Article: Benefits of Juicing Pears

Article from San Francisco Chronicle (click for redirection to article on their website):

Ripe, juicy pears add fresh flavor to a range of dishes and count toward your daily U.S. Department of Agriculture-recommended fruit intake of 1.5 to 2 cups. Juicing pears extracts the minerals, vitamins and other phytonutrients, leaving you with a glass of juice nutritionally similar -- though not identical -- to a whole pear. Each 1-cup serving of pear juice contains more than one serving of whole pears, so juicing pears provides more vitamins and minerals per serving than simply eating a whole pear.

Vitamin K

Drinking pear juice boosts your intake of vitamin K, also called phylloquinone. Vitamin K helps maintain healthy bones as you age. It promotes the healthy growth of new bone tissue, decreasing your risk of developing bone fractures due to osteoporosis later in life, according to the Linus Pauling Institute. It also helps you form blood clots to prevent blood loss after injury. One cup of pear juice contains approximately 13.3 micrograms of phylloquinone, 11 and 15 percent of the recommended vitamin K intake for men and women, respectively. A serving of whole pear, by contrast, contains only 7.2 micrograms of vitamin K.

Vitamin C

Orange and grapefruit juices have a reputation as cold fighters due to their vitamin C content, but pear juice also provides a source of this nutrient. Pears’ vitamin C content helps your body produce infection-fighting white blood cells and also helps build strong blood vessels so that those cells can travel throughout your body. One cup of pear juice contains 12.4 milligrams of vitamin C, compared with 7 milligrams in one serving of whole pear. The vitamin C in one serving of pear juice represents 17 percent of the vitamin C intake for women or 14 percent for men.

Copper

Healthy hair and skin rely on your intake of copper, and drinking pear juice provides a source of this trace mineral. Copper makes up a part of melanin, the pigment that gives your skin and hair their color and provides natural protection from the sun. It also nourishes your nervous system and helps support nerve function. One cup of pear juice provides 243 of the 900 micrograms of copper you require daily, according to the Linus Pauling Institute -- more than the 132 micrograms supplied by one serving of whole pear.

Juicing Ideas and Considerations

Pear juice’s mild taste mixes well with other flavors, so you can enjoy the juice on its own or as part of a juice blend. Use pear juice to sweeten vegetable juices -- a glass of pear juice mixed with spinach or kale juice tastes pleasantly sweet while packing a powerful nutritional punch, providing your entire day’s worth of vitamins K and A. Alternatively, reduce pear juice to syrup on the stove to use as a natural sweetener for tea. Drink pear juice as part of a balanced diet. Eat a mix of whole fruits and fruit juices to meet your daily fruit intake. Pear juice, while still nutritious, lacks the fiber found in whole pears that helps fill you up between meals. Limit your juice intake to one 4-ounce serving per day, according to the Harvard School of Public Health.