Lately I have been receiving a lot of questions regarding juicing and whether it is a viable source of nutrients and can be used effectively in a healthy diet.

My answer?

Fresh juices (straight from your own juicer, with a variety of different vegetables and fruits) will provide you with a good source of vitamins, minerals and essential nutrients to assist on those days when you can’t eat a decent portion of these foods, or you don’t have the time for a big meal. I personally tend to have a fresh juice in the morning with my morning meat meal (generally chicken thighs or an organic cut of beef), that will consist of at least five different vegetables and two fruits.

BUT…

In saying this though, there is NO SUBSTITUTE for the real, whole food.

The downsides of juicing are definitely significant and should be taken into account when considering whether juicing is a viable option for yourself.

Juicing effectively eliminates the entirety of the skin of the produce, meaning that for fruits and vegetables that contain the vast majority of their nutrients and fibre content in their outside layers and skin you will not be getting their full benefit in a juice form. Foods such as apples, pears, plums, and the antioxidant rich blueberries, strawberries, raspberries and blackberries contain the vast majority of their highly beneficial carotenoids and flavonoids in their skin, and so should ultimately been eaten whole.

Juicing also reduces the food from a ‘whole package’ to a ‘refined package’ that decreases the ratio of sugar to substance. This means that in juice form, you are going to ingest a higher ratio of the natural sugars than you should be WITHOUT the benefit of the fibre to slow down the digestion and absorption of these sugars (which is essential to minimise the overload of sugar in your system).

So my final word on the topic?

If you have a diet that is already high in raw, organic vegetables and fruits and you are finding it difficult to add in any more ‘eating time’, a home made fresh juice that is downed within ten minutes of being made will only help boost antioxidant and nutrient levels in your system.

Store bought juices from places like Woolies and Coles are definitely a no-no, due to the processing and packaging systems causing almost all nutrients to become oxidised and reducing the juice to just glorified sugar-water.

Fresh juices bought from juice bars need to be scrutinised carefully due to the bars generally not being as picky with their quality of produce that you would be, but could be a good option depending on the bar.

Happy juicing!

Josh

It never has been.

And frankly, I’m sick and tired of the bullshit that gets peddled in the media, in the stores, and by other (excuse my French) shit ‘health professionals’ (Yes thats YOU – dieticians, nutritionists, personal trainers, exercise physiologists, doctors, physiotherapists and anybody else peddling ‘weight loss’). It’s not about the weight.

Yes, some people must lose ‘a percentage of their body mass’, sometimes a LOT of their body mass, before we can consider them healthy. But lets take a look at this for a second… What are these people actually doing? If they are doing things correctly, achieving ‘health’ how health should be achieved, they are bringing their body back towards homeostasis*.

They are taking their body from a toxic, stressed state to a size and shape that is normal for them, through the application of correct nutrition, training and lifestyle modifications. This ‘normal size’ is different for each and every person. It is geneticially imprinted into each of your cells upon birth, and is innately linked to the ‘primal being’ inside you, and not some misinformed, misguided and mistaken pseudo-YOU that you develop through other people’s perceptions and beliefs. Sometimes you must gain ‘weight’ to be healthy, but this does not mean you are fat. Quite the opposite. If you are healthy, your muscles are dense. Your blood flows correctly. Your body is quite literally a fat burning machine, using that fat as fuel to feed your ever-thirsty, lean muscle mass.

So what is it we should be focusing on?

Body fat loss. Energy levels. Digestive ability. Taste sensation. Lean muscle mass. Bone density.

All of these things can be measured, whether qualitiatively or quantitavely, and give us a much better definition of whether we are ‘healthy’ than weight loss alone could ever give us.

So what is a healthy look?

In my own personal opinion, health looks like muscle mass. Health looks like clean skin. Health means sparkling eyes, reduced body odour, and a postively energised aura. This doesn’t come with ‘weight loss’. This comes with a complete transition of your thinking, and comes from an understanding that a fading person is not necessarily a healthy person.

Healthy people can lift shit.

Healthy people can move in all three planes of motion, under unstable loading parameters (gravity, instability), WITHOUT restriction.

Healthy people have ENERGY. They GLOW. They can digest GOOD FOOD.

Healthy people don’t look for energy drinks, protein supplements, schmancy machines or bullshit training regimes.

Healthy people understand their BODY, know what their body WANTS, and then GIVE IT TO IT.

So don’t think ‘weight loss’. Think ENERGY. Think MINIMISE BODY FAT. Think FUNCTION.

Think HEALTH.

And then for God’s sake don’t sit around moping when your Lite n Easy diet, machine-based training regime and energy drink consuming lifestyle makes you THIN and SICK.

Josh

*Homeostasis is a state whereby the bodies’ systems are working in synergy, Yin and Yang, and that the balance of the sympathetic and parasympathetic branches of the nervous system are functioning optimally. What this means is that body fat loss is maximised, circadian rhythms flow naturally, and all muscles, organs and body systems are supplied with the right amounts of blood at the right times for repair and function, amongst other things.

Forget the bullshit about reading nutritional labels.

Just eat healthy from the start…

Recently a new iPhone application named FoodSwitcher has hit the app store, proclaiming to make it ‘easier for people to know which supermarket foods are healthy’, based on a ‘green and red light warning system’.

Now I know there is major confusion out there in the big wide world today. I know it can sometimes be pretty bloody hard to understand the detailed scientific writings that are put on packaged foods and beverages today.

But it is my personal opinion that we REALLY don’t need an app such as this, if the tiniest little bit of brain activity was initiated whilst IN the shops!

Here are MY three basic rules for eating healthy:

1. If it wasn’t here 10,000 years ago – it isn’t good for you.

2. If it is made in a factory – it isn’t good for you.

3. If you don’t know nor understand what a SINGLE word in the ingredients list is – DON’T F*****G EAT IT!

There is no possible way that anything that has not come from something grown in the ground, has itself grown in the ground, or eats something that has grown in the ground, can be good for you. Chemicals, radiation, additives, preservatives, flavourings and any other added ‘-ing’s’ are made by man and as such, are not good for you.

You can argue with me as much as you want and tell me I’m wrong and I’m a quack (which is what I have been called before, usually by overweight and sickly ‘health professionals’), but the research and the results I have achieved with hundreds upon hundreds of clients speak for themselves.

Nature is good. Man is bad.

You don’t need an app to tell you that.

Josh