10 Things You Must Know About Juicing
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Juicing is about a changed lifestyle. A new lifestyle you choose, towards a new and healthier you.
Let’s get you prepared for a lifetime journey to successful juicing. This page is for you if you are new to fresh fruits and vegetables juicing.
Once you understand thetrue benefits of juicing as I have led you through in the other pages,you are ready to begin. Take heed of the following lessons to see the
marvelous effects juices have on your overall health:
Lesson # 1: Important—Your current health
Lesson # 2: What to expect when you improve your diet
Lesson # 3: When to drink your fresh juices
Lesson # 5: Rotate fruit/vegetable juices intake
Lesson # 6: How safe are fruit juices
Lesson # 7: What about the pulp?
Lesson # 8: Listen to your body
Lesson # 9: Drink your juices right away
Lesson # 10: Clean your juicer properly
Lesson # 1: Important—Your current health
Fruit juice causes a rapid rise in blood sugar. In a normally healthy person, fresh fruit juicingwould not pose a problem as the sugars in fruits are easily assimilated
and digested. But, if you are suffering from candidiasis or are proneto suffer from thrush, please refrain from consuming fruit juices. Opt for vegetable juice instead.
Or, if you suspect that you may have a yeast infection in the digestive tract, check with yourdoctor before you embark on a fruit juicing diet. This advice also applies
to those with low blood sugar level (hypoglycemia) or are diabetic.
Vegetable juicing whendone correctly, however, would not be a problem in these cases.
Lesson # 2: What to expect when you improve your diet
When you start consumingsuperior quality foods (fresh fruits and vegetables that are nutrient-rich),your body gets to work by ridding the inferior material and tissues
to make room for the superior materials to make new and healthier tissues.
For example, when you stoptaking your daily stimulant “fix” such as coffee, tea, chocolate, or the like, headaches or migraines may occur. This happens when your intelligent body discards toxins like caffeine or theobromine from your tissues
and transporting them in your bloodstream.
As these toxins travel on its way to their final destination for elimination, these irritants
register as pain. It could be a headache, or a joint pain, or weakeningof a limb, etc.
Another letdown that can occur in your body during this time—when you choose superior quality over inferior quality food—could be a slower heart action which your
mind may translate as lethargy, or a decrease in energy.
When you encounter these symptoms, do not give up. Your body is going through a regeneration process, which on average may take about seven days to a couple of weeks,depending on the toxicity level in your body. Take this period to rest,
as your body recuperates and prepares for better health ahead.
Be persistent and wait out this period. When these symptoms happen, know that your choice to improve your diet is the right thing to do, and that a renewing is happening
within you.
Your success starts here,as you understand the process, knowing that you re on the way to a healthier and new you.
Lesson # 3: When to drink your fresh juices
The best time to drink your fresh juices is on an empty stomach—at least half an hour before a meal. This is when your stomach hungers for food and would pounce
on anything you consume.
When you drink a nutritious healthy fresh juice, your body quickly absorbs all that you consume, wasting nothing. Likewise, when you eat something harmful on an empty
stomach, it would all be as quickly absorbed. So choose wisely.
You may have been told not to eat a citrus fruit or drink its juice on an empty stomach in the morning, because of its acidicity. I suggest you try a little bit and see if it does give you any problem. But I can assure you that onceyour stomach is conditioned to drinking fruit and vegetable juices, you should not encounter any problem taking citrus juices. In fact, I feel that the optimum absorption of the vitamin C does wonders to
my skin!
If you are new to juicing,try to start with the fruits you enjoy eating. This way, your body would already be familiar with its pleasant taste.
Step 1: Start with the more common fruits first which are easier on your stomach,
like apples, grapes or watermelons.
Step 2: Afterjuicing these fruits a few times, and you feel ready to add something
new to your menu, try adding carrot juice, celery, cucumber or beet.
On lazy days, I like to juice one carrot, one apple, one tomato and one orange altogether.These have all the best ingredients that when combined, provide a
synergy of the nutrients which are powerful in keeping me in my peak.
And they taste delicious.
I try to add at least one or two medium-sized beet root per week in my juicing diet. Beet roots are both powerful cleansers and builders of the blood and kidney,
therefore, its consumption should be limited.
Once you are familiar with fruit juicing, you may feel ready to move on to vegetable juicing. Vegetable juices are not easy to drink and may be nauseating to some
people in the beginning. But their health properties are immense.
Step 3: The greener the vegetables, the more nutritionally valuable they are, and less
palatable. When you think you are ready for green vegetables, you may add lettuce, spinach, endive and cabbage for a start.
Step 4: You are well on your way when you have achieved Steps 1, 2 and 3 above. You
may now start to experiment with all other kinds of fruits and vegetables.
But first, check out the list of fruits/vegetables and their health benefits; then try
out the combination recipes.
Lesson # 5: Rotate fruit/vegetablejuices intake for best results
To maintain and promote optimum health, our bodies need adequate amounts of the following:
-
Essentialamino acids
-
Vitamins
-
Minerals
-
Enzymes
-
Essentialfatty acids
-
Carbohydrates
-
Fiber
-
Water
We need all these sufficiently,constantly, and variedly in order to help accelerate and enhance theprocess of restoring nutrients to your nutrient-starved tissues.
When we regularly eata mixed-variety of these fruits and vegetables, the vitamins, minerals,enzymes and all the abundance of health-building elements from these
juices work together in a synergy. The results of these combinations
on your health can be simply amazing!
While we may not get all the above-mentioned essentials from fruits/vegetables alone, there are some other healing foods that you may add to your dietary to ensure
balance.
Some suggestions of other healing foods that you can add to your dietary:
- Protein powder:
I do not agree in getting protein from milk.Consider taking protein powder which contains glutamine, an aminoacid which plays an important role in protein metabolism. - Cod liver or fish oil: The green vegetable juices that you drink is abundantwith vitamin K which helps to “stick” the calcium to your bonematrix. But, in order for this to happen, you need some fats (fromcod liver or fish oil) to assist with the vitamin K absorption.
- Chlorella and spirulina: Fruits and vegetables contain very little or no vitamin B. You may add chlorella and/or spirulina in tablet/powder form as a supplement. These two algae have very high content of vitamin B.
-
Seeds and nuts:
Many seeds and nuts contain protein and fat that is needed to fuel the body. They also contain important amino acids for the brain and the immune system. These can be eaten as they are, or ground and blended with your juices.
Lesson # 6: How safe are fruit juices?
The concerns I am going
to mention below are not major concerns. We have come this far and
understand that the abundant health benefits of fruits far outweigh
these little-understood issues.
A common nagging question
for most people who want to start a juicing lifestyle is, “how safe
is it to drink fruit juices?” I’ve been there too, so I can understand
these concerns.
Concern 1: The sugar
Of course, if you don’t
fall into the category of those suffering the conditions I mentioned
in Lesson # 1 above, there is simply no need
for you to avoid fruit juices.
The natural sugar in
fruits, fructose, can be easily assimilated and digested, unlike table
sugar which is totally harmful to the body. Fructose has a low glycemic
index (GI), which means that it doesn’t make the glucose level in
the blood rise as fast and as high as a high GI food.
However, only when drinking
some very sweet fruit juices do I suggest you dilute them with water,
or with other juices that are less sweet, like coconut or lime/lemon
juices. When giving any fruit juice to young children, dilute them
with water.
Examples of very sweet
fruits are like pineapple, grapes and mangoes. For these, dilute them
according to taste.
A word of WARNING, though: These natural sugars and fruit acid, when left in the mouth, may corrode your teeth enamel.
Therefore, it’s important that you brush your teeth or rinse your mouth, after your “juice fix”.
To top
We know that commercially-grown
fruits and vegetables are sprayed with pesticides and other chemicals.
This is not something that we can avoid, as not all of us are blessed
with easy access to organic or pesticide-free produce.
One very effective way
I’ve found to remove these toxins from fruits and vegetables is to
soak them in clean water with a mixture of a small capful of apple
cider vinegar.
Vegetables tend to catch
more of the pesticides. When preparing them, tear (not cut) them up
from their bunch and soak them in this solution. In place of apple
cider vinegar, you may use normal cooking vinegar and add some salt.
Soak it for about 10
minutes and you will start to notice the water smell. This means the
pesticide has come off. Rinse the vegetables a couple more times and
it’s ready for juicing. Do the same thing for fruits.
Fruits and vegetables
are already fully equipped with antioxidants and are super blood cleansers.
Should the little toxins somehow find their way into your body, the
amount of goodness from the juices will easily cancel out the toxins
that are consumed at the same time.
Concern 3: The wax
What about the wax on
fruits, like apples? Again, no concern here, really.
The thin layer of wax
used on fruits is applied to contain its moisture, prevent it from
shriveling and weight loss, therefore, improving its storage life.
The wax used on fruits are non-petroleum based, natural and edible.
In most fruits, nutrients
are most concentrated just under the skin. So, if you peel the skin
off, you lose all those precious goodness. Some people, however, would
prefer to just peel off the skin and recover the precious goodness
by eating more fruits.
The decision is up to
you, but in this case, neither option is harmful.
Lesson
# 7: What about the pulp?
The pulp, or the fiber,
is also known as roughage or bulk. These are the parts of the fruits/vegetables
that your juicer retain behind when it separates the juices from the
plant foods.
There are two categories
of fiber - soluble and insoluble fiber. Your body needs both of these.
When consumed, these fibers do not get digested but passes through
your digestive system unchanged. On its way to being eliminated from
your body, it adds bulk to your stool and soften it, preventing constipation.
Depending on what I’m
juicing, I sometimes add the pulp back to the juice for its fiber.
It may take a slightly longer time for digestion but it is also very
healthy. A high-fiber diet may lower your risk of hemorrhoids, irritable
bowel syndrome and diverticular disease (formation of small pouches
in the colon).
The soluble fiber has
been known to lower blood cholesterol levels and slow the absorption
of sugar, reducing the risk of developing type 2 diabetes.
So, where possible, add
the pulp back to your juice for these added health benefits.
Lesson
# 8: Listen to your body
Juicing should be a pleasant
experience. The juices should taste pleasant and not nauseating. I
can’t emphasize enough, the importance of listening to your body.
After drinking juices,
your stomach should be calm the whole day long, not churning and growling
and leaving you with a queasy feeling. If this happens, your body
is telling you that you have probably consumed something which your
stomach is not accustomed to. You can condition your stomach by taking
the same thing in smaller amounts in the future, and slowly increasing
the amount.
When you start noticing
pains and aches with your new juicing dietary, do not stop juicing.
Read Lesson # 2 again and understand what
your body is doing.
Lesson
# 9: Drink your juices right away
With good juicing equipment,
preparation of fruits, cutting them up, juicing and washing up should
take only about 15 minutes (not including the fruits “de-pesticide”
soaking time).
Once juiced, juices do
not keep as long as its natural whole form. When it gets exposed to
the air, it starts to lose its nutrient rapidly and quickly spoil,
so must be consumed almost immediately after being juiced.
If you must juice and
keep it for ‘later’, you can do so by carefully keeping the juice
in a thermos flask, or an air-tight glass jar. Fill the juice to the
brim, leaving very little space for air as the oxygen in the air can
oxidize the juice.
If using a glass jar,
wrap the glass jar in aluminum foil to block out the light, and store
it in the refrigerator for no more than 24 hours. Light destroys enzymes.
Take the juice out 30 minutes before drinking as it’s best to drink
your juices at room temperature.
Lesson
# 10: Clean your juicer properly.
One of the more important
factors when you choose a juicer, is that it must be easy to assemble,
dismantle and clean. If it takes you 10 minutes to juice and another
15 minutes to clean up, you will not enjoy juicing. My juicer, an
Oscar
(a Samson 6-in-1 equivalent), takes under 5 minutes to wash, and
I simply love it.
Fruits/vegetables residue
left behind on your juicer can easily contaminate with mold growth.
To prevent this microbial proliferation, clean your juicer as soon
as you can, after use.
To clean, dismantle the
juicer parts and rinse it under running tap water. For the strainer,
use an old toothbrush to get the remnants out. When you juice citrus
fruits, the juicer tend to have a slight oily feeling. Simply clean
this with a mild detergent solution. Rinse well.
The followning information was provided by Juicing for health at http://www.juicing-for-health.com
