Do you remember being at the dinner table when you were young and your mom saying, “Eat your vegetables honey.”? And, she wouldn’t let you leave the table until you cleaned your plate.
So do I.
Kids these days have it so easy. With the recent trend of juicing sweeping across the United States, eating vegetables isn’t even necessary anymore. Consuming vegetables in liquid form is the new, normal way to get your veggies for the day. So, what exactly is juicing?
Juicing involves a multi-step process of taking the natural liquids and vitamins out of a solid fruit or vegetable to leave you with only liquid. There are many different ways to juice a fruit or vegetable, and these methods all involve different steps and juicers. (For more info on different ways to juice, click here.)
However, all these different methods leave you with the same basic result- a drink, in a possibly bizarre color, filled with nutrients.
This way of getting your vegetables has become very popular because the idea that being healthy is “trendy” has taken over the country. Everybody wants to be seen in his or her workout clothes, holding a juice and looking like a health nut.
This has resulted in juice bars popping up on every corner. Many franchises and stand-alone juice bars have developed, and they all seem to have a similar look. Every juice bar you walk into has a clean yet colorful look to it. Many of them have also begun to sell healthy snacks along with their juices to add to this idea of a healthier lifestyle.
This is the burning question though: is drinking a juice really just as good (or maybe better) than eating an actual vegetable?
The results are mixed. Many people swear by juicing and claim to have experienced a lifestyle change, but others are still skeptical. For more information, here is an article regarding the pros and cons of juicing.
Regardless of whether you think juicing is genius or just a hoax, its extreme popularity cannot be denied. The cold pressed juice market is worth over $100 million a year, (for continuing info on juicing and its popularity, click here).
While this trend has been in vogue for a few years now, it doesn’t seem to be declining at all. It looks like juicing is here to stay. Happy drinking!
Photo by Emory Parsons