The idea of living a healthy lifestyle is fantastic. But who has the time?!
Enter juicing!
The benefits of juicing once a day are numerous, including helping with healthy weight loss, curbing sugar cravings, helping your liver detoxify your body, and energizing your workouts without weighing you down.
It’s also an incredibly easy way to hit your fruit and veggie recommendations.
In this blog post I’ll cover these benefits in detail, as well as give you some helpful tips for juicing. I’ll fill you in on my favorite juicer, which I use every, single, day, and I’ll share some delicious recipes that are perfect for breakfast or lunch!
What Exactly is Juicing
Juicing is simply a way of removing the liquid from fruits and vegetables. Usually, the pulp, seeds, and skin are thrown away at the end of the process.
Juicing is usually done using a machine, like a juicer, but some people like to do it by hand as well.
The most common juicing methods include:
Pressed Juice
These are what most people think of when they consider making juice at home. Your typical juicer uses a centrifugal juice extractor with a fast-spinning blade and a mesh filter to remove pulp.
This is what I use every day.
You will notice that the speed of the blade creates quite a bit of heat. I either set my juice in the fridge to cool back down and drink later, or pour over ice if I’m drinking it right away.
There’s just something about the taste of warm juice that I don’t like.
Cold Pressed Juice
These are made with a masticating juicer. Because the juice is created without a spinning blade there is very little buildup of heat.
Masticating juicers can yield more juice than centrifugal juicers, and the juice comes out cooler.
Some centrifugal juicers claim that they produce cold-pressed juices. Breville has one. I have never used one with that claim, so I can’t speak on it for sure, but I’m skeptical.
Hand Squeezed Juice
This is exactly what it sounds like; juice squeezed by hand. I’ll juice lemon over the top of a salad or lime onto a black bean dish. And the thought of fresh, hand-squeezed orange juice is a wonderful idea.
But I’ve never hand-squeezed an entire glass of juice.
Raw Juice
This is what you’ll make at home. This juice has not been pasteurized, meaning bacteria can still be present and your juice has a shorter shelf life. This isn’t something to worry about if you’re going to drink your juice within a day or two.
Just like you wouldn’t worry about eating the ingredients you use to make your juice.
If you’re going to store your juice for later, store it in the fridge.
Pasteurized Juice
These are what you’ll find in the store. The juice has been heated to kill any harmful bacteria, and then sealed. This creates long shelf lives, as well as an additional layer of safety.
There are those that will tell you that heat or pasteurization destroys some of the nutrients in the juice.
Especially within the vegan community. You likely follow a raw vegan or two on TikTok or Instagram.
And I’m all for that if that’s how you want to be. Raw fruits and vegetables are amazing!
But research just doesn’t support all of their claims. Yes, there are some nutrients that can be degraded through heating, like vitamin C. But there are also some nutrients, like lycopene in tomatoes, that are actually enhanced by heating! (1)
Juicing is simply a delicious and convenient way of getting in a lot of vitamins and minerals from whole food sources.
Which is why I drink one daily.
What Are the Benefits of Juicing Once a Day?
Do you want instant energy without coffee? Want to improve your immune system? How about losing weight in a healthy way without starving yourself or giving up all of the foods you love?
Juicing can help with all of those! And then some.
Some of the health benefits of juicing once a day include:
- assisting with healthy weight loss
- easily eating more fruits and veggies
- reducing your cravings for sugary sweets
- increasing your energy levels
- boosting your immune system
- delaying aging
- assisting your liver in its natural detoxification process
Juicing Each Day Assists Healthy Weight Loss
I’m not talking about a juice fast here. Please don’t do that! Juice fasting is just a fancy way of starving yourself.
I’m talking about adding a healthy, homemade fruit or vegetable juice to your other daily meals as a way of getting in more vitamins and minerals each day.
The juice itself won’t promote weight loss, but calorie control will.
Replacing a morning meal or afternoon snack with homemade juice will likely result in a lower calorie meal than you’re used to. This can help put you in a calorie deficit and jumpstart your weight loss journey.
There are huge proponents of juice fasts for weight loss. I’m not one of them!
You’ll hear about weight loss benefits from companies trying to sell you a product, service, or gimmick. Doubtful you’ve heard from many friends about how much they loved starving themselves on their juice fast.
Yes, you’ll probably lose some weight during a juice fast. But, like any other crash diet, you’ll likely put it all back on after you go back to normal eating.
In order to lose weight in a healthy way, that is sustainable, you need to eat health-promoting foods and eat in a calorie deficit.
This is where juicing steps in. By substituting one of your daily meals with a healthy, homemade juice, you can cut down slightly on the calories of that meal but still get in much-needed vitamins and minerals.
But do you want to know where most people get the most benefit, including weight loss benefits, from juicing once a day?
Juicing is health-promoting!
Regardless of calories, juices are healthy. A good juice, like the ones I’ll show you in a bit, has a range of healthy fruits and veggies, which give you a bunch of water-soluble vitamins and minerals.
But more than that, juicing can jumpstart other healthy practices.
You’ll start having more fruits and vegetables in your house to make with, those foods will start to taste better, and you’ll start to opt for healthier choices throughout the rest of your day as well.
Wondering how many calories you should be eating each day?
This article will teach you how to actually build your metabolism up so that you can eat more calories and still lose weight.
Or hit me up. I’ll teach you how to monitor your own progress and how to reach your goals without starving yourself.
Juicing Is an Easy Way to Eat Your Daily Fruits and Veggies
You know you need to eat more fruits and veggies. Shoot, even as a vegan it can be hard to get in the daily recommendation for fruits and veggies!
Fruits and vegetables are incredibly nutrient-dense, most are low in calories, and they have been linked to numerous health benefits, including heart health and protection from specific cancers. (2,3).
The current recommendation is four servings of fruit and five servings of vegetables each day!
That’s completely doable, but you’re going to need to eat fruits and veggies at most of your meals.
This is where juicing can really help.
I’m not recommending that your daily juice is the only time you get in any fruits or veggies.
Remember that when you juice you remove the fiber, especially the insoluble fiber, from the food. And you need fiber!
Most Americans don’t come even close to eating the daily recommendation. In fact, according to the CDC, only 1 in 10 Americans eat enough of these important groups! (4)
Juicing can be an easy way to start eating more fruits and veggies.
And you might want to make enough for your whole family. If not, they’ll probably drink all of yours.
Juicing Every Day Helps Reduce Your Cravings for Sweets
And, this is a good thing!
Studies have shown that by reducing your sugar cravings you’ll eat less overall.
The natural sugar found in fruits can satisfy your sweet tooth, and keep the cravings at bay. Instead of reaching for candy, make up a quick juice instead.
Juicing Can Increase Your Energy Levels
The easily digested foods, vitamins, and minerals you get from a daily juice will shoot your energy levels through the roof. This is why a lot of people, myself included, like juice as a pre-workout drink.
Juicing Can Boost Your Immune System
Fruits and vegetables are loaded with vitamins and minerals, especially vitamin C.
Vitamin C is a key component of a healthy immune system, which is why you see supplement aisles loaded with it when fall comes around.
But here’s a secret…vitamin C supplements aren’t as good as vitamin C found naturally in foods.
When you eat the whole food you are exposed to a whole symphony of vitamins and minerals, some that we don’t even know about yet, that all work together to create the health benefits supplement manufacturers are trying to mimic.
Get yourself a good dose of the real thing each day, by eating as many fruits and vegetables as possible. Or toss a bunch in your new juicer and enjoy.
Juicing Can Help Delay Aging
Fruits and veggies are loaded with antioxidants. Normal metabolic processes create free radicals, which contribute to aging. Antioxidants fight these free radicals and can help repair the oxidative damage to the cells.
And this isn’t a reach! Science supports this!
“Healthy food, containing dietary antioxidants, are essential for improving the overall livelihood and decelerating the aging process.” (5, 6)
What About Detoxing Your Body
Your body is actually very good at detoxing itself. That’s the job of your liver!
Your liver has three main functions: storing nutrients, producing enzymes and hormones, and filtering and processing various metabolites. Part of this process is to filter out toxins and byproducts from your blood. This is done by turning these toxins into less harmful substances, like bile, or filtering them out of your system altogether.
Your liver is so good at its job that it can run your entire life without ever having any problems. You probably know that alcohol isn’t good for your liver, but a drink here or there is not going to bother it in the least.
In fact, outside of very heavy drinking or alcoholism, your liver will handle alcohol just fine.
But non-alcoholic fatty liver disease is on the rise. NAFLD is the most common liver disease, and projections have it increasing by a whopping 27 percent by 2030! (7,8)
NAFLD is a direct result of long-term poor dietary choices.
A healthy diet is incredibly important for the health of your liver, but a special juice isn’t going to help detox it.
Studies have shown, however, that cruciferous vegetables can improve phase II detoxification in the liver. (9). So adding these foods can help your liver do its job better.
Promises from detoxes and juice cleanses are simply gimmicks that prey on the emotions of people who are trying to make healthier choices.
I’m all for cleaning up your diet, removing CRAP (calorie-rich and processed foods), and adding in health-promoting foods like fruits and vegetables.
And obviously I love juicing!
But as a way of adding in fruits and vegetables each day. Not as some magic cure for detoxing your body.
If you want to cleanse your body naturally, do this…
How to Cleanse Your Body Naturally
Your liver is going to do its job, and it’s going to do it very well. But there is definitely something you can do to give it a helping hand and to prevent NAFLD.
- Eat the right amount of calories for your body and activity level. A calorie deficit is still the best way to lose weight.
- Eat health-promoting foods. Fruits, vegetables, whole grains, nuts, seeds, and legumes should make up the bulk of your daily eating. The more nutrient-rich and fiber-filled your food choices are, the healthier and leaner you’ll be.
- Move often, as in every day. The importance of exercise can’t be overstated. In fact, a recent article in JAMA highlights the results of studying 1.44 million participants. Increased physical activity decreased the risk of 13 forms of cancer, and dropped the overall risk of cancer by 7 percent! (10)
- Control stress
- Get plenty of quality sleep
- Drink plenty of water. The recommended daily water intake of 3,000 ml for men (105 oz) and of 2,200 ml for women (78 oz) is more than adequate (11).
- Limit alcohol
- Don’t smoke or use tobacco products
- Reduce your intake of added sugars, trans fats, meat, eggs, and dairy
What About Alkalizing Your Body?
You’ve probably heard that your body can’t survive in an acidic environment, or that germs can’t survive in an alkaline one.
All of this is true!
But your body maintains this balance constantly…all, day, long.
Juicing will not alkalize your body. This is another claim that just doesn’t hold up.
When is the Best Time of Day to Juice
Whenever!
I love drinking juice first thing in the morning. I’m not usually that hungry when I first wake up, but I want to start getting calories into my body.
Especially since I workout early!
I don’t want something that’s going to weigh me down, or that’s going to throw my digestive system all out of whack. Juices give me a nice little boost in the morning, and I notice better energy for my workouts, especially longer ones.
My favorite morning juice is green juice. I eat a lot of fruit, but I’m not the best at getting in all of the greens I want. This makes it easy.
But mornings aren’t the only time that homemade juices are appropriate. They make for a quick pick-me-up mid-afternoon if you need something healthy and refreshing!
For you busy people out there…make batch juices.
If you’re using a centrifugal juicer, make enough for two days at most. Masticating juicers will make juice that will last a day or two longer than that because they juice without creating heat.
But my absolute favorite time to make a juice…post-workout!
I hate eating after I workout! I’m not hungry and my digestive system just doesn’t seem ready to handle a bunch of food.
This is a great time to get in an easily digestible meal loaded with carbohydrates that are easy to absorb. Juices are loaded with vitamins, minerals, and antioxidants as well, to help workout recovery.
Easy Formula for Making Your Own Juice
Keep in mind, this is the kitchen, not NASA. Every juice I make comes out a bit different. That’s part of the fun!
Instead of constantly following made-for-you recipes, use the following formula to easily make your own creations each day based on what you have lying around.
Great juices use combinations of the following ingredients:
- sweet (fresh fruit): apples, pears, pineapples, oranges, kiwis, mangoes, berries
- tart: lemons and limes
- roots: carrots, beets, turnips, parsnips
- leafy greens: kale, spinach, lettuce, chard, arugula, mustard greens, beet greens, dandelion
- high-yield foods (lots of juice from little food): cucumber, celery, melons
- herbs: basil, parsley, cilantro, mint
- spices: ginger, cilantro, parsley, cayenne (my favorite!), cinnamon
Don’t overthink juicing. Have fun with it and enjoy! Honestly, it’s hard to screw it up.
But the following tips can help you on your way as well.
Keep These Tips in Mind When Planning Your Juice
If you’d eat them together, they’ll juice well together.
You’re kind of creating a meal in a bottle. I like to think about my juice like a fruit salad.
If you’re going to make a salad, what ingredients would you add? And if you were going to top that salad with some fruit, what would you toss on top?
Balance high-yield ingredients with high-potency ingredients.
Juices with cucumbers, celery, and apples are great. A little bit of ginger can make them even better.
You can go nuts with mild ingredients because they won’t overly affect the flavor of your juice.
If an ingredient is really strong (like ginger), use less because it can overpower your juice and potentially make it undrinkable.
Taste test as you go
Just like baking any other meal, taste your juice along the way. If you need more sweetness, toss in some more fruit. Too sweet? Add a little more lemon or greens.
To peel or not to peel?
Again, I think about this like eating the food itself. Would you eat the orange peel? I wouldn’t, so I usually peel the orange first.
But I definitely eat the skin of the apple. So in it goes.
Yes, the skin is going to get shredded and discarded as pulp, but some skins are really bitter. If they are bitter, some of that bitterness is going to end up in your juice.
Some of My Favorite Combinations [Juice Recipes]
As I said, I don’t really have a lot of specific recipes for juicing. I kind of wing it, taste as I go, and stop when I have a juice that’s delicious.
But here are some of my favorite food combinations to help you get started:
- Cucumber Juice: cucumber, apple, celery
- Carrot Juice: carrot, lemon, ginger
- My Favorite: carrot, celery, apple
- Antioxidant Blend: beet, strawberry, blueberry
- Orange Juice: carrot, apple, orange, lemon
- Spicy Pineapple Juice: pineapple, celery, cucumber, parsley, ginger, lemon
How Many Times a Day Should You Juice?
I say no more than once a day. We’re not juice fasting here! We’re going for health, not starvation.
Juice in the morning to jumpstart your appetite and get in some much-needed fruits and vegetables, as an easy-to-digest pre-workout or post-workout meal, or when you’re on the run and you need something quick.
But juicing absolutely will not take the place of healthy, whole-food, plant-based eating.
So don’t go overboard.
Speaking of Juice Fasting…
Juice fasting is when you eliminate all solid foods from your diet and replace them with homemade juices. This is usually done for at least a day or more.
This is not uncommon and cleanses or detox diets are frequently marketed with a series of unique juices that you must consume during your fast.
Juice fasts are advertised as a way to detox your body, speed up weight loss, or improve health in various ways.
But the truth is, the only way to lose weight is by eating in a calorie deficit for your body and activity level and your liver will handle detoxing your body (but greens definitely help it do its job).
You can definitely lose weight on a juice fast. Juice fasts are typically very low in calories. They are billed as healthy because you get a lot of nutrient-dense foods with your few calories.
But chances are you’ll put all of your weight loss back on as soon as you go back to regular eating.
Hard pass.
The Juicer I Use and Recommend
The Breville Juice Fountain Elite is hands down my favorite juicer of all time! I use it every day.
The Juice Fountain Elite is a centrifugal juicer. While it may not produce as much juice as a masticating juicer (which basically chews the food for you and spits out the juice), the child in me loves the spinning blade and hearing the foods get shredded to pieces!
My kids like watching this process, too!
The Breville gives me all the juice I want, and it’s simple to use and clean.
And just being real, if it’s a pain in the ass to use and clean, I’m never going to get it out.
It’s not the most expensive juicer out there, but it’s not the cheapest either. It’s built to last and it works extremely well. Actually, I’ve kind of become obsessed with this brand over the years. I also have a Breville food processor, which is my favorite kitchen appliance!
Read my full review of the Breville Juice Fountain Elite here.
Benefits of Juicing Once a Day Conclusion
So there you have it! All the real benefits of juicing once a day. I hope this has convinced you to try adding juice into your daily routine. It’s an easy way to get all the nutrients your body needs, and it can be really fun and tasty too!
Obviously, shop around if you’re in the market for a new, or first, juicer, but I highly recommend the Breville Juice Fountain Elite. Again, it’s what I use, and I stand by that.
References
- Dewanto, Veronica et al. “Thermal processing enhances the nutritional value of tomatoes by increasing total antioxidant activity.” Journal of agricultural and food chemistry vol. 50,10 (2002): 3010-4. doi:10.1021/jf0115589
- Slavin, Joanne L, and Beate Lloyd. “Health benefits of fruits and vegetables.” Advances in nutrition (Bethesda, Md.) vol. 3,4 506-16. 1 Jul. 2012, doi:10.3945/an.112.002154
- Key, T J. “Fruit and vegetables and cancer risk.” British journal of cancer vol. 104,1 (2011): 6-11. doi:10.1038/sj.bjc.6606032
- November 16, 2017. Only 1 in 10 Adults Get Enough Fruits or Vegetables. Center for Disease Control. Accessed December 26, 2021 from [https://www.cdc.gov/media/releases/2017/p1116-fruit-vegetable-consumption.html]
- Dhanjal, Daljeet Singh et al. “Plant Fortification of the Diet for Anti-Ageing Effects: A Review.” Nutrients vol. 12,10 3008. 30 Sep. 2020, doi:10.3390/nu12103008
- Kim, Dan-Bi et al. “Antioxidant and anti-ageing activities of citrus-based juice mixture.” Food chemistry vol. 194 (2016): 920-7. doi:10.1016/j.foodchem.2015.08.094
- Estes, Chris et al. “Modeling the epidemic of nonalcoholic fatty liver disease demonstrates an exponential increase in burden of disease.” Hepatology (Baltimore, Md.) vol. 67,1 (2018): 123-133. doi:10.1002/hep.29466
- Cotter, Thomas G, and Mary Rinella. “Nonalcoholic Fatty Liver Disease 2020: The State of the Disease.” Gastroenterology vol. 158,7 (2020): 1851-1864. doi:10.1053/j.gastro.2020.01.052
- Hodges, Romilly E, and Deanna M Minich. “Modulation of Metabolic Detoxification Pathways Using Foods and Food-Derived Components: A Scientific Review with Clinical Application.” Journal of nutrition and metabolism vol. 2015 (2015): 760689. doi:10.1155/2015/760689
- Moore, Steven C et al. “Association of Leisure-Time Physical Activity With Risk of 26 Types of Cancer in 1.44 Million Adults.” JAMA internal medicine vol. 176,6 (2016): 816-25. doi:10.1001/jamainternmed.2016.1548
- Meinders, Arend-Jan, and Arend E Meinders. “Hoeveel water moeten we eigenlijk drinken?” [How much water do we really need to drink?]. Nederlands tijdschrift voor geneeskunde vol. 154 (2010): A1757.
