The 80/20 Golden Reboot Rule: What Does It Mean?
By Claire Georgiou, Reboot Naturopath, B.HSc ND
When, you’re Rebooting, it’s important to follow our golden rule: drink juices that are made up of 80% veggies and 20% fruits.
So how do you work this out?
You determine the percentage of fruits and veggies before they are juiced. Six kale leaves may not produce as much juice as one apple, but before it goes in the juicer, it’s much more than an apple!
It doesn’t have to be an exact science. Start off by determining how many pieces of fruit and vegetables you will be adding to each juice or how many juices and amounts you will be consuming over the day. Note: We recommend over the day to drink four to six juices, each being 16 – 20 oz. (500-600mls), plus a minimum of 64 oz. of water.
For example, if you intend to make a juice containing five ingredients, then it is ideal for only one piece to be fruit while the other four ingredients are vegetables for every juice you consume that day. Or consume only one juice that is 100% fruit in the morning while the remaining juices over the course of the day are almost all vegetables.
Vegetables can be sweet too!
Keep in mind that root vegetables such as carrots, beets, sweet potato and other starchy vegetables can add a natural sweet taste to the juice while they are still considered vegetables. And citrus such as lemon, limes and grapefruit are so low in sugar that they do not count as true fruits.
Eat a rainbow every day (with lots of green).
We also recommend that 50% of your daily juices or daily ingredients should be green vegetables to ensure you are also drinking low sugar juices combined with higher sugar and carbohydrate juices.
In our plans we suggest as a general guideline to consume two to three coloured juices and three green juices to account for this. This recommendation encourages the consumption of a broad spectrum of colours throughout the day to ensure adequate ingestion of many micronutrients, antioxidants and phytonutrients, as each colour represents its own family of nutrients. Another golden rule for a healthy eating plan is to consume an array of colour everyday, or my favourite saying ‘eat yourself a rainbow everyday!’ to ensure a high phytonutrient diet.
What is a serve/serving or a piece?
Serve of fruit = 1 piece – apple, orange, pear or 1 cup of chopped fruit
Serve of vegetable = 1 cup of chopped vegetables
80/20 Juice Examples to Follow:
Here are a variety of ways you can follow the 80/20 rule.
- Your first juice of the day is 100% fruit while the remaining 4 juices are almost all vegetables, and 2-3 of those juices are predominantly green.
- Juices 1 and 2 of the day are 50% fruit and 50% vegetable while the remaining 3-4 juices are all vegetables.
- Juices 1 through 6 are split into one to two serves of fruit with four to eight serves of vegetables per juice over the course of the day while consuming 50% of these juices green.
Remember this is truly a guesstimate and a general guide, NOT an exact science.
In saying all of this, if you were to consume slightly more fruit than recommended you will still experience weight loss success and vital health improvements. If you find your weight has halted and you are experiencing a weight loss plateau then it is important to follow our suggestions given in these two posts and be mindful of your fruit to vegetable ratio:
If you find your juice is too sweet then it probably has too much sugar in it and should be diluted with lower sugar containing fruits and vegetables such as lettuce, cucumber, celery, lemon, lime, grapefruit, zucchini, spinach, chard (silverbeet), peppers, kale (Tuscan cabbage), cabbage, brussels sprouts, fennel, watercress, mustard/collard greens, parsley or any other leafy, stringy or watery vegetables.
Your taste buds might change.
Over the course of the Reboot you may find that your sweet tooth will subside and you will prefer the juices with less natural sugars and more of a savoury taste. Some people do not believe that they will become accustomed to the stronger flavoured less sweet juices but with time, our tastes change and as your body starts to gauge its true nutrition desires it may prefer these juices that were once considered disgusting, intolerable and revolting – I’ve heard it all! I personally do not like very sweet juices and prefer the more sour and bitter flavours but I did not like these types of juices in the beginning of my juice journey.
Juice (more veggies than fruits) for more nutrients.
When you juice you allow all the phytonutrients to readily absorb through the intestinal wall and provide immense health benefits but so will the natural fruit sugars and this is why it is important not to drink or consume too many juices with a high volume of fruit as it may disrupt the blood sugar levels. By consuming your juices mostly vegetable you will avoid this being a concern.
By disrupting your blood sugar levels this may increase fatigue, dizziness, energy slumps, increased hunger, moodiness and/or blurred vision. These symptoms can also be the result of the reboot and these guidelines can help with the ups and downs of a reboot.
If you have diabetes, pre-diabetes, insulin resistance or hypoglycaemia then it is important to take particular care of your natural sugar intake and read these guidelines – Sweetness – How to manage your sugar intake and Reboot with diabetes. Adding spices such as cinnamon can also help regulate blood sugar levels.