juice or solids

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Hi kk
I struggle with my so called 5 a day so i have bought a juicer so i can have my 5 a day in 1 glass, but i am just wondering is drinking the juice from fruit and veg better for you than eating them.

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I think the whole point of '5 a day' is to have 5 portions seperately throughout the day, to balance out the nutrition. However, I might be wrong on this. Err, Kerry?

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kk - The 5 fruit and veg is recommended by the government BUT that is for a sedate human being, people who train make bigger demands on their body, 1) The training itself 2) Recuperation and repair 3) Evolving to get bigger stronger and faster. Lets just call them 1, 2 and 3. 1 makes demands on your body as you are sending a signal to youur body that it is inadequate for the workload that you are putting on it, why do you do this? So that it evolves and gets itself in a better position to do that workload, lets call that 3. It cant get to 3 without getting past 2 and the more nutrients you have in your body, 2 will be much more efficient. Most of us pay attention to our macro nutrients (protein carbs and fats) but not enough attention to our micro nutrients (vitamins minerals, fibre and you could even include water in that group) Micronutrients are responsible for all chemical reaction within the body, what does that mean, it means being able to train, repair, grow and generally function.

The first answer to your question, if you train, sorry mate, you need more than 5 a day. The second answer to your question is if you are going to use a juicer, spread these nutrients out over the course of the day just like you are programmed to do with your macronutrients. The third answer, keep the pulp in the drinks, this is the fibre which is also very important. An example, an apple is a low glycemic carb (slow release) but apple juice is a high glycemic carb (fast release) this is because the apple juice has less fibre in it.

There are a number of health benefits that fibre offers, it helps regulate blood sugar levels, it helps lower bloos cholesterol level, it adds bulk to your diet which is slow to digest which helps you feel fuller and curb appetite and you can eat larger quantities without adding too many kcalories to your diet.

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would it not be cheaper and less mess to consume pro-vital?
i bought a juicer and got fed up of cleaning it after the novelty wore off

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kk - That is why we made Pro Vital, it is a high strength vitamin and mineral formula containing added antioxidants and ZMA.

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does the above only apply to certain fruits or pretty much any?

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I am not convinced by that 5-a-day lark, I reckon it's closer to 7-9, and of that only 1-2 portions fruit. The thing with shakes is they're very easy to digest, which is good generally, but the digestive system needs to do work in order to remain healthy (just like anything else in the body). Veggies are good way to give it something to do without taking on too many calories in the process.

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kk - Yes, you should never discard any part of a fruit or veg that is edible when you blend it and I agree with Gaius, you need the digestive tract to mechanically work and fibrous veg is perfect for this. If you think about it, you can eat buckets of it because it is very low in kcalories but will keep the digestive tract working.