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Hi everyone, hope you have been enjoying these nutrition posts so far! Please take a look at my last post on Hydration if you did not get a chance, I cannot emphasize enough how important this is for our overall Health:

https://10minutetakeaways.com/2019/07/18/lets-talk-nutrition-staying-hydrated/

It is hot, it is summer, so we are going to explore another nice refreshing topic, Juice! Juice is a hot topic right now, but just like most things there are a lot of different products, and schools of thought on what healthy. This post is going to give you some great information to help make the best choice for you, if you add juice to your routine.

There are three main sources of juice, lets take a look:

1. Pre-Packaged Juice
2. Fresh Juice from a Juicer
3. Fresh Juice from a Blender

The most common and widely available is Pre-Packaged, think the juice you buy in a supermarket. One pitfall of any product you buy is you are subject to marketing… terms like “all natural”, “healthy”, etc., etc.. There are many buzz words companies can use without any real guidelines for printing their labels. So, what to do if you want to investigate these products and their claims? Read the label and ingredients!

First thing you want to look for any a juice drink is % juice of the product. I know, if the label says juice, shouldn’t it be juice and only juice? Not necessarily, unfortunately. So take a look, and if less than 100% juice, read what else is in the drink. Here is an example:

Ingredients

Here is a tip, “Juice Drink” or “Juice Cocktail” are usually indicators of not 100% juice. Additionally, many packaged juice drinks contain high fructose corn syrup, which is a highly problematic additive we will explore in a future post.

Even if a packaged juice is listed as 100% juice, fresh squeezed, organic…unless otherwise specified, it is likely pasteurized. Pasteurized essentially means cooked, in order to kill bacteria and microorganisms which may be present in the juice. Of course, there are many reasons to do this if you are mass-producing a product to sell, you want it to be safe!

What I would encourage you to consider about pasteurization is that concept we talked about called “Bioavailability” in a previous post.

Bioavailability:

https://10minutetakeaways.com/2019/07/14/lets-talk-nutrition-should-i-take-vitamins/

You get where I am going with this, fresh is best! You can go to a juice bar, or just make it yourself! There are two different ways to make fresh juice:

1. Juicer
2. Blender Drink/Smoothies

The juicer (feature in the video) runs fruit and vegetables through a machine to extract the pulp and fresh juice flows out the spout. The blender (also featured) pulverizes whole fruits and vegetables, but requires water to be added. Both are wonderful ways to get fresh juice. The difference? FIBER.

All dietary fiber run through a juicer is spit out the back. Options on what to do with pulp are to throw it out, compost it, or use in cooking. All fiber in a blender drink is contained and consumed. Here is the difference:

1. Juicer: More concentrated nutrients, no dietary fiber.
2. Blender: All dietary fiber from fruits and vegetables, less nutrients per drink because you must add water to make a drink (a juicer requires no added water).

If you are interested in a video tutorial on Juicing at home please comment or message me! It is a wonderful topic with many directions to go. See you next time!