound in tart cherry juice, stimulate the production of the sleep-promoting hormone melatonin. The liquid is rich in anthocyanins, which is why it can be recognized by the red color of the cranberries.
Registered nutritionist Jay Cowin, director of the recipe at A systems, calls it one of the healthiest drinks you can drink. It has been infused with cell-protecting antioxidants, including vitamins C and E, to be an anti-inflammatory, relieves rheumatoid arthritis (RA) symptoms, and provide protection against heart disease, Cowin says.
Beetroot Juice
If you have high blood pressure, consult your doctor before drinking beetroot juice, which has been shown to contain nitrates that improve blood pressure and relax blood vessels. It has a low sugar content compared to other liquids and is a great vitamin B 6, calcium, and iron source, says Elliot Reimers, certified by the International Society of Sports Nutrition and the National Academy of Sports Medicine.
Celery Juice
Celery has strong antioxidant properties that remove free radicals, according to a study published in the evidence-based complementary and alternative medicine journal. Turning a few stalks of celery into fruit juice can also help with weight loss, as it has 30 calories per 16 ounces and provides 3 grams of fiber.
Watermelon Juice
Watermelon juice is popularized as a superb low-sugar drink for rehydrating athletes by physician Mark Hyman, M.D., New York Times best-selling author of Food for the Hell of Eating. Researchers from the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry found that athletes who drank watermelon juice as a workout drink reported less pain and a slower heart rate 24 hours after exercise. The amino acid L-citrulline in watermelon helps to transport lactic acid into the muscles, reducing pain or fatigue – another reason to drink watermelon after a hard workout.