Opinion: Is Juicing Worth the Squeeze?

Opinions

Is juicing worth the squeeze?

By Olivia Simone/ Print Manager I was sitting at my mahogany dining room table weighing the pros and cons of trekking the stolid and black ice laced sidewalks of Brighton when a fresh form of fitness came to mind. It seemed rather extreme, but more often than not quixotic ideas are conjured when one finds oneself in an apartment void of its four other inhabitants. I had heard of people doing it before — my Muslim friends who fasted during sunlight hours, for instance. And now I too would join in the abstinence of eating — in the name of my jeans’ waning button thread, if nothing else could be argued convincingly to my nursing friends. Sayonara you ugly holiday-free-for-all calorie intake.

It wasn’t but 24 hours before I reunited with my good friend and colleague, Sarah Garcia (A&S ’13). Garcia nearly threw her El Pelon burrito in the air when she heard my newly conceived dieting strategy. I had barely managed to squeeze out the word ‘cleanse’ when she exclaimed that she too was beginning a detoxing cleanse tomorrow, and wouldn’t it be great to rid your body of all those gross toxins you take in every day? I raised my eyebrows at the yellow rice spilling in thankless clumps from her tortilla. Carbo-loading! Right.

Garcia was one of the many deprived individuals who, in the throes of weight-loss desperation, reached for the consolation of Joe Cross. Cross, the famed obese middle-aged man who created the documentary Fat, Sick, and Nearly Dead, chronicled his triumphant weight loss over the course of sixty days, consuming nothing but green juice. His viewers were told that green fasts allowsthe body to detoxify while replenishing the body with vitamins and nutrients. Not only that, but it could reduce the risk of cancer, boost the immune system, aid digestion and help the body lose weight. While this may 12

be true for those who gawk at the thought of consuming carrots and green beans, it is not entirely necessary for human beings to “detoxify” their bodies (unless, of course, they find themselves living off fast food and alcoholic beverages). And yet, many viewers who chose to undertake a 10 day juicing cleanse such as the Garcia family, are well-nourished and regularly consume fresh produce with every meal. It seems that what many “health freaks” found when they encountered the green juice phenomenon that seems to be going viral in 2013 is perhaps more analogous to the key to Pandora’s box than a cleanse.

To understand why, let’s take a look at the truth behind juicing “cleanses.”

I. Juicing—I’m sorry, could you repeat that?

Juicing is the creation and consumption of liquid juice extracted (rather than puréed) from raw foods such as

Top photo courtesy of cookbookman17 / flickr

April 2013

fruits, vegetables and even roots.

Cross’s celebrated juice concoction contains 4 cups of kale, 1 fresh cucumber, 4 celery stalks, 2 Granny Smith apples, half a lemon, and 1 ounce fresh gingerroot per 16 fluid ounce serving. The drink contains 335 calories, 2 grams of fat, a whopping 80 grams of carbohydrates and a substantial 15 grams of protein.

This is typically consumed four times throughout the day.

As a single meal, the green juice could pass as substantial for the average body to function properly, given the individual is fully grown and not training for endurance in a physical activity. However, as Elizabeth Matzkin, MD and chief of Women’s Sports Medicine at Harvard Medical School recently revealed, “No good scientific data supports any of those cleanses, where you drink juice or (only) water for a week.”

Well, isn’t this intriguing. Naturally, Cross saw various physicians as consultation for his juicing diet.

While the proposed diet was admissible by physicians, the poor guy was 100 pounds overweight, overloaded with steroids due to a debilitating autoimmune disease and told it was likely his life would soon come to an end. The fact is, the healthy body is equipped with naturally occurring

Photo courtesy of CocteauBoy / Flickr

monster-cleansing machines thanks to the kidney and the colon. Both organs are already “designed to flush out all the excess junk we put into our bodies, like alcohol” says Meagan Morris of Cosmopolitan who spoke with Matzkin.

II. Forget about the vitamins you gain with the green juice—think of the nutrients you lose.

Here’s some food for thought: on an all-juicing diet — in which nutrients are absorbed as liquids only

— your digestive system doesn’t have to work as hard to break down the food. Not only is your body deprived of its natural activity — the aspect of the cleanse that Cross and others claim “gives your body a rest” — but it misses out on one of the most important detoxifying nutrients that naturally pushes food through your digestive tract quickly: fiber. According to the Mayo Clinic staff, dietary fiber is found mainly in fruits, vegetables, whole grains and legumes. It passes relatively intact through your stomach, small intestine, colon and out of your body in order to normalize bowel movements by increasing the weight and size of your stool whilst softening it. In fact, it’s so efficient that its best known for its ability to prevent or relieve constipation.

Furthermore, fiber can only be obtained from whole foods alone, not those that are already broken down.

Why give your body a “rest” from a digestive tool it desperately needs?

III. It’s Expensive In order to pursue the juicing diet seriously, it must be accounted for financially. A decent juicer could cost anywhere between 200 and 500 dollars. The Garcias’ juicer costs 300 dollars, for instance. Then there’s the day-to-day grocery bill. As fresh produce tends to be costly, the Garcias often spent 100 dollars or more per go for three people loading up on Granny Smiths, kale and so on — and this occurred once every two days. The fact is, without even one substantial study any extreme diet trick, cleanse or otherwise, simply isn’t safe to pursue.

Top photo courtesy of Monika

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