About 6 months I watched a documentary on Netflix called Fat, Sick, and Nearly Dead. In it native Australian Joe Cross goes on a mission to improve his health by going on a juice fast for 60 days. He travels across America talking to people about juicing and inspiring many, myself included. It’s a good movie and a great story. His results are quite impressive and there are some very moving moments when he inspires and helps people who really need it. The movie does push an all plant-based diet more than my liking but overall I think everyone can agree that most of us don’t eat enough fruits and veggies. Which brings us to juicing which has become quite the fad especially juice fasting. Lets check it out.
The pros:
- eat more fruits and vegetables, ( obvious huh lol )
- Increase intake of nutrients
- eat/drink things you wouldn’t normally
- much easier to drink juice than eat a ton of veggies
- juice digests faster than whole veggies.
The cons:
- Cost of buying juicer
- takes time to cut up and prepare veggies
- Raw veggies like spinach have oxalic acid which can bind to minerals and interfere with absorption.
- buying lots of fruits and vegetables can be expensive.
For me the pros outweigh the cons. Especially since I know I wouldn’t be eating that many veggies if i had to cook them. Also hiding a few veggies in some fruit juice is the only way I can get DH to eat them 
I started juicing after i watched the movie but i had an unfortunate episode with juicing to many radishes and made some really gross juice. After that i couldn’t think about juice without tasting radishes. But it’s a new year and one of my goals is to eat more veggies ( hey juicing counts!) so i thought I’d try again.
I’ve been juicing for a few days now, not fasting just adding it into my day. I feel pretty good. Kinda tired but that is supposed to be one of the side effects of starting to juice because your body goes into detox mode. More about side effects here
I want to be clear that I’m not advocating juice fasting as a long term diet. That is not a well-balanced diet and is missing protein/fat that you also need to function properly. In the movie Joe was carefully monitored by doctors so make sure he was healthy. Juicing is a great way to jump start healthier eating or reboot as Joe calls it. Juicing is my way of getting some veggie nutrition that i wouldn’t be other wise. It’s still my goal to start eating/cooking more veggies especially with butter to help absorb all those nummy nutrients and minerals.
Equipment:
There are many expensive top of the line juicers out there. And They are probably great. I just bought a cheap 60 dollor one at target and it seems to be working fine. That’s really the only thing you need 
If your interested in juicing there are some great recipes and info at http://www.rebootwithjoe.com/
Just remember that they are advocating a plant-based diet, so take everything with a grain of salt and do your own research.
I’ll try to do another post about how the juicing is going/how I’m feeling in the future and well see how it works out.
What are your thoughts and experiences with juicing? Are you for it or against it?
This post was shared at: Thank Your Body Thursday and Tasty Traditions
This is the right blog for anybody who wishes to find out about this topic.
You know a whole lot its almost hard to argue
with you (not that I actually will need to…HaHa).
You certainly put a brand new spin on a subject that’s been discussed for decades. Excellent stuff, just wonderful!
Nice post on the benefits (and cons) of juicing. As someone with poorly functioning adrenals and Hashimoto’s thyroid disease I have a new-found concern with juicing: cruciferous vegetables. Apparently they are goitrogens, meaning they inhibit thyroid function, when eaten raw. Bummer to me because I loved kale, broccoli, cabbage, etc… in salads and such. I still eat them cooked, usually steamed, even though the recommendation is to cook them in boiling water and discard the water.
Hi beth, yes that is a very good point and one i didn’t mention. I try not to do too many of those types of vegetables but for me i ask myself would i eat this if i was cooking it? And a lot of the time the answer is no haha so i figure i’m better off juicing it. I do love kale chips tho
Loved the documentary! I decided after watching it to do my own juice fast, and I am currently on Day 29. It started off as a way to lose weight, and really became a journey to change my lifestyle and my health!
My boyfriend is doing one juice a day as well, supplementing his current diet and he’s had great results as well.
That’s great. I think it’s so much better to come at weight loss from a health prospective instead of in a negative hating yourself way. I feel pretty happy were i’m at ( around 185) since i’ve lost around 40 lbs in the last year and a half ( eating less processed foods and more nutrient dense stuff) But I’ve been at a stand still for the past few months and want to kick it up again. I’ve also started running so i’d like to keep going with that. I’m thinking juicing could really help fill in the gaps in my diet.
I agree with you that juicing is good as a way to add fruits and veg to your diet. I have a theory that it’s more important to ADD fruits and veggies to our diets than it is to take away this or that unhealthy food. We tend towards the latter and making more things taboo when we want to get healthy, rather than adding more of what we know is nourishing and healing. I kind of like the idea of blending the fruit and veg like the vitamix does so you get the fiber, but I don’t know how that really works in real life. For people who are picky about textures, that would be another pro to juicing. That movie was pretty impressive!
Kathryn, good point. I think we do tend to try to take stuff out and never eat it, instead of add things. And then you automatically want it because your not supposed to have it
I would LOVE to have a vita-mix haha. It does so many things! I”m not sure about the texture either hmm. Jeff can be pretty picky about that. But so far he will drink the juice i make for him which is great! 
Hi, I also watched the FS&ND doco and loved it, I think his doco well presented in a well balanced way that 1) is under medical supervision 2) doesn’t advocate doing a fast long term says it is a short term ‘reboot’ and 3) states it is not suitable for everyone and to like you said weigh it up for yourself and your medical needs.
I agree with you about it being not enough long term it’s missing proteins etc but as a short term reboot I think it’s great, for me just the fact I am retraining my tastebuds to want better foods is the biggest bonus and that I no longer crave or want (even if it is sitting on a plate infront of me) fatty foods. I have been juicing and eating, I juice 3 meals a day (1 fruit, 2 vege) and eat dinner with my family as normal but have my plate 3/4 veges with 1/4 meat or 1/4 meat 1/4 pasta and 1/2 veges so it is still a balanced meal. I have lost 5.5kgs (12-13 pound I think that converts too) and it is working for me, I asked my Doctor about it and he is happy as nothing else we have thought of was working given I have polycystic ovaries and it messes with my hormones and metabolism etc and I need 30kgs gone by mid year if my dream of another baby is to come true.
Hope you achieve your goals in adding juicing to your day be it weightloss or feeling better.
http://juicingourwaytohappiness.wordpress.com/ is my blog if you wish to read it.
Very good points Frogariffic. I’m sure it’s beneficial in the short term. That’s awesome that you’ve lost weight! That is one of my goals but i try to focus on health first not just weight
I agree health comes first for me too, I at 129.7kg at the start of my journey wasn’t an issue for me, I was shappy and completely happy with who I was (even my Dr told me that I am the healthiest fat chick he has met hahaha). I am wanting to lose this weight to have a baby and because common sense says losing some will be better for me not because I am incomplete as a bigger person.
Look forward to following your blog as it progresses.