ABUJA – A dietician at the Garki Hospital, Abuja, Miss Yemisi Olowookere, on Friday advised Nigerians to take high level of quality nutrition with fresh fruit juices and vegetables.
Olowookere told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Abuja that good intake of juice was important to the body because of the nutrients from fresh squeezed vegetables and fruits.
According to her, when you squeeze out the juice in fruits or vegetables, you receive a concentration of minerals, vitamins and enzymes.
She said there were three main reasons why drinking of juice was beneficial to the body.
“Firstly, the juice hardly requires more digestion, so, all its nutritional goodness gets rapidly absorbed into the system.
“Secondly, when you juice, you use more fruits and vegetables than you could actually eat, as a result, you drink a densely packed amount of vitamins, minerals and other plant-based nutrients.
“Thirdly, juicing helps in liver detoxification and purging of poisonous substances from the body,’’ Olowookere said.
The expert explained that juicing refered to fresh homemade juice and not the so-called misleading “100 per cent real fruit” commercial juices in shops and supermarket shelves.
Olowookere also advised people to take more of vegetable juices such as carrot, cucumber, cabbage, spinach, parsley and celery than fruit juices.
“This is because of high content of naturally occurring fruit sugars in them.
“Vegetables and fruits can also be combined to make mouth-watering delicious and of course healthy drinks.
“Do not add any sweeteners to your juice and try to take them within 20 to 30 minutes after juicing them before they start losing their nutrients,’’ she said. (NAN)
