Can I drink too much fruit juice?

by Peter Miraglia
(Wildwood, FL)

Q: I just started my first juice fast and have not eaten anything for two weeks. I started juicing for weight loss. My biggest problem is the taste. Is it bad to juice with mostly fruits as they taste so much better to me? Will this slow any weight loss?

A: Hi Peter! Congrats on your juice fast. Generally speaking, it is better to juice more vegetables then fruit. A lot of people go by the mantra "eat your fruits, juice your vegetables." That being said, fruit juice is a good thing, but if you can, try to juice more vegetables.

Fruit juice is more caloric and has more sugar then vegetable based juices. I find that if I mix in a good amount of apples in with any vegetable (carrot, broccoli, greens, etc) then it will most of the time hide the taste.

Carrots and apples are versatile to mix with all vegetables/fruits so you could try adding both with your recipes. Lemon & ginger are also good additions to vegetable juice to hide any unfavorable veggie taste.

Too much fruit juice could slow down weight loss because it does have a high calorie count compared to vegetables which are a fraction of fruit juice. However, fasting usually cuts back calories in diets so as long as you watch your caloric intake and don't have 2 gallons of it, you'll be fine.

Good luck with the rest of your fasting and juicing!