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 want your juice to be a certain texture or thickness, know that the softer the fruit is, the thicker the juice will be. The meat of softer fruits breaks up easily to make a thick nectar. Make sure to add some harder fruits, such as apples and pears, for a thinner juice.
Before juicing, find out what items you need to peel and what you can leave whole. Citrus fruits generally need to have the peel removed before juicing. Be careful however when peeling, the white area immediately underneath the peel is fine to juice and it is where MOST of the nutrients are.
Make sure you always have the ingredients you need for juicing. Also, make them as visible as possible in your refrigerator or on the counter. If you forget they’re there you might not use them, leading them to spoil and end up thrown out. Keep your turnover high so you’re using the freshest ingredients possible.
Start slow when juicing. Juicing takes a while to get used to. Gentle vegetables are cucumber, celery and carrots. Carrots have a lot of sugar so do not use too much of them. Mix it up with various vegetables. Juicing too much at the start can cause you to feel sick to your stomach. Your body will tell you if you are juicing too much.
Some items just aren’t made for the juicer, especially if they’re soft and mushy. For example, you’ll never be able to make a juice that is mostly banana, but you CAN put a half of a banana in a juice made with other firmer produce. Peaches tend to give the same result.
Before you invest in a juicer, you should do your research. Check out buying guides online, as well as customer reviews, to choose which juicer will fit your needs, while being well respected by those who have already purchased one. A juicer is a big investment, so don’t jump into it without knowing what you’re doing!
Get the best juicer for your money. Quality in juicers is no laughing matter. Target a juicer that you can afford of course, but also look for reviews on the juicer. You will want a juicer that is quiet, highly efficient and also easy to clean. Having a quality juicer will make juicing much more enjoyable in the long run.
When you have your juicer assembled, prepare the fruits or vegetables quickly so you will not have to stop and start during the juicing process. Look at juicing as if you were making a meal. Having everything on hand before you begin to cook is always easier than trying to find what you need during the process!
When it comes to juicing, one thing that you want to keep in mind, is that you need to prepare yourself mentally and financially, for investing a lot of money into a quality juicer. This is important to consider and save for because quality juicers can cost upwards of $1500.
The best way to prepare your fruits and vegetables for juicing is to follow the instructions in your manual. After cleaning, you then need to cut the produce into pieces small enough to fit into the machine. You will also need to remove larger, hard pieces, such as peach pits.
Skip a water fast and instead, engage in a vegetable juice fast! It supplies all of the nutrients and vitamins you need, without any fat and not a ton of calories. It can also help clear out toxins in your body, especially if you use wheatgrass or ginger in your recipes.
If you are aging and you feel lethargic, consider juicing to give you energy once again. By juicing, you can gain nutrients able to sharpen your memory, alleviate joint discomfort and halt the pace of cell death resulting from free radicals.
When it comes to juicing, one thing that you want to keep in mind is the fact that it is one of the first and most important steps in a weight loss program. Home made vegetable juice is a fantastic snack that has zero fat and very little calories.
In regards to juicing, it is important to know that you might experience a slight change in the color of your skin when consuming a lot of carrot juice. This is only temporary and will cause no harm to you.
There is no harm in juicing more than once a day as long as you’re not just filling up on fruit juices. Fruit can be full of calories and sugar, so stick to vegetables as much as possible instead. If you want to add some sweetness to your veggie juice, try beets!
If you want to embark on a juice fast, keep the following tips in mind to ensure you do it safely. Drink at least 32 to 64 ounces of juice a day to keep your energy levels up so you won’t feel sluggish. Drink water in between juices, and dilute the juice by two-thirds at “meal” times. ONLY use organic produce while fasting so you can include the skin.
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.
