Why Juice?
Ever heard the term "living food" before? Raw food contain all the enzymes, vitamins and minerals the body need to heal and maintain optimal health. Cooking destroys much if not all of the nutritional value and natural enzymes in food that the body needs to aid digestion and to remain healthy.
According to standard dietary guidelines we are supposed to eat 7-9 portions of fresh fruit and vegetables daily. If you don't believe me, Google it. A portion is roughly the size of a cup. Juicing is an easy way to get all that goodness in your body without having to resort to a bowl of broccoli for breakfast. It is a powerful way to boost your system by drinking 100% restorative plant-based energy. By drinking a rainbow – green, red and yellow juices – you flood your system with an abundance of vitamins, minerals and phytonutrients (plant compounds) that give your body what it needs to stay alive and healthy.
We all like to pop pills if it makes life easier but more often than not, the really good brands are so expensive that you can't afford them so you settle for the lesser vitamins and minerals that were made in labs from synthetic compounds to which sweeteners were added to make it go down, some unnatural stuff to make it dissolve and then some more artificial junk to make your body absorb it. Don't think your cells do not know the difference between a fake and the real McCoy.
Which juicer?
There are three types:
Centrifugal – spinning basket with a disc that shreds produce and pushes the juice through a fine strainer by centrifugal force. This one juices really quickly but make sure it doesn't heat the produce while spinning because the juice might loose its 'living' quality when the enzymes in raw food that are so good for you starts to deactivate upon heating. You want a low rpm (80-100).
Masticating – think of this one as outsourcing your chewing. It grinds the produce like your teeth would and squeezes out the juice. These are also known as cold press, slow, single gear or single-auger juicers. It handles stringy veg like celery and leaves very well. They have high juice yields and dry pulp.
Twin-gear – interlocking gears that press together to extract the juice. They have high yields and are versatile but are usually costly.
You want a juicer that cleans quickly and easily. You also want an efficient one that yields a lot of juice and a very dry pulp which means that most or all of the good stuff has been squeezed out for you to drink. If the pulp is wet and heavy, you might want to send the juicer back for a refund. Get one that expels the pulp in an external jug. Otherwise you would have to keep stopping the machine to clean out the basket.
See Reel Gardening if you don't know how. Involve the kids. Sow, reap, eat.
| A Green One Joe Cross calls it Morning Green Glory. 10 kale leaves 2 large handfuls of spinach 6 romaine (cos) lettuce leaves 2 cucumbers 6 celery sticks 2 green apples 2 lemons* * I find this too much and use lemon only to taste but this depends on your palate. |
A Red One 4 big beetroot 2 big carrots 6 celery sticks 2 oranges Lemon to taste Basil leaves to taste |
An Orange One 6 large of carrots 2 sweet potatoes 2 red apples Dash of ground cinnamon You can also keep it simple. Carrots and pineapple go really well together. |
Serving Sizes
The recipes are all for single servings of juice which should yield about 500-600 ml of liquid but the amount will vary depending on the size of your produce and quality of your juicer.
Stick more veg in the juicer to fill up the jug if you find that the amounts I've given do not yield enough juice. If you (or the kids) don't find the juices palatable at first, add more fruit but decrease the amount until you only need one fruit to sweeten a juice. Carrot juice for instance doesn't even need sweetening.
| Tropical Smoothie This green smoothie tastes like lounging on a beach in the Maldives feels. 1 small mango, chopped 1 small banana ½ avocado Big handful of spinach 125 ml/ ½ cup coconut water (I use up to 250 ml/1 cup) Whiz all the ingredients in a blender until smooth. |
Pudding Juice Really. Have it for desert. Sweet potatoes 1 peach or pear 150 g/ 1 cup blueberries Optional: Dash of ground cinnamon If the sweet potatoes are organic, or if you have scrubbed them thoroughly with Veggie Wash, put them in the juicer skin and all. Even if you omit the blueberries this juice is still delicious. |
Tip: Skin and cut the white rind off a lemon before juicing.
Always wash your produce before using, even if you peel them. Especially if it is not organic. Fruit and vegetables may be covered in residual pesticides and who knows how many bacteria it gathered on its way to the shelf in the store. The following wash is a great natural disinfectant:
250 ml/1 cup water
250 ml/1 cup white vinegar
1 tbsp bicarbonate of soda
Juice of half a lemon
Mix the ingredients in a large bowl to allow for the chemical reaction between the vinegar and the bicarb. When the reaction has stopped, pour it into a spray bottle. Spray your produce and scrub them with a brush.
There are several great websites on juicing. Check these out for ideas and recipes:
