Ways you may be juicing wrong

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Juicing has several wonderful benefits. First, it’s an easy way to consume a lot of produce with little work. So if the chopping and chewing is what’s holding you back, juicing can be a great alternative. It can also help introduce healthy bacteria into your gut, and even boost nutrient absorption. It may even lower cholesterol, and for some, juicing can improve complexion and energy. But you only get these benefits if you juice correctly. Too many individuals hoping to get some health points hear about juicing and just start…drinking juice. But it doesn’t work that way. How you make the juice, what type of produce you use, how often and for how long you juice—all of these things matter. And if you don’t juice properly, you run the risk of having many things happen that are the opposite of what you wanted, like low energy and malnutrition. Here are ways you may be juicing wrong.

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Drinking it with or after a meal

You should drink your juice on an empty stomach in order to get maximum nutrient absorption. Don’t treat it like water, a cocktail, or whatever else you’d drink along with your meal. Have it alone, at least twenty minutes before food.

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Failing to diversify

If you’re already going to spend the effort on juicing, diversify! This is your chance to get more fruits and veggies into your diet that you typically don’t feel like cooking, or don’t enjoy eating whole. They’ll probably be pretty tasty in the right juice recipe.

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Not reading recipes

Speaking of recipes, read them. If you just start throwing things in your juicer with no plan, you may come up with something that tastes like swamp water, and turns you off to the process altogether.

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Drinking too fast

Important parts of the digestion process occur in the mouth, so let your juice hang out in there for a moment. Don’t just gulp it down as quickly as possible (even though you’re tempted to, since speediness is one of the benefits of drinking versus eating veggies).

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Using high sugar fruit

It’s easy to rapidly consume too much sugar when you juice. Avoid high sugar fruits. Anything overly ripe will be an issue, so stick to bananas that are only light yellow, mangos that are still firm, and papaya that is still light orange or pink inside rather than deep orange.

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Ignoring the 80/20 rule

Generally speaking, if you stick to this rule that recommends 80 percent veggies and 20 percent fruit, you should do a good job of avoiding too much sugar.

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Overkill with kale

I know you want to take this chance to cram down those bitter greens you don’t like to eat raw, like kale and spinach. But putting too many of these in your juicer can quickly make your recipe too bitter, and you’ll have to toss the batch out. Stick to milder greens like cabbage and celery.

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Not knowing your juicers

There is the centrifugal, which requires less cutting, but also produces less juice, and the vertical auger masticating, which requires lots of cutting, but creates more juice and takes up less space. The latter makes what you know as cold-pressed juice.

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Not adding hard ingredients

Adding some hard ingredients like an apple or a few carrots will help your blender do a better job of grabbing onto and blending the softer items like spinach and kale. Without hard ingredients, you’ll get a lot of green pulp stuck in your juicer blades.

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Refrigerating your juice

You may want to make a giant batch and refrigerate half for later, but don’t do it. Your juice should be consumed right away for you to get the maximum nutrients. Fresh is key.

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Only juicing

You should not only consume juice. Juice should be a supplement to real food, but it should not replace meals. Only consuming juice can lead to serious consequences like fainting and malnutrition.

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Not buying organic

Juicing won’t do you much good if you’re consuming a bunch of pesticides that cancel out the benefits of the nutrients. If you can afford it, go organic.

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Or not washing your produce

If you cannot buy organic, invest in a good produce wash. Soak your fruit and veggies in there for a while to remove pesticides.

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Going frozen

As we mentioned before, your produce should be fresh if you’re going to get anything out of this whole juicing thing. So, unfortunately, you can’t go with the frozen stuff. Save that for your smoothies.