This old saying has a lot of truth: ‘an apple a day, keeps the doctors away’. So long as in this day and age it is a certified organic apple. But really we need to take this one step further and be relying on more than just apples to keep us healthy.
In order to achieve great health, one of the steps we need in place in to ensure we are getting a good amount and variety of fruit and vegetables daily. To be a little more specific, we should be focusing on including more vegetables than fruit. As vegetables are more nutritious than fruit, and too much fruit can cause blood sugar problems, candida, and belly fat due to the high levels of fructose your body may not deal well with.
One way to ensure you are getting your vegetable quota a day (which I suggest is between 6-8 portions a day now due to soils being so deficient in vitamins and minerals from conventional over-farming), is to buy yourself a juicer and drink your veg alongside the vegetables you include in your meals anyway.
I personally use the L’Equip Omni Juicer due to its slow-speed juicing process and its high quality components and motor.
The above picture is what a typical juice can look like, but its colour will be determined by what you put in it. In this juice pictured it is the beetroot I put in that is giving it its deep red/purple colour.
Some of the benefits of juicing can include:
- Helps promote healthy bowel function
- Helps give you more energy (sometimes this can be because of the above point) due to the increase in bio-available vitamins and minerals
- Nourishes your body on a cellular level
- Absorb nutrients much easier because the fibre has been removed, as sometimes too much fibre can prove too difficult for weaker digestive systems to cope with
- Alkalising the body – our pH needs to be kept at 7.5 every single day for disease not to start. So, because juicing is alkaline-forming, it can help rectify the acidity that most of us struggle with due to eating lots of acid-forming food, and harboring negative energy and thoughts = which in turn cause more acidity in the body
- Allows you to consume more raw vegetables – raw vegetables are more nutritious than cooked ones as they still contain the enzymes needed to digest them, which cooking destroys when heated above 30 degrees centigrade. Plus, raw veg contains the nutrients that are heat-sensitive such as all the B vitamins and vitamin C
Tips for Beginners to Juicing
- Choose organic fruit and vegetables – toxic chemical pesticides from food goods grown conventionally will not help anyone feel better and can contribute to actually causing disease as is now well documented. (Remember we eat organic not to worry abut how many more nutrients are in the crops vs. conventional, but to not have to worry about how many toxins we are ingesting that may damage our livers and hormonal system).
- Juice most vegetables with a little fruit – The only fruit I will add is an apple to help take the edge off the vegetables. My favourite vegetables to juice are: sweet potato (very high in bio-available calcium too!), carrots, spinach, celery, cucumber, kale, broccoli, lettuce, bok choy, coriander, parsley, cabbage, a little ginger, and a little lemon (with the skin on for extra nutrients and a more lemonade-type taste when the mood takes you!). Most vegetables are fine to use raw, but some that are toxic when raw that I know of and so should be avoided are the following: rhubarb, alfalfa sprouts, and white potatoes that have turned green or have started sprouting.
- Go easy with the green – The greener the vegetables you juice, the more undoubtedly nutritious they are. This is obviously a good thing, but go easy with the dark green veg at first as they are not only more bitter (which can put you off juicing whilst you are acclimatising your taste buds), they are also more cleansing so can cause your bowels to be a little upset / loose.
- Choose a slow juicer and not the cheapest – The faster the juicer, the more foam that is formed on your juice and the more nutrients that are destroyed. Go for a slower juicer that will mean you get less waste, and more nutrients. I would not recommend buying the cheapest juicer on the market because juicing is a lifelong investment so to reap the rewards you should ideally choose a juicer that will give you the most health benefits, like one with a slow RPM (rates per minute). At the same time, you do not have to buy the most expensive one either – the one I purchased was £169.00.
- Drink straight away or store properly – The nutrients will eventually disappear the longer the juice is left out, due to them coming into contact with oxygen and oxidation then happening. Aim to drink your juice within 30 minutes and you will be fine. If you cannot drink it in this time, ensure you store the juice in a glass container with a lid that will not allow any oxygen to seep in (like a consol jar) in the fridge and consume within 24 hours.
- Juice when it suits you – Most people juice in the morning, but if your schedule does not allow this then fit it in at any time you can during the day or night.
- Clean your juicer properly and straight away – If you do not clean your juicer properly and straight away, you run the risk of mold growing on bits of fruit and veg stuck on the blade and all other parts. I find using a toothbrush works best to clean the blade especially well. Plus, to do it straight away will mean it is ready and dry for the next time you come to use your juicer.
- Juicing does NOT replace meals – Juicing is not intended to be a meal, but to go alongside your meals. It is just not nutritionally complete to do that, i.e. it does not contain any fats or protein. But if you want to feel a little more full from the vegetable juice in general, then try once you have juiced, emptying a little or all of the pulp and fresh juice you have just made into a blender. Also, adding a little good fat from coconut butter or an avocado could help to keep you satisfied until you get a chance to make your next proper complete meal.
Remember that for you to stick with juicing you must not see it as a chore! Juicing should be made with love and good energy, and in anticipation for the vital nutrients you are about to receive that only vegetables can give us! Happy juicing!