Green juice can be a healthy juice option for your diet. Many people turn to it when they want to have a better quality diet to lose weight or take care of their health. After all, the drink can complement meals, helping to consume more vegetables in the diet. Not to mention that it is a healthier option to drink than industrialized alternatives, such as fruit juice, soft drinks and other beverages.
However, to obtain the benefits of green juice, it is essential to avoid certain mistakes that can impair the nutritional quality of the drink and even cause weight gain . Know some of these mistakes and avoid them:
1. Not putting in a good proportion of Vegetables and Fruits
The presence of a fruit in the green juice makes the drink sweeter, thus avoiding the need to add sugar. However, care must be taken not to overdo the amount of fruit and not to end up using too few vegetables.
For example, a juice with two apples, a banana and just three kale leaves will have much more carbohydrates and calories coming from the fruits than the benefits of kale .
The basis of a good green juice should be vegetables. That is, you can abuse ingredients like cucumber, cabbage, parsley, among others. At the same time, he must rely on only a single serving of fruit, just to sweeten it in a natural way.
2. Make Green Juice in the Centrifuge or Strain
The ideal is to prepare the green juice in a blender and drink it without straining, so as not to lose the fiber in the ingredients. Fibers are a nutrient with many benefits, which are good for the intestine and improve the glycemic index of the juice.
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3. Swap a Big Meal for Juice
Some people have the idea of replacing a big meal like lunch or dinner with a glass of green juice. But you need to know that, normally, green juice is very rich in fiber and carbohydrates, however, it does not have much protein or healthy fats.
In other words, a green smoothie is not going to be as nourishing as a healthy lunch or dinner.
So, to avoid health problems, the ideal is to put together a complete, healthy and nutritious meal and complement it with a green juice, which would help with the consumption of vegetables.
If you still choose to swap the meal for green juice, be sure to include a source of protein and a source of healthy fat in the drink. If possible, consult a nutritionist to find out if it is really possible to exchange the meal for juice and also learn how to prepare the drink.
Keep in mind that the diet needs to be balanced, to avoid leaving the body weak and with low immunity, which can be dangerous.
4. Sweeten the Juice
Although they avoid white table sugar, some people sweeten their juice with brown sugar or honey because they think it’s healthier. However, these ingredients are also problematic.
The ideal is to use a portion of fruit and nothing else to sweeten the juice. That’s because even though they have more nutrients than white sugar, brown sugar and honey have a very large amount of high-glycemic carbohydrates.
Thus, these ingredients can greatly increase the glycemic index of the juice, which favors weight gain.
5. Drink the Juice the Next Day or After
It is essential to drink the juice immediately after its preparation, as leaving it to drink it a few hours later or even the next day is not a good idea. After all, over time the juice oxidizes, losing much of its antioxidants, vitamins and minerals.
For those who drink the juice in the morning and usually do it the day before because they have little time to prepare the drink first thing in the morning, the tip is to leave all the ingredients organized the night before, so that the next morning the job is just to put all in the blender and beat.
6. Make the Same Green Smoothie Every Day
Making green juice with the same ingredients every day is also not interesting. It is best to vary the fruits and vegetables, as this helps to create a more nutritious diet.
Also, diversifying the ingredients prevents you from getting sick of the green juice. After all, it’s almost impossible not to get tired of taking the same thing every day, isn’t it? Therefore, varying it will help to make the drink more enjoyable.
