I once had someone admonish me for juice fasting. They were concerned that my blood sugar would spike. It's a legitimate concern. However, in my case, there was no need to worry. There's not a lot of sugar content in my juice fast juices. You see, I know there's a right and a wrong way to juice. I follow a few simple rules when juicing for optimum nutritional value and low sugar content. Here they are.

Percentages

When I juice fast, or even when I just make smoothies, I watch the percentage of sugary fruits that go into the juicer. Using too much fruit or a lot of citrus is a common mistake that can turn a healthy juice into a sugar coma. The juices I make are primarily composed of vegetables, not fruit. You can make a juice with as little as 10% fruit that's quite nicely flavored. By using 90% veggies and only 10% fruit, I get a great tasting juice that won't cause my blood sugar levels to rocket off the charts.

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Nutritional values

When you grow up vegetarian, then turn vegan as I did, you learn nutritional facts in self defense. It's sad but true that vegans and vegetarians have to defend their eating habits quite often. I don't mind, because I know my stuff. It comes naturally to me after 40 plus years of a lifestyle that isn't within the realm of societal norms. Even if you're not vegan, the best way to be sure the juice you make is to know your produce and what it does for you. Or, you can take the short cut.

Color cues

What color are your fruits and veggies? Are you juicing the whole rainbow or just one color? By including many different colors of fruits and veggies in your juice, what do you also include? You include many different vitamins, minerals, nutrients and antioxidants. Each color represents something else you need in order to be healthy. So, a healthy juice contains multiple colors. Could it be any simpler?

Bright, pastel, dark or light.

While it's true that highly concentrated colors contain high concentrations of nutrients, there is something else you should know. There are light colored fruits and veggies that contain nutrition boosters not found in the dark and bright colored produce usually recommended for good nutrition. So, be sure your rainbow is not only multicolored, but multi-hued.

Nuts, beans and nutritional yeast

Since I'm vegan, everyone seems to be concerned about me getting my protein and Vitamin B12. That is, everyone but me. I have this covered. In addition to adding a wide variety of produce to my juices and smoothies, I also toss some nuts, seeds, beans and a tiny bit of nutritional yeast (B12) into each batch. You can't taste the beans or the nutritional yeast. Different nuts and flax or chia seeds add a nice, compatible flavor to the juice. Plus, I get my protein and Vitamin B12 effortlessly.

Note: You can skip the nuts if you're allergic. There's still plenty of protein in the beans and seeds.