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The Juicing Trend: Fad or Fiction?

“Wellness”, it’s a word we all know ‘well’ (haha, sorry bad dad joke). But seriously, the 2010s saw a proliferation of wellness trends. Today, wellness expenditures ($4.2 trillion USD) are estimated to be more than half as large as total global health expenditures ($7.3 trillion USD, based on WHO data).

But not all the trends are scientifically valid. A surprising one is the juicing fad!

The global fruit and vegetable juices market was valued at $154 billion USD in 2016 (BBC 2019). Claims were that juice could boost the immune system, remove toxins from your body, reduce risk of cancer, aid digestion and help you lose weight.

However, it turns out that the evidence isn’t there to back it up.

An article in The Cut gets straight to the point: “there’s no science to support a juiced vegetable being any healthier than a regular one, and..juicing them strips them of much of their fiber”.

Essentially, juiced fruit and vegetables lack valuable fibre needed for a healthy diet. Diets high in fiber are linked to lower risks of stroke, high blood pressure, diabetes and the risk of developing coronary heart disease.

A recent article in the BBC went even further, claiming that juicing is actually not good for you at all. When the fiber is removed from fruit, the fructose counts as ‘free sugars’, which are less healthy than the fructose in a simple piece of fruit. The World Health Organisation recommends that adults have no more than 30g of added sugar (equivalent to 150ml of fruit juice per day).

But if you do you love your fruit and veg in liquid form, especially on a hot summer’s day – grab the trusty blender (rather than the juicer) in the morning as it will keep all the fibery goodness in your drink 🙂

As the saying goes: an apple a day (not an apple juice a day) keeps the doctor away!

 
 
This is our considered but light and brief introduction to the topic. For more information please check out:

https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20181231-is-juicing-actually-good-for-you

https://www.mayoclinic.org/healthy-lifestyle/nutrition-and-healthy-eating/expert-answers/juicing/faq-20058020

https://www.thecut.com/2018/11/is-celery-juice-any-good.html

https://globalwellnessinstitute.org/press-room/statistics-and-facts/