Although juicing doesn’t take as long as many assume, I often do large batches on Sunday night to last me through the week. I freeze my juices in 16 ounce Ball mason jars.
Then I pack the frozen juices into my cooler bag, bring them to work, and drink my juices as they thaw.
This is my exact set-up (cheap cooler bag, mason jars, cooler packs);
I use Garden of Law Raw Protein (vanilla) but any protein works fine. I like the raw protein because it has fiber, probiotics, digestive enzymes, and is sweetened with Stevia.
There’s 14 grams of protein per scoop. At current prices, that’s eighty cents or so per scoop. I use 2-3 scoops ($1.60-$2.40) have about $2-3 worth of fruits and veggies in each juice. (I also sometimes add coconut oil to my juices.)
A juice with 30-44 grams of protein (and 6-9 grams of fiber) costs me less than an Extra Value Meal, which is something to keep in mind when people say that juicing is expensive.
I’ve always been hesitant to prepare juice early because I knew it’d oxidize & lose most of the nutrients. Seems so obvious now that I can just freeze it.
The fresher the juice, the better. I’ve looked into the oxidation issue and am not persuaded that juice left in the refrigerator all day loses its nutrients.
Even assuming juice oxidizes in the fridge: Is it better to have a juice that has been ‘oxidizing’ for 8 hours in the fridge, or no juice at all?
Our calories have to come from somewhere. Would it really be better to eat 300 calories of something other than fresh juice, simply out of the belief (well-founded or not) that the juice oxidizes?
At 4 p.m. I am going to eat something. I’d rather choose juice that had been in the fridge than most anything else.
What is your process for thawing the juice – do you just throw one in the fridge when you get to work? How long does it take for the frozen juice to thaw out?
Yep. It varies. Some thaw faster than others. After a few hours, there might be some ice left. I just break it up with a fork.
What about excessive fructose? Paleo people say it is bad.
People say a lot of stupid things. “Show me the bodies,” I say to Paleo people. That is, where are all of these people who got fat from eating apples and carrots?
People get fat from eating processed junk, not from eating fruit – which we evolved to eat.
Absolutely, fruit is my preferred source of carbohydrates. I drink about a gallon of fresh juice (mainly from tropical fruits) daily. I am the leanest and strongest I have ever been.
P.S. Ladies love it when a man drink copious amounts of pineapple juice, if ya know what I’m saying.
Fructose is bad, and to the people commenting I say that fructose is processed in your liver just as alcohol, and contributes to organ damage. That’s why you need to limit the fruits in your juice and add vegetables.
I post an excerpt from Tim Ferriss’ 4HB about this issue:
“Can fruit juice really screw up fat-loss?
Oh, yes. And it screws up much more. Not to speculate, I tested the effect of fructose in two tests, the first during a no-fructose diet (no juice, no fruit) and the second after one week of consuming 14 ounces—about 1.5 large glasses—of pulp-free orange juice upon waking and before bed (90 g of fructose). The orange juice was the only thing distinguishing diets A and B. The changes were incredible.
Before (10/16, no fructose) and after (10/23, orange juice):
Cholesterol: 203 → 243 (out of “healthy” range)
LDL: 127 → 165 (also out of range)
There were two other values that shot up unexpectedly:
Albumin: 4.3 → 4.9 (out of range)
Iron: 71 → 191 (!) (out of range aka into the stratosphere)
Albumin binds to testosterone and renders it inert, much like SHBG (discussed in “Sex Machine”) but weaker. I don’t want either to be out-of-range high. Bad for the manly arts. If you said “Holy sh*t!” when you saw the iron jump, we’re in the same boat. This result was completely out of the blue and is not good, especially in men. It might come as a surprise, but men don’t menstruate. This means that men lack a good method for clearing out excessive iron, which can be toxic. The increase in iron was far more alarming to me than the changes in cholesterol.
Here is just one of several explanations from the research literature:
In addition to contributing to metabolic abnormalities, the consumption of fructose has been reported to affect homeostasis of numerous trace elements. Fructose has been shown to increase iron absorption in humans and experimental animals. Fructose intake [also] decreases the activity of the copper enzyme superoxide dismutase (SOD) and reduces the concentration of serum and hepatic copper.
The moral of the story? Don’t drink fruit juice, and absolutely avoid a high-fructose diet. It doesn’t do the body good.”
He drank *processed* fruit juice, not fresh-pressed juice. Huge difference.
Yup, forgot to mention it. It’s a huge difference indeed. Anyway I would still be a little cautious. For a satisfying answer we would need a volunteer to have his blood levels tested in the guise Tim did.
8 ounces of orange juice has 100 calories. 25% of those calories are from fructose.
So 14 ounces of OJ has 175 calories. 25% of 175 is 44 calories. Divide those calories by four (each gram of carbohydrates has 4 calories) and you get 10 grams of fructose per 14 ounce of OJ.
Ferris can’t let the truth get into the way of book sales.
The calculation on the quantity of fructose wasn’t in ferriss book, it’s an addition of mine. I forgot to add this detail as I copied the text from Evernote.
Reviewing the math I did at the time, and yours now, we both made a mistake. I forgot that what is labeled “sugar” is roughly 50/50 fructose/glucose. You forgot that “carbs” and “sugar” on the label are to be read “total carbs of which __ sugar”. So 50% of calories in a typical fruit juice are from fructose. Ferriss daily intake of fructose should have been 40-50 grams.
Dwelling into it, wikipedia has a nice table with fruit and vegetables fructose content: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fructose
2.1 g fructose every 100 g of pineapple looks like a pretty sweet deal. I guess you really have to overdo it (like drinking pure fruit juice with no vegetables) to go out of the safety zone.
And btw my reference on the “fructose is bad” thing is this:
http://coolinginflammation.blogspot.it/search/label/fructose
(The guy has a decent biology background, not the average tim ferriss)
I can cite studies like this all day.
1. Where are all the fat people who drink fruit juice?
Consumption of 100% fruit juice and risk of obesity and metabolic syndrome: findings from the national health and nutrition examination survey 1999-2004.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21677126
those who consumed 100% fruit juice were leaner, were more insulin sensitive, and had lower odds of obesity and metabolic syndrome.
Soft drink, 100% fruit juice, and vegetable juice intakes and risk of diabetes mellitus.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22917499
Substituting homemade fruit juice for sugar-sweetened beverages is associated with lower odds of metabolic syndrome among Hispanic adults.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22551801
One hundred percent orange juice consumption is associated with better diet quality, improved nutrient adequacy, and no increased risk for overweight/obesity in children.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22024491
Relationship between 100% juice consumption and nutrient intake and weight of adolescents.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20232604
In conclusion, when compared with non-juice consumers, adolescents consuming 100% juice did not show mean increased weight measures. Juice provided valuable nutrients, and consumption was associated with lower intakes of total fat, saturated fatty acids, discretionary fat, and added sugars and with higher intakes of whole fruit; however, consumption was not associated with decreased intake of milk, meat, or grains.
2. Fruit juice makes the body more alkaline, which prevents bone loss.
Dietary acid-base balance in adolescent sprint athletes: a follow-up study.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22254092
Athletes with a PRAL(-) (-8 to -10 mEq/day) consumed significantly more fruit and fruit juice than athletes with a PRAL(+) (+9 to 14 mEq/day).
Urine pH is an indicator of dietary acid-base load, fruit and vegetables and meat intakes: results from the European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition (EPIC)-Norfolk population study.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18042305
Evidence exists that a more acidic diet is detrimental to bone health.
Diet, evolution and aging–the pathophysiologic effects of the post-agricultural inversion of the potassium-to-sodium and base-to-chloride ratios in the human diet.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/11842945
That is, are contemporary humans suffering from the consequences of chronic, diet-induced low-grade systemic metabolic acidosis? Our group has shown that contemporary net acid-producing diets do indeed characteristically produce a low-grade systemic metabolic acidosis in otherwise healthy adult subjects, and that the degree of acidosis increases with age, in relation to the normally occurring age-related decline in renal functional capacity.
Postgraduate Symposium: Positive influence of nutritional alkalinity on bone health.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19954569
There is growing evidence that consumption of a Western diet is a risk factor for osteoporosis through excess acid supply, while fruits and vegetables balance the excess acidity, mostly by providing K-rich bicarbonate-rich foods.
The balance of bone health: tipping the scales in favor of potassium-rich, bicarbonate-rich foods.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18156420
A 1-mo dietary intervention study involving 23- to 76-y-old men and women has shown that a diet high in bicarbonate (high fruits and vegetables) and potassium (high in milk and dairy products) (Dietary Approaches to Stopping Hypertension) significantly reduces bone turnover.
3. Fruit juice makes the body better able to fight stress.
Impact of apple and grape juice consumption on the antioxidant status in healthy subjects.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21639820
It is reported that consumption of antioxidant-rich foods significantly increased plasma total antioxidant capacity (T-AOC) in humans. Also, it is proved that the antioxidants from plant foods improve the body’s antioxidant defence by acting additively and synergistically. As a result, rational combination of antioxidant-rich foods is recommended to population in the prevention of oxidative stress-related diseases.
Four week supplementation with mixed fruit and vegetable juice concentrates increased protective serum antioxidants and folate and decreased plasma homocysteine in Japanese subjects.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17704021
Conclusion: In the absence of dietary modification, supplementation with the fruit and vegetable juice concentrate capsules proved to be a highly bioavailable source of phytonutrients. Important antioxidants were elevated to desirable levels associated with decreased risk of disease while markers of oxidative stress were reduced…
Pff. I’m Matteo Spinola btw. Switched device and was already logged with this other account.
A thought about juice oxidizing:
Lime and Lemon are natural antioxidants. Anything that you squeeze lime or lemon on oxidizes much more slowly. If your guacamole doesn’t have lime, it will turn brown quickly. With generous amounts of lime it will stay a vibrant green for days in the fridge.
The same goes for fruit salad. Chop up a banana or an apple and within minutes you’ll see them turning brown. Squeeze lime over it, and they stay fresh looking.
So by putting lime or lemon into your juice that you plan to drink later, you are definitely helping to protect against oxidation. The more the better, make sure it’s a quantity that you can really taste. Exactly how much this helps keep your juice unoxidized, a scientist would have to tell you.