By Erin Renzas on January 16, 2012 in
Ever since Jack LaLanne and his Power Juicer popped into our late night infomercial programming, juicing your own fruits and vegetables has sounded like the perfect way to help shed a few of those extra pounds around the middle.
The problem is that juices, while more nutritious than soda, still have their fair share of calories and sugar. Often juice also has more calories than the fruit from which it's squeezed. For instance, there are just 85 calories in a large orange and 110 calories in an 8-ounce glass of orange juice. Plus, by juicing fruits and veggies you're actually stripping them of most of their oh-so-filling and healthy fiber. You may also want to consider this: some research suggests that calories consumed though liquids are not as successful at suppressing appetite as those consumed through solids.
However, a 2009 study out of the Baylor College of Medicine that followed 81 African-American and Hispanic adults found that those who drank at least one glass of low-sodium vegetable juice a day (in this case, V-8--the sponsor of the study), lost four times as much weight over a 12-week period than those who didn't. The reason? The Texas-based scientists are unclear but think that the vegetable juice, at just about 41 calories per glass, helped subjects feel fuller and was a low-calorie, high-nutrient deterrent from high-caloric snacks.
While the weight loss science warriors are still debating the merits of juicing in the war on obesity, embrace juice for what it is: a nutrition friend. Fresh squeezed fruit and veggie juices deliver tons of vitamins and nutrients to your body. Still, it's important to watch your intake as calories can add up and eventually add numbers to the scale.
Ready to try juicing at home? Find great juicer models for every budget in our updated report.