28 July 2014

Juicing for a health Fix

| Emily Morris
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fruit-veg-table

A few weeks ago, I had a bit of an ‘I need to give my body a break’ moment. After 5 years of abuse, which I blame on having three kids close together and being exhausted most of the time, I felt like it was time to take charge of my own body again.

I had a look around at what detox options are available in Canberra and came across the Fix – a small juicing company started and run by two locals who are passionate about good health and nutrition and primarily – juice! So, I dropped them a note and asked if they’d be interested in having me do a review. I figured that with three small people depending on me, the hardcore fasts, surviving on one bowl of broth a day, weren’t going to cut the mustard, so detoxing with juice seemed like a good option.

I met with Lucianne, one of the founders of the Fix, who I must confess, possessed that glow of good health that can only be achieved by really good nutrition and understanding of what your body needs (sadly, I do wish I could achieve this same look with a couple of tablets and some cosmetics!). Lucianne talked me through the different detox options they have, how it works, how they cold press the juices and what the balance of fruits and vegetables represent. In the end we decided on a two-day juice detox that I would do with my husband. By the end of our meeting, I felt a bit like Lucianne was an old friend and left wondering if the juices would extol the same calm, happy nature in me, along with the gorgeous glow. I was hopeful.

I went home and broke the news to my husband the he would be joining me on this juice adventure to which his response was, ‘is beer considered juice?’

Jovan, the other half of the power couple behind the Fix turned up on our doorstep to deliver the juices displaying the same happy smile and healthy glow as Lucianne. I started to think there must really be something to this juicing business.

My husband and I unpacked the boxes, finding little messages from the Universe (different for both of us depending on what we hoped to get out of the detox), which made us both smile. We had 7 bottles of juice for each day of the fast. At 475ml per bottle, that’s a fair bit of juice to be getting through.

the-fix

We happily got into it the next day. Well, I was happy and my husband was still trying to negotiate the consumption of caffeine and beer as part of the program. We kick started our Fix with Cabbadge of Honour – a mixture of cabbage, pears and lemon. I’m not usually a big cabbage eater so expected to force it down but it was nice; sweeter than I expected and really, really refreshing. Hubbie and I headed off for our prospective days feeling positive and hopeful about the experience.

I should note here that Lucianne suggested that we take some time in the lead up to the detox to give ourselves a rest from some of the big toxins like sugar, caffeine, refined carbohydrates etc. We had great intentions but failed at many. We did however have 3 days in the run up with no caffeine, so had already kicked the nasty headache that comes with that. If you do take the detox on, I would support that advice.

Our second juice of the day was my favourite – the Zingiber Hot Spice. Aside from a fairly cool name, the combination of ginger, carrots and apples was awesome. The heat of the ginger caught in the back of my throat and I could feel it livening my senses. My husband wasn’t such a fan of this one, but I loved it. We then moved on to All Hale Kale, Beet Boxer (my second favourite – beetroot, apples and lemon), Slim Leafy, Turmerific and Green Culture. I wasn’t a massive fan of the Green Culture, but as last juice of the day, I was feeling a bit ‘juiced out’.

I found it tougher than I thought I would, but I suspect that is due to my own relationship with food as a comfort. We had a few dramas on the first night and spent a chunk of time in emergency with our eldest daughter. My instinct was to call a pizza on our way home and I confess to suggesting just that only to be met with a ‘but we’re juicing’ by my husband, who had quickly become a bit of a juice convert.

The second day was harder and I was more tempted by the idea of eating. But, we both stayed fast and got through it (that being said, if anyone had come near me with a bowl of pasta I may have taken their hand off to get to it). We woke up on the morning of the third day feeling refreshed and clear headed (that constant ‘fog’ was gone). I felt less bloated (that’s an awful word) and could focus more when working. Although not what we did the detox for, my husband lost 4kg and I lost 2.5kg.

We both peed like we have never done before and by the end felt good for it.

For me, as a mum of 3 kids it was really convenient. In my pre-mumma days I could think ahead and prepare anything I may need for whatever detox I was doing. I just don’t have the time or the headspace to do that kind of preparation now and this was easy. When I was out and about, I just made sure I put a juice in my bag as I walked out the door and that made it a much more realistic proposition for me.

I did wish that we had done a third day (although I was grateful for my breakfast on day 3). I think we went through the really hard yards in the first two days and we would have felt pretty amazing with a third day but we will remember that for next time. And I do think there will be a next time. It was a great way to have a bit of a rest and reassess what we eat and how we eat it.

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Mess said :

Just checked out the website, and that is expensive juice. The 5 day cleanse works out at $7.60 per bottle. Do you get a gold bar in each box as well?

No – the entrepreneurs will be stacking up a bit though, at that price margin!

Madam Cholet12:21 pm 31 Jul 14

I would imagine that your insulin levels after two days of drinking juice only would be rocketing. That’s not a good thing.

JessicaGlitter10:07 am 31 Jul 14

Masquara said :

Their website doesn’t mention what hercanberra did in February – that they use “high pressure pascalization” on their juices. That CSIRO process extends shelf-life – by killing the enzymes and other active elements in fresh fruit juice.

I wondered about that, as juicing advocates recommend drinking your juice within 24 hours.

JessicaGlitter10:04 am 31 Jul 14

miz said :

the person had no energy because she was malnourished.

What do you think she is in carnie food that can help someone who just plain isn’t eating enough?

I know fat vegans, skinny vegans, and even vegans who can’t stop eating and can’t put on a scrap of weight because they are so energetic that they won’t stop moving.

People also become “vegans” with the intention of losing weight or “cleansing” their body. If someone is so obsessed with “correct” eating that they actually don’t eat enough and end up malnourished, it’s an eating disorder called orthorexia.

The definition of eating properly includes any vegetarian diet, as most dietetic associations consider them to be perfectly healthy if they are properly balanced, healthier than most actually, as vegans tend to eat very low fat.

Or your friend might just have been stressed, working too hard or not sleeping enough. Everyone becomes an expert in nutrition when they meet a vegan.

astrojax, the point is, the person had no energy because she was malnourished and was maxing out on coke in the hope that the caffeine would help.

Their website doesn’t mention what hercanberra did in February – that they use “high pressure pascalization” on their juices. That CSIRO process extends shelf-life – by killing the enzymes and other active elements in fresh fruit juice.

Just checked out the website, and that is expensive juice. The 5 day cleanse works out at $7.60 per bottle. Do you get a gold bar in each box as well?

miz said :

Anecdotally, the vegans I have known have been the most unhealthy I have ever met – one in particular, who drank diet coke all day, her hair was falling out and she kept having to get vitamin injections. The vegan diet is completely unnatural for humans.

um, someone drinks coke all day and you want to blame veganism as a lived philosophy for their poor health? um, ok… carry on then.

VYBerlinaV8_is_back10:05 am 30 Jul 14

VYBerlinaV8_is_back said :

JessicaGlitter said :

People like to talk about fruit and vegetables causing diabetes but vegans do a lot of juicing and eat a lot of fruit and veggies, and our diabetes statistics are quite favourable.

They are now speculating that you can eat as much sugar as you like, as long as you aren’t doing it when there is a lot of oil in your blood to prevent its metabolism. I read a whole thing about it but my biochemistry-fu is weak. I’d have to reread it all to explain it all, but the low fat intake of vegans is understood to be the most important reason for many of our lowered health risks.

Anyway the idea with juices for most people is that we just aren’t eating enough fruit and veggies. Obviously eating enough fruit and veggies is option #1 but using juices and powders to add vitamins is fine as long as your calories remain around parity. Taking a multivitamin pill is OK too.

The other reason to juice is that some people eat almost all their food raw and some form of processing is necessary to get enough calories.

I make juices when I have veggies I want to use but I can’t think of anything interesting to cook with them. We stir through a bit of spirulina or other add-ons depending on what we need. I take a B12 supplement and probiotic too.

If anyone is curious, have a look at the 80/10/10, raw vegan, fruitarian and natural hygiene lifestyles. Raw til 4 is usually the most sustainable and popular option, where you eat fruit, (water based) smoothies and salad during the day and a low fat vegan meal for dinner. The communities are full of amateur naturopaths making crap up all day, but the diet is very healthy regardless of the woo.

Vegetables don’t cause diabetes, at least not to my knowledge. Even juiced vegetables are fine, because the majority of them (with a couple of obvious exceptions) are mainly fibre and water and contain very carbohydrate or simple sugar. My big weight loss kick many years ago was based around eating lots of vegetables, some fruit, some meat, some dairy, and limited grains and sugars.

Eating juiced fruit allows someone to get lots of flavour and sugar without as much fibre (especially the un-pulpy juices) or effort in digestion.

I would expect that it would be very hard to have a health problem caused by fruit or veg if you consume them in their natural state, or even cooked simply. I for one have noticed that when I eat lots of fruit and veg (and avoid carb heavy, fatty and processed foods) I seem to get healthier, happier and slimmer.

If people want to juice their vegetables because it’s the main way they consume them, and add a bit of fruit to sweeten it I don’t think it’s a problem. Living off fruit juice (especially highly processed stuff) could be a recipe for problems though.

…very LITTLE carbohydrate…

VYBerlinaV8_is_back10:02 am 30 Jul 14

JessicaGlitter said :

People like to talk about fruit and vegetables causing diabetes but vegans do a lot of juicing and eat a lot of fruit and veggies, and our diabetes statistics are quite favourable.

They are now speculating that you can eat as much sugar as you like, as long as you aren’t doing it when there is a lot of oil in your blood to prevent its metabolism. I read a whole thing about it but my biochemistry-fu is weak. I’d have to reread it all to explain it all, but the low fat intake of vegans is understood to be the most important reason for many of our lowered health risks.

Anyway the idea with juices for most people is that we just aren’t eating enough fruit and veggies. Obviously eating enough fruit and veggies is option #1 but using juices and powders to add vitamins is fine as long as your calories remain around parity. Taking a multivitamin pill is OK too.

The other reason to juice is that some people eat almost all their food raw and some form of processing is necessary to get enough calories.

I make juices when I have veggies I want to use but I can’t think of anything interesting to cook with them. We stir through a bit of spirulina or other add-ons depending on what we need. I take a B12 supplement and probiotic too.

If anyone is curious, have a look at the 80/10/10, raw vegan, fruitarian and natural hygiene lifestyles. Raw til 4 is usually the most sustainable and popular option, where you eat fruit, (water based) smoothies and salad during the day and a low fat vegan meal for dinner. The communities are full of amateur naturopaths making crap up all day, but the diet is very healthy regardless of the woo.

Vegetables don’t cause diabetes, at least not to my knowledge. Even juiced vegetables are fine, because the majority of them (with a couple of obvious exceptions) are mainly fibre and water and contain very carbohydrate or simple sugar. My big weight loss kick many years ago was based around eating lots of vegetables, some fruit, some meat, some dairy, and limited grains and sugars.

Eating juiced fruit allows someone to get lots of flavour and sugar without as much fibre (especially the un-pulpy juices) or effort in digestion.

I would expect that it would be very hard to have a health problem caused by fruit or veg if you consume them in their natural state, or even cooked simply. I for one have noticed that when I eat lots of fruit and veg (and avoid carb heavy, fatty and processed foods) I seem to get healthier, happier and slimmer.

If people want to juice their vegetables because it’s the main way they consume them, and add a bit of fruit to sweeten it I don’t think it’s a problem. Living off fruit juice (especially highly processed stuff) could be a recipe for problems though.

Actually it has been discovered that high animal protein, high (natural) fat, and general low carb eating protects from diabetes II and halts it, whereas the low fat diet is bad for you as people add sugar instead.
Anecdotally, the vegans I have known have been the most unhealthy I have ever met – one in particular, who drank diet coke all day, her hair was falling out and she kept having to get vitamin injections. The vegan diet is completely unnatural for humans.

So you lost 4kg and 2.5kg of what over 2 days?

They don’t list the macros or nutrition panels on their website (unless I missed it somehow). Does anyone know if this is on the side of the bottles?

JessicaGlitter10:42 pm 29 Jul 14

People like to talk about fruit and vegetables causing diabetes but vegans do a lot of juicing and eat a lot of fruit and veggies, and our diabetes statistics are quite favourable.

They are now speculating that you can eat as much sugar as you like, as long as you aren’t doing it when there is a lot of oil in your blood to prevent its metabolism. I read a whole thing about it but my biochemistry-fu is weak. I’d have to reread it all to explain it all, but the low fat intake of vegans is understood to be the most important reason for many of our lowered health risks.

Anyway the idea with juices for most people is that we just aren’t eating enough fruit and veggies. Obviously eating enough fruit and veggies is option #1 but using juices and powders to add vitamins is fine as long as your calories remain around parity. Taking a multivitamin pill is OK too.

The other reason to juice is that some people eat almost all their food raw and some form of processing is necessary to get enough calories.

I make juices when I have veggies I want to use but I can’t think of anything interesting to cook with them. We stir through a bit of spirulina or other add-ons depending on what we need. I take a B12 supplement and probiotic too.

If anyone is curious, have a look at the 80/10/10, raw vegan, fruitarian and natural hygiene lifestyles. Raw til 4 is usually the most sustainable and popular option, where you eat fruit, (water based) smoothies and salad during the day and a low fat vegan meal for dinner. The communities are full of amateur naturopaths making crap up all day, but the diet is very healthy regardless of the woo.

Emily Morris10:13 pm 29 Jul 14

The juice was mostly vegetable with small amounts of fruit thrown in (from the labels on the bottles). Most looked about two parts veg to one part fruit.

Actually fructose is not great in large doses either and it looks as if the large amounts of fructose from corn syrup is driving the diabetes epidemic in the States …
Juice is really a ‘sometimes food’ only.

So, sugar is a toxin, but fructose (from fruit juice) is a winner. Eat that, science!

VYBerlinaV8_is_back10:39 am 29 Jul 14

miz said :

All that juice can’t be good for your carb/insulin levels . . .

It’s probably ok if it’s mainly vegetable based, but if it was mostly fruit them yeah, diabetes here we come.

All that juice can’t be good for your carb/insulin levels . . .

5 years of abuse?
You’re not even trying.

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