How To Enhance Your Health With Juicing VegetablesI firmly believe that regular vegetable juicing may be one of the keys to good health as it is an important source of raw food, which contains chlorophyll and phytonutrients. I am convinced that this is one of the most powerful tools one can use to obtain high level vitality. All of us need raw foods every day, and this is an excellent technique to assure you receive large quantities of them. I see many seriously ill patients and I am always constantly amazed at how potent the vegetable juice is in restoring their health and energy levels. If you live in northern Illinois you will want to consider calling Timber Creek to deliver their "Dr. Mercola Juicing Box" which is full of over ten pounds of great tasting fresh organic greens delivered to your doorstep for only $20. I have been using vegetable juice for breakfast daily since September of 1999 and have observed a noticeable improvement in my health. I believe it is the answer to: “Well what do I eat for breakfast?” The answer of course is vegetable juice balanced with some essential oils and a bit of chlorella as explained in greater detail further in the article. I suspect that vegetable juice and fruit juices are two different animals. I am confident that fruit juices should be avoided. Vegetable juice, although processed, does not raise insulin levels, like fruit juice. The only exception would be carrot or beet juice (and most underground vegetables) which function similarly to fruit juice. How Much Juice Do I Drink? If juicing vegetable are new to you it would be wise to start out slowly, perhaps only doing one or two ounces. Make sure that there is no nausea or belching. I would gradually increase to 12-16 or even up to 32 ounces per session. How Do I Get This Juice Down? No problem. You only start by juicing vegetables that you enjoy eating non-juiced. The juice should taste pleasant and not make you nauseous. It is very important to apply the Listen To Your Body principle with juicing. Your stomach should be very happy all morning long. If it is churning or growling or making you know it is there, you probably juiced something you should not be eating. I have noticed that the only thing I cannot juice is large amounts of cabbage juice, but if I spread it out and have it intermittently I do fine with it. It will also be important to do some chewing when you juice. It takes very little effort to digest vegetable juice, but when you chew you will stimulate your pancreas to start the digestive process which will help you absorb more of the juice. You can chew on some of the vegetables that you are juicing. This can be done while you are juicing which tends to make the entire process more efficient. What Do I Do With the Leftover Pulp? Ideally it would be best to mix it in with the juice and consume it. One of the main values of juicing is that it "pre-digests" the food so you can absorb all the nutrients. There is some benefit to the fiber though as it serves as fertilizer for the good bacteria in the colon. For the past year I would juice up to one quart of vegetable juice per day and I noticed my stools would frequently become loose. Once I started adding the pulp fiber back in this normalized. So, for me at least, it seems wise to include the pulp back in. This does increase the time it takes to consume the juice, but it is probably healthier. One can gradually add the pulp back in over time to get use to it. If you add the entire pulp back in, the mixture becomes almost like a green vegetable porridge that needs to be eaten with a spoon. The method I currently use is to drink about 75% of the juice and then add the fiber back in and consume the mixture. If you are underweight though and the fiber prevents you from eating more food, I would not recommend this approach as there are minimal calories in the fiber. You can try it both ways, listen to your body and see what works best for you. Can I Juice in the Morning and Drink it Later in the Day? Not a good idea. Vegetable juice is one of the most perishable foods I know of. Ideally it would be best to drink all of your juice immediately. However, if you are careful you can store it for up to 24 hours with only moderate nutritional decline. You can do this putting it in a glass jar with an airtight lid and filling it the very top. There should be a minimum of air in the jar as it is the oxygen in air (remember air has about 20% oxygen) that will "oxidize" and damage the juice. Wrap the jar with aluminum foil to block out all light which will also damage the juice and then store it in the refrigerator until about 30 minutes prior to drinking as ideally the juice should be consumed at room temperature. What type of Vegetables Do I Juice? I would recommend starting with the three ones that are easiest to tolerate:
Unfortunately these are not that beneficial as the more intense dark green vegetables. Once you get used to these though you can start adding the better, but less palatable ones in. Green LEAFY vegetables are probably the best to juice. All green leafy vegetables work well. The easiest ones to include include all the lettuces including, but not restricted to:
You can then put in some of the other similar green leafy vegetables such as
Cabbage juice is one of the most healing nutrients for ulcer repair (I don’t have one) as it is a huge source of vitamin U. Unfortunately, Eat Right for Your Type approach does not support lectin compatibility for blood type A individuals like myself. So I avoid it. Herbs also make wonderful combinations and there are two that work exceptionally well:
You need to be cautious with Cilantro though as many can not tolerate it very well If you are new to juicing you definitely want to hold off on these until you get used to the above as they are more challenging vegetables to consume, but they are highly beneficial would be:
When purchasing collard greens be sure and find a store that sells the leaves still attached to the main stalk. If they are cut off for convenience the vegetable rapidly loses many of its valuable nutrients. What About Carrots and Beets? Most people who juice usually use carrots. Do you know why? Of course because they taste so good. The reason they taste so good is that they are full of sugar. I would definitely advise limiting juicing all underground vegetables to decrease adverse insulin responses. If you are healthy it is likely you can add about one pound of carrots or beets per week. I do believe that the deep intense colors of these foods provide additional benefits for many that are just not available in the green vegetables listed above. Is There Anything I Can Add to Make The Juice Taste Better? My favorite addition is coconut. You can purchase the whole coconut or use shredded coconut. They add a delightful flavor and are an excellent source of fat to balance the meal. The have medium chain triglycierides which have many health benefits. Rotate Your Vegetables! It is very important to not have the same vegetables every day. I can almost guarantee you that if you do this for any significant length of time you will become quite allergic to them. What type of Juicer Can I Use? Most people reading this will be new to juicing so it is best to find an inexpensive juicer to start out with so if you decide you do not want to continue you will not be at a great loss. Probably the ideal approach is to purchase a used juicer through Ebay. (www.ebay.com). This is the world's largest on line auction sites, but there are many other sites. Champion and Omega juicers are good ones to look for and reasonably priced at under $200, but there are many others. Norwalk is the most expensive ($2,000), but I believe the Angel juicer is the best ($700). Green Power is a plastic clone of the Angel at $600. If you are going to implement the system where you add the fiber back to the juice than you will definitely want to consider the unconventional juicer called a Vita Mixer (~$400). I have owned one for about 20 years. They are an outstanding work horse of a blender and can pulverize just about any vegetables. However, you will have to add additional water and the high speed does introduce oxygen into the mixture which will accelerate oxidative degradation. So this system is clearly inferior to the more expensive Angel juicer discussed above. My patients have told me that the Krups Juice Extractor, which is available at Crate and Barrel, is one of the best value juicers on the market. It is far less noisy than the Juice Man Junior, actually juices parsley, and only cost $49. Juicer Cleanup Is Important I know that if your juicer takes longer than 10 minutes to clean you will not do it. TI find that using an old toothbrush to clean the metal grater and it works nicely. The whole process takes a little over fifteen minutes for me to juice, drink it and clean up. (I graduated from the Juice Man Junior to the Angel Juicer) But whatever you do, you need to clean your juicer immediately after you juice to prevent it from contaminating the juicer with mold growth. I also find that soaking the plastic juicing parts in a bucket of bleach water works quite nicely to remove the green stains that buildup. Warning though DO NOT follow the juicing recommendations that come with the juicer as they emphasize carrot and fruit combinations. I prefer to leave my vegetables at room temperature overnight or for at least one hour if I forget, as I do not enjoy drinking cold fluids, especially when it is cold outside. Is There Anything I Can Add to the Juice or Pulp to Improve the Nutritional Value? Absolutely. I would strongly advise you to do the following. Juice by itself is relatively unbalanced as it is nearly exclusively carbohydrate with very little protein and virtually no fat. Seeds The basic element that I would encourage everyone to consider would be to alternate sunflower, pumpkin and sesame seeds. These are best put into the pulp after they have been freshly ground. If you don't have a coffee grinder most are under $20. The seeds are full of protein and essential fatty acids that will wonderfully balance the juice. Vegetable juice does not have much protein or fat so this is a wonderfully balancing food. Protein Powders Glutamine is an amnio acid and the majority of our skeletal muscle is made of it. You can obtain glutamine powder and add one teaspoon into your drink for a very effective healing addition. You can also use protein powders. My two favorites are whey and rice protein. I would strongly advise against the use of soy protein powders. Garlic I like to put in one to two cloves of garlic in my juice. It provides the incredible healing potential of fresh garlic. I would strongly advise you to regularly do this to balance out your bowel flora. The ideal dose is just below the social threshold where people start to notice that you have eaten garlic. One large clove, two medium cloves or three small cloves should not cause you to smell of garlic. Chlorella to Remove Mercury and Pesticides Chlorella is an incredibly powerful nutrient from the sea and is a form of algae. I use it quite a bit for mercury detoxification as it binds very strongly to mercury to eliminate it from the body. However it also:
The normal dose is one teaspoon in the juice. However, about 30% of people can not tolerate the chlorella, so if it makes you nauseous you should definitely avoid it. Spirulina is another algae that has many similar benefits and is a good balance to chlorella. However it does not bind to heavy metals like chlorella. Shredded Coconut To Increase Pulp Flavor Most people enjoy the taste of coconut and it can really add a major flavor benefit to the pulp. I would highly recommend it. Jaffe Brothers carries unsweetened shredded coconut in bulk (760-749-1133) Balance Your Juice With Protein and Fat I do believe that Dr. Sears is on target with his recommendations for the percentage of food groups at one meal. The basic food groups are:
Dr. Sears recommends about 40% carbohydrates and 30% protein and 30% fat, and I believe that is a healthy goal. Vegetable juice has virtually no fat but does contain some protein but not much. That is why it would be helpful to add some essential oils when you juice. Essential Oils There are four basic food supplements you could use:
Normally I do not advise the use of flax seed oil as the majority of people I see can't properly digest it. This is easily determined by belching or burping or a sense of nausea after consuming it. If that happens one should not consume the flax, or for that matter, any other food that causes that symptom. This is typically due to the highly perishable oils in flax being oxidized. I have seen this in even the best brands of flax oil on the market. For this reason I can't recommend using flax oil.
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