Juicing means extracting juice from fruits and vegetables with the help of a juicer or a blender. Fruits and vegetables are excellent sources of antioxidants. There is a general notion that juicing fights cancer. But this is not entirely true. It is always good to add little fruits or vegetable juice to your food; it can not be used for all your nutrition needs. Juicing offers several health benefits; people with cancer or those undergoing cancer treatments should not follow an “all juice” diet.
Juicing is not bad, but it cannot replace eating whole fruits and vegetables; Juicing shouldn’t be one’s exclusive or primary diet as it doesn’t have any protein, and it can provide too many calories and sugars. Adding juice to a diet should be in addition to total servings of fruits and vegetables. It is also essential to be selective with what goes into a liquid. While fruits are luscious in juice form, they often add much more sugar to a juice than vegetables and other potential ingredients.
The truth is that people need to eat whole fruits and vegetables to reap the benefits. While many nutrients in fruits and vegetables can be passed through the juice (such as vitamin C), other nutrients like fiber cannot be consumed via juice.
According to the American Cancer Society, eat at least 2 ½ cups of fruits and vegetables every day to reduce the risk for various cancers because they are rich in antioxidants. Antioxidants attack free radicals in bodies to get rid of them. Free radicals can damage the DNA found in the body over time, which causes cancer. Foods high in antioxidants include carrots, green leafy vegetables, berries, citrus fruits, apples, pears, and green tea. If you find it hard to consume fruits and vegetables at each meal, you can take it in juice form.
Why go for juicing
Sometimes cancer and its treatments are complex on appetite. Whether you are recovering from surgery or undergoing radiation therapy, chemotherapy therapy, or any other kind of treatment, there are several occasions when you don’t want to eat anything. There are certain times when you want to have only a specific type of food. Food can lose its lustre when you feel nauseous, stressed, or depressed. Treatment can change the way you can taste and smell too.
It’s essential to listen to the need of your body. Juicing rebuilds healthy cells and tissues gives you strength, and helps fight infection. Some treatments work better when your body has enough nutrients. Following are the conditions when you should consider juicing.
- To increase the consumption of vitamins and nutrients.
- To manage swallowing difficulty caused by cancer or treatments.
- Juicing will provide you with essential nutrients from vegetables and fruits in an easier to swallow form.
Risk related to juicing
Juicing can be used as your main diet. Although juicing is an excellent way to add nutrients to your diet, it cannot fulfil all the body’s nutritional needs. If you are on a complete juice diet, you miss out on specific food your body needs. Juicing cannot provide the protein your body requires.
Although some vegetables contain small amounts of protein, you need to ensure your body gets enough protein required to keep you healthy and energetic during cancer treatment.
Benefits of juicing
The body needs various kinds of protein, vitamins, and minerals for healthy living. Juicing cannot fulfil all these demands of the body. So, in case you want to go on juicing, first meet your daily recommended servings of fruits and vegetables. Eat five servings of fruits and vegetables daily except for your juice supplement. Try to add more vegetables than fruit to your juice. Vegetables are lower in calories. They will provide you with the healthiest juice. Try using just one fruit to sweeten your juice. For the most nutritious juices, include more vegetables than fruits. Include one fruit to sweeten up your mixture, but make the other ingredients vegetables—they have fewer calories, so make for a healthier drink overall. For example, juice one carrot, a chunk of cucumber, a small beet, a piece of ginger, and a small apple.
Add protein to Juicing
If you want to make juice as your breakfast, add a source of protein for a complete, balanced meal. You can have a boiled egg or a cup of curd with your juice. Include a wide variety of fruits and vegetables in your diet. Different vegetables have different nutrients and vitamins. The combination of vegetables and fruits you add to your juice, the greater the nutritional benefit. If you limit yourself to only a few types, you limit the number of nutrients your body can absorb. Get creative with your juicing to avoid overdoing it on just a few specific nutrients. By mixing it up, you get the most excellent variety of nutrients possible. You can even add those items to juices, such as broccoli stems, that you might throw away.
