Approachable Nutrition™

Juicing: Beneficial and Nutritious

Mar 12th, 2009 by Janeen

Carrot Juice Juicing is one way I love to get great nutrients. A freshly made vegetable or fruit drink is jam packed with valuable nutrients such as vitamins, minerals and enzymes. Other nutrients that juicing provides in great abundance are bioflavonoids, phytochemicals, and carontenoids (the nutritional buzz words we hear about and that we need daily). Drinking a fresh vegetable and/or fruit juice will give you a great boost to your well-being and energy. Fresh juices are easy to assimilate which makes them easy on the digestive system. Typically it is difficult for many people to eat enough vegetables and fruits in their daily diet, so drinking them is a great way to help achieve this. I want to stress that juicing does not take the place of eating fruits and vegetables, especially raw, because you need their good fiber! I read something in a book that I really liked, it went something like this: the problem isn’t always what you are eating, it is often what you are not eating. Juicing can help fill the void of nutrients your body may not be receiving and should be a part of a good whole foods healthy diet. Juicing is very easy and such a health benefit. If you do not already juice, I highly recommend to try it out. Read below for guidelines and tips for juicing.

First, you need a good juicer. There are plenty on the market at all different prices, I recommend making an investment to buy a good one. I use the Champion and it has been well worth the investment. I have had my juicer for several years and it works great!
- TIP: Look for a juicer that is easy to clean. Cleaning the juicer is probably the most time consuming part of the process, so finding one that is easy to clean will help cut down on your time.
Start out slowly, work your way into juicing just a few times a week, then every other day and eventually you’ll look forward to doing it daily.
Depending on the juicer you have, or buy, you may have to cut your vegetables and fruit to fit through the hopper.
When making fruit drinks, a blender can be used, but a juicer works best for vegetables.
Use organically grown produce as much as possible. This will provide you with the cleanest and purest juice.
Make sure to wash all your produce and remove all damaged areas of the fruits and vegetables.
Go ahead and leave the edible skins on and use all the parts of the produce including stems and leaves. One exception to this is carrot greens (which may contain a toxic substance). However, you will want to remove seeds and pits except for cucumbers, lemons and limes. It is also recommended to remove the skins of grapefruits and oranges, kiwi and papaya.
Produce that contains little water will not juice well in a juicer. You can still use these fruits and vegetables by placing them in a blender and then combining the mixture with your juice made in the juicer.
It is recommended to drink the fresh juice immediately to take advantage of all the nutrients. It is best for your digestion to drink slowly, take your time and enjoy it!

The following is a list of vegetables and fruits that I have used for juicing and work well, most of these I juice in combination with each other:

Vegetables

Apples Bananas Beets Beet greens Broccoli and stems Cabbage Carrots Celery Chard Citrus fruits Collard greens Cucumber Dandelion Fennel Garlic Ginger root Grapes Greens Kale Kiwi Mango Mint leaves Mustard greens Papaya Pineapple Pomegranate Radishes Spinach Watercress Wheat grass

Wheat grass is best juiced in a wheat grass juicer.

The following fruits are best to puree in the blender and then combined with your juice made in juicer: bananas, mango, papaya, and pears.

I find combining different fruits and vegetables together makes for tasty juices. Especially when using green leafy vegetables, they tend to be bitter so I find that combing the greens with other produce is very helpful in the taste.

Try some of the combinations below or experiment and create your own juice.

Greens