Upgrade Your Filler Foods - One snack at a time (Series - Part 2)

If you feel that your newly adopted crunchy and crispy filler food should be accompanied by something that can cool down your thirst while satisfying your juicy desires, then here is another interesting snack suggestion for you. No, do not even think of those carbonated drinks or fruity mocktails you have been consuming along with food snacks! A healthier change may be made towards natural and fresh fruit juices in their hot or cold forms. If you want reasons to replace your carbonated drinks with soups and natural fresh juices, then you must read on.

Health Benefits

Though consuming the fresh fruits and vegetables offers another level of health benefits, some of you may not consider them for your snacking time. Natural juices and soups are no less in terms of the amazing advantages they offer over any carbonated or artificial fruit drink. Check out how you can improve your health by snacking over such stuff:

• Detoxification: The greatest benefit of snacking on fresh soups and natural juices is that they help in detoxifying your body. Nutrition from juices is quickly and wonderfully absorbed by your body, which aids your digestive system and cleanses your body of toxins that heap up over time due to junk eating habits. Detoxification from time to time can keep you active, fit, and away from several diseases.

• Fiber and nutrition: Your body needs a good amount of fiber to aid its digestive and excretory processes. Fresh soups and juices made by blending the vegetables and fruits are a nice source of fiber, as well as phytonutrients. However, remember to blend and not extract the juice from a fruit or veggie. Blending retains their edible parts and makes the juice healthier and highly nutritious. Additionally, it will keep the crunch in your juice or soup, which is best to enjoy at snacking time.

• Healthy skin, hair, and nails: Everyone dreams of a shiny and firm skin, as well as healthy nails, hair, and body. What better way to it than juicing over freshly blended fruits and veggies? Most of the fruits are rich in antioxidants and vitamins C and E. Whether you juice a watermelon, pomegranate, cranberry, blueberry or orange, you will get ample antioxidants and skin-nourishing vitamins that will keep your skin younger and help it fight against aging.

• Healthy heart and muscles: Fresh fruit juices and vegetable soups keep you cool and maintain your blood pressure. They decrease the chances of heart diseases and blockages in the arteries. Citrulline in some juices also helps in reducing soreness in muscles. Juices even lower inflammation in your muscles.

• Anti-cancerous: While water in juices and soups hydrates your body, their phytochemicals prevent you against cancers. These phytochemicals stop enzymes like aromatase from growing, which are causes to the growth of cancers, especially breast cancer.

• Sound mental health: Mental health is equally important to physical health. Fresh fruit juices and vegetable soups are such snacks that improve your cognitive abilities and keep you away from several mental disorders. The antioxidants and flavonoids in them reduce cognitive aging and Alzheimer's disease. So, snack often on juices and you will pass all memory tests easily!

• Immunity providers: Juices and soups are rich in vitamin C, which boosts your metabolism and makes your immune system stronger. This further keeps you away from several diseases and infections like urinary tract infection or kidney stones.

• Sugar level management: As fruits have natural sugars, you are cautioned on their high intake. However, you may balance the sugar by reducing the intake of other processed and sugary foods during your day. Cut on processed sugar and go for a sustainable amount of juices that will actually help in managing the level of sugar in your body. Soups are even better with their nutrients and good fats that stabilize sugar levels and keep you energetic. Remember, good fats are great to gain energy without gaining weight. In fact, juicing and souping can be an energetic way to weight loss, if done properly.

How to Consume

With such great benefits of snacking on fruit and vegetable extracts, you should also consider to consume them the right way. Here you go:

• Blend your favorite fruits and flavor the fresh juice with herbs like mint, cinnamon, ginger, or basil. You may also add a few drops of lemon juice in your fruit blend. Enjoy it fresh.

• Blend some soft vegetables to have your soup ready, or blend tomatoes if you only love tomato soup. Heat up your blend while adding some broth and spices to it. Garnish your cooked soup with flavorful herbs. It will aid digestion even better. Enjoy it fresh and hot.

• Create a mix of fresh juices and enjoy your own custom mocktail.

• Avoid snacking only on juices for the reasons mentioned above!

Question for Readers

Now that you know so much about these detoxifying agents that won't leave you hungry ever, which healthy food snacks are you pairing them with?

(Get your answer while I bring to you another healthy snack option in Part 3 of this series. Stay snacking and stay tuned!)