I discovered the wonders of fresh juicing when I did a stint at the We Care Spa to do a week long detox. I figured it was good to "clean out all the pipes" so to speak. During the week, you don't any solid foods but you do get to drink all kinds of fresh juices. I've never been a big fan of carrot juice, but when I had my first taste of freshly juiced organic carrot juice, wow! what a world of difference between the taste and how it made me feel drinking it.
Since then, I've incorporated fresh juices as much as I can. In the picture above is a juice I made containing carrot, red pepper, pear, and cucumber. There are actually several types of juicers depending on what you want to do. I have a Masticating type juicer because it can do almost all kinds of veggies and fruits, and you can make things like nut butters and your own flours. Here's some info here, here, and here on the different types of juicers.
Here are some of the benefits of drinking fresh vegetable and fruit juice:
- You are getting all the most powerful and potent nutrients from that vegetable or fruit. It's literally 100% goodness. To receive the maximum potency though you need to drink the juice within 20 minutes of making it because as soon as oxygen hits it the potency starts diminish. Now, that doesn't mean all that nutrient goodness goes away if you decide to make a batch and store it in the fridge. You can still reap many benefits especially over juices that have been mass processed and have added sugars and additives.
- For those who don't care to eat vegetables, drinking the juice is the fastest way to get the nutrient benefit without having to do any cooking or chewing. Everything also absorbs into your body much faster. It's like getting a shot of vegetables.
- You can get a larger array of vegetable and fruit choices into your diet. Again, because you're basically drinking your nutrients and not chewing it's easier to try more things because after awhile you can only drink the same celery or cucumber juice for so long. Variety makes the experience more enjoyable.
- The fruit juices and carrots and beets are really yummy, but limit your consumption of those because they are loaded with sugar and can spike your insulin levels. Just because something is a natural sugar doesn't mean that it is good for you. Too much of any sugar is not health beneficial. So, best to stick to the veggies particularly the green ones.
For more in depth info about the health benefits of juicing, Naturopathic Doctor Mercola has an awesome video and write up about juicing and ways to start, how to make your juices taste better, and how to make juices a balanced meal.
