Juicing is a popular trend and an easy way to get fruits and vegetables into your system. Nutritionally, however, juice can often have a lot of sugar and does not typically provide any fibre, which is why juices aren’t that filling. That doesn’t mean you should or should not juice, but there is a smart way to juice.
Here are our best juicing tips:
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Check the Juice Base:
Make sure the base of your drink comes from yogurt, one percent or skim milk, milk alternatives, or water instead of fruit juice from concentrate. The base is the largest ingredient in your juice, so select it wisely. Yogurt will provide you with a thicker drink. One percent or skim milk will give you a nice “creamy” juice without the heaviness of yogurt. Milk alternatives, usually plant or nut-based milks should be more watery than the first two options but more flavourful than water. Water will be your lowest-calorie option and make the fruit and vegetable flavour more noticeable. Avoid concentrated fruit juice bases, as they are sugar packed and high in calories. Here are a few lessons in juicing.
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Keep It Small:
As with all calorie-dense beverages, choose the smallest portion size available for better balance and calorie control. Plus, you don’t need much juice to hit your daily vitamin and mineral intake (depending on the fruit and vegetable ingredients), so don’t think that more juice is healthier. Think of the juice as a little extra taste to your day.
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Recognize It’s Not A Meal
Freshly-blended juices can be easy ways to get your daily dose of fruits and vegetables, but remember that they are not meal replacements. Juices are not balanced meals and will not keep you full. So, we recommend either enhancing your juice with dairy or protein to make it a meal or having the juice as a little drink with your actual meal that has protein and starches.
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Try Smoothies
Instead of just fruit or vegetable juices, opt for smoothies when trying to lose weight. Smoothies typically blend whole fruits and vegetables with dairy, meaning that you get the benefits from the fibre in the skins, plus calcium from a low-fat dairy source. This will help sustain you longer between meals to ensure you don’t exceed your daily calories. Here is a fun Berry Smoothie Bowl to try and switch things up.
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Consider The Booster
Depending on the juice bar you visit, a variety of different booster options can be offered, including protein powders. If you’re making your juice at home, there are also a few additives you can add to enhance the benefits of your juice. Regardless of how you’re getting your juice, we recommend speaking to your Personal Health Coach about your “booster” options and how to properly count it. Here are some boosters to consider adding to your juice or smoothie in the future.
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Pass On Tapioca
Tapioca pearls are typically added to bubble teas, but can easily add more starch and an extra 100 calories to any drink! We highly recommend you keep your juice and other drinks simple and request no tapioca, so you can keep the calories low. Lower-calorie drinks, especially if you’re trying to lose weight, will help you reach your goal faster, as most liquid calories add up quickly and are not always top of mind.
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Limit Sweeteners
Fruit beverages are sweet because fruits contain fructose, a naturally-occurring sugar, which makes them naturally some of the sweeter beverages. We, therefore, recommend that you use other sweetening agents like artificial sweeteners, honey, and agave nectar sparingly, if at all. If you do sweeten your beverage, remember that will be apart of our recommended maximum of 3 artificial sweeteners daily.
Considering all these tips, our overall recommendation for the best juicing is to keep it simple and small. Select juices with fewer ingredients in the snack size option if available to add flavour to your day – but that’s it.
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