What’s So Great About Juicing?

If your conscience is telling you to get more veggies into your diet, but your will-power just isn’t cooperating, Healthy Kitchen Plus is here to be your semi-personal trainer! 

The benefits of ingesting 16 oz. of juice daily from vegetables and fruits are many:
  Ø      Minerals
  Ø      Vitamins
  Ø      Enzymes
  Ø      Essential fatty acids
  Ø      Carbohydrates
  Ø      Proteins
  Ø      A-nutrients and Phyto-nutrients
  Ø      More energy
  Ø      Glowing complexion
  Ø      Strengthened immune system
  Ø      Stronger bones
  Ø      Reduced risk of disease
  Ø      Flush toxins from body
  Ø      Lower cholesterol
  Ø      Maintain a healthy body weight, heart, and circulation
 
Now, with all those benefits, who can afford NOT to juice? You may be asking, “Why can’t I just EAT my food?”  Here are some good answers:         

     1. You can’t (or probably won’t) eat enough veggies and fruits to obtain all the nutrients your body needs. The USDA, National Cancer Institute, Surgeon General, and many other health agencies are now recommending that we ingest nine ½ cup servings per day of produce!! (That’s 4 ½ cups total!)               

     2. There is a lot of ‘goodness’ locked in the fiber of produce, all of which is expelled from the body when eaten as ‘food’. What a waste! (no pun intended)      

     3. When produce is juiced, this goodness is ‘released’ from the fiber. When we drink the juice, this highly concentrated cocktail of nutrients enters our bloodstream very quickly, with very little required from the digestive system. 

However, we want to stress that you do still need to eat some produce and whole grains, because your body DOES need fiber to keep it moving, maintain a healthy cholesterol, and several other functions. 

A word of caution if you are tempted to try to save yourself the trouble of juicing your own produce:  bottled and canned juices lose much of their valuable nutrients during processing because of oxidation and heat. In addition, these commercially prepared juices also use veggies and fruits of ‘unknown’ origin, unless labeled 'organic'.

If you do your own juicing, you can avoid some of the pitfalls of canned or bottled juices, such as…
     Ø      losing nutrients because of heating the juice
     Ø      losing nutrients through oxidation because you can't drink it immediately
     Ø      additives such as sweeteners (artificial or not!), sodium, and preservatives
     Ø      pesticides and chemicals (Choose to buy organic, or better yet, grow your own!) 

Need help finding a juicer that fits your lifestyle?
Visit us at www.healthkitchenplus.com 

P.S. Always follow your pediatrician’s advice when introducing babies to juice of any kind.