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How to Juice

Juices that are sold in stores are often full of sugar and lacking in nutrients. Making fruit and vegetable juice at home is great alternative – it allows you to easily meet your requirements of fruits and vegetables and receive a boost of vitamins, minerals, and enzymes that can aid the immune system, help with weight loss, increase energy naturally, and promote overall well-being.

What is Juicing?

Juicing is a process for extracting the liquid from fresh, raw fruits and vegetables. Most people achieve this quickly and easily with a juicer, and the resulting juice is extremely healthy, full of vitamins and minerals.

Juicing is different from a smoothie in that the entire fruits and vegetables are not ground up in a blender. The juicer extract the liquid from the produce, and the pulp is then discarded, composted, or used in other ways. High-end juicers are capable of extracting nearly all of the moisture from fresh fruits and vegetables, leaving behind a very dry pulp. Essentially, juicing is a way to drink a meal, and it allows you to take in a concentrated form of leafy greens, celery, kale, cucumber, herbs, carrots, fruit, and so on without having to eat a bucketful of this produce to get the nutrients.

What are the benefits of juicing?

The delicious juice you make at home is extremely healthy and beneficial to the body in many ways. Drinking juices made from fresh, raw fruits and vegetables can:

  • Boost the immune system
  • Increase energy
  • Improve mental focus
  • Aid digestion
  • Improve the appearance of skin and hair
  • Aid in weight loss
  • Balance the body’s pH
  • Decrease inflammation
  • Lessen joint pain
  • Prevent headaches
  • Improve sleep

All of this is potentially achieved by using juicing to provide your body with vitamins and minerals in which it might be deficient. Juicing is a fun and delicious way to make sure each and every system is getting the nutrients it needs to function properly – and that means you look and feel your best.

What is a juice cleanse?

A juice cleanse is a detox diet plan that involves drinking juice exclusively for a short period of time, such as one to three days. If you are in overall good health, a juice cleanse has some potential benefits, like flooding the body with vitamins and minerals. Juices are also rich in antioxidants, which can decrease inflammation and joint pain while providing energy. The healthy enzymes present in juices can aid in digestion.

There are some things to be aware of before beginning a juice cleanse. You will probably be consuming a lower number of calories than normal, and that can lead to side-effects such as low blood sugar, dizziness, weakness, and even fainting. Because it is difficult to get an adequate amount of protein from juicing, the cleanse should not last for extended period of time.

You should always talk to your doctor before embarking on any diet plan, and this is no exception. Most people who are healthy will not face major risks from a brief juice cleanse, but you should always seek medical advice first.

What is green juice?

Green juice is a beverage made by juicing any combination of green vegetables such as spinach, kale, celery, cucumbers, wheatgrass, mint, parsley, and so on. To improve the flavor, many people add a sweeter vegetable like carrot or beets, and some include a small quantity apple, other fresh fruits, or fresh ginger.

For many, green juice is any way to increase consumption of these extremely healthy veggies and reap the benefits of the vast amounts of essential vitamins and minerals they contain. Vegetable juice doesn’t have as much fiber as eating whole vegetables and leafy greens, though, so green juice is best incorporated as part of a balanced diet.

Choosing Fruits and Vegetables to Juice

Almost all fruits and vegetables can be juiced, though some produce more liquid than others, and they type of juicer you choose can affect the yield too. To avoid harmful pesticides, it’s best to buy organic fruits and vegetables whenever you can.

There are lots of things you can juice, and the combinations are almost infinite:

  • Greens: spinach, kale, chard, lettuces, cabbage, and other leafy greens
  • Soft vegetables: cucumbers, celery, tomatoes, bell peppers
  • Hard vegetables: carrots, beets, turnips
  • Hard fruit: apples, pears, peaches, apricots, grapes, plums, kiwi, guava
  • Melons
  • Citrus fruits: lemon, oranges, grapefruit
  • Herbs: mint, parsley, fresh ginger, cilantro, fennel, dandelion, nettle

Choosing a Juicer

There’s a lot to consider when choosing a juicer, including how often you’ll use it, what your budget allows, and what fruits and vegetables you plan to juice.

For a detailed discussion on the pros and cons of every style of juicer, read this article. The most common juicers fall into two basic categories:

Centrifugal Juicer:

These juicers work by chopping the produce into a fine pulp and straining it with a fine sieve. The juicer is affordable and works just fine for oranges. lemon, apples and other fruit, as well as hard vegetables like carrots and beets. It’s effective for vegetables with a high water content, like cucumbers, too. These juicers are fast and efficient. They’re great for many juicing recipes.

The downsides to the centrifugal juicer is that is fairly noisy. They are also not the best at juicing leafy greens, so if your primary goal is to consume more leafy greens through juicing, this might not be the best juicer for you. The juice produced by these machines is also not as long-lasting. The heat and centrifugal process leads to a greater degree of oxidation, and the spinning process adds air, which creates foam.

Masticating Juicer:

A masticating juicer is also known as a cold press juicer. They use an auger to mash and chew fruits and vegetables into the wall of the juicer, where it is strained from the pulp. The process takes longer than a centrifugal juicer, but the result is foam-free, less oxidized juice. This means you can make juice in large batches, so even though the juicer itself takes longer, it could save you juicing prep time in the long run. These juicers are also very quiet, and they’re great for green juice and almost every other kind of fruit and vegetable juice.

The downside to these juicers is the price tag. They are generally much more expensive than centrifugal juicers. Masticating juicers are also somewhat more difficult to operate and clean.

There are other juicers available on the market, but for most people interested in getting started with juicing and hoping to create an array of delicious juice recipes will be well served by one of these types of juicers

DIY Juice Recipes

Juicing recipes are easy to find, but it’s also easy to make your own juice recipe, and there’s really no wrong way to juice. No matter what fruits and vegetable you choose, you’ll benefit from the vitamins and minerals, and as you learn which fruits and veggies benefit which systems in your body, you can customize even further. There are a few items you’ll want to avoid because they don’t produce an appealing juice – avocados, coconut, bananas – but other than that, have fun and experiment! For the most successful juices, though, follow this simple guide.

  1. First, prep your produce by washing it. Peel if needed. Depending on the juicer, cut produce into 1 inch pieces.
  2. Start with a base of vegetables with a high water content – cucumber, celery, bok choy
  3. Increase greens for added nutrients – spinach, chard, herbs
  4. Add some additional vegetables for sweetness – bell peppers, carrots, beets, sweet potatoes, squash
  5. Use a natural sweetener, if desired – apple, pineapple, oranges, lemon
  6. Detox ingredients that also enhance flavor – ginger, turmeric, aloe vera

Juicing for Weight Loss

Many people are interested in juicing as a healthy way to help them lose weight. There are plenty of juicing recipes that are low in calories but will provide impressive payloads of vitamin C and other essential vitamins and minerals.

The way to lose weight is to consume fewer calories than you expend, and many vegetable juice recipes are low in calories, fat free. Juicing can help you to cut out high calorie processed foods while enjoying a fun, antioxidant rich, and delicious drink. Some people feel that a brief juice cleanse is a good way to jump start a weight loss program.

Eating healthy foods is an integral part of being healthy, and juicing can’t take the place of eating balanced meals. You shouldn’t deprive your body of food, so don’t drink juice as a replacement for all of your daily meals. It should be part of an overall healthy lifestyle.

When juicing to lose weight, keep in mind:

  • Ingredients like apple and carrot are higher in sugar and calories. They’re still healthy, but drink apple and other fruit juices in moderation to avoid consuming too much sugar.
  • Celery, cucumber, lettuces, herbs, and most green vegetables have a high vitamin content but low calories. Incorporate these vegetables liberally into your juicing recipes.
  • Ingredients like lemon, ginger, turmeric, and even hot peppers are a healthy and low calorie way to boost the flavor of juice recipes

If you want to try an easy an delicious juice for weight loss, make this recipe:

  • 2 and a half cups chopped kale
  • 1 medium cucumber
  • Half to three-quarters of a green apple
  • 1 or 2 medium stalks of celery
  • 1/4 lemon
  • 1 and a half inches of ginger
  • Wash and prep the produce. Peel the lemon.
  • Juice the ingredients together.

This blend is diet friendly, and the ginger and lemon give it a pleasant taste and detox properties. The celery, with its high water content, gives this juice recipe a great, hydrating base.

Juicing is one part of a healthy lifestyle and a way to incorporate more nutrient rich food into your diet. Fresh juices are not only delicious; they can help you look and feel your best. Through experimentation, you will collect juice recipes you’ll look forward to enjoying every day.