I know this will seem like a sacrilege, but I am not convinced that juicing is good for you. It seems to me that it removes the naturally existing pulp fiber from the fruit or veg, concentrates the sugars in the fruit unaturally, and in general just isn't a natural food. I can see blending a little better, because at least then you aren't taking part of the food out, but it still seems unatural. Am I crazy?

?!?!?!

you're getting caught up in the "isnt natural" syndrome

- when I first went raw i started drinking vegetable, fruit, and green juice and was transformed by it: dramatic changes and insight came through!

juicing was one of the best things that ever happened "to me"

It all depend on how you use juicing and blending. There are many people who are sick with weak digestive system, they benefit greatly from juicing. Blending brings more to the body but it does not mean juicing is bad.

Your instincts are right on track. A whole food is always going to be healthier than a partial or refined food. Nature puts nutrients in food in the proportion that we need them, assuming these foods are ones we can eat and taste good to us in their raw state.

Fiber is a necessary nutrient, and without fiber it is hard for the digestive system to clean itself.

I will drink a juice now and then, mostly for entertainment, but I use whole fresh foods as much as possible for my meals.

-I would agree with Bryan (heck...THAT's easy to do!).

-Your instincts are correct. I kind of think of juicing as the raw food equivalent of supplementation! Ha! ha! For some...it helps to get in added nutrients.....and helps to stabilize them. For those who have been eating well for some time......it's not as big a deal.....but can be fun! Right now I've got about 4 lbs of fresh Florida Muscadine Grapes I'm probably going to juice! LOL. No WAY I'm gonna be able to eat all those suckers.......heck....I'm all graped out from the last grape stomping festival!

[www.henscratchfarms.com]

-David Mason

If you have been eating healthy all your life juicing will probably not make a big difference to your health.

If you have eaten processed food, fast food or dairy etc juicing will help as it requires very little digestion and releases energy to help your body detox.

Galileo

Juicing enables one to consume a whopping amount of powerful nutrition in a single glass. The "modern" rationale for juicing hinges upon the diminishing nutritional value of our foods caused by poor soil conservation, extended holding periods of fresh foods before hitting the market and so on (realities that are btw far from "natural" In other words our natural food supply is not as nutritious as it used to be, therefore we may need more fresh, raw produce for optimal health than the average person actually sits down to eat.

One of the ways to compensate for this is by juicing, which enables one to consume large amounts of fresh and various produce in one sitting without having to sit and chew for hours. I mean, its difficult to sit and masticate 12 carrots, but not difficult at all to drink that many. Plus juicing provides powerful nutritional benefits without taxing the digestive system and freeing up energy expended on digestion will go a long way towards any healing "chores" the body may require.

I agree that we need the fibers in whole foods, but I don't see why it has to be an either/or proposition. One can do both.

~Kathleen

yeah, What she said!

Who says we need to eat 12 carrots anyway?

The issue is not how many carrots you eat. The issue is getting lots of nutrients from a wide variety of veggies and fruits. Juicing is one way to do this.

Granted, this may be something more important during transition or while new to a raw or whole foods diet because many of us come to this thing malnourished and needing to build as well as cleanse our bodies.

Some of the experts say that its easier than we think to get everything we need nutritionally; some of the experts say its harder than we think to get every nutrient we need. The latter fall into two camps: the supplementation camp or the juicing camp. Right now, until I learn more that may change my mind, I'm sticking with the juicing camp. Just my take.

~K

shep 252,

nobody said that. the carrots was just an example.

here's another one

you could eat two bunches of kale, a bunch of celery, and a thumb of ginger. or drink that in a couple of glasses of juice. either way is good, and of course it is your choice. CHOW.

Thanks for all the response. I'm thinking I'll do a bit of blending (to retain the fiber and whole nutritional content of the food) to get enough greens. Just as a supplement. Alot of what Bryan says makes sense, too. Got Victoria Boutenko's book Green For Life. It's pretty convincing, as well as all of you. I think one thing one has to be careful of is to keep on chewing! If we drink most of our food, we aren't doing the chewing we should be doing naturally. Thanks, again.

yeah, I know it was an example. But wouldn't you overload on vitamin A from that many carrots?

I've done juicing in the beginning. It was too time consuming with washing all of the parts. Also, why did juicing make me feel hungry and empty? I didn't like that feeling. does anyone else feel that way with juicing? Is it the lack of fiber?