Read an Excerpt
CHAPTER 1
Why Juice? Irresistible Benefits and Your Own Reasons
The obvious reason that you want to learn about juicing is the enormous health benefits, but I warn you, once you learn to make your own sinfully delicious mean glass of green juice, you may come back again and again just for the taste, baby!
You can get excellent nutrition from raw fruits and raw vegetables. Most fruits, despite all their vitamins and nutrients, contain a lot of fructose, the technical term for the fruit's natural sugar. Because of this, it is best to have fruits (with the exceptions of lemons and limes which have nearly zero fructose) in moderation, especially if you are overweight or have high blood pressure, or diabetes or bad cholesterol.
Vegetables, on the other hand, are extremely low in sugar and calories and high in nutrients. In their raw and fresh form, they give you excellent nutrition, but you can only eat so much raw vegetables — the calories are not the problem, but you can give yourself a bad stomachache from all the fiber. Plus, raw vegetables require a lot of chewing especially the harder ones such as carrots, cauliflower, broccoli and celery, and your mouth has to work really hard to break them down properly.
That brings us to one of the most attractive benefits of juicing. You can consume generous portions of fruits and vegetables quickly, without all the fiber. Almost all health authorities and experts recommend we get six to eight servings of fruits and vegetables a day. How often do you get your required dosage, not to mention the variety to hit all your nutrients and minerals? Juicing helps you reach and even go beyond your necessary daily target! Juicing isn't a complete meal by itself so much as a potent supplement to your existing diet.
As you know, juicing removes all the fiber. One of the most common questions from new juicing enthusiasts is if fiber is bad for you: the answer is no. Fiber is very good for you and necessary to a healthy diet, but you cannot consume all the nutrients and vitamins and minerals in the juice without putting your digestive system through a marathon. As a good family friend once put it, you have the issue of dealing with "tonnage." Juicing is the best shortcut to getting tons of nutrients fast and efficiently. Your body immediately absorbs the juice, assuming there is little to no pulp in the juice, and you can get your allotted portion of vegetables and fruits with all the variety that would be otherwise nearly impossible to incorporate into a day's diet.
That's the number one benefit of juicing, but let's talk about all the other irresistible benefits and help you find your own big reason for embarking on this juicing journey.
You Need a Big Why to Say Yes to Juicing
It is health that is real wealth and not pieces of gold and silver.
~ Mahatma Gandhi
For the first three years of my marriage, I was on a serious singular mission: to get my husband in shape.
I tried everything to make him lose weight. I bought him diet books, signed him up for gym memberships and hired trainers for him. I cooked him healthy meals and gave him lectures. Boy, did I give him lectures. Every time I thought I had convinced him to see the light, I would be disappointed a week or two later when his motivation — instead of the extra pounds — would melt away and we would back to square one with no change.
You see, I had my strong compelling reasons for him to get in shape, and how can you argue with that? It's a proven fact that being in shape is a necessary element to health and happiness. But those were my reasons, not his. Even though he was 260 pounds at 6 feet tall, seriously overweight and borderline obese, he had no compelling reason to get in shape
yet. I am a very persuasive person, but all the powers of persuasion failed, because the truth is you cannot make anyone do anything against their own will. This is true for all of us, and it's one of those annoying truths that are best shoved under the rug and ignored. Sigh.
My husband can do whatever he wants when he has found his own reason for doing it. I know that now and I believe that about everyone, including you. So one day, he decided to get in shape for his own reason. Instantly, he changed into a man with a mission. He set out to lose 90 pounds in the course of the following five years. He was more determined and showed more resilience than I had ever seen in him, and sometimes, more than I would have had in me if I were in his shoes. He was unstoppable once he had his own reason to act. That's why he was able to keep going and reach his goals.
Other people's reasons for you to do something, no matter how smart or logical or right they may be, will never be enough for you to do it. You will need to have your own reason for making changes to your health, and in this section, that's what I hope you can do for your juicing journey: Help you find your own big why that makes you say YES to juicing!
So before you embark on this juicing journey, ask yourself:
1. Why am I interested in juicing?
2. What do I want and hope to get out of juicing?
3. What is the biggest motive that drives me to juicing now?
Your answers can be anything, from mild curiosity to weight loss and better health habits. You may want to move towards a more raw-food friendly diet or you may be interested in getting more nutrients from vegetables into your diet. We talk about all the juicing benefits in the next section, so as you read those, see which one resonates the most with you.
You will notice "Juicer in the Spotlight" stories at the end of every chapter. These are from the fabulous juicing community who graciously shared their stories. I run a virtual juicing clinic at prolificjuicing.com and we have a tight-knit juice-loving community that has grown from it. Everybody has come to the world of juicing for his or her own reasons, and the stronger that reason, the longer they stay with it. You too need to find your own strong reason — your big why — for juicing.
With the clinic members, only a few came to juicing because someone recommended they should juice, which got them mildly curious. Then they developed their own reasons to do it, and that's the real reason that keeps them going weeks and months later after the novelty has worn off. Most of the time, a change in their health or their life situation drives them to make a big change and brings them into the natural healing path of juicing. Sometimes, it is the last resort of "getting healthy." Other times, it's curiosity of the hot revolution of juicing, and sometimes, it's the appeal of detox and purification that juicing offers unlike most other diets.
In all cases, they came to it of their own will and desire. Nobody forced them or tricked them into it. They wanted to learn about adding this amazing habit into their life for their own deeply personal reason. You will read their stories as you flip through the chapters, but for now, focus on your own reason for juicing. You need to find yours!
For me, believe it or not, my health was at a horribly low point in 2007 — stress, extra weight, awful skin and a state of near depression from feeling so awful — and I wanted juicing to save it. I can say that it most certainly helped, and the more I did it, the better results I got so I kept going. But I also had another reason to start juicing: I just love the concept. I am not a cook by any stretch of imagination, but juicing a carrot or a piece of lettuce by pushing it through the chute of my juicer and seeing what comes out gives me excitement every single time. The idea of mixing the fresh juices from these heavenly fruits and vegetables to create delicious concoctions gets me pumped up even five years later.
Juicing is huge fun for me. That's the main reason that I juice years later with the same excitement. I see it as an adventure. I am still mixing up new recipes, finding new vegetables, herbs and fruits to juice, and after every adventure, I can hardly wait to share the results with the juicing community to find out their reactions.
Healthy habits do not need to be boring or painful or a turn-off. They can be and should be fun!
Now you need to find your own reason. Knowing that juicing will give you health benefits is not enough of a reason to keep you going when your motivation has taken a hike and you don't "feel like it." Your big why is personal, intimate, yours and only yours, and when you find it, stick with it because you will be able to build a strong juicing habit on top of it.
Maybe you just want a healthy complexion, maybe you want to shed those stubborn pounds or maybe you want to get more vegetables into your diet. Or maybe you just want to have fun with a new addition to your diet. Whatever the reason, make it one that resonates deep with you, one keeps you coming back to your juicer regularly and with excitement!
Think about that as you go into the next section to learn about the irresistible benefits of juicing. Ask yourself: What is the story that you will be telling yourself and others about why you got into juicing?
20 Irresistible Benefits of Juicing
Make your own recovery your first priority in life.
~ Robin Norwood
I still remember how I was floating from excitement when I first discovered juicing. It was so drastically different from everything I knew about health and yet so natural. It made perfect common sense, and I could kick myself thinking how it had been accessible to me all these years. Why did I not know about this sooner? How can I best make up for the lost time when I wasn't juicing?
When you can make health choices that get you this excited, you have hit a home run. My excitement came from experiencing one benefit after another about something as simple as juicing fruits and vegetables. Your body may react the exact same way to juicing as mine. You may experience some benefits to a higher degree and some to lower extent. Not all of us will experience every single benefit to its max, but here I list the most notable benefits of juicing with reference sources cited as appropriate. In my years of juicing since 2007, I have experienced all of these to various degrees firsthand, and have seen people in the juicing clinic and community report on similar benefits.
So here are the top 20 irresistible reasons that you should be juicing today, darling. These are not benefits you see overnight, but if you stick to juicing consistently, over time you will reap more of these benefits. Like a great avalanche that starts small, it will build on itself and surprise and delight you when it gets going.
1. Absorbs Immediately: Your body absorbs the nutrients in the juice right away because it does not need to break down food from a solid form. It just absorbs it right into your cells and bloodstream. The delivery of vitamins, minerals and phytochemicals occurs in a form that your body can use right away to feed the cells and nourish the whole body.
2. Guarantees the Daily Dose: You can get your full recommended dose of fruits and vegetables efficiently with a juice. It would be hard to have to eat all the vegetables that you need in your diet on a daily basis and you'd consume way too much fiber in the process. With juicing, you get the nutrients without the bulk.
3. Nourishes Your Body with a Variety of Fruits and Vegetables: Juicing exposes you to a wide variety of fruits, vegetables and herbs that would otherwise be difficult to integrate into your diet because they may not be your everyday vegetables — fennel, Swiss chard, beet or watercress — and even if you get them, you would need to get creative to work them regularly into your meals. With juicing, you just need to find a recipe that calls for them, or better yet create your own recipe, and just throw them down your juicer's chute!
4. Detoxes and Cleanses: Juicing, especially during a consistent basis or as a result of a fast, detoxes, cleanses and purifies your digestive track by expediting the elimination of build-up of waste from the body and giving your digestion a rest. Remember that the number one way your body stays healthy and happy is by being efficient at getting rid of bodily waste on a regular basis.
5. Creates a Healthy Alkaline State: Juicing helps your body to return to a healthy alkaline state. The pH balance of human blood needs to stay with a certain range and many foods, especially on the unhealthy side, are extremely acidic, so your body has to work hard to neutralize their effects and return to the desired state. Juicing helps move you in the right direction and closer to your ideal alkaline state.
6. Makes Your Skin Glow and Your Hair Shine: Juicing puts the glow back into your skin and the shine back to your hair. Juicing even puts a new spark in your eyes. This benefit may not be immediately noticeable, but if you stick with your juicing habit, darling, you should see a lovely improvement in these areas.
7. Helps Control Cravings: Juicing helps you better control your appetite and cravings, especially that sweet tooth we all have! When you drink your greener juices on a regular basis (four to five times a week), you will crave less junk food and start to break those terrible food addictions. The two — juicing and junk foods — cannot co-exist in harmony so you naturally move away from your poor eating habits and gravitate towards healthier choices.
8. Eases Weight Loss and Maintenance: Juicing helps you lose weight and maintain your ideal weight, especially with juice fasts. While you should be very careful before going on any length of a juice fast, one of the results of juice fasting is weigh loss. But it doesn't have to be with a juice fast. If you integrate juicing into a healthy diet regularly, you start to shed the extra pounds more naturally.
9. Raises Your Energy Level: Juicing increases your energy level. The greener juices invigorate your body, and with all the vitamins and phytonutrients, you will get a burst of energy that, unlike a sugar high with a quick crash, keeps you going for a few hours. This energy boost from juices is one of the main reasons people enjoy going on juice fasts.
10. Gives You Mental Clarity: As juicing helps you clear out the waste from your body, it creates a fresh state of mental clarity. I have experienced this in every juice fast, even ones as short as three days. Juicing eliminates the fogginess and cloudiness from junk foods and other bad foods. The cleaner your internal system gets from consistent juicing, the clearer and sharper your mental state becomes. This helps you focus better at work and on your projects and life goals.
11. Acts as the Perfect Snack: Juicing is filling. Instead of snacking on solid foods, you can enjoy a glass of juice. It fills you up, satisfies your hunger, and moves those cravings into the background. It is an excellent way to snack during the day and control your food binges.
12. Increases Your Immune System: Juicing boosts your immune system and helps your body resist and fight infections. It also fights the onset of cold and flu if you catch it early and overdose on juice recipes that are high in Vitamin C and antioxidants.
13. Tastes Irresistibly Delicious: A glass of juice made with the right combinations can be, quite simply, the most delicious drink you have ever had! Most new juicers are surprised with how delicious juicing can be if you are doing it right. Don't let a bad experience decide the fate of your juicing journey. Make new recipes and find the ones that are delicious to your taste buds.
14. Generates Mood Balance: Juicing enhances your mood by balancing your emotional highs and lows. This is a benefit you see over time, say after a month or two of juicing, but not immediately. When your blood sugar normalizes, and you are not putting it through a roller coaster with high-sugar treats or carb-heavy snacks, you have more natural harmony and are less likely to fly off the handle during stress.
15. Lessens Menstrual Cramps: This one is for the ladies. Juicing helps with our menstrual period cramps first by helping curb the bad cravings and second with the nutrients found in some specific fruits and vegetables such as pineapple, which is the number one known juice to lessen cramps, as well as beets, celery, fennel, ginger, and leafy greens that contain magnesium. You can make a juice recipe to combine all the goodness in one single glass.
16. Acts as a Great Hydrator: Juicing keeps you hydrated. If you don't enjoy drinking your recommended eight glasses or so of water a day, the next best thing is a glass of fresh juice. It is not a replacement for your water, but helps keep you hydrated far better than caffeine and sodas.
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Excerpted from "The Healthy Juicer's Bible"
by .
Copyright © 2013 Farnoosh Brock.
Excerpted by permission of Skyhorse Publishing.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
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