Juicing for Skin
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free skin care · Sun Oct 23, 2011 9:46 am

One more thing I've forgotten to mention that's helped me is juicing. (I have not searched on juicing, but wanted to tell you about my experience).

I had been feeling exhausted and drinking too much coffee. This was in the middle of last winter. I had taken on a schedule of teaching Pilates at 6am. Since I'm not a morning person it was very hard for me. I found I was drinking alot of coffee to get up to teach the classes, and also trying to stay awake in the day, drinking more coffee. Eventually I hit a wall. And I looked really really bad. Black around my eyes, my face was sliding and wrinkling, I looked the worse of my life.

To help myself, I began researching juicing. It wasn't long before it made sense to me. So I bought the Breville Dual Disc and got busy with that.(The Dual Disc is available through Williams Sonoma only I think, but the Breville Juice Fountain is pretty much the same thing, availabe anywhere. These are incredible juicing machines).

Right away my jowls lifted and my energy went up. My eyes changed quickly. I was able to reduce the coffee without side effects. It was winter, emerging into spring. What I feel helped me most was juicing twice daily, fruits in the morning for energy, and vegetables later in the day.

My skin looked fantastic. I just revisited those pictures, and I'm not ashamed to say that I did look great. My skin was so tight around my face, truly incredible.

If I can figure out how to post a pic, I would like to post a picture of myself in the peak of juicing.

Since then I have fallen off a bit, as my local grocery store closed to remodel, making it hard to buy the produce to juice. It's now re-opened and I'm making a committment to get back on the juicing schedule.

If anyone can tell me how to post a pic of myself I will show you the pics of myself.

thanks!

Sun Oct 23, 2011 10:13 am

What sort of things did you juice? Fruits? Veggies?

Sun Oct 23, 2011 10:34 am

You might like this thread, redtigerwoman:

Feeding your skin with Smoothies!!!!
http://www.essentialdayspa.com/forum/viewthread.php?tid=35013

Thanks for sharing your experience. Smile

free skin care · Sun Oct 23, 2011 11:47 am

Debbie, yes, I juiced fruits in the morning, and vegetables later in the day. If I was really feeling tired then I would juice fruits twice.

Thanks for the link havana!

Sun Oct 23, 2011 12:51 pm

there are a lot of mixtures that are great for liver detoxing and general detoxing. I also mix fruits with veggies ( watermelon and beet , kiwi and spinach etc.)It always give a nice glow to our skin.

free skin care · Sun Oct 23, 2011 3:23 pm

Another vote for smoothies or indeed fruit salads! Juicing wastes valuable nutrients, notably soluble fibre which supports beneficial gut bacteria and insoluble fibre to keep you regular. Furthermore this fibre slows the digestion, helping to stabilise blood sugar levels. This is important as blood sugar peaks are inflammatory, somewhat counteracting the anti-inflammatory/ antioxidant phytonutrients. For these reasons medical authorities generally allow juices to only count as one daily portion of fruit or veg, however much you consume. Confused

Sun Oct 23, 2011 4:33 pm

Firefox7275 wrote:

Another vote for smoothies or indeed fruit salads! Juicing wastes valuable nutrients, notably soluble fibre which supports beneficial gut bacteria and insoluble fibre to keep you regular. Furthermore this fibre slows the digestion, helping to stabilise blood sugar levels. This is important as blood sugar peaks are inflammatory, somewhat counteracting the anti-inflammatory/ antioxidant phytonutrients. For these reasons medical authorities generally allow juices to only count as one daily portion of fruit or veg, however much you consume. Confused

I love smoothies, too, but....

I love to juice, too, and regularly will do green juice fasts, whether for one day or a week. However, when I'm feeling lazy I will throw everything in a blender when I don't want to take the time to clean my juicer out.

BTW, my nutritionist has blessed my juicing and thinks it is wonderful! In fact, she highly recommends juicing for people who want to loose weight by incorporating at least one glass of a green juice in the a.m.

The only thing she says is not to do too much fruit because that can cause blood sugar spikes, just like anything else. Plus, I'm not at all worried about a lack of fiber because I get it from other things in my diet.

Honestly, I don't think you have to get all alarmist over whether juicing is going to rob you of nutrients. For a lot of folks, they can get way more nutrients by juicing and don't like the way a smoothie will fill you up.

free skin care · Mon Oct 24, 2011 3:10 am

I like my fruits and veg whole and raw. I'm too lazy to clean a juicer! Laughing

Either way a better diet does make the skin glow. I really don't think it matters one way or the other how you take it (pulped, juiced or whole) as long as you do.

free skin care · Mon Oct 24, 2011 4:42 am

CherrySilver wrote:

I love smoothies, too, but....

I love to juice, too, and regularly will do green juice fasts, whether for one day or a week. However, when I'm feeling lazy I will throw everything in a blender when I don't want to take the time to clean my juicer out.

BTW, my nutritionist has blessed my juicing and thinks it is wonderful! In fact, she highly recommends juicing for people who want to loose weight by incorporating at least one glass of a green juice in the a.m.

The only thing she says is not to do too much fruit because that can cause blood sugar spikes, just like anything else. Plus, I'm not at all worried about a lack of fiber because I get it from other things in my diet.

Honestly, I don't think you have to get all alarmist over whether juicing is going to rob you of nutrients. For a lot of folks, they can get way more nutrients by juicing and don't like the way a smoothie will fill you up.

If you think paying attention to nutrition and dietetics research is alarmist, then I am guilty as charged! Wink

I am not a nutritionist (that title denotes no accredited qualifications in the UK) but I am registered to give nutritional advice as I have studied dietetics modules at degree level.

Unfortunately the average Westerner doesn't get their fibre elsewhere in the diet. Wholegrains and nuts supply insoluble fibre, both of which many women avoid as they believe they are fattening. Soluble fibre comes from whole fruit, some veg and pulses; unfortunately few people either sex consume enough of either. Furthermore many women eat little protein before their evening meal; recommending smoothies or fruit salads means I can advise adding whey protein powder or live natural yoghurt. As you will know, research shows both protein and fibre to be satiating and we cannot store either as we can fats or carbs.

I'd be interested in links to any peer-reviewed published papers linking juice fasts to a reduction in bodyfat. Smile

Mon Oct 24, 2011 7:11 am

Firefox7275 wrote:

If you think paying attention to nutrition and dietetics research is alarmist, then I am guilty as charged! Wink

I am not a nutritionist (that title denotes no accredited qualifications in the UK) but I am registered to give nutritional advice as I have studied dietetics modules at degree level.

Unfortunately the average Westerner doesn't get their fibre elsewhere in the diet. Wholegrains and nuts supply insoluble fibre, both of which many women avoid as they believe they are fattening. Soluble fibre comes from whole fruit, some veg and pulses; unfortunately few people either sex consume enough of either. Furthermore many women eat little protein before their evening meal; recommending smoothies or fruit salads means I can advise adding whey protein powder or live natural yoghurt. As you will know, research shows both protein and fibre to be satiating and we cannot store either as we can fats or carbs.

I'd be interested in links to any peer-reviewed published papers linking juice fasts to a reduction in bodyfat. Smile

Yes, you're right: the average Westerner doesn't get enough fiber in their diet, [drumroll], they're eating crappy diets! And, guess what? They're among the least likely to start juicing! Most people who are paying enough attention to their diets to juice are going to make sure they're getting a balanced diet to get any fiber they might be missing.

It's not too hard -- you can get plenty of soluble fiber from legumes, oats, chia seeds (great in smoothies). For the prebiotics, I get plenty with red pepper slices (and hummus for lunch), an apple a day and other raw vegetables I eat daily. Lots of others just take a prebiotic pill. Believe it or not, a lot of people actually even eat or incorporate the left over pulp into their recipes. Imagine that!

According to a 2009 study done at Baylor College of Medicine on juicing and weight loss:

"Vegetable juice consumption resulted in a significant increase in daily vegetable intake (p<0.001), which was low at baseline in all groups. Completers consuming vegetable juice lost more weight compared to those receiving only diet counseling (-1.8+/-2.7kg vs. -0.6+/-2.7kg; p=0.02 after adjustment for confounders)."

The net of the study is that the juicers lost an average of 4 lbs over the 12-week study as opposed to the control who only lost 1 pound. In fact, it also states they were more likely to meet the government RDA of 3-5 servings of vegetables by juicing. Below is the abstract, and while I couldn't get full details, there are a number of articles which discussed the study (also below):

http://www.fasebj.org/cgi/content/meeting_abstract/23/1_MeetingAbstracts/563.20

http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/releases/168174.php

http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20090420005171/en/Research-Suggests-Drinking-Vegetable-Juice-Daily-People

So, bottom line is that I don't buy your argument -- it's wrong to dissuade people from juicing. In fact, most people I know would juice more if somebody else would clean out the juicer!

free skin care · Mon Oct 24, 2011 12:57 pm

CherrySilver wrote:

So, bottom line is that I don't buy your argument -- it's wrong to dissuade people from juicing. In fact, most people I know would juice more if somebody else would clean out the juicer!

I think your tone is completely uncalled for. firefox was not dissuading anyone from juicing merely pointing out that excessive consumption of juices can lead to dietary problems. You might have a completely balanced diet but a lot of people don't and I've known women who will try and live on fruit juice alone which isn't healthy.

Your study is interesting but doesn't explain much. It, like a lot of studies designed to prove something, was set up to provide the answer in the affirmative. Personally I don't buy eating vegetables fractionated (juiced) or whole makes any difference whatsoever to weight
loss. It's eating the vegetables period, which makes the difference. Both the control and the test group would have to have been consuming the exact same amounts of the same vegetables everyday to conclude that fractionating the vegetables made a difference. Instead it just proves that people who eat more vegetables lose more weight....oh really? Rolling Eyes

Juicing is just a fad, (probably created by a juicing machine supplier) humans have been living healthfully well before the invention of a juice machine. Rolling Eyes

free skin care · Mon Oct 24, 2011 10:45 pm

I still need to get into doing this, it just sounds so time consuming which is what really has been stopping me from doing it. I was looking into blenders though and saw the magic bullet which looks incredibly easy to use. Has anyone used the magic bullet before? I have a feeling its going to be my next big beauty purchase.

Tue Oct 25, 2011 8:54 am

echoecho wrote:

I still need to get into doing this, it just sounds so time consuming which is what really has been stopping me from doing it. I was looking into blenders though and saw the magic bullet which looks incredibly easy to use. Has anyone used the magic bullet before? I have a feeling its going to be my next big beauty purchase.

The Magic Bullet is a blender rather than a true juicer. If you're looking for a thin juice without all the pulp and sediment on the bottom (especially with harder vegs like beets, ginger, carrots, etc.), then you want a juicer. There are soooo many types of juicers on the market, it's easy to get confused and agonize over a purchase decision. There several different types: masticating, centrifugal, single gear, twin gear, wheatgrass, etc.

I own an Omega 8000 masticating juicer which I bought on ebay for about $200. It does a great job of extracting the very last drop of juice out, as the pulp is always dry. However, like a lot of juicers, it can be a pain to take apart and clean because they have several components. For me, it's totally worth the effort because I can get more vegs into my body and see and feel a difference.

I've also owned a couple of other models in the past that were less expensive. They did the job okay, and for the amount of money I spent, I was pleased. I had the chance to determine that I liked it and was going to use it, rather than having an appliance I might not use gathering dust in my closet.

Tue Oct 25, 2011 11:54 am

NotMeNotYou wrote:

I think your tone is completely uncalled for. firefox was not dissuading anyone from juicing merely pointing out that excessive consumption of juices can lead to dietary problems. You might have a completely balanced diet but a lot of people don't and I've known women who will try and live on fruit juice alone which isn't healthy.

Your study is interesting but doesn't explain much. It, like a lot of studies designed to prove something, was set up to provide the answer in the affirmative. Personally I don't buy eating vegetables fractionated (juiced) or whole makes any difference whatsoever to weight
loss. It's eating the vegetables period, which makes the difference. Both the control and the test group would have to have been consuming the exact same amounts of the same vegetables everyday to conclude that fractionating the vegetables made a difference. Instead it just proves that people who eat more vegetables lose more weight....oh really? Rolling Eyes

Juicing is just a fad, (probably created by a juicing machine supplier) humans have been living healthfully well before the invention of a juice machine. Rolling Eyes

Well, maybe my tone was a bit acerbic and I used a sledge-hammer when a fly-swatter would've been fine. I took issue with it because it sounded like a wholesale recommendation (coming from a medical professional) that juicing is not to be advised. And, lot of people are easily influenced by someone with a credential.

I read nothing at all in her post referring to "excessive consumption" -- simply that people don't get enough fiber in their diets and that eating whole foods is the best way to do it. That is true, but the bottom line and message was not to juice. My personally doing a fast for a day or week is not excessive, and there was no suggestion that anyone else do it so let's not cloud the issue. If your diet were like that all the time, that's a different story, but I think that's pretty obvious that's not what I was implying.

My nutritionist's recommendation of one glass of juice a day can also hardly be misconstrued as excessive as well. For someone trying to loose weight, I can't think of a better way to start your day than with a mega dose of liquid vitamins to stimulate your digestive system.

You can consume more vegetables thru juicing, thereby dramatically increasing the amount of phytonutrients, vitamins, minerals and enzymes you can put into your system. It's absolutely impossible to down all of the vegetables I put thru a juicer and into a blender in a single drink. Juicing is the most efficient way of doing it (and is much better than taking supplements).

Then again, there may be plenty of other reasons someone might want to juice. Someone may simply not like the pulp at the bottom of the glass you get in a blender. Strain it out you say? Then you would be getting less of the vitamins than you did if you juiced it because a juicer will extract more vitamin content than a blender.

Juicing is not a fad; then again, people will always believe what they want to believe. The whole green smoothie movement is an offshoot of the people who were to lazy to juice and threw it into their blender. Regardless of who's making money, it's not going away. When you've got Cleveland Clinic, oncologists recommending their patients juice (because of their compromised immune systems, they're able to get more nutrients into their system that way, etc.), you argument doesn't hold water.

In case you're interested, below is the full-text of the study. The bottom line is that they lost an average of 4 lbs by drinking 16 oz of veg juice /day versus the control group. I'd think that most people would be challenged to eat the equivalent in whole foods.

http://www.nutritionj.com/content/pdf/1475-2891-9-8.pdf

I guess there are two different schools of thought on this issue, and people will always have their own opinions. I love whole foods, but I love my juice, too.

Recipes, anyone?

free skin care · Tue Oct 25, 2011 4:19 pm

Echo, the cleaning was a big deal for me as well.

I researched for HOURS and wanted something that I could use quickly and clean quickly. Knowing myself, if it takes me 30 minutes to make juice and another 10 to clean that is not sustainable *for me*.

So fast is the key for me--so I landed on a centrifuge and found that many consumers were happiest with the Breville juicer.

I bought the Dual Disc because it has a bigger motor than the Juice Fountain, which is its sister machine.

Cleaning it is less than 3 minutes, and goes so quickly, it's hardly anything to really be concerned about. Seriously, it goes fast. The secret is cleaning it right after use when everything is still "wet" from using it.

Mine does leave some pulp, which i like. To get it completely smooth i would strain it, but i don't like that.

As for the bullet, as the other poster mentioned, that is a blender, and I don't really like my drinks "thick" with all of the fiber still in it. Smile

free skin care · Tue Oct 25, 2011 4:24 pm

Cherry, my mother is 78, I learned from her example of juicing. Many people have been juicing for decades, and only now is it somewhat more mainstream. I don't think it's a fad at all.

Additionally, I'm with you on getting all of those nutrients. That's why my husband and I juice! It would take us a month to eat what we juice in one glass.

When I go to the grocery store and buy 25 pounds of carrots, people think I have a horse. I say no, we have a juicer.

25 pounds of carrots go in less than 3 weeks. It would probably take us 5 years to eat the same amount. I'm not kidding by saying this. Our diet has improved dramatically by juicing, simply because we never ate anything near this amount of nutrient dense fruits & vegetables.

free skin care · Tue Oct 25, 2011 8:33 pm

I agree, so much knowledge, so many different machines Embarassed

I'm after something that's easy to clean and use, with a price tag that wont break the bank, like every other gadget has Razz

Anyone know of a good model?

free skin care · Tue Oct 25, 2011 9:32 pm

breville juice fountain, 300 bucks.

free skin care · Tue Oct 25, 2011 10:11 pm

redtigerwoman wrote:

breville juice fountain, 300 bucks.

Really? My mother owns one of them but it looks like an absolute pain to clean, what originally caught my eye about the Magic Bullet was how easy it looked to clean. It looks like it has about a thousand different attachments? Razz

Wed Oct 26, 2011 5:05 pm

I would like to do some vegetable juices. I tried in the past but couldn't get past the taste.

Does anyone have some good recipes for vegetable juice that actually taste good?

free skin care · Wed Oct 26, 2011 7:16 pm

lawmom, i bought a book from Jay Kordich and really love it. He is called The JuiceMan or JuiceDaddy and has juiced forever and a day. He's got GREAT recipes, and ones that can address specific concerns as well.

Here is one of my favorites:
-carrot, apple, beet.
add in kale, cucumber and raddish to really kick it up.

Generally I make a big batch and my husband and I will have 2 glasses. But if i was juicing one glass i would probably do like 10 carrots, 2 apples, 1 beet.

As a rule of thumb, i keep fruits to fruits, and vegetables to vegetables. this has been the best results for me. the exception is apples, which can cross either direction, and some people say the same for carrots (but i don't do that myself, only apples go both ways for me.)

free skin care · Wed Oct 26, 2011 9:22 pm

Any ideas for a quick and easy juicer?

Thu Oct 27, 2011 11:18 am

echoecho wrote:

Any ideas for a quick and easy juicer?

Hi, echoecho. The Hamilton Beach ProJuice Extractor looks like a great entry-level centrifugal extractor for the price. You can probably pick one up on Amazon for <$60. I've owned a similar model in the past (loved it for a long time), but it didn't have the wide mouth. A wide-mouth would be the way to go, since you don't have to chop up the vegs as much.

If you're looking for something more in the mid-range, there are a few more below:

http://www.epinions.com/Juicers--extracts_juice_from_fruits--price_range_100_190--juicer_type_centrifugal_juicer

Whatever way you go, just make sure that the model ejects the pulp, as you don't want to always be stopping to clean the pulp out.

Happy juicing!

free skin care · Thu Oct 27, 2011 12:05 pm

CherryS, what are some of your favorite juices?

Jay Kordich says cucumber is great for the skin, so I do that alot! But now it's turning winter and the farmers don't have cucumbers, bah! Confused

But I was curious of your favorites?

Thu Oct 27, 2011 12:38 pm

redtigerwoman wrote:

CherryS, what are some of your favorite juices?

Jay Kordich says cucumber is great for the skin, so I do that alot! But now it's turning winter and the farmers don't have cucumbers, bah! Confused

But I was curious of your favorites?

I love cucumber, too! Actually, I like to use a combination of that along with a stalk of celery, 1/4 beet, 1/2 apple, 1/4-1/2 lemon (with rind) parsley and/or watercress, and a lot of ginger. This is more or less my standard drink, but sometimes I'll vary it with carrots, kale, or whatever else appeals to me.

My new favorite to juice is burdock root -- it is absolutely excellent for your skin! The taste is kind of woody -- when I mix it with other things I don't really notice it. Finding it in the grocer's is not always easy, however. Whenever I *do* find it at the Asian markets (like gotu kola), I always make sure to get a lot. The pieces are actually quite long (maybe 24-36") and last a long time in the fridge. Last time I bought it in Chinatown in NYC and brought it back on the plane with me down to FL (TSA must've been amused). My husband wanted to chop it up so that it wouldn't be taking up so much room in the bottom of the fridge!

Oh, for all your carrots, a nice bonus is using the leftover pulp for a post-exfoliation or glycolic treatment mixed with some yogurt or cream, honey or other things. I've done this before and love the way it makes my face, neck and hands feel. Or, you could always dump it in the spaghetti sauce, soup, muffins, etc. I've frozen it before, too, because I've felt guilty about wasting it, and it works just as well this way. Very Happy

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