Juicing is a multi-billion-dollar industry that continues to be one of the world’s biggest diet trends. Some find a juice diet a fantastic way to lose weight, improve digestion, boost the immune system, and more. Others believe that juicing does more harm than good and is anything but a healthy way toward weight loss. Without looking further into the pros and cons of a “classic” juice diet, today we want to discuss the dangers of orange juice and one particular sub-variety of juicing: orange juice fast.
You might be wondering:
Why on Earth would someone go on a diet consisting only of freshly squeezed orange juice and water?
Well… There’s an opinion that oranges, being high in various nutrients, can help a person get through the dieting period without being deprived of essential nutrients and feel energized and rejuvenated afterward.
4 major risks of an orange juice diet
1. This Diet Will Deprive You of Important Nutrients
Orange juice is indeed high in certain nutrients but doesn’t contain most of the elements your body needs daily. While pretty much any kind of juice diet will inevitably deprive you of oils, fibers, and protein, the traditional juice diet will at least contain all sorts of vitamins, minerals, and antioxidants.
Don’t get us wrong:
Despite its weight loss effects, juice cleanse is hardly a healthy and well-rounded diet, even when it consists of various vegetables and fruits. However, traditional juice cleanse is based on produce like celery, cabbage, beet, spinach, carrot, cucumber, and other veggies and only includes one or two fruit juices per day. An all-orange juice diet is much less nutritious in comparison.
2. The Sugar Content of Orange Juice is Way too High
As a general rule, if the juice youâre drinking consists of fruits only, it’s probably doing more harm than good — simply due to the high sugar content. In orange juice, all the sugar and acid of oranges are preserved while fibers (the actual healthy part) are discarded. Not a win-win situation.
If you think about it, you probably couldn’t eat six oranges in a row, but you can have that many oranges in the form of juice with all the sugar in them. We’re talking about more sugar than Coke, even!
3. This Diet Might be Hard on Your Organs… And Teeth
Following an orange juice diet for long might cause serious damage to the health of your digestive system.
While only feeding your body off juices, you donât consume enough proteins, fiber, and calories, which might cause many issues, including bloating, constipation, diarrhea, stomach pains, and hunger pangs.
A sensitive digestive system might also struggle to handle the acidity of orange juice. And your teeth — well, regular exposure to all the sugar and acid will do no good for the strength of your tooth enamel.
4. Your Weight Might Bounce Back Afterwards
Finally, it might just simply be ineffective in the long run. The main cause of weight loss on a juice diet is the water drained out of your system. During the first days of dieting, the body starts to burn through its glycogen stores for energy, which pulls loads of water out of the body.
Once off the liquid diet and back to regular food, your body might regain all the weight.
The Bottom Line?
In the long run, juicing is hardly the best way to achieve a healthy body and mind. Exercising and eating a healthy and balanced diet without any extremes is probably still your best bet. And if you do try a juice diet, don’t go for just the oranges! This comprehensive guide to juice cleansing covers everything you need to know to juice safely and achieve the desired effects.
Here’s to your healthier, happier self!
Rick Kaselj MS, is a leading kinesiologist and injury specialist as well as co-creator of the best-selling Unlock Your Hip Flexors program. Rick creates exercise programs that help people heal injuries and eliminate pain, so they can go back to living a full, active, healthy life.
