Clean Eat Education :: The Truth about Juice Cleanses

I'll be the first to tell you that I think that the benefits of juicing are vast! Offering an opportunity to consume SO many of the vital vitamins and nutrients your body needs to function optimally in one beverage is invaluable. However, we get questions from our readers asking if they should start their clean or continue their clean eating journey with a juice fast. For the purposes of conversation today, we will define a juice cleanse as "drinking ONLY juiced fruits and vegetables as your source caloric intake or energy." The quick answer to that is: "NO!" 

Let's think about this - the purpose of a cleanse, as most people see it is to rid your body of toxins and harmful chemicals that may be hindering your ability to function normally and properly. If you are already eating clean, or starting to eat clean, chances are, you have or are in the process of eliminating those harmful toxins/chemicals from your diet and body already!

Juice cleanses are high in vitamins and nutrients, but contain little to no fat and protein.  Juice cleanses do contain carbohydrates, with larger amounts of carbs coming from natural sugars in the fruits and vegetables.

Juice cleanses do not contain protein!

  A strict juice cleanse (like those we are writing this article about) do not include protein! Sure, you may ingest about 5g of protein through some of the juiced fruits and vegetables but that is hardly enough to sustain your body without

burning the muscle

you already have for energy and basic life function. 

Juice cleanses include a LARGE amount of fiber!

A strict juice diet is basically ALL fiber - that's what helps your body to rid itself of many of the harmful toxins and chemicals. Fiber is GREAT for you! However, when you ingest large amounts of fiber that your body is not used to processing, it may not be able to process that fiber AND the nutrients you are supplying it at the same time; therefore, you could be ingesting 1000 calories through a juice fast, but only absorbing and using around 600. This would lead you to make up the remaining calories your body needs to function by

burning your muscle

stores and converting them to energy.

Still want to do a juice cleanse?

This may be a great way to get you "kick-started" and on track. However, you will want to do a modified one! Include some healthy fats like a serving of avocados and raw nuts, as well as 30-40 grams of protein such as baked chicken breast with no seasonings. Whatever you do, make sure that you ingest at least 1200 calories as that is the typical number of calories your body needs each and everyday to carry on basic life functions without burning muscle.

Choose what works for you and your goals!

Good luck!

Tiffany

Clean Eat Recipe: Scott's Green Machine

Ever since I watched the documentaries Fat Sick and Nearly Dead, and Hungry for Change, I've been juicing every day as a quick and easy (and somewhat tasty) way to get my veggies in. By the way, both documentaries are very good so check them out! They will really open your eyes on how unhealthy our typical American diet really is and how the food industry disguises the true nutritional information of its products.

A couple things I didn't like about most juice recipes I saw were the lack of protein and the overuse of fruits to cancel out the bitter taste of the vegetables. Moreover, most of the recipes I saw did not add in any spices to enhance the flavor of the juice and incorporate their health-boosting effects. So, I decided to make my own recipe by adding in some pure organic hemp protein powder along with ginger, turmeric, and superfood powder all while cutting out the fructose. Needless to say, this juice offers a powerhouse of green, ph-balancing ingredients with tons of fiber and plenty of protein to help you feel full, build muscle, and burn fat.

By the way, we purchased the Vitamix on Amazon as our Christmas gift to each other back when it was on sale for around $360. I was very skeptical at first about spending that much on a blender, but I use it multiple times every day and it's very versatile! All I have to do is throw everything in the blender and turn it on...I don't have to cut things into smaller pieces like I did with our Ninja. It's self-cleaning and comes with a 7-year warranty, so all things considered, it's definitely worth it...I've probably already gotten my money's worth out of it (and that's tough for me to say since I'd consider myself pretty frugal)!

So, this recipe is based on using the Vitamix... if you have a juicer then you may have to modify the method just a bit.

Clean Eat Recipe: Scott's Green Machine

Ingredients: 

• 2 Cups Organic Spinach (or any green base such as kale - make sure it's organic!)
• 1 Whole Tomato, cubed (preferably organic or green-house grown)
• 1/2 Lemon, peeled
• 1/4 Cup Nutiva Organic Hemp Protein
• 2 tsp Bragg's Raw Organic Apple Cider Vinegar
• 1 Tbsp Organic Ginger
• 1 Tbsp Chia Seeds
• 2 tsp Organic Turmeric (Curcumin)
• 1/2 scoop Amazing Grass Berry Green SuperFood
• 1 scoop Pure Stevia Extract
• 1 cup Water

Optional Ingredients (not included in the macros listed below): 

• 1/2 Avocado
• 1 Cup Cucumber Carrots
• Complete Greens
• Spirulina
• Chlorella

Directions (using a Vitamix): 

1. Throw all ingredients in Vitamix, add about 1 cup water and a few ice cubes.
2. Turn Vitamix on variable power, speed 1 and gradually increase until all ingredients are blended.
3. Then, turn Vitamix on high power and let juice for 30-60 seconds until mixture is in juice consistency.

Macros (per serving): 

• Calories - 103
• Fat - 4 g
• Carbs - 16 g (4 g net carbs due to high fiber content)
• Fiber - 12 g
• Protein - 10 g

Great source of fiber, protein, potassium, zinc, magnesium, essential fatty acids (Omega 3-6-9), Vitamin A, Vitamin C, Vitamin E, Vitamin K, bioflavanoids, probiotics, and antioxidants.

- Scott