Juice diet is one of the express diet plans aimed primarily at cleansing the body of toxins and relieving the digestive system. Due to the fact that this diet leads to rapid weight loss, it is also sometimes used as a way to lose weight. Certainly it is not a system of nutrition that can remain with us for a long time, but on the other hand, carefully conducted juice diet can bring us several important benefits, including slimming figure.
Table of contents
- 1 Juice diet – not as easy and pleasant as it seems…
- 2 Juice diet – rules. How to eat during the raw detoxification treatment?
- 3 Juice diet – the effects on health, well-being and the appearance of the figure
- 4 Juice diet – the plan
- 5 Juice diet – menu
- 6 Juice diet – recipes for slimming and cleansing juices
- 7 Juice diet – opinions
Juice diet – not as easy and pleasant as it seems…
Shedding a few kilograms in a few days? It is possible, among others thanks to the juice diet, which, as the name suggests, is based on juices – freshly squeezed, prepared with the use of vegetables or fruit, or both.
Behind the promise of a rapid reduction in body weight there is, however, a considerable nutritional radicalism, which, embarking on a juice diet, we must prepare ourselves for. We need a lot of determination, while following a juice diet we can forget about fresh rolls for breakfast, aromatic soups and substantial second courses for lunch or delicious salads and toasts for dinner.
Juice diet – rules. How to eat during the raw detoxification treatment?
Being on a juice diet, for about 1-3 days we only consume juices made on the spot (just before drinking) with a juicer, squeezer or blender, the latter solution being recently gaining popularity. In blender juices, or in other words, in blender cocktails, vegetables and fruit are chopped whole, whereas in juicers and juicer juices, some of the raw materials are wasted. Blender cocktails, therefore, contain more valuable ingredients – fibre, antioxidants, enzymes, vitamins – than classic juices from a juicer or a squeezer, so they can be more valuable to us, especially if we are in a weight-loss cycle and products with high fibre content are important for us.
As already mentioned, during a juice diet we only drink juices. The only additives we can allow ourselves are spices (except salt and ready-made spice mixes), herbs, herbal and fruit teas, green tea, vegetable broths without added fat.
Due to the limitation of the products consumed and not providing adequate amounts of important nutrients, such as proteins and carbohydrates, the juice diet should not last longer than 3 days. Of course after its completion we can continue the juicing treatment, which is even advisable, but it is important that after these 3 days we start introducing other products into the menu – cereal products, skimmed dairy, eggs, lean meats and fish, vegetables and fruits in other forms than liquid.
No less important than the diet after the juice diet is the diet before it. One should prepare for a juice diet by gradually reducing the calories consumed and excluding other products from the menu. Too abrupt a transition from a hearty menu to a strict juice diet could be a shock to our body and result in a terrible mood and quick discontinuation of the diet.
Juice diet – the effects on health, well-being and the appearance of the figure
Juice diet, also called juice detox, is a typical diet cleansing the body from toxins. It stimulates the process of intensive removal of accumulated in our body poisons coming from processed food and environment as well as unnecessary products of metabolism. It also helps to get rid of excess water from the body. It improves the work of the digestive system (which suddenly ceases to be overloaded with processed and difficult to digest food), improves metabolism and improves the functioning of the entire system.
Juice cleansing has another effect, which is very beneficial for overweight people, namely a rapid loss of body weight. It occurs because juices of fruits and vegetables provide very small amounts of calories. This is due to the increased use of fat reserves as an energy source. Moreover, during a juice diet our body excretes a lot of water, and as we know, the loss of subcutaneous water also affects the overall reduction of body weight.
Juice detox is valuable for those wishing to embark on a long-term weight loss for another reason as well – like any liquid diet, it affects the shrinking of the stomach, which promotes a faster feeling of satiety during a meal and eating smaller amounts of food.
In short, the direct effects of a juice diet are:
- detoxification of the body,
- weight loss of 2-5 kg,
- shrinking of the stomach,
- improvement of the metabolic process,
- improvement of the digestive system,
- cleansing of the liver and kidneys,
- improvement of mood.
Juice diet – the plan
The worst thing we can do is to start a juice detox abruptly, without prior gradual dietary restrictions. Our body does not react well to any radical change, including sudden replacement of standard, varied meals with juices. It is best to start introducing a dietary menu about a week before the planned detox start introducing a dietary menu. We give up fast food and other processed food, eliminate unhealthy fats, sweets, alcohol, limit single portions of food. Divide the menu into 4-5 small meals consisting mainly of vegetables and fruits and small amounts of lean meat or fish, eggs, lean dairy and cereal products (e.g. rice, groats, bread).
- Breakfast: 2 slices of bread, 3 slices of sirloin, tomato, grapefruit
- 2nd breakfast: fruit salad
- Dinner: tomato soup in vegetable broth with a small amount of rice
- Afternoon snack: millet with milk
- Dinner: graham cracker, cottage cheese with vegetables
For 2 days before the juice diet we give up meat and other animal products, we eat only vegetables and fruits, and possibly seeds and wholemeal products in small amounts. We also do not drink coffee or black tea, replacing them with herbal and fruit teas. We start each day with a large glass of a drink that stimulates the metabolism and cleanses toxins – it can be water with lemon juice, water with honey, ginger and chilli or water with turmeric.
The exit stage also plays an important role in the juice diet plan. After completing the diet, you should gradually start introducing other products – during the first 2 days you eat only vegetables and fruits, and possibly small amounts of grains, in the following days you reach for small portions of groats, rice, cooked lean meat or cooked fish, cottage cheese. As far as possible, we try to maintain a dietetic, healthy style of eating for further weeks. Otherwise, for example, if we start to eat processed foods, sweets and unhealthy fats to a great extent, our detox will be of little use, and the pounds that we have managed to lose will quickly return to us.
Juice diet is a liquid diet, so during its duration we forget about all solid foods and focus on juices and cocktails made of vegetables and fruits. It is worth starting each day with a large glass of still mineral water with lemon juice to speed up metabolism and provide yourself with an electrolyte boost. Meals on the juice diet are composed in a varied way in order to minimize the feeling of nutritional monotony and to provide as many different nutrients as possible.
It is best to divide the menu into 6 meals. During each of them we drink a large portion of juice (about half a liter) of selected vegetables or fruit, or both. Juices with a predominance of fruit are best left for the morning hours and around midday – at these times of the day we need larger amounts of simple carbohydrates, which are abundant in fruit. Vegetable dominant juices are best in the afternoon and evening – they are low in calories but filling and nutritious. As the first breakfast is the most important meal of the day, it’s worth making sure it’s particularly rich in both quantity and quality.
- Breakfast: a thick smoothie of banana, orange, fresh spinach leaves and apple
- 2nd breakfast: Carrot and peach juice with turmeric
- Lunch: Green smoothie with avocado, broccoli, cucumber, kiwi
- Afternoon: Beetroot and celery juice with lemon juice
- Dinner: cocktail of green peas, celery and apple
Juice diet – recipes for slimming and cleansing juices
To get the maximum good results from the juice treatment, it is worth drinking them immediately after preparation. We create juices from any vegetables and fruits, if we want, we can enrich them with spices, such as: ginger, nutmeg, cinnamon, pepper, curry, turmeric or herbs – mint, basil, oregano, parsley, thyme. We try not to add water, salt or sugar to our compositions.
Recipes for filling juices and cocktails
- Set 1: 3 pears, 6 plums, 3 parsley root, 1 leek, 4 cucumbers, lemon juice
- Set2: 3 apples, 3 beets, 3 cloves of garlic, 1 pepper, 2 carrots, oregano
- Set3: 1 large broccoli, 1 large zucchini, 3 kiwi, ginger
- Set4: 0.5 pineapple, 2 peaches, 2 sprigs of celery, fresh mint
- Set5: 6 tomatoes, 2 peppers, 2 carrots, 1 chili pepper, curry
- Pack of6: 2 cups of currants, 2 bananas, 3 handfuls of kale or lettuce, cinnamon
- Set7: 2 glasses of blueberries, 1 avocado, 3 apples, 3 handfuls of spinach leaves
- Pack of8: 2 cups of strawberries, 2 oranges, 3 carrots, a bunch of parsley
- Pack of9: 2 cups of cherries, 2 bunches of grapes, 4 nectarines, 2 bananas
- Set10: 1 head of lettuce, 3 handfuls of rocket, 5 cucumbers, 1 celery, 2 apples, basil
Juice diet – opinions
Opinions on the juice diet are divided. Some people are very satisfied with it because of its excellent effects – improvement of mood, elimination of chronic fatigue, general health improvement, improvement of skin and hair condition or weight loss. Others think that a juice diet is too restrictive, tiring and that there are much gentler, yet equally effective, ways to detoxify and lose weight.
Certainly a juice detox is not for everyone. If you feel that drinking juices alone for 2-3 days would be too exhausting for you, you should opt for another way of cleansing and shedding pounds.
You can also apply a juice diet in a slightly reduced form – drink a few portions of juices every day, but at the same time do not completely give up other products. For example – for breakfast we eat half a graham with cottage cheese and tomato and drink juice. For the second breakfast we drink only juice. For lunch we eat 100 g of rice with a vegetable cure plus juice. For afternoon tea we have a smoothie, and for dinner we have juice plus baked fish with vegetables.
