Have you heard about the wonderful benefits of juicing? Maybe you have friends or have seen someone on TV endorsing the benefits of juicing? Or maybe juicing is something that you’ve always wanted to try, but just was not too sure about the overall process and if it is really worth the time and effort.
As a Certified Personal Trainer and a Holistic Nutritionist, I’m here to say IT IS 100% worth the time, effort and energy. I encourage all my clients and students to juice! Juicing has so many variations to it. There are so many fruits, vegetable and roots that can be added to your recipe that you can easily make a different juice combination everyday.
Do you or can someone you know benefit from juicing? If you have any of the following health issues or would you like to change, improve or decrease these problems then juicing can help with them and much more!
- Excess water weight
- Excess body fat
- Low energy
- Asthma
- Colds and flu
- Hot flashes
- Sleeplessness
What’s The Difference Between Juice and a Smoothie?
They’re both pretty much the same but it depends on the machine. For the most part, a blender can not “juice” fruits and vegetables so you’ll need to add some form of liquid. Whereas juicing doesn’t require any additional liquid as it will extract all juices from the fruits and vegetables.
Juicing will give you maximum results as there is no fiber included in the juice (it stays in the juicer machine), which means the body can assimilate all of the nutrients much faster (minutes vs. hours), when compared with a blender. On the other hand, blending offers your body the fiber that juicing leaves behind, which is needed to stay healthy and maintain a positive diet.
How To Juice?
This is probably the biggest question that I get from people who want to start adding juicing to their diets. You have typically 2 ways to juice:
- Juicer Machine
- Blender
Juicer: Juicer machines have come a long way in the last few years. I still have my big bulky juicer with many attachments. It has a small opening for my fruits and vegetables (cutting into smaller pieces) and a lot of cleaning up.
If you have one of these types of juicers it can become a time-consuming function which is what discourages many from juicing. Larger models allow you to even make soup and small portable ones are great from small jobs, students or to use at work.
Blender: I still use my blender for quick juicing (spinach smoothies) and it works great. The key to juicing with a blender is to make sure that it’s of good quality and to make sure the food you put in it can be blended. Whatever your preference, size or budget, having a juicer is a great purchase
What Can I Juice?
What can’t you juice is probably a better question. You can really juice any and all fruits and most vegetables such as:
Fruits:
- Apples
- Grapefruit (peel)
- Oranges (peel)
- Raspberry (wash well)
- Peaches (remove stone)
- Nectarines (remove stone)
- Apricots (remove stone)
- Cherries (wash well)
- Pears (blending: core and chop)
- Pineapples (remove “eyes” if blending)
- Banana (not for juicing)
- Mango (peel)
- Papaya (peel, remove seeds)
- Blackberries (wash well)
- Blackcurrant (wash well)
- Blueberries (wash well)
- Cranberries (wash well)
- Cantaloupe and Honeydew melons (slice into chunks)
- Watermelon (slice to fit)
- Strawberries
- Dates (blending)
- Gapes (wash well)
- Guava (peel, slice into chunks)
- Kiwi (peel)
- Lemons
- Lime
Vegetables:
Carrots (cut off tops)- Cucumber (wash and slice)
- Watercress (wash)
- Broccoli (wash and slice)
- Cabbage (remove outer leaves cut to fit)
- Kale (wash)
- Lettuce (wash
- Parsley (wash)
- Spinach (wash)
- Beet (cut top, tail, wash well and cut to fit)
- Parsnip (wash well, cut top, tail and cut to fit)
- Sweet potato (wash, slice)
- Tomatoes (yes its a fruit but in this instance I’m using it as a vegetable)
- Celery (wash well)
- Bell peppers (wash well)
- Ginger (wash well, peel)
- Mint (wash well)
Carrots (cut off tops)Although I’ve listed quite a few fruits and vegetables, I highly recommend experimenting with a bunch of different foods! There are so many others not listed and I want you to let your imagination run free with juicing! So that I don’t leave you without some great ideas, here’s just a few great juicing recipes that you can use:
Apple Tropics (energy, digestion, immunity, skin)
- 3 apples
- ½ pineapples
- ½ lime
- ½ passion fruit
- *stir in the passion fruit, rather than passing it through your blender
Orange Basic (energy, detoxification, immunity, skin)
- 2 oranges
- 1 apple
- 3 carrots
- 1 celery stick
- 1 in ginger root
Tropical Cucumber (energy, detoxification, skin)
- 1 cucumber
- 2 guavas
- 1 apple
Spinach Smoothie (energy, detoxification, immunity, skin)
- 2 handfuls spinach
- ½ cup strawberries
- 1 orange
- 1 medium banana (optional)
Chlorophyll Crunch (detoxification, immunity, digestion, skin)
- 3 celery sticks
- 3 carrots
- 1 bunch fresh parsley
Pink Berry Crush (energy, immunity, skin)
- 2 handfuls raspberries
- 2 handfuls strawberries
- 1 orange
- 3-4 fresh mint leaves
- 8 tbs orange juice
As you can see, juicing has the unlimited power to increase your energy levels, can assist with detoxification, helps to increase your immunity to fight illnesses, supports your digestive system and can help to improve your skin. Cheers to juicing my friends!
