Generally, it’s pretty tough to convince people to eat lots of fruits and vegetables. Sure, they will eat a little side salad. Or a banana in the morning. Or an apple and other fruits here and there. With seniors it’s particularly tough. As we age, we lose some of our appetite. Older people have the double whammy of perhaps having bad eating habits and lowered desire to eat. They may wonder – ‘is juicing good for seniors?’ That’s a shame. Juicing for seniors benefits are enough to make even old dogs try new tricks.
Healthy juicing consists of running a combination of fruits and vegetables though a machine called a ‘juicer’. The juicer strips away the solid part of the food. What remains is:
- The liquid content
- Vitamins
- Minerals
Juicing for Seniors Benefits
Is juicing good for seniors? You bet. The three components listed above come out in the form of liquid juice that will fill up a glass. All the solid matter (pulp) usually comes out from the machine separately. The pulp can either be discarded or mixed in with the juice for extra fiber content.
Drinking one glass of ‘juice’ out of a juicer can be the equivalent of eating a pound of produce in terms of the vitamin and mineral content. That’s some serious juicing for seniors benefits. If you prepare it the right way, juice can also taste great. That’s why juicing for seniors may be the perfect remedy for a poor diet and bad eating habits.
Many seniors come into our assisted living homes skeptical. They often ask ‘is juicing good for seniors?’ We have juicers at all our assisted living homes around Surprise and Goodyear, Arizona. Our residents love the taste when we put a little fruit in with some delicious, fresh vegetables. Plus, they don’t have to eat a lot to receive the benefits.
One other juicing for seniors benefits is that they don’t have to spend a lot of time digesting their food. Digestion can be a problem in the elderly population. Drinking juice like this means the vitamins and minerals move through the body quickly. They go to where they’re needed most right away. Think of it as an IV of the good stuff.
Is Juicing Good for Seniors? Case Study
Let’s go beyond the obvious juicing for seniors benefits of fruits and vegetables. What if juicing for seniors can help with many of their chronic diseases? Or even just their aches and pains? Common conditions such as:
- Diabetes
- Arthritis
- Osteoperosis
- Cancer
- Ulcerative Colitis
- Chron’s Disease
- Aches and Pains
- Fibromyalgia
- Psoriasis
A guy from England named Jason Vale sought to find out. Jason had suffered from the chronic He set up a retreat in Portugal. Then he invited eight people with 22 chronic diseases to take part in a 28-day juicing program. They basically would not have anything to eat.
The only drinks they could have were health juices.
One of those eight was a man in his late sixties.
Super Juice Me (and Super Juice for Seniors)!
Jason filmed the results and made a documentary about it. You can watch it here:
As you can imagine, it was a struggle at first. As Jason said in the movie, salt, sugar and processed foods can be very addictive. So can the withdrawal symptoms. That’s why a 28-day, juice-only diet may not be the best idea when thinking about juicing for seniors benefits. You’ll see a lot of the people in the documentary struggling with the diet. Especially in the early stages. You can also check out his website here.
Spoiler Alert for Is Juicing Good for Seniors?
However, it sure seems worth toughing it out. Or at least adding more juice to a senior’s diet and cutting back on the junk. Here are some highlights of the results the juicers achieved:
- One lady lost 38lbs in a month
- Another brought her cholesterol down from 301 to 216mg/dL and her blood pressure from 170/105 to 134/79. She was also no longer pre-diabetic
- A young man dropped his body fat by 5% (33lbs weight lost) and gave up his food cravings
- A middle-aged man put his ulcerative colitis into remission and dropped his blood sugar from 6.0 to 5.1 which meant he was no longer pre-diabetic
- The more senior man fixed his sleep apnea, eliminated all his medications, and his hypoglycemia is in remission. He is now running marathons at age 67.
Juicing achieved all of the that and more for eight people in just under a month. Think what it could do for you or for a senior in your family!
It’s definitely worth watching this documentary. What are your thoughts about juicing for seniors? Please let us know in the comments below.
