Benefits Of Green Juice
Green juice has taken the juicing world by storm. Today, a large number of “juicers” swear by the benefits of green juice.
They claim green juice provides energy, immune protection, weight loss benefits, and more.
Green juice, for the uninitiated, is a general term for any juice that comes out of your blender looking green. Makes sense, right?
Popular green juice recipes use spinach, kale, celery, cucumber, apples, and many other types of fruits and vegetables.
Green is just a color, but it’s a color associated with some amazing superfoods that offer amazing benefits.
Is green juice any better than red, purple, or orange juice? What are the exact benefits of green juice? How does green juice work? Today, I’m going to answer all of those questions and explain the benefits of green juice.
What Are the Ingredients in Green Juice?
Technically speaking, green juice can be made with any ingredients you like (as long as they create a green juice when placed in a juicer). However, certain green juice ingredients are more popular than others.
Beginner green juicers typically start with the “big 3” of spinach, Swiss chard, and lettuce. You can pick up these ingredients at any grocery store or farmer’s market.
After having a few juices with those ingredients, you can mix it up by adding romaine, red leaf, green leaf, and other types of lettuce (although I recommend avoiding iceberg lettuce due to its lack of nutrients).
Other popular ingredients include kale, celery, lemon, mint, broccoli, cucumber, ginger root, and apples.
More Than Just Green Ingredients
Green juice is primarily made from green ingredients. But if you’re just juicing kale, lettuce, and broccoli, then the juice you make might taste gross. That’s why some people choose to add various flavoring compounds to their juice.
Ingredients like pineapple pair well with green vegetables, as do Fuji apples. Some people will also add lemon, ginger, beets, oranges, and watermelon to their green juice.
Even though these ingredients don’t technically produce green juice, they add valuable flavor to the rest of your juice – including natural sugars and more vitamins and minerals.
What Are the Benefits of Green Juice?
Boost Your Energy
Many of the fruits and vegetables in green juice are rich with antioxidants, phytochemicals, minerals, and vitamins. All of these compounds work together to boost your energy. In fact, some people describe the rush of energy after taking a green juice to be like a shot of espresso – without the jitters!
The main reason behind this burst of energy is the higher glucose levels. Juicing fruits and vegetables separates natural sugars from the fiber. Your juice is rich with these natural sugars. When these sugars enter the bloodstream, your glucose levels rise. It’s a powerful all-natural “pump”.
Weight Loss
If you’re trying to lose weight with green juices, consider skipping out on fruit – or adding less fruit. When made with just vegetables, green juice provides a healthy, nourishing snack despite containing very few calories.
Many of the calories in vegetables come from fiber. Since juicers remove fiber (the pulp), you’re left with vitamins, minerals, and valuable nutrients.
If you just eat green juice with no other food, then you’re probably going to lose weight. Of course, you’ll also be starving yourself. There aren’t enough calories, fibers, or proteins in green juice to maintain a healthy diet or even to feel full for long periods of time.
However, green juice does pair well with a moderate exercise routine. If you do 30 to 45 minutes of cardio activity at least 5 days per week while drinking green juice, you’re virtually guaranteed to lose weight. Below, we’ll explain why drinking green juice 20 minutes before each meal is the best way to maximize benefits.
Increase Immune System Functionality
Your immune system fights off illness and disease. Many of the ingredients in green juice – including spinach, kale, and broccoli – are powerful immune system boosters.
These ingredients have been scientifically proven to help reduce your risk of various diseases. Cruciferous vegetables – including broccoli and bok choy – actually contain one unique compound that provides an extra layer of protection to your body’s cells, thereby boosting immunity.
For that reason, many people drink green juice when they’re sick or starting to feel sick. If you’re lucky, your green juice may be able to fight off the illness before you even feel any symptoms.
Improve Your Complexion And Fight Acne
Whether you’re dealing with acne problems or general skin blemishes, green juice can help clear up these problems. Ingredients like cucumber are rich with silicon and act as a natural hydrator – two things you need to get glowing, healthy-looking skin.
Other popular green juice ingredients like celery contain sodium and minerals like vitamin C, both of which boost the elasticity of the skin. Ginger, apples, kale, and lemon juice also have powerful skin-enhancing benefits. When you give your body the vitamins and nutrients it needs, your skin will start to glow and acne will clear up.
They’re Surprisingly Delicious
Put lettuce, carrots, pears, and kale into a blender and it’s probably going to create a sticky, greenish, undrinkable mess.
But put those same ingredients into a juicer and you may be surprised by how tasty they are. Up above, I listed some of the most popular flavoring ingredients for green juice – like pineapples and Fuji apples. Add these ingredients to a traditional mixture of green juice and you get a delicious blend that’s also amazingly healthy.
Need help making your green juice a little tastier? Try using flavoring components like lime, juice, and ginger root – even a little bit can improve the taste! Apples and pears are also a safe bet.
5 Easy Ways to Maximize the Benefits of Green Juice
Want to make sure your body is extracting the maximum amount of benefits from green juice? Follow these easy tips:
1) Chew Or Swish The Juice In Your Mouth Before Swallowing
Even “pro” juicers may not know this tip, but many nutritionists recommend “chewing” juice before you swallow it. Or, if you feel silly trying to chew juice, at least try to swish it around your mouth.
Why the heck would you do this?
Well, there are important enzymes in your saliva. If you just swallow your juice without swirling it around, these enzymes never go to work. Swishing the juice around lets the enzymes spring into action and begin processing the juice before it enters your stomach
2) Don’t Treat Green Juice As A Meal Substitute
I mentioned above that green juice is rich with vitamins, nutrients, and minerals. That’s good. Green juice, however, is not rich with carbs, proteins, or fibers – three things that make you feel full. That’s bad. If you try using green juice as a meal substitute, you’ll actually end up eating more at times you do eat. I recommend drinking green juice 20 minutes before eating a meal.
You’ll eat less during your meal while maximizing your body’s absorption of vitamins and nutrients. The only time you should use green juice as a meal substitute is if you’re on a juice fast.
3) Get A Good Juicer
This may be the most important tip on this list. Your juice is going to be pulpy and weird-tasting if you use a poor-quality juicer. There are plenty of good juicer review guides on the internet. Try to find a juicer that has a large chute and an effective pulp filter. Most importantly, get a juicer that’s easy to clean – otherwise, you’ll never end up using your juicer.
Top juicer brands include Cuisinart, Black & Decker, Hamilton Beach, Nutri Ninja Pro, Nutribullet and Oster.
4) Don’t Use Too Many Sweet Fruits And Vegetables
One of the rookie mistakes of owning a juicer is trying to use too many sweet fruits and vegetables. Yes, your juice is going to taste delicious, but you’re also missing the point of juicing. Using too many sweet fruits and vegetables could cause digestive problems. It could also overload your body with fructose (fruit sugar), casing insulin levels to spike.
Natural sugar will still cause weight gain, tooth decay, and health problems when consumed in large amounts! Aim to use a single piece of sweet fruit in each fruit juice serving.
5) Drink Green Juice On An Empty Stomach
A lot of people drink green juice with breakfast every morning. Unfortunately, that’s not the most efficient way to drink green juice. Instead, try drinking green juice on an empty stomach. As mentioned above, 20 minutes before a meal may be the best time to drink green juice. Your stomach is empty, which means it will more easily absorb the vitamins and nutrients in your juice.
Conclusion: Ready to Try Green Juice?
Ultimately, green juice is a powerful concoction which has been intimately connected to some major health benefits. Whether you’re a long-time juicer or a rookie, consider adding a few glasses of green juice into your weekly diet to enjoy all the benefits listed above!
Please feel free to post your favorite Green Juice Concoction below.
