Juicing is not BS
The true powers of juice as enhancement to a beautiful diet
Left to right: Blood Lover juice, Golden Prevention sip, The Everyday juice.
Within the past 15 years, green juice has grown in popularity. I witnessed juicing for the first time after my parents had watched the 2010 documentary ‘Fat, Sick and Nearly Dead’ which follows Joe Cross. He starts the film overweight and suffering from an autoimmune disease and embarks on a 60 day self-challenge to only consume juices. Juicing helps him heal, he’s left totally energized and healthy and inspires a multigenerational wellness practice. In 2010, his juice exploration was pretty woo woo, and I participated in the judgment of health-conscious individuals when poking fun at my parents’ weeklong juice fast.
Taking control of taking care of ourselves is often a trigger for people who either don’t know how to or circumstantially can’t do so. I’m pointing this out because of the negative comments I see on the Instagram posts of those who publicly practice healthy eating and conscious living. The worst part is when I read self-proclaimed biohackers who demonize vegetables. As if our modern world needs to have any more fear around eating, let alone fear of eating more plants.
Juicing roots back to ancient Egyptian civilization (1500 BC). They crushed fruits and veg with big rocks and drank the juice for health benefits. We know this because of ancient texts that record fig & pomegranate juice consumed for health benefits. In the Middle Ages people made juices to cure ailments using a simple pressing and straining technique.
The modern juicing movement began in the1930s with physician Dr. Max Gerson and health enthusiast Dr. Norman Walker. Gerson created a therapy focusing on alternative diet and lifestyle to cure degenerative disease and cancers. Walker is credited with popularizing vegetable and fruit juicing as part of a raw food diet. He invented the first juicer, known as the Norwalk Juicer, and promoted juicing as a way to detoxify and heal the body, leading to the juicing trends we see today.
Because of polarization and wellness fake news, we thought we’d offer some truth in terms of when juicing isn’t all that beneficial:
Don’t replace your vegetable intake for juice. Vegetables and fruits contain fiber, which scratch the insides of the digestive tract and encourage healthy digestive flow. Fiber also acts as a filter for any kinds of sugar that pass afterwards, like a natural blood sugar spike prevention.
Gut health experts recommend getting at least 30 different plants in your diet each week for optimal bacteria population. We go a step beyond that minimum recommendation and say still eat those 30 whole plants, and add in a supplemental vegetable juice each day for an extra boost.
Juice way more vegetables than fruit. Juicing fruit, for the most part, removes all of the beneficial gut-friendly fiber and leaves you with a concentrated sugar liquid that might just spike your blood sugar and cause adverse effects. If you’re going to juice a fruit, utilize it as a sweetener sparingly. Our Everday juice, for example, has a couple small slices of green apple that’s used only to smooth out the flavor of the high quantity of bitter celery greens. Focus on the greens and veggies.
Avoid centrifugal juicers. Juice is better fresh and cold pressed. A whole fruit or vegetable holds up much easier than a juice does. Because it’s lacking protective material, filtering out all of the fiber, the nutrients in juice can oxidize more quickly. This process of oxidation is sped up when subjected to a centrifugal juicer which can produce heat in the mechanics. We suggest using a cold press juicer, either a hydraulic machine or a more affordable slow masticating juicer. These processes use tension and pressure rather than speed to expel liquid and slows the oxidation, resulting in a juice with a 4-6 day shelf life. The sooner you consume a juice the better.
The supernutrients in juice can support your immune system, enhance digestion, and help detoxify the body. Green juice is hydrating and can give you a quick boost of energy. Try adding in a green juice as your first beverage of the day and follow with your regular routine, see how you feel.
