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-   -   Juicing (http://www.lowcarbfriends.com/bbs/juddd/755258-juicing.html)

cherryhair 01-27-2012 07:31 PM

After watching Fat, Sick, and Nearly Dead I want to incorporate fresh juicing. Does anyone know how to count calories for the juice since you're throwing away the pulp/solid portion?

dasiey 01-27-2012 07:41 PM

no, But the show was eye opener.

It was great.....

MintQ8 01-28-2012 03:55 AM

I would rather eat the whole fruit! Although I find fruit makes me very hungry.

Didn't see the show - but surely whole food is better than juicing?

gotsomeold 01-28-2012 06:30 AM

I used to juice. I know giving your GI tract time off while keeping calories coming in has enormous health benefits. All of which would fit very nicely with the good things JUDDD is doing for us.

I ran some searches about how to figure calories when pulp/fiber are removed. And came up with a great big "Huh???"

:stars: As near as I can tell, you do not deduct anything for grams of insoluble fiber - it effectively adds no calories. You multiply grams of soluble fiber removed by 4 and subtract that from total calories.....except some soluble fibers liquify in the juicing process. :stars::dunno::stars::dunno::stars:

I hope someone who actually understands juicing comes and straightens me out because, if I return to juicing I think I am going to include the calories in the veg/fruit and not sweat the chewy stuff.

SoHappy 01-28-2012 06:59 AM


Originally Posted by cherryhair (Post 15367673)

My understanding was always that the juicer machines extracted so much of the juice, that the remaining fiber was pressed practically juice free.. more dry than wet now.. and that this dry bit of fiber was thrown away as being just the non-digestible fiber part of the fruit or vegetable anyway. (Or, if you wanted the benefits of the fiber in our diets, you could mix the fiber into muffins, as an example, and get your fiber *supplement* that way.)

If you don't consume the more filling fiber part of the fruits and vegetables and just drink the juice, you can consume a whole lot more of them in a single sitting, thus have a whole lot more of the nutrients from fruits and vegetables in your diet. This is felt to be of great importance for health, but more by those who favor vegetarianism and especially the vegan lifestyle.

But in addition to the increase of nutrients you get from the juice of all the additional fruits and vegetables in your diet, be sure to factor in all the additional calories you will also be consuming, and that is supposedly almost the entire food item in the first place, since the part that is not consumed was mostly just the non-digestible fiber anyway.

Some folks opt to take vitamin and mineral supplements instead, and then just eat the more normal numbers of fruits and vegetables in their meals.

BeeLove 01-28-2012 07:09 AM

If you're interested in the benefits of juicing, you should watch the documentary called "The Beautiful Truth" - it's an incredible eye opener. You can watch the entire thing on youtube here: I wish I could stick to eating a raw diet myself, but growing up with all processed food makes it's incredibly hard to switch those gears.

I did try, though, and the apple/carrot juice is incredibly yummy!

Edit: oh look at that, I didn't even know this website could embed.

piratejenny 01-28-2012 10:01 AM

I can't answer your calories-in-juice question better than anyone else has already, but please read this:

As someone who grew up with vegetarian hippie parents and who has worked in several health food stores with juice bars...believe it or not, I do not buy into the juicing love! Except maybe for wheatgrass. That stuff is awesome.

Here are some pros/cons:
--Live food is great. But I would rather eat sprouts than drink juice.
--If you are going to juice, consider juicing low-sugar veggies like celery, greens (spinach, kale, cabbage), cucumbers, broccoli. Add some lemon, ginger, and/or garlic for flavor & health benefits. This kind of juice will be much lower in calories, too.
--Carrots, beets, and apples are a great favorite among juicers...but take away the fiber and you are getting SO much sugar!!! And SO many calories! :faint:
--Consider green smoothies as an option. For example, make a smoothie with berries & a nut milk*** and throw in a handful of spinach or sprouts.
--Look up recipes for "raw soups".***
--The advantage to juicing is that you get all those veggies/fruit without all the chewing. If you want to incorporate a lot of raw food into your diet, this is a quick way to do it. I will always believe that whole food is preferable to juice, but sometimes it is not practical to CHEW that much food (lol). However, chewing & mixing your food with saliva is an important part of digestion. If you drink juice, drink it slowly and swish it around in your mouth before swallowing.
--Kombucha is another choice...good source of enzymes, fewer calories, low carbs.

***A few years ago, information came out that if you ate a salad with non-fat dressing, you couldn't absorb a lot of the vitamins in the veggies. IMO...how would juicing be any different? In my experience, most people who juice or juice fast do not eat any fat-containing food when they drink their juice. That's why I think smoothies with nut milks or raw soups with nut milks or avocados are probably much more beneficial.***

The only time I would really consider juicing for myself is if I had cancer or some other disease/disorder and I didn't have the strength to eat or digest whole foods.

Lori37 01-28-2012 10:30 AM

After watching that documentary, we did an 8 day juice fast! We felt so great!

We kept the fruit juice for the morning and only once a day. And the rest of the day we did various combinations of tomato, zucchini, garlic, celery, kale, spinach, carrots, cilantro, bell pepper, broccoli, oh gosh just about any veggies.

That documentary was a REAL eye opener. Juicing is going to be a regular part of our lives forever. Great way to get in vitamins!

Deb 01-28-2012 10:32 AM

I am gearing up for a juice fast

havent seen the documentry yet ..not sure howto count juice calories

SoHappy 01-28-2012 10:52 AM

piratejenny, I LOLOLed at your reference of growing up with *hippie* parents and juicing.

As one who experienced the '60s and the era of hippies, who WAS a hippie complete with long hair, living in a dense forest without indoor plumbing by choice, raising much of our own food, etc. The Whole Earth Catalog and a country living-type magazine back then were practically our guidebooks. I can tell you from experience that if you want to take a shower in the rain, you can get wet enough to lather up, but it's hard to get rinsed off very well again! :hyst:

Juicing seems to enjoy a rise and fall in popularity. It comes into favor, touted by the next generation of health gurus, and then tapers off from practice as people give up on it and go onto something else. And then a new generation revives the idea, and it's off and running once again. It seems to have a resurgence every couple of decades, doesn't it. Well, it sure sounds healthy, so why wouldn't it get revived by new hopefuls each generation? I've never poo-pooed the practice, although did only a modest amount of it myself. Love the juice. Just love eating the whole foods more.

sophiethecat 01-28-2012 12:53 PM

I juiced a little bit in my early 20s, and enjoyed the flavors and combinations, but I got really tired of cleaning the juicer all the time (maybe there are models that you can just rinse out and be ready for the next time though).

I certainly was buying a LOT of organic carrots and other produce constantly. You can drink so many more carrots than you can eat, lol. It got a bit expensive drinking all the veggies and fruits instead of eating them slower over time.

I remember once when I juiced a beet, and I may have mixed it with something else, but when I drank the beet juice, it took away my voice!! :stars: My throat was scratchy and raw feeling and I could barely talk for hours, lol. It cleared up though. :)

I did make a delish lemonaid with lemons and apples!

Now, I'd be a little worried about the juice spiking my blood sugar. In fact, that's why I rarely drink any juices now. Just a little now and then as part of a protein/fat meal. Otherwise I find myself wanting more and more and more, and then later feeling icky. I prefer the whole fruit that I can eat slowly and maybe get a little fiber too.

OK, enough of my juicy ramblings here. lol.

cherryhair 01-28-2012 02:15 PM

Thanks everyone for your responses-might just stick to the green smoothies instead of juicing

Lori37 01-28-2012 03:35 PM


Originally Posted by sophiethecat (Post 15369231)



We juice the most in the summer, when everyones gardens are in full bloom! We get 90% of our veggies from friends and family members gardens for free! :) Otherwise, we never could have afforded it!

tiva 01-28-2012 05:32 PM

2 years ago, we juiced a lot in the fall when we had a huge harvest and needed to use up lots of beets, carrots, and apples before they went bad. I expected to gain weight from all that concentrated sugar, but I actually lost weight, much to my surprise. And I felt great--better than when I used to toss the whole pieces into the Vitamix so I'd get all the fiber. So this skeptic was slightly converted to juicing, but not enough to keep at it.

Our chickens were delighted to get the leftovers from the juicer, and I also made a ton of muffins with them, adding almond flour instead of wheat flour.

Cleaning up the juicer is indeed a hassle! That's probably why my juicer now lives in the basement.

Calories per cup: beet juice, 52; carrot juice, 90; apple juice, 112.

My favorite juice is made from 1 beet, 1 carrot, 1 stalk celery, and a handful of parsley at 70 calories.
