A fruit and vegetable juice is a liquid into which all nutrients from the fibre have been extracted making the juice highly nutritious and easily absorbed into your bloodstream. Your body does not have to expend all its energy into digestion but instead use it to maximise the nutrients instead.
Most of us eat the same salads or vegetables every day. Juicing opens you to a wider range of fruits and vegetables which we are not likely to consume if eaten whole. Consuming a variety of foods is the key and only way in getting all the necessary nutrients your body needs to be in optimum health. Juicing helps you achieve this naturally without having to resort to artificially produced vitamins and minerals as supplements.
It’s very hard to cover the daily recommended portions of fruit and vegetables especially if you dislike green vegetables. Juicing takes the pain out of that. It’s an easy way to get your daily recommended intake because vegetable juice when combined with a sweet fruit or a squeeze of lemon or lime juice neutralizes the bitterness and makes it very palatable.
However, the most crucial point of drinking fresh juices for hard-core raw food advocates would be that food is eaten in its raw form. Cooking at high temperatures destroys enzymes and heat sensitive vitamins. That destruction is reduced to a large degree by juicing.
The contentious issue that arises when raw food consumption is discussed is whether or not plant enzymes have a role to play in preserving our body’s supply of enzymes. Those who argue otherwise say that our body has its own enzymes, that it will not have any use of enzymes from plants and that it will continue to produce enzymes for as long as we live.
The reason enzymes have become such a ‘hot’ topic among advocates of raw food is because enzymes are catalysts that speed up chemical reactions in the body. Enzymes equal life. Without enzymes all biological processes vital to life would slow down. All vitamins and minerals that we consume become useless. Toxic substances will build up to dangerous levels without being flushed out. Our body’s ability to heal and absorb nutrients will slow down. Enzymes help the body to correctly digest food and also to provide instruction on how to utilize the various nutrients in the food source. Enzymes regulate tens of thousands of biochemical functions that take place in our body every day. Even thinking involves enzymes. Without enzymes our bodies will fail to function and life will eventually cease to exist.
Enzymes are destroyed by heat when food is cooked and also by the application of additives and preservatives in highly processed food. Whether or not the enzyme theory put forward by raw food advocates is true will continue to be proven or disproved by many.
Putting that aside, the benefits of juicing is hard to dispute. It nourishes you, it opens up to you a natural supply of vitamin and mineral supplements, it can aid you in weight loss and will help detoxify and cleanse your body simply through the nourishment it provides. It will improve your health if you have been on a lifelong diet of highly processed food, overeating and never having met the requirements of the daily recommended intake of fruits and vegetables.
The debate of whether or not your body has a lifelong supply of enzymes or whether or not we need the benefit of enzymes from raw food is not a reason to dismiss juicing as just another fad because the drawbacks of highly processed food is just too much to bear. Why anyone would not want to juice baffles me.
Why We Should and Really Should Juice Anyway
A Quick Look at Some of Today’s Most Effective Diets
The idiot-proof diet is all about calorie shifting. That is, in this diet, you shift your food intake throughout the day instead of eating just 3 meals a day. The diet is popular because it’s actually very easy to follow and there are hardly any restrictions when it comes to the types of food you can eat.
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The Idiot-Proof Diet
The idiot-proof diet is all about calorie shifting. That is, in this diet, you shift your food intake throughout the day instead of eating just 3 meals a day. The diet is popular because it’s actually very easy to follow and there are hardly any restrictions when it comes to the types of food you can eat.
The ‘calorie shifting’ model takes place because you eat every two and half hours. The theory is that because your body is consuming calories (energy) constantly throughout the day, it’s always in ‘burning calories’ mode instead of the ‘saving calories’ mode.
When you sign up for the diet, you get access to a diet handbook, an 11-day diet-plan and a diet calculator. You get to pick what foods you like to eat so don’t think that you’ll be tarving in this diet!
NutriSystem
The NutriSystem way of dieting is all about proper meal planning. People love this diet because it takes away the burden of trying to figure out what to eat during their dieting phase. You see, a lot of people actually get confused as to what they can eat when they want to lose weight. That’s not really surprising because there’s so much information out there and for every yay sayer, there is a nay sayer so it’s really tough to know what to eat.
However, with NurtiSystem, they do all the meal planning and portion controlling for you. You just need to sign up to any of their diet programs (e.g., Women’s Program, Men’s Program, Vegetarian Program, etc.) and order a multi-day (usually for 28 days) diet program.
After you choose your diet program, a menu is presented to you and you simply choose what you want to eat. The meals are then delivered to your doorstep at various intervals during your diet program.
The South Beach Diet
The South Beach Diet is popular because the name alone conjures bikini-clad bodies! Add to that the fact that it was founded by a cardiologist, Dr. Arthur Agatston, then you have a sort of ‘doctor recommended, doctor approved’ seal on the diet as well.
At first glance, the South Beach Diet looks a lot like the Atkins Diet in the sense that it restricts carbohydrates during the initial phase of the program (there are 3 phases). The first phase (14 days) encourages ‘normal eating’ in the sense that you can pretty much eat whatever you want but you must NOT eat bread, rice, potatoes, pasta, or baked goods. Fruit is also not allowed. No sugar. No alcohol.
The second phase allows you to SLOWLY introduce these items back into your diet but at lesser levels that you consumed them before of course. The third phase is more about general maintenance.
Weight Watchers
Probably one of the longest running diet programs out there is Weight Watchers. It believes in the overall approach where food, exercise, behavior and support are addressed.
Weight Watchers is known for advocating a point system for foods. Using this system, one calculates the calorie intake of the foods he or she eats. The number of points you can have in a day varies depending on your weight. The beauty of the program is that there are no gut-wrenching food restrictions so you never feel deprived of anything. However, the point system teaches you how to balance your meals so that even if you indulge on one food item, you don’t go overboard and consume too much in a day.
How to manage Bland Diet
What is a bland diet? It is a diet specially set to treat certain gastrointestinal or stomach problems such as heartburns, ulcers and gas.
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An answer to a question, what is a bland diet, is that it is a simple treatment for people suffering from any one or more gastrointestinal disorders such as chronic gastritis, ulcer, esophagitis and dyspepsia.
Bland diet is a dietary regimen for people suffering from stomach disorders. Hence, it is quite understood that ingredients of a bland diet are soft food items, which are easy to digest with a capacity to keep the acidity to low levels. Questions about diet may be asked to your physicians and he/she can suggest the diet or recommend a dietician to do it.
Diet medical questions may include the queries about the food stuffs to eat and food stuffs to avoid during the time while a person experien ces any gastrointestinal disorders. However, before a dietician could decide the bland diet for a person, he/she needs to seek answers to several medical questions related to the person such as any food allergies or irritations associated with any food items and emotions medical questions of people.
Bland Diet:
The diet prescribed as a bland diet will include food items that are easy to digest and low in fiber and acid contents. Even giving up alcohol and smoking is advised while patient is on bland diet. Also a patient is advised to have 4 to 6 light meals after regular interval to avoid heavy and large meals.
Chewing food properly and eating slowly helps in the digestion of the food. Adequate sleep, avoiding smoking and controlling anxiety are supportive treatments for the standard treatment of the problem.
Allowed Food Items:
• Dairy Products
Milk, cheese, yogurt with low-fats and other dairy products are easily digested and hence, can be included as a part of bland diet. However, there is no restriction on ice-creams and one may consume even ice creams during bland diet, but it should not have any product such as nuts that are not allowed in bland diet.
• Fresh Fruits and Vegetables
Fresh vegetables and fruits are allowed to a bland dieter. However, while carrot, squash, green peas are good to eat in a bland diet, broccoli, onions and green peeper should be avoided as it forms gas. In fruits, oranges, grapefruits, and bananas are allowed.
• Proteins
Protein requirement of the body, while on a bland diet should be met with soy products and meat. Fried chicken and greasy hamburgers are not allowed to be consumed, while grilled and baked chicken is allowed.
Low-fat peanut butter and eggs are also efficient to meet the body’s protein requirement in a bland diet.
• Carbohydrates
Carbohydrates are contained in whole grain breads, pasta, oatmeal, corn flakes, white rice and sweet potatoes. All these food items are allowed.
Bland diet is designed for treating certain medical circumstances such as gastrointestinal problems. Hence, to answer what is a bland diet, we can say that this is a diet that aims at improving the digestion with the help of a timed-routine diet and soft to digest food items. Once the problem is controlled patients can return to their normal diet.