The Joys of Juicing
Are you having trouble getting in your 10-12 recommended servings of vegetables per day that are needed to improve the microbiome and benefit your overall health, such as to support or prevent colds and allergies and to reversing chronic health conditions, including diabetes, cancer, heart disease and even dementia? Well, you are not alone. It’s definitely not easy, but I have a solution for you. It’s called……JUICING!
Purchase the Gastrointestinal Stool Profile
I have to be honest with you: I used to be very undecided about juicing for many years thinking that vegetables and fruits should be eaten in their natural forms. After all, how else would we take in enough fiber? Well, I stand to be corrected!
Juicing is a safe and effective detoxification regimen when done correctly. Phase I of the detoxification process requires many nutrients to make toxic substances less damaging, and juicing provides these critical nutrients. For example, B vitamins, antioxidants, sulfur, minerals and amino acids are just a few vital nutrients more easily acquired with juicing. In addition, many phytonutrients that are in vegetables and fruits are more easily acquired with juicing, than when eaten whole. The more color in the juice from the various vegetables/fruits, leads to an even more efficient detox.
Another reason to consider juicing is that when food is cooked and processed, micronutrients can be destroyed by altering their shape and chemical composition. We are under a great deal of toxic burden today and this toxic burden can greatly diminish our energy production. Juicing in the right combination, consistently, can help reduce this toxic burden and help soar our energy levels. When done right, juicing keeps our energy balanced throughout the day, without a great rush or crash. Done right means having the right amount of ingredients, with limiting the fruits that can lead to energy imbalances through the fructose that they provide. Some of the most ideal juice ingredients for focusing on detox are:
non-starchy vegetables: kale, cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower
starchy vegetables: beets, sweet potato, carrots
edible flowers: dandelion, chamomile, calendula/marigold, lavender
spices: turmeric, ginger, basil, oregano, garlic, clover
fruits: apple, berries
flavor enhancers: stevia, lemon, lime, jalapeno.
These are all the ingredients in the image above:
When you are juicing, you should be listening to your body when juicing, in that your stomach should feel good all morning long. If the stomach is churning, growling or generally making its presence known, you probably juiced something you should not be eating. Consider using lemon or limes to counter act the bitterness of greens. Carrots, beets and apples, have far more fructose, so don’t overdue it with these veggies. When starting out with juicing, begin with the easier to digest vegetables, e.g. celery, fennel (anise) and cucumbers. Once you adjust to these, than you can add the more nutrient dense dark green leafy vegetables. You can use cranberries and fresh ginger to improve the taste.
However, juicing is not without its risks for those who might have kidney problems, have a history of significant antibiotic use or have had a gastric bypass. And the reason is because the consumption excessive amounts of oxalate-rich greens can lead to an acute oxalate damage to the kidney.
The type of blender used for juicing is also important. It is not suggested that you use a Vitamix for juicing vegetables for a couple of reasons: 1) it spends it at such a high rate that the heat will damage the micronutrients, and 2) the Vitamix combines all the fiber in there, consequently limiting the amount of vegetables you can consume and one of the benefits of juicing is separating the fiber from the juice to get the vast amount of nutrition that is embedded in the vegetables into your body. Although the fiber has some benefit, the most significant benefit of the vegetables is in the juice.
I prefer a masticating juicer to an extractor juicer, simply because you get more juice from a masticating juicer. I have this one, here and I am loving it. You can purchase this now and have it tomorrow. And the clean-up is so easy. Check out this brief video below.
Check out another of my juicing videos!