To juice or not to juice? That is the question for sure that many people ask, and that many disagree on…so I thought I’d tackle it here for you!
So let me share with you my thoughts on the ‘juicer question’.
I’ll cover the other equipment in separate articles, but for now let’s talk juice.
What juice does and what it doesn’t
Green juices are without a doubt one of the best things you can put into your body. Some people would immediately say ‘But what about the fiber?’ and ‘What about the pulp – what do I do with that?’ or ‘Why would I want to drink something green?’ And if it were me at the beginning of my raw food journey, I would have said ‘But I hate green juice!’
Well, I’ve got good news for you no matter what your particular reaction might be. Read on! I’ll address each response individually. First…
What about the fiber?
Yes juices remove some of the fiber from what you’re consuming. Definitely. And we all need a certain amount of fiber in our diet.
However, if you’re eating fresh fruit, salads and other forms of raw fruit, vegetables, seeds, nuts and sprouts, you honestly don’t need to worry about getting more fiber!
You probably need to make sure you’re getting enough water, or more precisely, that your food has a high enough water content to help your body get rid of toxins and digest efficiently so that you can actually absorb the nutrients from your food.
And green juices do this job marvelously well, along with bringing you a host of other benefits (see below).
What about the pulp?
What do you do with the pulp? Use it in other recipes!
You can make a raw carrot cake using carrot pulp. You can also make cookies using carrot and apple, or any other ‘sweet’ pulp.
You can make soups using your green pulp, provided you’ve washed your vegetables and taken out any seeds before running them through your juicer so that your pulp is seed-free.
Why would I want to juice?
And why would I want to drink something green?
Aha, this is where I start singing hallelujah…I’ll try to calm down though so that I can address this properly. OK, here goes:
When I first began my raw food journey in 2004, I knew nothing about green juices. I struggled with cravings for ‘heavier’ foods and found myself making lots of things that included nuts simply because my body so wanted raw living nutrients, it kept saying ‘You need more of the good stuff so keep eating!’
Of course, things calmed down once my body knew that the good stuff was going to keep right on coming, but the whole process would have been much easier and faster with green juices.
Why, you may ask? Because juices have the miraculous advantage of ‘speed delivery’ of nutrients to the body. It’s a bit like using FedEx vs the Pony Express. Don’t ask me how that happens because that’s not my specialty – all I know is it’s true.
Try it yourself and see how you feel!
When I have my morning juice – even though I eat the exact same raw food diet for the rest of the day – my skin improves. Instantly. I mean, within 3 days I’ve got people commenting on how great I look…and the only thing I did was add in the juice.
Plus I get less cravings for unhealthy foods…because the body is getting a nutritional injection that says ‘Yeah! Go body go!’ and the body feels satisfied, therefore I do too.
And I can tell you, it sure feels great for the two of us to be in agreement!
A recipe that will convince you to juice
Green juices can taste absolutely delicious…if you know how to do them. The first green juice I made was something like cucumber and lemon and believe me I hated it!
I tend to like deeply flavorful foods, so adding a bit of ginger, lemon, apple, carrot or pineapple can make all the difference.
One recipe I really like is 2 carrots, a handful of spinach, 1/2 a cucumber, 1/2 a small pineapple and a handful of broccoli.
You can start to make your own combinations, and the fun part is what you can do with those bits of vegetables that are maybe too small for another recipe – just pop them in the juicer!
And for those of you who worry about adding a bit of fruit to your juice if it’s supposed to be ‘green’, you’ll probably find that once you start doing this, your craving for sweeter juices will change into cravings for softer, more ‘green’ juices, and you’ll find you may not need as much fruit.
What if I haven’t got a juicer?
Aha, I’ve thought of that too!
If you’d like to try juice without purchasing a juicer, you can blend everything (you do need a very good blender though) and then pour the liquid through some muslin. Squeeze out the juice and voila! A bit time-consuming, but you may want to try this before buying a juicer.
So…to juice or not to juice?
My answer would be…juice, juice, juice!
Where can I get a juicer?
There are many kinds of juicers
One thing’s for sure though, juicing makes you feel…juicy!
Got a favorite juice recipe to share? Pop it in the comments!
