Junk the juice and smoothies… and just munch, says science

December 22, 2017 Ashley 0 Comments

In an effort to lose weight, you hopped on the Bullet bandwagon.

And you started… juicing.

(“I wonder if the weight loss comes from all the high intensity cleaning I’mma hafta do after this…”)

I mean, everyone else was doing it. You go to any of your yuppy pals’ houses and there’s a produce smashing machine, right there on the counter. Plus, it’s easy to drink when you’re in a rush. Besides – the blood of an orange gives you the same benefits as eating it, right? Wrong, say the pros. Whether you’ve squished it yourself in the kitchen or bought it from Whole Foods, juice is always gonna be inferior to the real deal. Especially when it comes to weight loss. And here’s why.

The first reason? Fewer calories.

When the two go toe to toe, it’s no contest. The caloric heavyweight winner’s definitely what’s in that cup. And that title belt had better come with an extender. Why? Well, because while one whole orange harbors a humble 65 calories, a single serving’ve fruit juice is gonna cost you 112 calories. And that’s straight from USDA counts. And if that’s not bad enough, the sugar does you in as well. Too much sugar spikes your blood sugar. This leads, in the long term, to all sorts’ve fun maladies like diabetes. And, in the short term, it also leads to that rising and receding energy level that leaves you unable to work out and craving even more calories far too quickly. You know what could’ve staved off that craving though? A magical ingredient that slows that sugary release into your sanguine freeways: fiber. And you wanna know where we all can get this sorcerous component from? Mother nature’s pre-made, ready to go, plucked from the plant fruit. In its full form. When you pitch the pulp, you’re missing the best bit. You’re depriving yourself of all that fiber. You’re slapping mother nature’s free weight loss (or weight gain prevention) remedy right in the face. How dumb is that?

(The irony is that, of all the foods, plants are the best source to get this wizard-ous ingredient from)

Now, this might all sound familiar. I did write an article last summer about how smoothies are superior to juicing for this very reason. And, while I stand by that, why not go for the best – and less expensive – route? Think about it. What’s the only way to ensure you get a healthy smoothie without sugar snuck into it like a diabetic Trojan horse? By making it at home, obvi. But the main reason most people make smoothies in the first place is to save time. My argument? If you’ve got time to chop and blend and clean up fruit liquefying machines, you’ve got time to chew. And here’s why you should: people who chew their food tend to be less hefty.

Take the study done with 450 students in Japan. The research, published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, showed that those munching up their meals had tinier waistlines than their yogurt or cheese eating counterparts. Significantly so. Likewise, when they tested this on mice, the soft food snackers morphed into obese monsters in less than half a year – while the crunchers kept their weight stable.

Now that’s definitely some (whole, non pulverized, fiber filled) food for thought.