Is juice sabotaging YOUR blood sugar?
If you've been following my Instagram stories- you know that I'm pretty adamant (slash annoying) about drinking green juice daily. But that's only because of the wealth of health benefits I have reaped since I added green juice to my routine. I only share because I care y'all. Juicing is one of the better wellness trends that this decade has brought us. BUT what juice we drink and our intentions for it (as a supplement of vitamins and minerals, or… as dinner?) can either build us up or break us down.
Drinking fruit juice every so often with a meal is okay. But the only juice that we should be drinking routinely is vegetable juice, without ANY fruit. No apple, no pineapple, no nothin'.
Yes, apples and other fruits are good for us. They have fiber, vitamins, and minerals that our body needs to be a well oiled machine. BUT if we throw fruit in a juicer and strip away the fiber, we're getting vitamins.... with a big ol' dose of sugar. What decriminalizes fruit sugar is fiber. Fiber is the meat of the fruit that slows the release of sugar into our blood. Without it- fruit juice offloads the sugar into our blood. This spikes insulin which can leave us with low blood sugar. Translation: cranky, lethargic, AND HERE'S THE KICKER- craving MORE sugar. Sure, it's not as bad as that refined good good that we put in cookies and cake. But sugar is sugar is sugar. See my sugar addiction post to learn how to break free from sugar!
Go to a juicery where they fresh press their juice. You will be AMAZED by how much green produce it takes to make a 16 oz green juice. If we've got some big leafy greens going into our juice, like kale and spinach (which I highly recommend), it's enough to fill a whole basket! We know vegetables are good for us. They have fiber, vitamins, minerals, and antioxidants. Here's the beautiful thing about green juice: ALL of that goodness from a basket of greens and veggies gets squeezed into a bottle for our taking. All of that power to make our skin glow, our stomach flat, and our mind clear can be ours with a few sips! How dope is that! Beating the system!
We can also juice a whole variety of super foods like ginger and turmeric and add that to our arsenal. I've been tossing back juiced turmeric shots 3-4x a week for a year now and haven't needed ibuprofen since ! Read more about turmeric in my post here.
I would highly suggest against juice fasts. There are other means of fasting if you are looking to give your digestive system a break. Ways that don't involve us attempting to subsist on low calorie juice for 3 days while trying to be a normal human. ESPECIALLY if any of the juices have fruit sugar in them. Not only will you be a b*tch to be around, but it'll wreck havoc on your hormones. Ain't nobody got time for that!
So join me in plaguing the world one green juice selfie at a time as we level up on macrodoses of micronutrients! Your immunity and skin will thank you!