It
seems like green juice has become synonymous with health. And if there
were ever a sign of an exploding industry, it would have to be the fact
that the number of pretty little shops selling nothing but
beautifully-colored juices is starting to rival the crazy number of
cupcake places in NYC. And while I love a concoction of kale, apple,
lemon, and ginger at The Butcher's Daughter, whenever my patients ask about juices, I tell them to avoid them.
I
realize this might sound radical, and that the juice industry is
probably already forming an angry mob outside my door. I am an
integrative doctor, and I know many of my peers often prescribe shakes
and juices. Often the rationale for shakes is that many people have what
is called leaky gut,
meaning their intestines have been damaged over time by a diet of
chemicals, processed food, and pharmaceutical drugs, their digestive
systems aren’t functioning well, and they won’t absorb whole foods
properly. The drinks are therefore a delivery vehicle for supplements
and nutraceuticals, because in liquid form they are more easily and
quickly digested, and therefore will be more fully absorbed into the
bloodstream.
This may be true, and helpful
when prescribed to replete a specific nutrient in people with real
absorption problems, but there are a lot of downsides to a liquid
diet—even if only for one meal a day—and for the following reasons I
encourage my patients to make juices a treat, never a staple.
Here are five reasons NOT to make juices a routine part of your diet:
1. Juices leave you hungry.
Solids
take almost twice as long as liquids to leave your stomach, meaning if
you’re having a drink for a meal, you’ll be leaving your belly hurting
for something to chew on. Especially for people trying to lose weight, this can end up meaning eating more over the course of the day.
2. Fat is back!
Don’t
go back to the terrible, fat-free 80s. Juices generally don’t contain
much (if any) fat or protein, both of which stimulate your brain to
quiet hunger pangs when they reach your small intestine. This is another
reason you won’t be satiated as long from a juice.
3. Constipation!
You need fiber
for your gut to move and not get stuck. I once had a patient who had
been put on a liquid diet in the hospital after surgery and had gotten
confused after discharge and never stopped putting all his meals in a
blender. No laxative was strong enough for him. You need fiber to induce
proper peristalsis (the waves of contraction of your intestinal muscles
that move food along). Juicing pulverizes all that fiber, rendering it
useless.
4. You'll miss out on good germs.
Fermentation
is the key to health and fermentation happens in the large intestine
thanks to plant fiber and the helpful bacteria that like to eat it. You
can take all the probiotics
you want, but if you don’t give the bugs in your colon the complex
carbs and fermentable plant fibers they like to munch on, you miss out
on the golden byproduct of bacterial digestion: the short-chain fatty
acids that nourish and protect the gut barrier and reduce inflammation.
5. You should detox more than your bloodstream.
In Ayurveda, Ama,
or toxic residue, builds up in the tissues as a result of eating
unhealthy foods or foods you don’t digest well (like eating bread if you
have celiac disease), consuming drugs and alcohol, and stress. Blood is
one kind of tissue, but don’t forget about connective tissues like
ligaments and tendons, and bones, muscles, nerves and fat.
These
tissues can build up Ama, too. Many people use juicing to detox, but
while a one-day juice fast might kick-start your kidneys to clean out
your plasma, a longer term, healthy detox that includes eating whole,
fibrous foods like fruits, vegetables and whole grains like quinoa and
farro, will stimulate your gut to keep moving and pull deeply embedded
toxins out with it. This kind of detox—for a week or even a month—will
leave you clean to the bones without starving and whacking out your
metabolism.
My motto is eat real whole food, and don’t drink your calories. You don’t need fancy drinks to be healthy. Just water and sometimes medicinal teas. The occasional green juice is gravy.
