29 Sep THE DANGERS OF JUICING
Be careful my friends. I see one Juice Store after the next. While I love that people are looking to improve their overall intake of fruits and veggies, the amount of sugar consumed in one 16 oz. drink will not only exhaust your wallet, but it will also exhaust your pancreas.
Remember, the body always wants to be in a state of homeostasis (equilibrium of the systems), and when the body is out of it, there is a response of some sort. With Juicing, your blood sugars go up, as seen in the graph below. The black line represents blood sugar. The only way to decrease your blood sugar levels is for your body to push those sugar molecules into the cells. And in order to do that, you need insulin, which is shown by the red line.
Let’s think about this for a moment: The more sugar you have floating in your blood stream, the more insulin you have to make. The more insulin you make, the more out of balance your body becomes. So while your body wants to bring it back into balance, it cannot because now the insulin will hang out in the blood stream for hours after sugar has been transferred intracellularly, and what you will feel is exhaustion and/or starvation for more sugar. The brain gets yet another signal of unbalance which signals the muscles, the liver, and even the cravings cycle for more sugar to bring down the insulin. What a mess!
In my opinion, the only time you should juice is before a vigorous workout. Vigorous would be Orangetheory Fitness. And even though I recommend a juice, I don’t recommend larger than 8 oz. You don’t need it. Marathoner? Sure! Elite level athlete? Sure. Hour at the gym? Nah.
But keep eating your veggies and fruits, and your immune system will love you!