Category: Blog

Why doesn’t Journey Juice print the calorie count on the labels?

The simple answer: We don’t count calories and we don’t want to encourage our customers to count calories. The problem with using a measure of heat transfer or energy (aka calories) as a tool to lose weight — because that’s what we’re talking about here — is the variability of the metabolic thermic effect of macronutrients.* DO WHAT??? Keep reading…it’s gonna make sense.

Unfortunately, the FDA, CDC and another 20 or so acronymic organizations have led Americans to believe all sorts of crazy ideas over the years:

• Animal fat is bad for you.
• Rapeseed oil is good for you.
• Cholesterol — ubiquitous in every living thing on Earth — is bad for you.
• CO2 — ubiquitous in every living thing on Earth — is bad for you.
• Yogurt is good for you.

Add to that list: ‘Consuming too many calories will make you fat.’

Without getting too wonky, let’s discover what the ‘variability of the metabolic thermic effect of macronutrients’ really means. It just means that a fat calorie is different than a carbohydrate calorie. And a carbohydrate calorie is different than a protein calorie. Ever heard someone say they are counting macros? Well this is what that means– keep reading!

What is the Thermic Effect of Macronutrients? Macronutrients are carbs, fats, and proteins. The thermic effect is the energy (calories) lost during the metabolic process. When you eat 400 calories of protein, your body expends 25% of the calories as energy lost during the metabolic breakdown and digestion of the nutrients. So your net calorie ingestion of 400 calories of protein is 300 calories. When you eat 400 calories of carbohydrates, your body expends approximately 7% or net 372 calories. When you eat 400 calories of fat, your body expends approximately 3% or net 388 calories. If you are counting calories in an effort to lose weight, you should probably adjust your calculations to include the thermic effect of the fats, carbs, and proteins you are consuming.

The quality of the macronutrients is much more important than the quantity.

Much more important than the number of calories you are eating is the the quality of the food you are ingesting. Yet, again, it’s complicated. Some fats are good for you, and some are bad. Some carbs are okay, and some are terrible for you. And many modern, Big Food/Big Farm proteins (e.g., antibiotic-filled chicken & beef; farm-raised salmon; massive chicken egg operations where no grass or sunshine is available) are definitely not good for you. So when you drink a bottle of Journey Juice, you can rest assured it has been sourced in the most organic practices. It is worth every calorie. It is quality nutrition. Your cells literally dance and your systems feel like they just got a reboot! So get rid of the Kind bar and grab a Journey Juice.

You Are What You Eat Eats

The takeaway is this: Worrying about the amount of generic calories in your food does nothing but give you something to worry about. Instead of counting calories, try discovering where your food comes from and how it is fed. Is the produce drowned in pesticides? Are the chickens and cows fed grass? Are they given antibiotics to fatten them up? Is the salmon farm raised? Don’t forget that when you eat a plant or an animal, you are ingesting whatever they eat or whatever poison (80% of the antibiotics sold in the U.S. are given to farm animals) they have been fed. Keeping up with your food sources is infinitely more effective than counting calories when it comes to maintaining good health.

Don’t worry about calories. Worry about the quality of your food. Local, organically grown produce is the way to go. Eat local, grass fed chickens, cows, and eggs. Drink some local raw milk, and lots of cold-pressed Journey Juice.

*Denzer, CM; JC Young (September 2003). “The effect of resistance exercise on the thermic effect of food”. International Journal of Sport Nutrition and Exercise Metabolism . 13 (3): 396–402. PMID 14669938.

One of the most frequently asked questions at Journey Juice is about fiber.

Does the cold-pressed method get rid of all the fiber?

Don’t we have to eat a lot of fiber to be healthy?

Will I still be able to go to the bathroom if I don’t eat enough fiber?

Like almost everything in the world of health and nutrition, ‘It’s Complicated.’ The most common answer is that fiber is good for you because it keeps you ‘regular.’ And if you are a typical American eating the typical Standard American Diet (SAD), adding fiber to your regular diet will indeed help keep you regular. If you are eating three meals a day of fast and processed foods, it makes sense to get the bad stuff out of your system as fast as possible. If you eat ‘clean,’ the benefits of fiber are less pronounced. But it’s still complicated.

There are two types of fiber, insoluble and soluble. The insoluble fiber in many foods is what your body cannot digest. It speeds up the digestion process and helps to keep you regular. Soluble fiber dissolves in water and ferments in your gut while producing many important byproducts such as short chain fatty acids, which help the millions of microorganisms keep your gut healthy. Soluble fiber also decreases your blood sugar and increases your absorption of vitamins and minerals.

So what about fiber in the juice? The cold press machine that takes two-three pounds of fresh produce and magically produces delicious Journey Juice removes the insoluble fiber but maintains more than 90 percent of the vitamins, minerals and enzymes. The cellulose that is left over is inedible — to humans anyway. We feed it to the goats!

In the study referenced below, researchers demonstrated how cold-pressed juice with soluble fiber increased the levels of Beta-Carotene concentration more than taking supplements, and even more than eating the actual fruits and vegetables (that contain all that extra fiber). The soluble fiber in cold-pressed juice actually makes the nutrients more bioavailable than eating the fruits and vegetables. And as Amy say,  ‘It’s easier to drink your veggies than to eat them. Especially two to three pounds of them!’

Notice the soluble fiber in this bottle of Just Greens (pictured) that has settled in the bottom of the bottle. Since we do not homogenize, pasteurize, or use amalgamation chemicals at Journey Juice, the water contained in the vegetables is separated from the soluble fiber and nutrients. Therefore, it is always important to Shake Well before consuming.

So enjoy your next bottle of Journey Juice with the piece of mind that there is plenty of soluble fiber in the juice, working hard to bring your body all of the healthy nutrients from the fruits and vegetables.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3491579/

Watermelon Fresca is our number one selling juice during the summer. Our Georgia Grown watermelons make the sweetest tasting, most refreshing juices available anywhere. And just like all of the cold-pressed juices at Journey Juice, we do not add any water or sugar to our watermelon juice. We just add a splash of fresh squeezed lemon juice, which acts as a natural preservative. But did you know how nutritious watermelons are? Even though they are made out of more than 90 percent water, watermelons are a vegetable/fruit combo superfood.

Did You Know . . .

• Watermelons contain twice the potassium of a banana; But only half the sugar.
• Watermelons contain more lycopene than a tomato.
• Watermelons contain choline, magnesium, Vitamins A, C, and B6;
• Watermelons contain a healthy dose of Citrulline, which converts to L-arginine once digested, then to Nitric Oxide. Nitric Oxide is a vasodilator, which means it is great for your cardiovascular system. Not only does Citrulline help Nitric Oxide improve your blood pressure, in one study (Urology. 2011 Jan;77(1):119-22.), Citrulline supplements were given to patients suffering from mild erectile disfunction. The natural Citrulline was shown to be more than 80 percent as effective as Viagra, without the side effects.
• Watermelons contain anti-inflammatory antioxidants in addition to Lycopene, which work like COX-2 inhibitors like Ibuprofen, without the liver damage (http://www.albany.edu/faculty/cs812/bio366/Cyclooxygenase_ppt.pdf).
• Cold-pressed watermelon juice performed better than gatorade in tests on athletes’ recovery after workouts (http://www.healthline.com/health/food-nutrition/is-gatorade-bad-for-you).

Watermelons have been around since the ancient Egyptians grew them more than 5000 years ago. Every part of the watermelon is edible. In fact, the rind and seeds are even more nutritious than the juicy red meat though not as delicious. Sprouted watermelon seeds are one of our favorite healthy snacks. One ounce contains 11 grams of healthy fat, 10 grams of protein and no sugar. Compare those numbers to your favorite protein bar.

Remember in the summer heat, preventing dehydration begins long before your workout. If you are planning a big workout or run in the heat, proper preparation begins the night before. Don’t eat processed foods; don’t drink too much alcohol; get enough sleep; and drink a Journey Juice cold-pressed Watermelon Fresca. The next morning, in addition to plenty of water, drink another Watermelon Fresca one to two hours before your workout. You will be amazed at your performance in the heat.