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Juicing for Health: How to use natural juices to boost energy, immunity and wellbeing
Caroline Wheater
Updated with healing Superjuices and the most refreshing smoothies.Our new edition of this extremely helpful guide to using juice contains all the right updates for today’s juice market. Superjuices such as Wheatgrass are now included along with delicious, fresh fruit smoothies.Juicing For Health will also look more attractive than ever before – with a larger format and a 2 colour design throughout.Juicing For Health is comprehensive without ever rambling. It includes:Over 200 juice recipes and blends.• The vitamin & mineral content of over 60 different fruit & vegetable juices.• The basic healing qualities of each fruit and vegetable juice.• Nutritional therapy juice blends for a whole range of specific – and more general – ailments.• Beginner-friendly guide to starting up and managing a healthy detox programme.• A–Z Vitamin & Mineral hotlist – with the “Best Fruits” and “Best Vegetables” for each nutrient.
Juicing for Health
Caroline Wheater
Dedication
To Simon
Contents
Title Page
Dedication
Introduction
Part 1: The Wonders of Juice
Raw Juice Secrets
The Juice Kitchen
Prepare to Juice
Part 2: Beauty, Peak Health and Vitality
Juices for Beauty
Juices for Health
Living with Added Zest
Detox and Revitalize
Part 3: Juice it Up!
The Fresh Juice Bar
Pulper’s Paradise
Appendix 1: Glossary – Vitamins and Minerals
Appendix 2: Useful Information
Further Reading
Searchable Terms
Acknowledgements
Copyright
About the Publisher
Introduction
The Fresh Facts
Every time I sip a fresh fruit or vegetable juice, I’m amazed by the flavour, the colour, the texture. To me, fresh juices are everything a healthy food should be: all-natural, bursting with taste, and choc-full of good things, from vitamins and minerals to enzymes and inner cleansers. It was back in 1992 that I first came across the health phenomenon that has since swept Europe, the States and Australia. A young woman named Sarah Zebaida had been so impressed with the fresh juices she’d come across while travelling in Asia that she’d opened Britain’s first ever juice bar – Squeeze Us at the Pineapple Dance Studios in central London.
It was a revelation. Just a few sips of her myriad blends and I was hooked – the fruitiest fruit juices; the zestiest vegetable juices; rich smoothies that were just as filling as a light lunch. Since then, of course, there’s been no looking back and juice bars everywhere are doing a roaring trade.
Of course, you don’t have to go out to benefit from this healthiest of trends; juices are easy to make at home. All you need is a juicer and a shopping list – full of your favourite fruits and vegetables. Juicing is surprisingly quick and immensely satisfying to do and can be done all year round as you make use of seasonal varieties. Root vegetable juices can be just as tasty as fruity ones – and if you don’t believe me, pop a parsnip in to juice … or a carrot … or a tomato. Smoothies are the ultimate in comfort juices, drink one just before going to bed for a solid night’s sleep.
In short, freshly juiced juices are sweeter, more piquant, more tart, more creamy, more flavoursome, more varied than anything you might ever have tasted before. And because the fruits and vegetables you choose to use go straight from your shopping basket into your juicer and into you, you’ll get maximum benefit from their rainbow coalition of vitamins and minerals. Bearing in mind that the latest healthy eating advice is to consume at least five portions of fruit and vegetables a day, juicing makes perfect sense. It won’t of course provide you with all-important fibre (that’s why you need to eat whole fruit and vegetables too) but it will ensure you’re getting a wide range of vital nutrients. Investing a little extra time and money brings huge dividends to your wellbeing.
Which is why juicing is a habit that deserves to be got. In my comprehensive guide, you’ll find out why fresh juices really are so special and how to go about making them. Not to mention hundreds of recipes for health, beauty and vitality, a detox plan, recipes for left-over pulp, and easy-to-understand nutritional notes about each fruit and vegetable included.
As I discovered all those years ago, tasting is believing – so why not try juicing for yourself.
The Wonders of Juice
Raw Juice Secrets
With the fast pace of modern life, it’s easy to get caught up in the clutches of convenience, and to forget the simple and natural things in life. While we’re all aware of the benefits, eating fresh food is something that’s often pushed to the bottom of our priority list. We make time to see friends, play sport and clean the house, but when it comes to supplying energy and nutrition through the best sorts of food it’s usually another story.
Lately we have become used to supplementing our diets with vitamin and mineral pills, as a kind of insurance policy. Supplements have their place and can be very effective, but they can’t take the place of a diet full of natural, health-giving foods. Fresh fruit and vegetable juices are part of the all-natural line-up that can knock spots off convenience products. Not only do they provide a wealth of vitamins, minerals and other nutrients, they are also cleansing and balancing for the body as a whole; the equivalent of a multivitamin pill in a glass, with hidden benefits.
RAW HEALTH
Once you have tasted your own fresh fruit and vegetable juices you’ll realize that there is little comparison between the liquid that flows from your juicer and that which flows from shop-bought cartons. Most readymade juices rely on concentrated juice and extra water to bulk them up. Look on the label and you’ll find that some juices contain additives such as sugar, colours, flavours and preservatives too, while the latest range of freshly juiced juices are wildly expensive.
Homemade juices have nothing added, nothing taken away, just 100 per cent pure juice. The fruits and vegetables which you choose to juice will be as fresh as possible and will not have undergone any processing. This makes a real difference, as any sort of cooking reduces the content of vitamins and minerals, and sometimes destroys them altogether.
Every time you drink a glass of juice it will contain virtually the same amount of nutrients (although not as much fibre) as if you were eating the fruit or vegetable whole. In fact, you will probably be absorbing far more, as it takes quite a bit of produce to make just one 8 fl oz/230ml glass of juice. For example, you would have to eat 2 apples, or 3 carrots, or nearly a whole pineapple to consume the quantity of nutrients that goes into 8fl oz/230ml of juice.
THE PIONEERS
Of course, like most ‘novel’ ideas, the concept of juicing is not new at all. Since the nineteenth century, doctors and naturopaths have been treating patients with fresh juices and raw foods to help improve their health. Germany and Switzerland are together regarded as the cradle of the therapy, and during the nineteenth and early part of the twentieth centuries nurtured a number of famous pioneers, such as Father Kniepp, Dr Kellog, Dr Max Bircher-Benner and Dr Max Gerson. Between them they developed the Röhsaft Kur (the fresh juice cure), which is still practised today at health clinics all over the world. American pioneers, such as the late Dr Norman Walker, and Ann Wigmore, founder of the Hippocrates Health Institute in Boston, have continued their work. There is simply masses of research and practice to draw upon. For many years, therefore, juices have been used by naturopaths in Europe and America to help treat a whole range of minor, and sometimes major, ailments. It’s no surprise when you consider what a rich source of nutrients and cleansing elements they are.
VITAMINS AND MINERALS
Fresh juices are packed with many of the vitamins and minerals that keep us well. As with all natural, whole foods, the vitamins and minerals in fruit and vegetables are often bound on to other nutrients that help absorption. For example, bioflavonoids are found in the pith of citrus fruit, and they aid the absorption of vitamin C. The minerals found in fresh produce are chelated to amino acids, or sometimes a vitamin, to make them easier to absorb.
The list below reveals the range of vitamins and minerals in fresh juices; beta carotene, vitamin C, potassium and phosphorus are found at particularly high levels.
Vitamins
beta-carotene (the vegetarian form of vitamin A)
vitamin B1 (thiamine)
vitamin B2 (riboflavin)
vitamin B3 (niacin)
vitamin B5 (pantothenic acid)
vitamin B6 (pyridoxine)
folic acid
biotin
choline
inositol
vitamin C
vitamin E
Minerals
calcium
chlorine
chromium
cobalt
copper
fluorine
iodine
iron
magnesium
manganese
phosphorus
potassium
selenium
sodium
sulphur
zinc
For more information on the nutrients contained in fresh juices, see chapters 4 (#u589568e0-4b47-5415-8a17-13fc6d37f9f4)–6 (#ud55ca1bc-9bf0-5821-bc04-78d3dc98d113), and Appendix 1 (#u349a231a-3020-506f-8822-e20a22cf01aa).
THE ANTIOXIDANTS
You may have heard of antioxidant nutrients in newspaper and magazine reports, and if you haven’t you will soon. They are the focus of scores of research studies, which are looking at whether a group of vitamins and minerals – particularly vitamins A, C, E and selenium – can give protection against degenerative diseases such as cancer, heart disease, premature ageing and cataracts. Scientists believe that they may be the key to limiting the impact of these often devastating diseases.
Of course, fruits and vegetables are full of antioxidants – vitamins C and E – and juices made with them are naturally a very good source. The reason why these nutrients may have a revolutionary impact on our preventive healthcare is that they are able to quench unbalanced molecules, known as free radicals.
FREE RADICALS
Free radicals are generated by toxins, such as those produced by air pollution or smoke. They react with other molecules in our bodies and destabilize them, therefore putting cells at risk. They have been implicated in the development of diseases like cancer and heart disease, because they are capable of destroying other, healthy molecules, which in turn become unstable.
So, drinking plenty of fresh juices may have a long-term impact on your health, as well as perking you up in the short-term. For an antioxidant booster juice recipe, turn to Chapter 5 (#u6065cf7d-1d48-5529-8881-b205848cc2b8).
EXTRA NUTRIENTS
Fresh juices also contain other substances which are not classified as vitamins or minerals, but which may be beneficial to our health. For example, plant pigments like carotenoids and anthocyanins; substances that combat plant viruses and bacteria; and compounds that create smell and taste. Current research is trying to establish just what these individual essences can do, but the suggestion is that they are an integral part of the goodness supplied by raw fruit and vegetables and their juices.
EASY TO DIGEST
Fruit and vegetable juices are easy to digest, and are ideal for people who can’t cope with a lot of fibre, or who don’t want to munch their way through a pound of carrots (remember fresh juices should not replace your dietary intake of whole fruits and vegetables, of which the fibre is essential for good digestion). Because they are liquids, fruit and vegetable juices are quickly digested in the stomach, and the nutrients absorbed into the bloodstream.
The digestive process is also helped by the presence of active plant enzymes, which join with the stomach’s own enzymes in breaking down the juice. The efficiency of these workers enables nutrients to be absorbed into the body within minutes of being eaten. Plant enzymes also help to neutralize excess proteins and fat from other foods. Some, like papain from papaya and bromelain from pineapple, are especially good at calming indigestion.
SUPER CLEANSERS
Fresh juices have remarkable cleansing and restorative powers. To start with, fruits and vegetables all hold stores of pure water, which has been filtered and distilled through their complex structures. This means that the digestive system has one less set of impurities to deal with.
In addition, all fruits contain acid, which can help remove toxins from the digestive tract. Citrus fruits contain the strongest acid compound – citric acid – and other fruits contain the milder tartaric and malic acids. Some fruits, such as oranges and apples, also contain pectin, which can absorb fats and toxins from the digestive tract (as well as making jam and marmalade set).
Green vegetables are rich in chlorophyll (the substance that enables plants to harvest energy from the sunlight), which also has cleansing properties. That’s why greens like watercress and spinach can be so helpful on a detox programme. Certain other vegetables, such as carrot and tomato, have a reputation for acting as tonics to the liver too. For further information on doing a detox programme with fresh juices, turn to Chapter 7 (#u5c4c9567-ac88-5fe4-9ca0-23df54c7afaf).
KEEP THE BALANCE
Both fruit and vegetable juices are strong alkalizers once they have been digested, which is a plus point for most of us, because the average diet of too much protein and too many refined, processed foods creates over-acidity. Like any other living thing, the body has a subtle pH balance between acid and alkaline, tipping the scales in favour of alkaline. Drinking a glass of juice a day can help restore this essential balance.
A GOOD HEALTH GUARANTEE?
Juices on their own won’t bring you perfect health, but they can contribute to it. To increase your chances of a long and healthy life, you might like to consider other beneficial changes you can make to your daily routine, such as:
