Vegetable juice - SOS

gs314

Member
I have been detoxing with juice during the summer - usually juicing cucumber, kale, celery, cabbage - with an occasional carrot/apple. Having joined the SW back in December, I continued to have a juice about twice a week to replace my breakfast as I really struggle to eat in the morning and then have a tendency to overeat at lunch. When I do have a juice, it really is just a juice and nothing else and I think a pint of my green juice works out at about 120 kcals max. Went to group yesterday and got screeched at for doing that - apparently I should never juice when doing the SW and therefore any juice that I have, I must syn.

Any insights please? And honestly I do NOT juice fruit... If I do stick in an occasional apple, it is always a granny smith so that it'd have as few calories as possible.

Amber x
 
Its a touchy point with consultants it seems but technically cooked, juiced and blended fruit must be synned but the guidelines on veg are shady. At the end of the day veg contains far far less natural sugar than fruit and if you are blending it then hey it may fill you up less than eating the veg but it's not like you are doing it breakfast lunch and dinner. If you do it and still lose consistently then who's to say otherwise. If you start to slow or stall then re-evaluate. I never heard of anyone putting on weight from over-eating veg and that's what the blending/juicing thing is protecting from. That and the reduction in fibre from the loss of pulp. You know you better than anyone. Its a tweak and is therefore frowned upon but accepted that we all do them.
 
Thank you! Veg juice has so few calories that I personally cannot see where the issue is. Overeating on fruit I completely understand - fruit is full of fructose. But not getting how kale, cucumber and celery can upset anything. Anyway, will see what happens next x
 
Veg when juiced has a syn value. It's very black and white, there are no grey areas. The syn value for juiced veg is small.
Yep we get touchy about it, it's to protect our members weight loss.

You do not get as satisfied from drinking a juice as you do when you eat the whole fruit or veg.

All syn values are in your book.
 
But that is precisely my point - kale, cucumber and celery - which really is mainly what I drink - is free food. So how does it become syn food when I juice it?
 
But that is precisely my point - kale, cucumber and celery - which really is mainly what I drink - is free food. So how does it become syn food when I juice it?

The theory behind it being synned is that you could quote easily juice 1/2 a bag of carrots, a whole cucumber etc and drink it, whereas if you had the same amount of veg and tried to eat it, you would get very full.

You probably shouldn't have been screeched at about it though! A simple explanation from your consultant would have had a better outcome.
 
It's one of things people either do or don't do. If following SW 100% syn it, if not, don't.
Its to do with satisfaction, as I said earlier, that's the reason.
 
I appreciate it is to do with satisfaction - personally I could have at least 3/4 times as many fruit/veg a day in comparison to what I juice. Before I ever tried juicing, my typical day would include 5/6 apples, a punnet of grapes, a couple of bananas, prob a punnet of strawberries/raspberries PLUS at least five different kinds of veg. By juicing veg, I simply feel that it does kill my hunger... in any event, health benefits far outweigh any worry that I have about synning this but could someone please tell me exactly how to calculate the syns of a juiced cucumber, celery and kale? Thank you!
 
The book (under Drinks-Juices) says vegetable juice is 1 syn per 100ml except carrot which is 1.5 syns (so a lot less than fruit juice, or indeed cooked/pureed fruit) - so your pint would be about 5 syns. I wasn't aware of this as it is not mentioned in the vegetable syns list or in the bit at the front where it says about blended/juiced/tinned/cooked fruit not being free. I'd always assumed that vegetables were free in any form, given that cooking or blending them doesn't make them synful.

Could you puree your veg instead of juicing them? Might have an odd soupy texture but it would be free that way.

At the end of the day if without the juice you honestly wouldn't be eating breakfast, then it might be for the best that you keep having the juice even if theoretically it pushes you slightly over your syns for the day because having even 120calories will help your metabolism get going and it'll hydrate you. In theory it is less filling than, say, a free Mullerlight (100calories), but it has more essential vitamins (assuming you are having your calcium from your hexA), being hydrated does help you feel full, and in my experience the sweeteners in Mullerlight play havoc with my appetite.

On the whole I am quite strict about sticking to and trusting the plan but you also have to make it work with your lifestyle and preferences and it can hardly be argued vegetables juices are unhealthy, which some dieticians are starting to say about fruit juices. Are you having any problems with your losses? If not, I wouldn't worry tbh.
 
the way one of my old consultants explained it was, its the actual physical action of eating a veg/fruit that makes it free.

the peeling, chewing actions of eating.

weird but i guess it is true.

x
 
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