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Are juices such a good idea?

Juicing fruit and vegetables is said to detoxify, aid weight loss and prevent diseases. But how much good does it really do?

NO SPECIAL ADVANTAGE Only if you can't eat it, drink it

Juice bars are nothing new. Many celebrities have sung the praises of juicing fruit and vegetables. Naturopath newspaper and magazine columnists are recommending juice blends to cure anything from psoriasis to PMT. Juicing is big business and drinking fresh juice is an undoubtedly healthy way to get more fresh fruit and vegetables into your system. However, to get maximum nutrients, "Juice must be un-pasteurised, made only with fresh and raw ingredients, no concentrates or added sweeteners." This is something that bottled products and some juice bars don't always achieve.

But sometimes the image surrounding juices that they are necessary to cleanse our colons which are clogged with rotting food and therefore cannot absorb nutrients properly, that they help detox the body and aid weight loss is scientifically shaky. According to Dr. Adam Harris, consultant gastroenterologist at Kent and Sussex hospital, U.K.,"If your colon is blocked or your digestion not functioning or absorbing nutrients properly, you will be very ill. Some disease processes such as a tumour, diverticular disease, inflammatory bowel disease and severe constipation can narrow the diameter of the colon. In the absence of disease, the only thing found in the lumen [lining] is faeces, which is entirely normal. If it wasn't, we would all be sitting on the loo all the time."

As for juice helping your body absorb nutrients,Harris says, "If your small intestine is not absorbing nutrients properly, the last thing you will need is a juice diet because the first symptoms of a disease in the small intestine that affects absorption of nutrients and calories will be weight loss and profound watery diarrhoea."

Incorrect notion

Again, according to Sir Colin Berry, professor emeritus of pathology at Queen Mary's Hospital, London, the notion that juices detox the body is incorrect. He says, "Your body is `detoxing' itself all the time: your gut and skin prevent bacteria and many toxins from entering the rest of your body, but when harmful chemicals do get through, the liver acts as a kind of chemical factory, combining them with its own chemicals to make water-soluble compounds that can be excreted by the kidneys [as urine]. The human body works at a fixed rate for many of its detox processes, which can't be speeded up in any way. Even special juice blends, or the juice of particular fruits such as pomegranate, star fruit or any other trendy `superfoods' do not have magical powers to remove toxins from the system."

The only nutritional difference between eating a carrot, and drinking the juice of one, is the fibre content. This is why juice, fruit or vegetable, only counts as one portion a day [of the five recommended], regardless of how much is drunk. Juice has little fibre. Juicing also squashes the natural sugars out of the cells that normally contain them, which means that drinking juice in between meals isn't good for your teeth.

Most people, of course, embark on juice diets to lose weight. One New Yorker's blog about dropping 12 pounds (weight) in one week on the Juice Master diet says it all: "Today I ate: 1 Lemon Tea . . . 1 Super Juice with psyllium husk. That's IT!" There is, then, no magic to juice: you lose weight because you consume fewer calories. However, says Dr. Helen Croker, clinical research dietician at University College London, some of this dramatic weight loss will not be fat. "It is not physiologically possible to lose that much fat in one week," she explains. "You can lose a maximum of 2-4lb of body fat in one week but beyond that the weight lost will be your body's fuel reserves and water." Start eating again and you will regain some, if not all, of the weight.

The main advantage of juicing is that because the pulverised raw materials can taste good, it may encourage you to consume more fruit and vegetables. According to Cancer Research U.K., studies show that those of us who eat a lot of fruit and vegetables have a lower risk of certain cancers.

But if juiced with something tasty, even unpalatable vegetables (greens, for instance) can be made palatable. So, if you can't eat it, drink it.

©Guardian Newspapers Limited 2006

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