Juicing is a great way to add fruits and vegetables to your and your family’s diet to give you healthy nutrients that can help fight disease. Since fresh juices are made from raw fruits and vegetables, all the components remain intact, so they contain more nutrients than when cooked. Recent research has shown that a diet that includes regular citrus juice can help prevent stroke, while the abundant phytochemicals in fruits and vegetables help prevent cancer.
Fresh fruit and vegetable juices can be enjoyed by young and old and are ideal for people with small appetites and there are always plenty of recipes to please the whole family.
A good variety of different fruit and vegetable juices is believed to be recommended: at least 2 glasses a day to maintain health and more to speed recovery after illness. With calorie-controlled or diabetic diets, vegetable juices are preferred as they have a lower sugar content. The juice contains all the fruit and vegetables except the fiber which locks in all the goodness. Vitamin C and other water-soluble vitamins are easily damaged by cooking, so the juice allows them to be easily digested and absorbed.
The body cannot manufacture vitamin C or ascorbic acid, so it must be obtained from the diet. It is essential for collagen formation, body growth, tissue repair, and wound healing. It protects against infections and helps the absorption of iron in the body. Smokers and people who drink a lot of alcohol have trouble absorbing vitamin C. Antioxidants are abundant in fruits and vegetables and destroy harmful substances called free radicals that accumulate in the body.
Good sources of vitamin C are strawberries, oranges, melons, mango, kiwi, cabbage, asparagus, broccoli, bell peppers, tomatoes, sprouts, bananas, blackberries, and grapefruit.
Ideally, all juices should be homemade, as store-bought products may contain additives, sugar, and preservatives. They tend to be heat treated to extend shelf life, so avoid those that are not stored in the cold cabinet. This heat treatment can destroy the nutrients reducing their health benefits.
Even when you make them fresh from your own juice machine, it is recommended that you drink them right away, as nutrients are also lost when the juice is left to sit for a long time.
There are some guidelines to follow to increase the benefits of juicing:
- buy organic when possible
- Wash the products well
- The peel can be left apart from the bitter or inedible peel, such as pineapple.
- Remove the pips, especially the apple pips, as they contain small toxic traces.
- Remove carrot and rhubarb leaves, as they are toxic.
- Eliminates potato eyes and toxic green dyes
- Puree soft fruits like papayas, bananas, and raspberries in a blender and then add them to the juices.
- Use a variety of fruits and vegetables.
Vegetable juices can include beets, carrots, kale, turnips, spinach, and watercress and can be absolutely delicious. Garlic can be added to improve the flavor. A great cleansing juice is watermelon with the skin intact. Otherwise, the ideal is to use local seasonal fruit to give variety. In summer they can be mixed with ice to make fruit ice creams and yogurt and milk can be added to make smoothies and increase children’s calcium intake.
There are many juice recipes available today and it is a great way to improve your health and provide your family with all the nutrients they need. If your child doesn’t like one type of juice, there are always plenty more. It’s a great way to use up leftover fruits and vegetables and use seasonal produce.