“Experts recommend five servings of vegetables every day. They didn’t say…you had to eat them”, shouted TV commercial accompanied by enthusiastic, but vaguely pathetic music.

You can say that I am a foodie, so watching Food Network and stalking Thomas Keller near his French Laundry restaurant is pretty much my responsibility. When I am not acting as if I am a celebrity chef groupie, I usually go for “food porn” type of shows such as Iron Chef America.

Oh, and by the way, the stalking part is not true, so do not get any ideas. I appreciate the entertaining value of Food Network. Alton Brown, the host of Iron Chef America and newly debuted Feasting on Asphalt show, is far from dull and uninformative.

Sure, one can argue, that Civil War food fights reenactments could have spiced up Feasting on Asphalt show a little more than Alton’s exploration of deep-fired cow-brain sandwiches, pickled pig’s feet, and greasy road food.

He claims that the show is not about road kill, ohkay, but could this commercial be a quintessential example of going a little too far just to sell vegetable juice?

Diets rich in fresh fruits and vegetables are proven to benefit our health, because they contain biologically active enzymes, phytonutrients, and other compounds associated with many health benefits. Most vegetables are also filling because of the fiber content.

Did I somehow miss a growing body of vegetable juice studies suggesting that the same benefits can be obtained by simply drinking commercially made vegetable juices? I do not think so, because drinking vegetable juice is not equivalent to eating fresh vegetables.

Having said that, there are cases when freshly made vegetable juice can be a valuable addition to a diet already rich in fruits and vegetables. Keep an eye on future articles where I talk about little-known details of successful home juicing.