Good Juice - Bad Juice

Let's start with the bad. I know I've pointed this out before, but if you are drinking store bought apple juice or giving it to your kids MAKE SURE THE APPLES COME FROM THE US and preferably are organic. Apples from China and Argentina have wickedly high levels of arsenic. Yes I said Arsenic! Bad juice! Bad Bad!

I have also talked about juicing a little along the way, but I'll focus more on it here because a couple of friends are now jumping on the juice program.

Pam and I drink 2 juices a day as part of our diet. The "morning" juice is roughly 50% carrots with one red beet and its' greens, a 1 inch chunk of ginger, 1/2 lemon and 1/2 lime. Many people just starting add an apple to that juice to make it a little sweeter. I use ONLY ORGANIC produce.

Our "afternoon" juice has spinach, kale, 1 golden beet, 1 inch of ginger, 1/2 lemon, 1/2 lime, a pear, and a good size chunk of fennel along with the stalk and greens.

If you add both drink we are eating the following:

10-12 medium Carrots
1 Red beet
1 Golden Beet
2 inches of ginger
1 lemon
1 lime
2 cups of Spinach
2 cups of Kale
1 Pear.

I'm pretty sure that is more than the recommended amount of fruits and vegetables.

Why juice? First. They taste great! The are an easy way to get the fruits and veggies you need. Since they aren't cooked, you get micro nutrients that are killed by cooking. Some sources refer to them as enzymes but the end result is the same.

A ton or research has been done in the last decade focused on "Phytochemicals." They have shown the ability to both stave off and cure virtually every chronic disease including asthma and arthritis and virtually every cancer. We all know by now that a plant based diet will turn most diabetics around in about a month.

The phytochemicals that researchers have uncovered are changing the way we think about  fruits and vegetables. Broccoli contains a substance that can prevent and cure  breast cancer.

Citrus fruits make it easier for your body to remove carcinogens,  decreasing the chance of getting cancer.

Grapes, beets,and leafy greens contain a phytochemical that  protects each cells' DNA from damage.

The list goes on and on of produce and health benefits.

The Machine:

While it is hard to argue with Jack Lalane - he did live a long healthy life - his machine heats the produce because it runs at high RPMS. The other thing you can't do with those machines is greens. There is a ton of calcium and magnesium in leafy greens. That is the best way to get your calcium.

What we settled on is a low RPM single auger dual action juicer. Ours is an Omega 8003, but there are others that work the same way. The work by first slow grinding the produce and then pressing it to extract the juice. It won't make soup or ice cream, but the juice will be the most nutritious.

I'm not saying that you should juice all of your produce. There are benefits to eating an apple. The fiber is soluble that way as opposed to once juiced.

If you elect to buy non organic produce you must peel it. Citrus holds 90% of the pesticide in the peel. Strawberries grown with pesticides are not something I would EVER eat. The skin is way too porous so the pesticides get in and stay in.

On the other hand, if you buy all organics a quick wash is all you need. The citrus can be 100% juiced so you get the benefits of the zest as well.

There is a lot of talk these days about "detoxing." There is no better way to do this than juicing. We did a 3 day detox last year during New Years. We each lost weight, but the best part was the restart on your appetite and the instant adjustment your palate goes through. You lose the taste for fat, salty and sweet right away. We plan to juice through New Years again this year. I would be glad to pass on the program to anyone who is interested.

For a recent party we made an apple cranberry juice that didn't last long. The best part was no added sugar (most juice is laden with high fructose corn syrup) or chemicals.

Good juicers are $200 plus. They have 10 year warranties also. Here's a link to a site that has a bunch. We bought ours off Amazon. com.  http://www.discountjuicers.com/

More soon....