A Number of Reasons Why Juicing up Your Life is Awesome!

Benefits of regularly drinking raw vegetable juice:

• Raises your energy levels.
• Detoxifies your body.
• Supports beneficial gut bacteria (and a happy gut is vital to your wellbeing!).
• Quick absorption of nutrients (95% in 15 mins), vs slow extraction from solid foods.
• Helps you satisfy the daily requirement of goodies your body needs for optimal functioning (e.g. 1 shot of wheatgrass juice equals intake of 1kg of veggies).
  
• Source of chlorophyll: powerful antioxidant that detoxifies, repairs, cleanses.
• Contains much less fruit sugar than fruit juices; these are nutritious as well, but I prefer veggie juice on a daily basis. I do have the occasional orange or other fruit juice though!
• Weight loss and also feeling less hungry. I don't have anything else for breakfast, usually. Of course, this is a personal preference and not a requirement! When I first started juicing, I unintentionally lost weight, automatically. Nice.
• Supports the immune system - colds and sickness are rare.
• Helps alkalize (= elevate pH) your body for improved brain, heart, joint & digestive function. Cancer cells and bugs thrive in acidic environs, so elevating pH is highly beneficial. Coffee is the worst offender in keeping your system alkaline. A great alkalizing habit - apart from vegetable juicing - is to drink lemon water. Just squeeze some lemon or lime into it. A good way to start your day. Delicious, simple, and super healthy!

Note that juicing is in addition to - not in lieu of - a healthy diet.

The video below demonstrates how easy juicing is, and how quickly you can make a glass of highest nutritional value for your body, especially when it's home grown! Don't have a garden? Get inventive! There are people growing their own greens in city apartments! A square meter of space yields lots of lettuce and other goodies. Don't believe me? Google it! Or 'DuckDuckGo it', for untracked online browsing. =)

Also, if gardening is just not for you, fair enough. Do yourself a favor though and shop organic whenever possible. Nobody wants a load of pesticides in their fresh juice! And organic or not, give them a good wash. The only exception I make is when picking things fresh from the garden. If they're off the ground, I may not even rinse them.

I drink a glass of freshly pressed vegetable juice every day and highly recommend it to everyone interested in actively supporting their health and wellbeing on a daily basis.

.

Keen to start? I put together 33 of my favorite juice recipes - see one example below - to help you get into the daily juicing habit. It's a good one! Nutritious & delicious. =)

Juice!

Juice up Your Life! I put together 33 delicious recipes to make juicing an easy and delightful part of your every day. Includes wheatgrass mini-tutorial, for those who like watching grass grow. Juicing is one of the best healthy living habits out there - delay no longer and give your body the daily nourishment it desires. Bonus: easy recipe printout option for practical kitchen use. Enjoy!

Price: $9.97

To see the contents of your shopping cart, please find your cart on the right hand side panel or visit our shop.

.

A word on juicers....not all juicers are equal!

Watch the video to learn more about what to pay attention to when deciding on a juicing machine.

.

Check out this recipe!

Here's another recipe example and demonstration of how easy and fun it is to make fresh juice. Try this:

1-2 beetroots, 1 apple, 1 pear (or 1 carrot), 1/2 cup of fresh or frozen berries. Cut, juice, enjoy! Very simple. Note that this is somewhat of a 'cheat veggie juice', as it has apple and/ or pear in it (apples, pears and carrots contain lots of fruit sugar). So I wouldn't have this every day as a veggie juice. As a rule of thumb, your daily veggie juice should look green.

Enjoy the clip below where I make this juice. Look at the color! So delicious. And yes, it's red...blame the beetroot.... =)

.

References (links to resources in green)

Basu A et al (2010). Berries: emerging impact on cardiovascular health. Nutrition Reviews Vol 68(3):168-177.

Cameron A. (2014). Curing Cancer with Carrots.

Chatham J. (2012). Green Juicing Diet: Green Juice Detox Plan for Beginners-Includes Green Smoothies and Green Juice Recipes. Rockridge University Press, Berkeley.

Crocker P. (2008). The Juicing Bible. Robert Rose Inc.

Dr. Group (2009). The Green Body Cleanse: How to Live Green & Live Well! Global Healing Center. 329p.

Dr. Mercola.com

Ejaz S et al (2006). Review: Limonoids as cancer chemopreventive agents. J Sci Food Agric 86:339-345.

Oliveira PS. et al (2013). Green juice as protector against reactive species in rats. Nutr Hosp. 28(5):1407-1412.

Wigmore A. (1985). The Wheatgrass Book: How to Grow and Use Wheatgrass to Maximize Your Health and Vitality. Penguin Putnam Inc.

Wolfe KL et al (2008). Cellular antioxidant activity of common fruits. J Agric. Food Chem 56(18) 8418-26.

Credits: title image from blisstree.com; videos by Holistic Health Global.