Have you discovered a new or renewed interest in detox drinks like all-natural juices?
Maybe you’ve had some yourself and found that you feel much more spry and energetic after sipping on some naturally sweetened, rich in fiber, fruit and veggie juice.
You wouldn’t be the first! Detox drinks like organic fruit and vegetable juice are becoming more and more popular by the day.
You’ve probably seen storefronts popping up that sell freshly squeezed juices in all sorts of varieties. In a world previously dominated by fast foods and sugar sodas, it’s encouraging to see how all-natural fruit and vegetable juice has given us a healthier option than processed food and beverages.
But what are the actual benefits that detox drinks can offer you?
It’s important to cut through the fog and get a clearer understanding of the genuine happenings with detox drinks like fruit and vegetable juice. The more you know about what you’re putting into your body, the better equipped you’ll be in your goals to get the health benefits you’re looking for.
What Are Detox Drinks?
Detox drinks are beverages that facilitate the already natural detoxification processes happening in your body. Human beings have evolved over centuries and centuries to develop a natural system of organs to help purge our bodies of dangerous and inhibitive toxins.
Your liver, kidneys, bladder, and intestines are all perfectly capable means for your body to process toxins and pathogens in the body and filter them out so we can continue to operate in a happy, healthy way.
However, in our modern times, our exposure to man-made chemicals through pesticides, heavily processed foods, carbon emissions from cars polluting the air, and more all present in a world that is quite different from the one that our prehistoric ancestors evolved in, the world that made our bodies what they are.
Particularly with the toxins consumed in our diet, we could reset these new developments unique to modern living.
It’s super important that we ditch processed foods, demonstrably proven to have many poor health effects.
That’s what detox drinks aim to resolve, offering you a natural alternative to the mass-produced, heavily processed foods that are totally unlike the food humans have eaten for the history of our species.
Detox Drinks Can Help You Return to a Simpler Diet
Although they do not detox in a medical sense, all-natural fruit and vegetable juice, squeezed and served as is with no processed additives, are a great response to the processed foods lining the shelves of our supermarkets.
How could you get more natural than all-natural fruit and vegetable juice?
Since humans first walked upright, we’ve been scrounging together apples picked fresh off the tree, carrots pulled out straight from the Earth, and berries right from the vine.
Detox drinks like those we get from juicing condense our old food friends to the human diet down into an easily consumable juiced form, packing these nutrients that have sustained people for eons into one supercharged package.
Detox drinks are the antithesis to our highly-processed food reality. By returning to a diet more in keeping with our bodies’ natural function, we live in a way that best suits a healthy, human life.
Let’s talk about some of the talk surrounding detox drinks and natural dieting.
Myth: Natural-Based Diets Are Overrated
For practitioners and advocates of diets and food programs based on naturalness, you may have already encountered the cynical eye roll from friends and family when you speak about your experiences.
So what are the actual results of popular natural diets?
The Paleo Diet, which also emphasizes the body’s ability to function naturally, is built on foods that our paleolithic ancestors were likely to have eaten. This prehistoric focus serves as an indictment of the over-engineering of our food with GMOs, chemical additives, and pesticides.
Paleo is naturally focused, like detox drinks, and has been shown to have associated with improved health benefits, like decreasing our likelihood of developing cardiovascular risk.
Alternatively, the standard American diet–diet meant in the loosest possible terms here—has wreaked havoc on the health habits of our neighbors. In fact, only one out of ten people in the U.S. meets their daily recommended fruit and vegetable intake.
So perhaps diets focused on eating all-natural food aren’t so overhyped.
Benefit: Juice Can Easily Help You Reach Your Daily Recommended Fruit and Vegetable Intake
If you’ve ever tried juicing at home, you know all too well how much fruit and vegetables you need to get a cup of juice.
You figure out first hand, as we have, it takes tons of celery stalks to fill just a 16oz bottle. But the more celery you’ve got in that small package, the more nutrients you’re able to pack in. You’re jam-packing large yields of much-needed nutrients into an easily consumable form.
And when you mix different fruits and vegetables, like orange, carrot, ginger, beets, cucumber, spinach, and kale, you’re able to squeeze loads of various vitamins and minerals into a much more manageable meal.
By incorporating juicing into your diet, at whatever level you feel suits you, you’re allowing your body to forget all those processed foods and get back into the natural swing of things.
Myth: Juice Is Bad for You
Sugary beverages are among the worst offenders in increasing our risk to many health risks.
There's an important distinction to be made between sugary beverages and beverages which have naturally occurring sugar in them. “Sugary beverages” refer to beverages with added sugar in them, which refers to your sodas, sweetened powder drinks, fruit punches, and so on.
Some juices out there may have added fruit concentrate, qualifying them as sugar beverages given the supplemental sugar.
There’s a categorical difference between the naturally occurring sugar in a fruit like an apple versus the kind of sugar you would put into your morning cup of coffee. The sugar in the apple is called fructose, the table sugar is called sucrose, and they are totally different from each other.
Not to mention there’s just more going on with detox drinks like juice. For all the naturally occurring fructose you get in freshly squeezed juice, you also get loads of essential nutrients like vitamin C, A, E, and more.
In fact, there may be health benefits of juice cleanses that go deeper than fulfilling your nutritional goals for the day.
Benefit: Juice Cleanse May Help Develop Beneficial Bacteria in Your Gut’s Microbiome
If you’re unfamiliar with your gut’s microbiome, you may want to sit down. Your microbiome is an ecosystem of bacteria, fungi, microbes trillions strong. If the thought of this galaxy of microscopic organisms living in your stomach upsets you, you ought to know that these organisms are crucial to our health, helping us digest, break down food, and so much more.
We have a symbiotic relationship with our microbiome. When it’s happy, we’re happy. To ensure that our microbiome is happy as a clam, or whatever the heck it is, we have to make sure we’re eating right.
After all, we’re eating for two trillion now. And as it just so happens, it seems that juicing cleanses may be a great way to nurture the right kind of bacteria in our microbiome. It sounds like the microbiome is into all-natural foods as well.
In the span of a 3-day juice cleanse, participants in one study reported not just weight loss, but sustained weight loss after going back to a more conventional yet balanced diet. Researchers were interested in the connection between all-natural juice cleanses and the microbiome's health.
They took measurements of certain gut-associated bacteria with weight before and after the green smoothie cleanse. The bacteria in the microbiome associated with unhealthy weight levels were fewer after the cleanse, while the bacteria associated with a healthier weight were greater.
The microbiome is an insanely complex facet of our health. But as it may turn out, returning to a more natural diet with the help of detox drinks may positively nurture the kind of bacteria and microbes in the gut that protects our long-term health.
Stay PUR With Wholesome Ingredients
Detox drinks give you a pathway back to a diet that embraces your natural health. The momentary dopamine flare-up you get when you snack on added-sugar junk foods doesn’t hold a candle to the refreshing, fulfilling feeling you get from juicing.
At PUR, our ingredients come first. Every bottle is made with fresh seasonal fruits and vegetables that are hand-picked, pressed, and bottled at the source. That means you get the best taste with the most possible health benefits.
You can take back your body from junk food with a wide range of cleanse offerings. Learn more about our commitment to your good health with PUR Cold-Pressed.
Sources:
The Many Health Risks of Processed Foods | Laborers’ Health and Safety Fund of North America
Only 1 in 10 Americans Eat Enough Fruits and Veggies, CDC Finds | ABC News
Sugary Drinks | Harvard School of Public Health
Health benefit of vegetable/fruit juice-based diet: Role of microbiome | PubMed
