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With the recent newfound interest in health and wellness, we are more alert and observant about our physical fitness than ever before. So, for all those health-conscious people out there today, we will explore the top 2 fads related to cold-pressed juices, cold-pressed juice, and questions surrounding them.
So, sit back, and let’s dive right in!
1. What is Cold-Pressed Juice?
Cold-pressed juice is the healthier form of the bottles of juice that you often see stocked on the shelves of grocery stores. It is a form of juice made using a special hydraulic press instead of other juicing methods like a centrifugal juicer that undergo incredibly high amounts of processing.
Cold-pressed juice undergoes high amounts of pressure using the hydraulic press to extract every single drop of the juice and water content, ensuring the maximum piece of output out of the product or veggies of your choosing.
2. Cold-pressed Juice: How Long is Its Shelf Life?
Cold-pressed juice’s shelf life is significantly less than other commercial juices loaded with sugar and added preservatives to prevent spoilage.
As cold press juices are free from added sugar and preservatives and the fruit goes straight from the tree to the bottle, it is to be noted that a significant amount of phytochemicals and micronutrients are due to degradation destroyed within 6 days post-juicing process.
Therefore, cold-pressed juices come with their own set of safety problems. Food safety is a genuine concern while consuming cold-pressed juices and, therefore, should be consumed as soon as it is prepared.
Cold-pressed juices for commercial purposes go through a rigorous preservation process to resolve food safety concerns. It employs a unique preservation technique called High-Pressure Processing or HPP.
Generally, pasteurization is used in other forms of juices to kill the microorganisms present in the food item by exposing them to intense heat. Still, cold-pressed juices use High-Pressure Processing wherein the bottle is subjected to cold water submersion for some time under extreme pressure conditions that increase the shelf life from 3 to 5 days to an astonishing 30 to 45 days!
For non-commercial consumption, refrigeration helps prolong shelf life, though not as dramatically as HPP does1.
As cold-pressed juice is made without the employment of heat, it is said to safeguard and preserve all the nutrients present in the raw, fresh fruits or vegetables juiced, which would otherwise be lost because heat application can kill beneficial integrants of natural products like its enzymes and nutrients like the highly labile, vitamin C.
3. How Expensive Is Cold-Pressed Juice?
Due to its higher handling and manufacturing costs, per bottle of cold-pressed juice can be estimated to be around an average of $7.5. So, making cold-pressed juice your go-to beverage will surely burn a hole in your pockets.
4. Is Cold-Pressed Juice Worth the Hype?
Let us say cold-pressed juice has its moments and comes with a set of benefits.
4.1. The Upside:
As it is one of the most minimally processed forms of juices out there, devoid of additives, sugar, artificial flavouring agents, and artificial colouring, it is comparatively healthier than its counterparts.
Also, since they are minimally exposed to air and heat, they can retain a significant portion of the vitamins, minerals, enzymes2, and antioxidants present in the raw produce. Thus, in theory, they have better nutritional content than other types of juices. There is no concrete evidence to support this claim.
4.2. The Downside:
On the other hand, consuming a whole fruit or vegetable instead of its juiced form is a much better idea because on juicing fresh fruits and vegetables, a significant portion of the fibre that was otherwise abundantly present in the raw produce is segregated out of the juice.
Therefore, what is left behind is an item full of fruit, sugar, or fructose and is almost entirely devoid of fibre, which is highly beneficial for efficient bowel movement, vital for maintaining proper gut health, and provides a feeling of fullness, having consumed it.
Juicing, be it in any form, is full of fruit, sugar, or fructose3. Most people fail to realize that healthy fruits are full of fructose and have some calorific value. Thus, they should be consumed in moderation.
Studies show that consuming too much fructose leads to weight gain, and higher blood sugar and causes an increased incidence of diabetes in women.
Since juices are devoid of fibre, they do not bring about the same feeling of fullness, leading consumers to consume more to achieve a sense of satiety.
To understand this better, consider this: a single bottle of cold-pressed apple juice requires about 9 to 12 apples to be juiced! One cannot even imagine consuming this many whole apples in one sitting, but we might do so if they were presented to us in a juiced form.
This is because liquid calories like cold-pressed juice lack fibre and are much more easily metabolized by our digestive system, causing us to feel hungry faster. So, consuming juices does not bring about the same satiety as whole foods offer.
Thus, one consumes much more calories than one realizes when on a liquid diet.
5. Top 2 Fads About Cold-Pressed Juice
5.1. Cold-Pressed Juice Cleanse to Detoxify Our System:
The newest trend to catch up on is the juice cleanse that has blown up on social networking sites for being the perfect way to cleanse, detoxify, clear the junk out of our system and boost our immune system. But the question is, does it work?
The clear answer is NO; they do not. Juices do come with the nutrients present in the fruit or vegetable, and they are a convenient way to get your fruit and vegetable intake, but they are not nearly as good as the whole fruit or vegetable itself. It has no real benefits in detoxifying our system.
Also, our body is highly efficient and effective in detoxifying itself.
5.2. Juice Diets Result in Weight Loss:
This is partially true. Yes, initially, a juice diet might help shed those extra kilos, but is it advisable to follow this diet? The answer is a clear-cut no as fruits are devoid of protein, the building blocks of our body, and fats that are significant components of our body.
Losing weight too rapidly and too drastically might sometimes result in irreversible damage to the collagen and elastin fibres4 in our skin that give skin its resilience and elasticity.
The weight loss brought about by a juice diet is short-lived and not sustainable in any shape or form as it might later result in your weight rebounding to its earlier value.
Also, the cold-pressed juice diet or any juice diet, for that matter, can negatively impact our metabolism 5by slowing it down, leading to a loss in muscle mass and lowering bone density.
6. Are There Healthier Alternatives to Juicing?
There are quite a few drawbacks to juice cleanses. Rather than juicing or replacing meals with glasses of cold-pressed juices, blending the fruits and vegetables and eating them whole is a healthier option.
Instead of juicing, one can blend the same fruits and vegetables into a delicious smoothie, which comes with the benefits of juicing and the natural fibre that would otherwise be removed via juicing and is also a convenient way to consume the recommended servings of fruits and vegetables.
Even better than blending our fruits and veggies is to eat them whole, as this makes us feel fuller for comparatively long periods.
Also, if possible, opt for fresh and organic fruits and vegetables as organic fruits and vegetables have lesser exposure to nitrates and pesticide residues, which can cause health complications.
7. Bottom Line
To conclude, it is essential to know that juices can be healthy when consumed in moderation, like most good things.
Though they contain all the vitamins, minerals, and enzymes present in fruit or vegetables, cold-pressed juice lacks protein, fats, and other essential components in a balanced diet. They cannot be a substantial replacement for our daily meals as they are not nutritionally balanced.
So, instead of just depending on juices to meet our nutritional needs, for a liquid cleanse or for weight loss, we should consume what is not feasible in any shape or form, and one should always consult a doctor before adopting drastic health fads.
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8. Frequently Asked Questions
Q1. Is Cold-Pressed Juice Good for You?
Cold-pressed juice is a very strong source of antioxidants and has many health benefits. It can help and support many bodily functions, including immunity and cardiovascular health, and even keep your skin clear and hair strong. Many manufacturers even produce specialized “wellness shots”.
Q2. Can You Drink Cold-Pressed Juice every day?
Drinking a cup a day can improve your health, give you more energy, detoxify your body and help you recover from illness.
Q3. What Is the Best Time to Drink Juice?
It’s always best to drink your juice on an empty stomach so your digestive system can really absorb all the good stuff. If you consume juicing during or shortly after a meal, its benefits are reduced. A full stomach will prevent the absorption of minerals and vitamins directly into your bloodstream.
- Kirikkaleli, Dervis, et al. “Does globalization matter for ecological footprint in Turkey? Evidence from dual adjustment approach.” Environmental Science and Pollution Research 28.11 (2021): 14009-14017. ↩︎
- Chen, Kai, and Frances H. Arnold. “Engineering new catalytic activities in enzymes.” Nature Catalysis 3.3 (2020): 203-213. ↩︎
- Softic, Samir, et al. “Fructose and hepatic insulin resistance.” Critical reviews in clinical laboratory sciences 57.5 (2020): 308-322. ↩︎
- Panwar, Preety, et al. “Expression of elastolytic cathepsins in human skin and their involvement in age-dependent elastin degradation.” Biochimica et Biophysica Acta (BBA)-General Subjects 1864.5 (2020): 129544. ↩︎
- Leone, Robert D., and Jonathan D. Powell. “Metabolism of immune cells in cancer.” Nature reviews cancer 20.9 (2020): 516-531. ↩︎
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