If you keep up with trends you’ve probably heard of a juice cleanse – drinking only fruits and vegetables for several days to months for benefits like cleansing, detoxifying, and weight loss.

In fact, you may have even considered going on one as a punishment for indulging in one too many junk foods and alcoholic drinks. Whether you’re curious about the effects of a juice cleanse, or have a real reason to try one, we (rmdy) urge that you don’t fall prey to this trend!

Although juicing can be a healthy way to increase your daily intake of fruits and vegetables, it shouldn’t be the only thing that you consume in your diet. Nor should it replace fresh, whole fruits and vegetables – especially since it removes insoluble fiber. For these reasons, we recommend that you add juicing to your diet and try your best to eat clean, anti-inflammatory foods. This will not only ensure that you receive vital nutrients but also improve your gut health!

If this idea sounds interesting to you, keep reading for more information on the benefits of juicing relative to gut health and what we consider to be the most important juicing tips! We’ll even leave you with a couple of delicious recipes to try on your own!

Why You Should Consider Juicing

As you probably already know, fruits and vegetables are made up of bioavailable vitamins, minerals, and antioxidants. However, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), less than one-third of adult Americans eat the recommended (nine) servings of fruits and vegetables a day. Juicing, then, can be a quick and easy way to squeeze more fresh fruits and vegetables into your diet.

The Connection Between Juicing and Gut Health

The connection between juicing and gut health is simple. Fruits and vegetables help increase the Phascolarctobacterium faecium and Bacteroides plebeius (good bacteria) in your gut and, in turn, allow your body to absorb nutrients more properly. So, by using juicing to add a large variety of fruits and vegetables to your diet, you can help give your body the diverse range of nutrients that it needs for it to perform optimally and promote a strong microbiome.

rmdy Juicing Tips

Try taking Daily Digestive Essentials with your juice. When juicing, you want to be able to absorb as many nutrients as possible. This can only happen if you have a balanced and healthy gut. Probiotics and prebiotics are a great way to help your body fight off bad bacteria and aid in digestion. rmdy contains a good source of probiotics and prebiotics to help level your gut’s bacteria so that you can maintain good overall health!

Cook or steam vegetables first that are high in goitrogens. The key to juicing is knowing which fruits and vegetables to include since not all of them improve gut health. Vegetables like cabbage, broccoli, and kale are high in goitrogens which can decrease the body’s thyroid function and cause symptoms like bloating, gas, and stomach pain. Again, if you choose to juice with these vegetables, cook or steam them first!

Try your best to use 80% vegetables, 20% fruits. It’s important to note that natural sugar is still sugar. If you consume too much it can ferment, feed the bad bacteria in your body, and interrupt the balance of microbiota – ultimately causing gut dysbiosis. So if you’re looking for something sweet, try limiting high fructose fruits like mangos and pineapples and adding low fructose fruits like green apples and kiwis! If this seems like a tricky task to you, it may also help to know that the more vegetables you use, the more your sugar cravings will reduce over time.

Incorporate a variety of organic, raw fruits and vegetables. Remember, you want to use as many different fruits and vegetables as possible so that you can receive a diverse range of nutrients! You also want to focus on using organic, raw fruits and vegetables that are free of pesticide residue for maximum nutritional benefits.

Don’t be afraid to add ingredients for taste! Who wants to drink juice that doesn’t taste good? Just because your juice contains vegetables, doesn’t mean it has to taste like it. If you want to add a little bit of flavor, try throwing in ingredients like apple cider vinegar, ginger, lemon, or mint. Not only will these ingredients make your juice taste better, but they’ll also promote digestion, inhibit the growth of bad bacteria, and improve irritable bowel syndrome (IBS).

Store your juice for no longer than 24 hours. When juice sits, its ingredients oxidize, degrade, and turn into sugar. Because of this, we don’t recommend that you store your juice for any longer than 24 hours. Again, you want to try your best to avoid consuming excessive amounts of sugar so that you don’t interfere with the balance of your gut’s bacteria.

Recipes That Your Gut Will Thank You for

We scoured the internet for the best juice recipes for gut health! Here are our top 3 favorites. Each of them takes around 5 minutes or less to make. If you give them a try, be sure to let us know if you liked them! We’ll be testing these out too.

Bloat-Busting Date and Coconut Smoothie

Ingredients:

• 250g raw unpasteurized coconut water
• 4 pitted dates
• 1 banana

Instructions:

• Choose a ripe, room-temperature banana. (Unripe bananas are less nutritious.)
• Blend the bananas and coconut water first, until smooth, then add the dates. Et voila!

Did You Know? Dates contain insoluble fiber, which is great at preventing constipation and inflammation in the digestive tract. They also can be used to curb sugar cravings since their sugars are slow releasing!

Absolutely Flavorful’s Juice for Gut Health

Ingredients: 

• 1 apple small (half if big)
• 3 carrots medium
• 1/2 beet
• 1 lemon small
• 1 cucumber medium
• 4 celery sticks
• ½ cup parsley
• Fresh ginger (as much as you like)
• 2 tsp apple cider vinegar organic, raw, w/the mother (optional)

Instructions:

• Insert all of the ingredients except the apple cider vinegar into your juice extractor. Juice away!
• Stir in the apple cider vinegar afterward.
• Drink up and enjoy! To your gut health!

Note: This recipe is for 2 servings (16 oz. of juice). If you want to make less juice, cut the ingredients in half. Most people find that 8 oz. of juice is enough to satisfy them. 

Did you know? Lemon stimulates healthy digestion and the elimination of waste. Its acid helps break down food more efficiently. This also makes it easier for the body to extract the maximum amount of nutrients from each food.

Celery Juice for Leaky Gut

Ingredients:

• 1 celery head organic
• A splash of filtered water

Instructions:

• Feed all of the ingredients through a juicer. Make sure there are no celery guts hanging around – you only want pure juice! 
• Pour the juice into a glass and heal your gut!

Did you know? Celery is an everyday vegetable with superfood-like properties. It supports digestion by stimulating stomach acid, protects the stomach lining, and helps rid the body of waste.