People are trying some crazy things out there to lose weight, a lot of which are very dangerous and very expensive. If you need to shed pounds, feel better, sleep better or just tweak your health, juicing is a great way to go. But we’re not giving it all away here. Read these tips to find out the endless benefits of juicing.
When choosing a juicer, do some research into how much heat they produce as they juice. Heat can kill the nutrients that you are trying to preserve. If the juicer produces enough heat you will be losing many of the benefits that you were drinking it for so make sure to find out before you buy.
Do not forget to remove hard pits from fruits like peaches and cherries before sending them down the juicer. These pits can destroy your juicers blades turning your happy purchase into a giant paperweight. Don’t get into such a flow in your juicing that you forget to make the fruits safe for juicing.
Use a variety of fruits and vegetables in your juices. Not only will this keep the tastes exciting, but you will be able to get a wider range of vitamins and minerals from your juices. Try one new ingredient a week and if you have an allergic reaction, you’ll know which ingredient caused it.
Mix leafy green vegetables with something sweet. Leafy vegetables have a strong taste and may be too much for you to start with, on their own. Luckily, juicing is a great chance to mix your foods; so temper that strong vegetable taste with something sweeter like apples or carrots. Plain water might work as well.
Lacking space on your cutting board for all of the ingredients you need for juicing? Try to cut everything in a manner which keeps the actual food “whole”. For example, slice a carrot but don’t pull the pieces apart. You can slice an apple around it’s core and then stand the pieces up so it looks like it wasn’t cut. This will save you space to slice the other items you need without dirtying more dishes.
Buying fruit and vegetables for your juicing can be easy by using all five senses to find the freshest produce to bring home. Sniff the item and make sure it smells good, like you would want to eat it. Squeeze it and feel if it’s too hard or too soft. Look it over for imperfections, and then take it home and taste a bit. Enjoy!
Be aware that citrus fruits do not always work well in all juicers. Because of the consistency of the pulp in the fruit the juicer can get clogged with the pulp or rind. If using a standard juicer, peel the fruit and cut into small pieces; otherwise get a citrus juicer that you will use for these types of fruit specifically.
If you don’t have time to juice in the morning, you can make juice on the weekend and drink it throughout the week. The truth is that the vitamins and other nutrients in the drink will break up as time passes, but it’s better to drink homemade juice, than nothing at all!
It’s important to juice wheatgrass as our bodies can’t actually process the plant fibers contained in it. I like to include wheatgrass in my apple/ginger/orange juice, but you can come up with a hundred more recipes that make great use of wheatgrass and it’s wonderful earthy flavor. Give it a try!
Are you gluten intolerant? Anyone with celiac disease will love juicing as it’s a healthy way to have a treat in your diet. You can even include wheatgrass and it’s nutritional benefits as gluten is only found in the seed of the plant, not the stem or grass leaves. Enjoy!
If you have an ulcer, try cabbage juice! It’s been shown to help heal an ulcer while you’re treating it with traditional medicine, speeding up your treatment. Many fruits and vegetables can help heal a variety of ailments, so do a little research to find what will help you with your problems!
To get the most out of your juices, it’s best to drink them before you eat when your stomach is empty. Your digestive system will be able to absorb more of the nutrients in the juice if it’s mostly empty. You will also feel fuller after drinking the juice, so you will eat less when you do have a meal.
If you’d like to put low-water fruits like avocado or bananas in your juice, put them in a blender first. It’s difficult for your juicer to process these types of produce and it can actually damage the expensive juicer or burn out the motor. Blenders are built to deal with thicker items, so give them a whirl and then pour them into your juicer.
A great juicing tip that can help you save time is to start eyeballing the amount of foods you’ll need to make the amount of juice you want. A pound of raw produce for instance, will typically make at least one whole cup of juice. Knowing these tricks can help you save time.
One great way to get kids involved in juicing is by having them pick the fruits and vegetables you use! You can take them to a farm to choose their own apples, or to a farmer’s market. Give them each $5 and let them pick whatever they’d like to try. Have them choose one or two ingredients and then you can supply the base, like leafy green vegetables. Don’t ever say they chose the wrong thing, just use less of it so no one will notice if it’s not tasty.
It’s only natural that our bodies appreciate a variety of fresh fruits and vegetables. Make sure that you’re working to give your body what it wants by taking the time to juice. You can get healthy in a hurry by becoming a juicer, so use these tips to make sure that you’re doing things correctly.