Juicing is one of the best ways to get a wide variety of nutrients in your diet. Let it be known that juicing does not mean that you go to the grocery store to buy a bunch of bottled juices, which are full of sugar and preservatives. A lot of these bottled juices don’t even have real fruit in them! Simply put, juicing can change your health for the better.
What Is Juicing?
Juicing is essentially drinking your food. Using a juicer, you make your own juices from fresh fruits and vegetables. Juicing helps you integrate fruits and vegetables, which you might not normally eat, into your diet. If you are opposed to juicing, you can make smoothies instead because you can reap a lot of the same benefits.
Benefits of Juicing
The average American has a lot of built-up toxins and waste in the body. This is because we are exposed to environmental pollution and consume products that have lots of preservatives and chemicals, which the body cannot properly process. Drinking freshly made juices helps your body efficiently absorb nutrients from the fruits and vegetables. When you consume raw fruits in vegetables, your body doesn’t have to work as hard to utilize them, meaning your bodily systems and organs can function optimally.
Results You Can Experience While Juicing
- Weight Loss
- Hydration
- An Alkaline Body
- Clearer Skin
- Healthier Nails
- More Energy
- Mental Clarity
- Improved Immune System
Side Effects of Juicing
While juicing is beneficial, it is best if it is done in moderation. Juicing for too long can throw off your body because it starts to store food differently, when you start eating real food again. It may be harder for you to lose weight after juicing for a long period of time. It may also affect your digestive system, due to the fact that your body doesn’t really have work to digest food. This is why it is best to juice for three days to one week at a time. This is also why a lot of people like to do all smoothie diets. Smoothies help you feel full and they are packed with dietary fiber.
How To Start Juicing
You may not want to dive headfirst into juicing. It is best to wade in slowly until you get comfortable. What we mean by this is that you shouldn’t throw every green vegetable in existence into your first couple juices. Start off with familiar fruits and vegetables that have mild flavors. Such produce items include apples, lettuce, carrots, celery, cucumbers, oranges, strawberries, lemons, and tomatoes. After you experiment with these flavors, try adding nutritional powerhouses like beets, kale, chard, ginger, parsley, grapefruit, sweet potatoes, broccoli, and pears.
We don’t want to throw you into the juicing world without any guidance, so here are a few juicing combinations that you can experiment with. Remember that you can make smoothies with these recipes, but you will have to add ice and water, and they will be more fibrous and filling. You may also need to lessen the amount of ingredients if you are making smoothies.
Beginner Green Juice
- 4 celery stalks
- 1 cucumber
- 1 apple
- parsley, to taste
- ½ lemon, peeled
- ½” piece of ginger, peeled
Herbal Delight
- ½ bunch parsley
- ½ bunch mint
- ½ bunch cilantro
- 2 medium carrots
- 1 apple
Green Goddess Juice
- 1 pear
- 1 apple
- 3 celery stalks
- 1 cucumber
Ginger Zinger
- 2 small apples
- 5 medium carrots
- ½” piece of ginger, peeled
- ½ lemon, peeled
Tropi-Kale Juice
- ¼ of a whole pineapple, peeled
- 4 green kale leaves
- 1 orange, peeled
Superfood Juice
- 2 small beets
- 1 cup blueberries
- 1 cup strawberries
Cucumber Cooler
- ¼ ripe cantaloupe, peeled and seeds removed
- 2 celery stalks
- ¼ lemon, peeled
- ½ cucumber
