Juicing for health

Vegetable juicing
Vegetable juicing is critical to good health because it is an important source of raw food. Each of us needs raw foods every day, and juicing is an excellent way to make certain you receive large quantities of such raw foods.

Fruit juicing is certainly good for you, but it has one disadvantage over vegetable juicing: fruit juice tends to increase insulin levels when consumed.

Can I make my vegetable juice in the morning and drink it later in the day?
Although this is much better than not drinking vegetable juice at all, juice is best drank freshly juiced. Vegetable juice is one of the most perishable foods there is and ideally it would be best to drink all of your juice immediately. However, if you are careful you can store your vegetable juice for up to 24 hours with only a moderate nutritional decline.

You can do this by putting the vegetable juice in a glass jar with an airtight lid and filling it to the very top. There should be as little air in the jar as possible because it is the OXYGEN in air that will "oxidize" and damage the juice. Think of a cut apple turning brown when exposed to air.

It's a good idea to use an opaque container to block out all light which would also damage the juice and then store it in the refrigerator until about 30 minutes prior to drinking since ideally the juice should be consumed at room temperature


What type of vegetables should I juice?
Celery + fennel + cucumbers is a good combination that is easily tolerated by those just starting out with juicing.


Unfortunately these are not as beneficial as the more intense dark green vegetables. Once you get used to these though you can start adding the better, but perhaps less palatable ones in.

Green LEAFY vegetables are the best to use in your vegetable juicing program. All green leafy vegetables work well. The easiest ones to use include all the lettuces including, but not restricted to:

Red leaf lettuce
Green Leaf lettuce
Romaine lettuce
Escarole lettuce


You can then put in some of the other similar green leafy vegetables such as spinach, kale and cabbage.

Cabbage juice is one of the most healing juices when it comes to repairing an ulcer as it is a huge source of vitamin U.

Herbs also make wonderful combinations. Parsley and cilantro are great in vegetable juice.


Adding essential oils to your vegetable juice
There are 4 basic supplements you could use:

Fish Oil (EPA/DHA) (source of omega 3 fatty acids)
Flaxseed oil (source of omega 3 fatty acids)
Cod Liver Oil (has vitamin D and vitamin A in addition to the EPA/DHA of fish oil.)
Evening Primrose Oil (source of omega 6 fatty acids)