Juicing has become a hot topic in the manosphere, exclusively driven by Danger & Play, who recently spun off a new blog called Juicing For Men. It’s getting popular enough that in the past month I’ve seen Twitter updates of men announcing their juicer purchases.
Why juicing?
American nutritional wisdom has made juice the enemy because of its high caloric content, but D&P shares research that suggests it reduces depression and boosts your immune system, especially when you juice vegetables. In other words, juice is the solution to a healthy body, not the problem. If you’re not convinced, check out the argument that compares juicing to game.
My take…
It’s worth a three-month test drive to see if it offers a noticeable improvement in energy levels along with a reduction in minor body ailments. My skepticism lies in suggesting it takes a year or more of juicing to see benefits. I don’t know of any other personal program (fitness, game, diet, or so on) that takes longer than a couple months to see some results from. There remains some doubt with juicing, but as more men get on board, we’ll be able to see first-hand reports of its effects.
If you want to learn more about starting a juice program, check out this beginner guide.
I was all on-board to get myself a blender because of all the good press I heard, but my own research said “forget it.” The Mayo Clinic report on juicing says it’s just a fad. Whatever you juice is simply pre-chewed for you. You lose fiber and there is no improvement in nutrition. It’s all hype.
And that’s the Mayo Clinic, not some blogger (no offense).
“Whatever you juice is simply pre-chewed for you. You lose fiber and there is no improvement in nutrition. It’s all hype.”
The idea isn’t that you’re getting anything extra from the veggies when juiced, the idea is that while you can certainly eat a decent amount of veggies during the day you can juice at least twice as much, if not more.
It’s a quantity thing. Getting tons of awesome nutrients that you otherwise wouldn’t get.
Very true, which is why I started juicing. in the past, I didn’t eat more fruits and veggies because I simply didn’t want to chew them all and digest them. Juicing gives concentrated nutrients that you otherwise wouldn’t get — and more nutrients that haven’t been processed like vitamins have been processed.
As for fiber, if you’re worried about that, then just get Metamucil or some other fiber powder and add to it. As for feeling full, that’s what protein is supposed to do for you.
Global population research has failed to correlate even vegetable consumption to lifespan. Lots of long lived, healthy peoples barely eat vegetables at all. I mean, traditional Japanese food doesn’t come with a big salad; the veggies are used more like condiments, and are usually pickled. I don’t see why drinking massive quantities of fresh vegetables would be good.
If you’re interested in diet and health you’d do well to listen to these guys, who are actual doctors and experts:
http://www.archevore.com/get-started/
http://wholehealthsource.blogspot.com/
http://www.bulletproofexec.com/the-complete-illustrated-one-page-bulletproof-diet/
The main thing as far as healthy diet goes is *avoiding* toxic crap like corn syrup, vegetable oils, commercial flour, and low quality industrially produced meat. It’s about avoiding the bad stuff, not so much about taking vitamins or eating an absurd quantity of vegetables.
Thanks for the write-up, Roosh. One quick note. You should have more energy and vitality immediately after juicing. Workout recovery time should decrease. You should have more focus.
The “one year to see benefits” refers to the resolution of medical conditions. Type 2 diabetes isn’t going to resolve itself overnight.
blargh, In a plugged-in world, you can learn whatever you like. Access to information is unlike anything the world has ever known.
You can go onto PubMed to see the association between fruit and vegetable consumption and a whole list of health outcomes. There is no need to simply accept the word of “experts.” Science is for everyone.
Incidentally, I looked at pictures of those “experts” you linked to. Why do I look better than they do if they know so much more than I do?
One guy you linked to claimed to have spent $250,000 on his body and sells expensive products. It seems you have fallen for marketing ad copy.
I also see that the 250K “expert” sells glutathione, which he hilariously markets as “bulletproof.” Did you know that juicing kale, cabbage, and other brassica increases glutathione levels?
The guy also sells whey for $35 a pound, again marketing a staple product as “bulletproof.” You can buy grass-fed, organic whey for substantially lower prices.
Unlike someone selling overpriced products and engaging in hysterical marketing, I do not ask anyone to accept my “bulletproof” advice and instead suggest you go here and enter the search terms of your choice: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed
Zorro, you should spend some time at the Mayo clinic. Those dietitians and other experts eat like crap and look like shit.
I would never take financial advice from a poor person and certainly am not interested in Mayo’s opinion on nutrition.
Anyhow, thanks again, Roosh.
Fair enough on the Asprey guy beeing a bit skeezy and making a buck, but I didn’t endorse him wholesale. I linked to the diet he outlines, which you may notice includes an extensive list of footnotes. As for his appearance and Kurt Harriss’s appearance, um, they’re in their 40s and 50s and don’t really work out. They look good to me. Mark Sisson and Doug McGuff advocate the same diet and look great; they’re more into the exercise stuff.
I have read a decent amount on the subject of diet, even the source papers, and reached the moderately informed conclusion that the cornerstone of a healthy diet is high quality animal products. Eat butter, grass fed meat, organs, and fish. Eat a serving or two of vegetables every day. There is zero evidence that gorging on vegetables is good for you.
I’ll give you this particular dude is a little kooky, but the arguments here are sound:
‘the enormous EPIC study, which involved half a million men and women in ten European countries, pretty much wrapped it up.[6] Although EPIC did find a ‘very weak’ reduction in cancers over the nine years of the study, that reduction was limited. ‘High intake of vegetables, and fruits and vegetables combined, was associated with a small reduction in overall cancer risk. The association was stronger in heavy alcohol drinkers but was restricted to cancers caused by smoking and drinking.’ There was no appreciable reduction in cancers seen from eating fruit. They conclude: ‘A very small inverse association between intake of total fruits and vegetables and cancer risk was observed in this study. Given the small magnitude of the observed associations, caution should be applied in their interpretation.’ and under ‘Limitations’ they say ‘The inverse association between overall cancer risk and high intake of fruits and vegetables was weak. Errors inherent to self-reported dietary habits may have resulted in bias.’
http://www.second-opinions.co.uk/why-eat-5-portions-2.html
BTW, it’s a little rich to attack certain experts for appearance when I think one of your main sources of information is Terry Wahls.
http://imgur.com/ibYOr
She also comes off as bizarre in video presentations.
Terry Wahls had multiple sclerosis and was confined to a wheel chair. She went from lacking a capacity to stand to living a normal, healthful life. That seems amazing to me and anyone who personally experiences such a transformation is worth listening to. Maybe you don’t know much about MS, though?
In any event, she is not my guru and she doesn’t even advocate juicing.
Do you have any idea how much testosterone and HGH most Paleo “gurus” are on? I’m not hating and I myself will be on similar doses of drugs when I get older. I will also be honest to young men and give them the whole story.
OR…Maybe I should do some fancy ad copy and sell my own “bulletproof” and “primal” products at outrageous mark-ups? Perhaps I’m the sucker for having integrity and providing full disclosure.
I hope you have a successful approach to health – as there are many “right ways” – and aren’t like so skinny and skinny-fat men who take to the Internet to argue over the “best diet” while looking like garbage.
Dieting/training is a lot like game. You can read and theorize but your lab is the street. If something works, you will personally experience it.
Guys who know their stuff look like they “walk the walk.” I hope that is true of you.
Have a nice Sunday. I’m personally about to juice some apples with beets, carrots, and kale. I hope all of that fructose doesn’t make me fat. I’ll have to chance it.
One final point.
Dave Asprey, the “bulletproof” guy, pops Provigil like its candy.
Like so many other “gurus,” he lives on drugs while selling dieting advice and shilling supplements.
Why not skip the middleman and just order Provigil?
Meanwhile the maligned Terry Wahls sells a single book that costs $35 and I personally get only a small commission if guys buy a $50 juicer.
The profit motive certainly puts our respective dietary and lifestyle approaches into perspective. The profit I make off of a juicer will barely buy me a cup of “Bulletproof Upgraded Coffee.”
“There’s a sucker born every minute,” and it’s starting to seem that the sucker is me!
For what it’s worth, I’ve been juicing maybe 4 or 5 times a week for a month or two.
I notice that if I drink it for breakfast, I can avoid lots of the caffeine I usually need, it helps get me awake and alert quickly. And of course, there’s no way carrots and beets can be bad for you.
But I haven’t noticed anything like improved skin, improved health, improvements in my workouts. My skin quality usually gets worse in the winter, and that process is happening now just like always.
Either way it’s tasty and healthy, but I don’t notice any sort of “voila!” effect besides it being a good pick-me-up in the morning.
In other words, juicing gives at least as much of an energy boost as coffee.
And that’s not a voila?
Tough crowd! 😉
Huh. Might actually be an interesting thing to try.
Fad for the most part. Until there’s a consensus that you can count multiple glasses of juice as more than one serving of fruits & veggies a day, it’s not worth devoting much money to. You need the fibre to extract the complete nutrients & minerals.
The one redeeming thing about juicing is that it may be a gateway drug for some people to start eating greater quantities of fruits & veggies. Like you’re supposed to.
The Stanford Cancer Center notes: “1 cup of carrot or celery juice provides most of the same nutrients found in 5 cups of those same vegetables chopped up.”
http://cancer.stanford.edu/patient_care/services/nutrition/recipes/juicingRecipes.html
That’s as mainstream as it gets.
Disclaimer: I got into juicing after I read FitJuice’s site, so you can take this with a grain of salt if you want.
The health benefits of the stuff found in vegetables are not a mystery. Apples and carrots are not an unstudied marketing fad. And what stuff remains after juicing and what you lose is well-known. So what’s in your juice is pretty easy to figure out, and you can work back from there what it does for you. And you can do it without using a single anecdote or non-peer reviewed source.
Yes, eating the same amount of vegetables raw would be better for you. But are you doing that right now? Are you seriously eating 3 carrots, a half stalk of celery, and kale and ginger every day? If you are, well, good for you. Awesome. You just keep right on doing that, and you can skip buying the juicer. For the rest of us mortals, juicing is a cheap and easy way to improve your health.
One of the best juicers you can buy, the Hamilton Big Mouth, is like 60$. I think it’s even cheaper on amazon. Veggies are dirt cheap. Hooking yourself up with all the materials you need to give it a go costs less than most of you probably blow in a weekend. Why not try it out?
Get a wife who’ll cook everything for you from scratch.
Speaking from experience, it’ll put a tiger in your tank, guaranteed.
Also, grow your own damn veggies and have some fruit trees. You don’t have room? Get the fuck out of the city, that’s half the goddamn problem.
So disappointed. I thought this was going to be about steroid use.
Haha, this.
Steroid use is easy. Lift hard, eat clean, take drugs, get bigger.
I would say juicing is a growing lifestyle movement, especially for those of us age 35+. Like others of have said, it’s an easy way to get nutrients you need when you’re on the go.
I started juicing two years ago after watching the movie “Fat, Sick & Nearly Dead” and it totally changed my life. I was really quite ill at the time and on a bunch of medications for high blood pressure, diabetes and other chronic conditions. Although I was active my lifestyle wasn’t the healthiest. My diet consisted of occasional fruit and veg but mainly processed foods and meat. I was so inspired by Joe Cross and Phil Staples in the movie that I went out and bought a juicer that week and started a juice fast. That juice fast lasted 90 days and the results were astounding. Not only did I lose weight but I got off all of my medications. My blood pressure returned to normal levels. My blood sugar came within normal range. I looked and felt healthier. In short it turned a grumpy, overweight, sick person into a happy, normal weight person with a new lust for life. I still juice but have become Vegan and cook Vegan recipes in addition to my juicing. I would recommend juicing to anyone and don’t think it’s just a flash in the pan. The juicing movement will continue to spread and grow for one simple reason… IT WORKS! There are a lot of people who find it hard to eat a lot of fruits and vegetables and juicing is ideal for them. It allows maximum nutrition and is also kinda fun! Anyway, that’s my two cents worth on the subject. Denise 🙂
http://www.fatsickandnearlydead.com/ Is quite good. Your not going to get a huge surge in feeling better just adding in a glass of juice, though it does help.
Doing a juice fast gives an amazing amount of energy and like the previous poster states it lets your body heal itself over time.
I’ve done a couple 10 day and a 21 day juice fast and felt amazing. I also feel much better only eating one meal a day with intermittent fasting as a normal routine. Breakfast and lunch only make me tired in comparison.
The point many miss is it’s not so much the juice as the fasting. Fasting has been a proven method for healing for thousands of years. The juice just makes it easier to do and take away the constant cravings to eat something.
The hamilton beech is a great juicer for carrots, etc. Not so good for the greens. Just like juicing vs blending somethings come out better with a Omega juicer and I don’t mind using both or juicing part and blending berries etc.
I can’t ever see going vegan though. Other than Arian Foster I’ve never seen a healthy looking vegan. Man is designed to eat meat. Juice fasting is great for healing though.