Juice It Up! |

Juice It Up!

Are you eating the recommended 8-9 servings of veggies and fruits per day? No? Welcome to the club! Drinking fresh veggie and fruit juices every day is a great way to boost your immune system and get those vitamins, minerals and enzymes into your body! You think veggie juice tastes nasty? Try the following recipes and you will be delighted how delicious your juice will taste and how energized you will feel afterwards!

Why drink fresh juice? Because just eating a salad for lunch or some broccoli with your dinner does not give you all the vitamins and phytonutrients you need. Of course one could argue that vitamin pills would do the trick. Studies have shown however, that the body does not absorb vitamins from pills the same effective way as it does those in its natural form coming from a vegetable, fruit or berry.

Since juicing squeezes out all the good nutrients from a few pounds of veggies or fruits into one 8oz glass, it is a great way to get a good portion of the recommended servings in just one shot—super shots of vitamins so to speak! One can really feel the energy from these vitamins!

I have been juicing for the past 8 years and the benefits are incredible. Not only do I feel much more energized during the day, but my skin looks younger and my immune system is so much more stronger.

I recommend that you buy a masticating juicer and start by drinking one to two glasses of fresh juice every day. Start with a yummy apple/carrot juice and gradually mix it up from there (see recipes below). Some people argue that they don’t want to spend money on a juicer and just use a blender instead. Please note that juicing is not the same as making a smoothie. Don’t get me wrong: smoothies are great and I drink them too. However, a smoothie is made with a handful of veggies or fruits only, while one glass of juice is made from a big bowl of produce. Get the point? More produce equals more nutrients. Juicing removes the bulk from the produce and yields a much higher concentration of vitamins, antioxidants, enzymes and minerals per glass in comparison to a smoothie!

To get the most out of juicing, there are a few important things to keep in mind:

Use fresh or recently picked produce – the less time on the shelf or in the fridge the more nutrients the produce will contain.
Organic and local produce is best – not all produce contains the same amount of toxic pesticides and insecticides. The following have the most toxic load and should always be bought organic: Apples, Strawberries, Grapes, Celery, Peaches, Nectarines, Spinach, Cucumber, Tomatoes, Blueberries etc.
Drink juice on an empty stomach – this will help you get the most nutrition out of it, as your digestive system will only process the juice and not all the other foods that are already floating in your stomach waiting to be digested. This way the vitamins and minerals from the juice go straight into your circulation and will be quickly distributed to your cells. If fresh juice is mixed with food it can cause heartburn or indigestion. It is best to wait 2 hours after a meal before drinking fresh juice and wait 20 min after drinking fresh juice before eating other foods.
Drink your juice immediately after it is made – the enzymes in the juice begin to degrade via oxidation once they are exposed to air and the longer you wait before drinking the juice the fewer vitamins and enzymes will be alive in the juice. One can feel the life-energy of the vitamins and enzymes when drinking fresh juice, which is experienced as a prickly burst of energy. But in hours-old juice, the energy and taste begins to fade. If you are unable to drink the juice right after it’s made then store it in an air-tight container to help the enzymes in the juice survive for a few hours. Fill a glass-bottle up to the rim, close the lid, and put it in the fridge.
Don’t mix fruits with vegetables – with the exception of apples and celery, all other veggies should be combined with other veggies only and all other fruits with other fruits only. Why? Because our digestive system uses different kinds of enzymes to break down fruits versus vegetables, and processing both veggies and fruits at the same time taxes our digestive system. Nowadays a lot of juice stores sell fancy juices containing veggies and fruits wildly mixed together including citrus etc. in the hope to attract more taste-buds, but drinking such mixtures is counterproductive for our digestive system and can lead to gas and indigestion.
Don’t use too many sweet fruits and veggies – they contain fructose and other natural sugars that might lead to sugar-spikes, which lead to inconsistent insulin levels and sugar cravings which might result in weight gain.
Chew your juice – digestion starts in the mucous membranes of the mouth. Drink your juice slowly and swish it around inside your mouth for a few seconds before swallowing to allow optimal digestion.
Use all the colors of the palette – mix it up! Don’t always use the same kinds of greens. To get the best out of nature’s vitamin store, use all kinds of seasonal vegetables and fruits.
Add some Ginger – it not only adds taste and spices up the juice, but it also brings some heat which as of the wisdom in chinese medicine helps to balance the coldness from the vegetables. You could also choose Garlic, Jalapeno or Chili Peppers if you dare!