DO NUTRIENTS DIE WHEN YOU MAKE JUICE AHEAD OF TIME?

VITAMIN LOSS ASSOCIATED WITH PRE-MADE VEGETABLE JUICE

Can you and I agree before you read my blogpost that we're probably going to eat breakfast, lunch, dinner, and perhaps one or two snacks on most days? This is not a fast day. We're going to consume calories for energy and normal cellular replacement, repair, and growth from some kind of food source, be that solid or liquid.

Now that we've agreed to this, let me ask you, "In what nutritional state is the food that you're planning on consuming in?" Specifically, are you having grilled chicken that was killed several days ago or killed a couple of weeks ago and was frozen until it was purchased by your local grocer served on top of a head of lettuce that was picked over a week ago and then transported over several days via truck or barge 1,200 - 3,600 miles along with a few slices of cucumber and tomato that were taken from their vines two weeks ago?

I'm asking these tough questions in order to get you to think and understand that the food that you are going to eat really is NOT fresh at all, therefore, why are you overly concerning yourself with the nutrient integrity of your pre-made, stored vegetable juice to the point where you are thinking that it just isn't worth juicing vegetables and fruit you bought from your local fresh market or green grocer if you're not going to juice it and drink it immediately when the alternative meal that you would eat in place of the juice is FAR FROM fresh or nutrient packed?

Life is sometimes a long way off from perfect. Sometimes we have to hope for the best and accept  the best-case scenario alternative. Many times, however, we're not going to get anything close to the ultimate result we were looking for so you and I are going to have to accept the best of whatever we can get at a particular moment. 

Juicing can be just like life. Real-time juicing followed by immediate consumption is of course the ultimate way to get the most nutrition out of your at-home juicing or made-to-order guzzled-down-on the-spot juice from your local juice bar. Many times, however, we just don't get that option so we have to SETTLE for the best we can get which isn't the best case scenario but it is far better than nothing.

Making a large amount of juice ahead of time and storing it in the refrigerator in order get your daily allowance of vitamin-packed vegetables and fruits if you work an 8-12 hour-a-day job, are a full-time mother of 1-4 little kids, are taking 12-15 credits at school, are a busy social butterfly with lots of stuff to do throughout the day, or maybe just lazy person who doesn't want to make juice and then clean up a juicer 3-4 times a day is a great idea. Some nutrients, however, naturally breakdown or decay over time due to lipid oxidation, lipid rancidity, light, heat, and from a variety of complex reactions that involve degradation, volatilization, and recombination of sugars, amino acids, aldehydes, ketones, hydroperoxides, organic acids, and then there's phytochemical breakdown of flavonols, flavonoids, and color pigment that occur in vegetable, herb, and fruit juice. 

Some of the huge words I just used above may have scared you into thinking pre-made juice is worthless but it isn't. The lifespan of most of the vitamins you are hoping to get from juicing are several days or longer so you're not going to lose much nutritional value in making and storing your vegetable juice ~12, 18, or 24 hours ahead of time. Drinking pre-made, stored vegetable juice is better than not drinking vegetable juice at all. 

Vitamins A, K, C, and E last a long time before decaying. Most of your B vitamins, like B6 for example, stay in the juice for the most part during 24-hour cold refrigeration. B3, however, is one of the shorter-lived B vitamins which has a short half-life of ~20-45 minutes but your body makes B3 so you really shouldn't worry about your juice's B3 degradation. 

In conclusion, the freshest juice is best BUT we don't live in a perfect world. We live in a 20-minute behind schedule, oh my gosh I lost my keys, I'm never going to make it on time, "Did I remember to brush my teeth" kind of a world so stop sweating the small stuff. 

Drink the freshest juice you can. Remember that some juice is BETTER THAN no juice at all. A good rule of thumb if you have to pre-make your vegetable juice and store it in the refrigerator for later consumption is to minimize the juice's exposure to light and heat while slowing down cellular oxidation by using a resealable glass jar or jug that is filled as high to the top of the lid as possible to reduce the amount of oxygen in the container that can cause oxidation and refrigerate the vegetable/fruit juice in a really cold fridge but don't freeze it (no ice particles). 

Here's to your health,

-Bell Gia

Nutrition and Fitness Expert

Displacing Good Calories with Convenience-Food Alternatives

I Can't Drink All that Green Juice

GRAB & GO
MAKE & TAKE

I hear it all the time from my clients,"I can't get down all that vegetable juice. I can't finish it all. "We can chug down a 20-ounce big gulp and slam a pilsner of beer but we can't drink a serving-sized plastic cup of veggie juice...So why do you think that is?" I ask.

We spend much of our days rushing from here to there in the hopes of getting everything done and still workout in order to stay healthy, trim, and fit. 

Does this sound like you: Got to get to the gym early in the morning so I'm going to stop at Starbucks after my exercise class and grab a quick coffee and breakfast sandwich because I can't be late to work. Or is this you -- Taking a couple courses at school to further my education or get ahead in my career so I'm going to jump out and grab Chipotle so I can squeeze in a couple sets at the gym or catch that 5:45pm spin class. No, then perhaps this is you: The kids need to get picked up from daycare or aftercare, therefore, I'll just drive through the golden arches and grab a chicken wrap and then high-tail it over to karate. 

Rush, rush, rush. Many of us are in such a hurry that we think we only have time to grab something QUICK to eat and drink in order to stay on time for everything else we have to accomplish on any one given day and still get our exercise in somewhere. We've talked ourselves into believing that this is what we must do to get everything done and still have time to stay fit and healthy but what we are really doing is counterproductive to your goals and many of us are clueless. 

You are trying to get thin or stay weight stable but what you're actually doing is sabotaging your gains and weight-loss success by displacing the good calories you could be eating that are better for your body with other less-valuable food calories in the hopes of saving yourself some time and money. 

That stop at the Buck in the morning is costing you $8 and 20 minutes of your time. It is also simultaneously filling up your stomach with a quick source of energy (caffeine) along with a bunch of fat you don't need, some not-too-great overly-processed protein, and more carbs than your body needs to get four hours of work done before the lunchtime meal arrives. With that same eight bucks and fourth of an hour, you could juice five pounds of carrot and an entire package of celery. Yes, you really could. 

I have timed this same scenario out hundreds of times in front of the women and men I've worked with in order to show her or him that in the 20 minutes it takes for them to drive to their local coffee shop and throw down some cash, they could have juiced all that produce I just mentioned and wash their juicers, providing themselves with vitamins, minerals, anti-aging antioxidants, power-packed protein, easily burnt-off carbs, and the healthiest forms of essential fats in the same amount of time. 

The human adult stomach is only about the size of a medium-sized fist. Generally on average, the stomach has a volume of approximately one liter which is about a quart. However, the stomach does possess the capacity to STRETCH and hold more food -- up to about four liters or an entire gallon.

Whether your stomach can hold one liter or a gallon, SPACE is LIMITED. If you drink a large coffee with cream and sugar and chow down on a breakfast sandwich, there goes room for a 16-ounce green juice at your local juice bar. 

It doesn't take a nutritionist, dietitian, or a weight-loss specialist to tell you what you already know which is that a giant glass of fresh-pressed vegetable juice is healthier for you than a gigantic cup of Joe and 3-minute microwave egg and cheese biscuit. You will undoubtedly feel better, think more clearly, and have more energy to leap over tall buildings in a single bound if your FUEL of CHOICE is lean and green than black and comes in a sack.

In conclusion, do the mathematically computations and stopwatch your "supposedly-necessary" time saver you call breakfast, lunch, and/or dinner. When you take the few minutes to reflect on your behavior and decision making process, you may find out that what you thought was cheap and easy is actually expensive in respect to your healthy lifestyle and training program.

Thank you for your time and valuable support. You help me feel necessary in the overall scheme of things.

-Bell Gia

Nutrition and Fitness Expert