Juicing has become the latest tool in our arsenal of healthy living and it can be called a natural body detox. Most busy, overworked, and overweight Americans just don’t eat the way they should due to the daily stresses in their lives. They don’t consume the recommended daily amount of fruit and vegetables. We have become a fast-food nation that consumes too much processed and nutrient-deficient food.
Juicing with fresh, natural produce (fresh fruits, vegetables, herbs and spices) can fill in some of those nutritional gaps and it’s fast and easy. There are many juicer machines out there on the market to choose from but you really don’t need one with all the fancy bells and whistles. A basic version will do. Even a kitchen blender can do a fairly good job if you are not ready to buy an appliance that is geared to juicing specifically.
When the body receives the nutrients it needs it can do a much better job of keeping you working at your best and also help you reduce your cravings and intake of empty calorie foods. The reason many people overeat is because the brain is starving for nutrient dense fuel and when it receives junk food it just keeps sending out the signal that you are hungry over and over again. You will reduce those food cravings as you give your body what it really needs – and a glass of freshly made juice will help fill in the nutritional gaps, help fight disease and possibly help you lose unwanted pounds.
The benefits of eating this way or just adding a juicing regimen to your daily diet goes far, far beyond helping you eat less junk food. Produce is full of disease fighting phyto-chemicals and enzymes that can help prevent diseases and even reverse others. Did you know that broccoli may prevent cancer or that a tomato not only has a great amount of vitamins C and A but also 10,000 other chemicals in it, most which researchers are working on isolating and identifying?
You can blend any kind of fruits and vegetables. Experimenting and trying new recipes is the fun part. You can also camouflage some of the veggies (you know the green ones I’m talking about) that you don’t care for so much with the sweet flavors of fruits that you do enjoy. Adding spinach or green herbs is not even noticeable when you blend it with apples and ginger or oranges and honey.
2 SAMPLE RECIPES BELOW
It’s easier than you think! Here is a great juicing recipe program that helps you create juices with the ingredients you already have on hand. It uses over 40 different fruits and vegetables in over 100 different recipes. You just tell the program what you have on hand and it will give you a recipe using those items – a great way to use up fruits and veggies rather than allowing them to go to waste and end up in the garbage disposal each week. How many of us, with our good intentions to eat better, throw away uneaten produce every week??? We buy it, it sits uneaten, and we toss it. What a waste of money and good health down the drain (or in the trash bin.)
Now you don’t have to do that – put it into a great tasting juice recipe and consume it! Using frozen produce is also a great option – you can make all kinds of frozen smoothie concoctions. Even using canned fruits in juicing recipes (in natural juices – no sugar added) can be a much better choice than eating french fries or a candy bar. Everyone is consumed with cleansing detoxification programs to get the sludge out of our bodies but if you start to put good stuff in you won’t need to take the bad stuff out! Juicing is a natural body detox. Makes sense right? Happy juicing!
Here are 2 basic recipes to try!
Juice Recipe #1 – “Doctors Secret”
1 Apple
1 Carrot
1 Celery Stalk
Wash all vegetables Core the apple Cut the tips off of the carrots and celery
Juice Recipe #2 – “Street Beet”
4 Carrots
½ Cucumber
1 Beet
Wash all vegetables Cucumbers can be covered in a layer of wax, if so peel before juicing Peel the beets also to avoid the bitterness of the skin Cut the tips off of the carrots Slice and quarter your beets and cucumber.
