Once considered the drink of drop-outs and hippies, confined to earthy-smelling health food shops and co-ops, the juice revolution has swept the nation. Now available at such trendy places as Jamba Juice and even sold in pedestrian grocery stores, the fresh vegetable and fruit juice movement is now a common part of American life. Read on for tips to learn how to be a part of this healthy revolution.
If you are diabetes or otherwise sensitive to sugar in your diet, be careful with juicing. Many fruit juices will be very high in sugar, resulting in a spike in your blood sugar levels, especially if you drink juice on an empty stomach. Try diluting your juices with water to reduce this issue.
If you are worried about getting enough protein in your diet, add spinach and broccoli to your juices. Both of these vegetables provide enough vegetable protein for the short-term to satisfy your body’s needs. Most people get more than enough protein in their daily diet, and don’t need to worry about adding protein sources such as soy to their juice.
Never add more than one new vegetable to your juice mix at a time. If you do not like the taste of the juice, or your digestive system does not react well to your new juice blend, you will not know what vegetable to reduce or avoid if you add a bunch of new veggies in the same batch.
To get more variety in taste from your juicer, mix up the varieties of fruits and vegetables you put in your juicer and the variety of flavors will grow significantly. Try mixing orange, banana and pineapple for a tasty tropical treat or mix grape and cranberry for more antioxidants. These home made juices are healthier and easier to make then those sugar-filled, store bought juices.
Buying fruit and vegetables for your juicing can be easy by using all five senses to find the freshest produce to bring home. Sniff the item and make sure it smells good, like you would want to eat it. Squeeze it and feel if it’s too hard or too soft. Look it over for imperfections, and then take it home and taste a bit. Enjoy!
Freshly made juice should be drunk before meals. Drink your juice an hour before a meal for best results. By drinking the juice on an empty stomach, your body will absorb more of the nutrients from the mix. The added benefit is that you will reduce your hunger and, therefore, eat a lighter meal.
Buying a masticating juicer will allow the juice you make to have it’s nutrients break down much slower, meaning you can take your time in drinking it or even store it for a while. It will also leave as much of the natural nutrients intact as possible, giving you the most healthy juice to drink.
Let color be your guide for variety. You will want to keep your juicing varied so as to not get bored with it. Incorporate a variety of colors in your fruits and vegetables as a sort of juicing palette from which to create. Just remember to know the nutrient content from each source and enjoy the rainbow.
When it comes to juicing, one thing that you want to keep in mind is that the best way to keep your juice from changing color is to add lemon juice to it. This is important because often times fresh juice can take on a distasteful color that may prevent you or others from drinking it.
Studies have shown that the optimal intake of fruit and vegetables in a day is 8 or 9 servings per day. Most people are lucky to even get 2 to 3, but by juicing you can meet your minimums easily and tastily! Make sure that the bulk of the servings, preferably 5 to 6, are vegetables.
One of the great advantages to drinking natural juiced drinks daily is that it helps cure a variety of different ailments. For example, cabbage juice helps heal different types of ulcers. For this, it is necessary to consult a medical professional first.
In regards to juicing, it is important to consider the fact that the nutrients in many of the ingredients you use, will have a direct impact on your appearance. This is important because you want to look and feel your best and juicing will help you do so because of the natural and cost efficient benefits to your nails, skin and hair.
The juicing movement is on the rise but it hasn’t come far enough. The undeniable benefits of the raw juice of fruit and vegetables are essential to improving the overall health of the American public. With the increase of home juicers and the information coming out from National Cancer Institute’s about the benefits to long-term health from fruit and vegetables we will start to see more people join the juicing movement.
