Carbohydrates and Juicing

Question
QUESTION: Hello,

Firstly, I apologize for sending my question that is not your specialty subject but I could not find anyone on Allexperts that could give me an answer.
I would appreciate your help very much.
It has been recently scientifically proven that carbohydrates shorten your Lifespan by making your body produce more insulin to mop up the extra blood sugar carbohydrates produce.
I am thinking of buying an expensive masticating juicer. Juicing allows you to consume an optimal amount of phytonutrients in an efficient manner. I have read that phytonutrients play an incredibly active role in helping us stay healthy, happy, fit and trim. They help our cells talk to each other, prevent mutations, are anti-inflammatory, serve as antioxidants and generally help us undo the damage we do to our body.
But just one glass of green juice will mean that you have to juice a lot of green kale or cabbage leaves which contain an average of 75% carbohydrates by weight.
So I am of 2 minds as to whether to juice green food since although you benefit from the phytonutrients, you will certainly not benefit by the amount of carbohydrates you could end up consuming.
My question is very simple.
Can you tell me whether juicing drastically lowers the amount of carbohydrates in green vegetables and fruit ?
Can you tell me whether your answer is an educated guess or whether you know that scientific evidence backs your answer please ?
Thank you.

ANSWER: trigan,

Juicing is essentially removing the roughage (aka dietary fiber, aka carbohydrates) from fruits and vegetables. What remains are various sugars, water and a few other nutrients. The important distinction here in answering your question is that there are different types of carbohydrates. The first is dietary fiber, the second is sugar. So juicing will significantly reduce the amount of carbohydrates because it is eliminating the fiber.

That being said...If I am reading into your question correctly, you are interested in eliminating carbohydrates due to their impact on insulin. Fiber has little or no impact on insulin, it is the sugar that impacts insulin.

So to answer your question, juicing will reduce carbohydrates, but not reduce the impact on insulin.

Dan

---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: Thank you Dan for your reply.

My current information tells me that juicing removes not only the fiber from the plant food BUT ALSO the insoluble starch. It only lets the soluble carbohydrates namely the sugars go into the juice as far as carbohydrates are concerned. The fiber and the starch in the vegetable or fruit are captured by the juicer and discarded. This is an extremely important point if it is correct.

Can you double check on this point please ?

Thank you.

Answer
Resistant starch is classified as a type of dietary fiber. It is insoluble and passes through the system with little or no insulin response.

So, by juicing you are doing the exact opposite of what you are trying to achieve, you are removing more good stuff than bad from an insulin response perspective.

And speaking on juicing in general, I think you will find that most experts would agree eating the fruit or vegetable whole is much more beneficial than juicing it, primarily due to the lack of dietary fiber. I know the juicer manufacturers tell us otherwise, but if you have the time and like fruits and vegetables, eating them is healthier.

Dan

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