Juicing is a great way to get nutrients, and a lot of them, into your body fast. There are many health reasons to juice. You can get high doses of nutrients fast. It is important to try to juice local, in season, organic vegetables and fruits. Always “eat” your juices on an empty stomach. I say “eat” because you want the juice to have time in your mouth to allow your digestive system to turn on. As you may or may not know, digestion starts in the mouth. When you drink freshly prepared juices slowly, you will be dosing your body with a high level of nutrients. Those nutrients go directly to your cells because there is nothing in the juice (like fiber) to break down.
You can add about anything to your juices (but I would steer clear of onions or garlic though some people would surely disagree). I always like to add in something like carrots, apples or beet roots to cut the bitterness of greens. I don’t usually have only apple or carrot juice. However, if you did have just apple of carrot juice, make sure it is fresh. Consider the amount of sugar, even natural, that those juices would have; you want to make sure having that much sugar is offset by the amount of nutrients your body is getting. I usually always have a sweeter vegetable or fruit in my juice. But I also always have greens and high water vegetables like cucumber or celery which are almost calorie-free. Think of the sweeter vegetables and fruits, which are full of nutrients, to make up half of your juice. The other half is something that might not be palatable by itself (Swiss Chard, kale, broccoli).
There are local juice companies popping up in more metro areas (lucky us!). Organic Avenue in NYC and Juice Nashville where I live which support all kinds of ways to detox or add in fresh juice daily. There is also Whole Foods which has an amazing juice bar. I know many of you don’t have the luxuries of being able to go out and buy fresh juice. But you might consider investing in a juicer (do your homework and buy the best one you can afford). I will be talking more about the Greenstar Juicer that I am using and why we chose that one.
Please share your juice recipes, juicing experiences, hits, misses, etc, in this blog. I am not one to go on some long 8 day juice fast. I just haven’t done it yet… Not saying I won’t but I do like to take half of a day or even a day and a half and consume nothing but fresh juices. I have success with that. And I would love to hear your stories!!!
Get a full week of SBF delivered straight to your inbox.
Video workouts • Inspiration • And more!
No credit card required!