I’ve been reading and rereading several books on Candida and cleansing lately, mostly because the weather is getting warmer and all people seem to want to do is detox and cleanse (there’s a difference) like it’s a cure-all for poor eating habits.
I’ve come across several passages in at least three books that say the following, in the same chapter:
- Adding freshly juiced fruits and vegetables is good for you.
- Eating a diet rich in fiber from fruits and vegetables is good for you.
- Drinking too much fruit and vegetable juice can spike your blood sugar and is not good for you.
- Too much fiber is not good for you because it can interfere with absorption.
- Drinking liquid meals often is not good for digestion [because chewing is part of the digestive process and since your saliva aids in digesting, not chewing means you’re not helping your stomach digest food].
- Drinking pureed juices is not good for you because the fiber interferes with absorption.
So what are you supposed to do?
Don’t drink fresh juice?
Don’t drink pureed juice?
Don’t drink smoothies?
How is the reader (you, me) supposed to make sense of this?
Yes, digestion starts in the mouth (technically, it starts in the brain where the sight and smell of food triggers signals to the mouth and stomach), but since the stomach’s job is to break down solids into a liquid before passing through to the intestines, shouldn’t you be able to consume liquid meals? (Side note: this is why it’s really important to take small bites and chew your food well. The more work you do in your mouth, the less work your stomach has to do to continue to break food down).
Yes, when you strip fiber from fruits and vegetables, you’re left with what is essentially sugar water (the juice), and your body will absorb the sugars much faster than in its whole form. So shouldn’t it follow that if you’re pureeing the vegetable or fruit, than you’re not going to experience the same absorption rate because the fiber is still intact?
If you’re not absorbing nutrients from your food, you have a whole other problem that can’t be entirely blamed on consuming too much fiber (like not drinking enough water or not producing enough of the digestive enzymes necessary to for good absorption).
I like the way I feel when I have a simple green smoothie everyday (1-2 fruits, 1 type of leafy green, liquid). I feel nourished and sated for far longer and don’t feel the need to eat every few hours.
When I was a strict vegetarian (AKA dietary vegan), I was eating ALL THE TIME and meal preparation took up a significant chunk of my day-to-day activities, because I wanted to make sure I was eating a balanced diet of minimally processed whole foods. I couldn’t (and didn’t want to) eat highly processed foods like tofu, soymilk, and meat and dairy substitutes, the only thing available to most of us in mainstream USA. When I was living this lifestyle, it seemed the only people not afraid of vegetables were raw foodists, but even some of them were very extreme (and very wasteful) when it came to practicing a plant-based diet. And I didn’t want to live like that either.
It was really difficult to be social having to worry about how I was going to eat, especially around other strict vegetarians whose staples were soy burgers, “chik’n” nuggets, pasta, French fries, and soy cheese pizza.
So when I found out that you could actually blend a leafy green into some fruit AND have it actually TASTE good, I never looked back. I feel good, I look good, and most importantly, I poop good.
Blending my fruits and vegetables into juices, smoothies, soups, and sorbets have been life-changing. I feel like I’m eating so much better than when I was trying to eat several pounds of salad, sautéed greens, or fruit everyday.
And because my life can be crazy, throwing something in the Vitamix will save my life when I can’t sit down to chew something, let alone have something good to choose from.
So, while these books are helpful, I’m gonna keep on keeping on with my blended fruits and veggies.
They’re doing alright by me.
