Nutrition is a hot topic these days. Everyone wants to enjoy more health benefits from their grocery choices. We want to protect ourselves from the diseases such as obesity and diabetes that are on the increase in our society right now. Many people are attracted to the health benefits of juicing. This is because juice offers so much valuable nutrition in each glass. If you have ever wondered what all they hype about juicing so for and how easy it is to do, this article is for you. Here is the full scoop on why and how to start juicing.
Why Start Juicing? The Many Benefits Of Juicing!
Drink More Nutrition
One of the health benefits of juicing is that it helps you get more fruits and vegetables into your diet. We all know we are supposed to eat more fruits and vegetables, but sometimes that is difficult to accomplish, especially if you have children in your household. Don’t despair. Juicing is one way to provide the fruits and vegetables that your family members need. These juices are so tasty that your children will be asking for more. It is easier to drink a glass of fresh juice than eat that same number or fruit or veggies. Juicing will have your child asking for extra helpings of fruits and vegetables!
Lower The Risk Of Many Health Problems
According to the Harvard School of Public Health, a diet rich in vegetables and fruits can offer many health benefits a few of which are that it can lower blood pressure, reduce risk of heart disease and stroke, prevent some types of cancer, lower risk of eye and digestive problems.
Alkalize The Body
According to Reverse Aging by Sang Whang, fresh juicing can alkalize the body and provide an abundance of enzymes, vitamins, minerals, phytochemicals, and other nutrients. The best living environment for our body is a slightly alkaline state as it easier for a body to repair and detoxify and avoid disease in this state.
Avoid Sugars Of Store Bought Juices
Making your own juice is much better than buying commercial juice drinks. Just look on the labels and see how little actual juice is included in most “juice”. Most are filled with sugars or artificial sweeteners. By making your own juice, you know exactly what you are drinking. Additionally many juices sold in stores are cooked or preserved in some way that loose a lot of the enzymes and nutritional value of fresh raw juicing.
Juicing Tonics
Many fruits and vegetables have specific healing properties and juicing allows you to use them in tonics for increasing your wellness in certain areas. For example, pineapple and ginger are well known as aids for digestion and you can juice them to use in a tummy tonic.
How To Start Juicing
How to get started juicing is really pretty simple. You just need a juicer and some nice, fresh produce. Here is a breakdown of the details that will help you get started.
Get Fresh Produce
Start out with fresh fruits and vegetables. Buy organic if it’s available and you can afford it. Look for sales at your local supermarkets. I get most of my produce at a discount grocery which has very low prices every day. In the summer months, be sure to visit your local Farmers’ Market for extremely fresh produce. Produce that is not quite ripe is best. The juicer does not do well with soft produce. For example, don’t try to juice a banana. Save them for smoothies.
Get A Juicer
There are only two appliances you need to purchase: a juicer or juice extractor and a citrus press. It’s best to start off with an economically priced juicer. No need to go high end at first. A citrus press is just a gadget that you use to squeeze citrus fruits like oranges and lemons to get the juice out of them. You actually get more citrus juice from a press than from a juicer.
Produce Prep
Preparation is very easy. Just wash and scrub the produce and cut off the tops and bottoms of items like carrots and beets. Cut them into pieces that will fit easily into the juicer. Apples are usually quartered and carrots cut into three to five pieces, depending on their length. Make sure to clean your juicer right away. It’s a lot easier when the waste product is still moist. By the way, the leftover skins from the juicing make a great addition to your compost pile.
Drink Fresh
Juices are made to be drunk right away. This is when they are at their best. If you must keep them, add a drop of lemon juice to prevent them from turning brown and store them in an airtight container for no longer than 3 days.
Popular Produce Choices And Combinations
Carrots and apples are the basis for many juices. They add a lot of sweetness to the flavor and are especially popular with those interested in how to start juicing. The sweet flavor is good if you are planning to add some greens to boost the nutritional effect. Many recipes include parsley and celery. You may even like to add a slice of ginger root. Choose produce that is abundant during that particular time of year. Here is a list of fruits and vegetables that are commonly used in juices:
- Apples
- Carrots
- Beets
- Celery
- Oranges
- Grapefruits
- Cucumbers
- Melons
- Pineapple
- Parsley
- Mint
Juicing Recipes For Beginners
Don’t be afraid to experiment, but I also encourage you to buy a good juicing cookbook. It will give you ideas you never would have thought of. The one I use is “The Big Book of Juicing” by Natalie Savona. I really like it because each recipe has a color picture of the drink. These sample recipes are from her book.
Apple Juice Basic Recipe
3 apples
2 carrots
Grapefruit Juice Basic Recipe
1 grapefruit
1 apple
2 carrots
1 stick of celery
Red Cucumber Juice Recipe
1 cucumber
1 beet
1/2 pineapple
Conclusion
I hope this answers your questions on how to start juicing. There are really endless healthy juicing recipes. Using a juicer to make your own fresh, nutritionally packed, homemade juice is a great way to boost the health of your family. It’s a lot easier to achieve five servings of fruits and veggies when they come in the form of a delicious juice drink. I hope you enjoyed learning about the benefits of juicing. Do you plan to try these great juicing recipes for beginners?
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Mike @abcacupuncture says
This is really a good article! and providing us this useful information on how to start juicing with fresh fruits and vegetables is really a big help. I hope many could read about this.Thanks and i’m looking forward to read more from you.
Helena Green says
Great post. Thanks for sharing it to us. Juicing is really great. Use fresh fruits and veggies for juicing. This is good for the health and dieting.