Benefits of Juicing and Juicers

Health drinks especially fresh fruit and vegetable juices as well as smoothies have in recent years become increasingly popular.  Because of this more and more juice bars are being set up in many high streets.  But you need to be aware that some don’t offer the same wholesome drinks as others.  As more and more people want to drink fruit smoothies so these can be found it just about any food outlet and complete fridges in supermarkets are used to show off the packaged versions.

As a result there are all sorts of denatured potions and frozen fruit syrups being blended and then sold to us as being healthy, and as a result it can be difficult to determine what you are actually getting.  In some cases the products you buy contain high amounts of sugar in them.  These types may be convenient for the food outlets but the quality to us is bad.

Raw Juice Drinks – Help Reduce Cravings and Help You with Weight Loss

It was Darwin who showed us how complex evolution is and explained where we came from and showed us the way our bodies adapt and evolve over time in relation to natural environment and the food we eat.  But evolutionary time goes slowly, but the way we obtain nourishment has changed very quickly during the last few thousand years.  No longer do we eat fresh fruits, nuts, roots and leaves that we have sought out in nature.  In fact the majority of use don’t know how wonderful it is to grow our own vegetables, and the nearest that most of us get to being hunter gatherers is when we quickly rush around the supermarket getting the groceries we need.

Along with natural foods, now we have an industry known as “food manufacturing” that spend time processing the foods we eat so that they can provide them to us in more diverse and interesting forms.  But unfortunately yes we have all these different varieties of foods but the problem is most of the nutritional value of the original natural ingredients they use will have been loss during the manufacturing processes.

As yet evolutionary processes have not caught up with the rapid changes made to our natural diets in the developed world.  In evolutionary terms it isn’t that long since we learnt to use fire and cook food.  Today there is plenty of evidence that shows how destructive eating lots of cooked food can be to our health.  We are still meant to be getting the full range of nutrients from the foods that nature offers us.  If we don’t get these then we continue to crave and look for those foods which will hopefully provide us with what we need.  As an extreme example, you can get all you want in a fast food outlet but you will still be undernourished if this is all you choose to eat and you will put on weight.

Your hunter gatherer instincts may have you seeking out convenience foods that are cooked and have little or no nutritional value and you will still have cravings even when your hunger has been satisfied.  This is because you haven’t been able to get the raw vital nutrients that your body needs.

The number of people in the western world who are obese or have diabetes has risen alarmingly because of our depleted diet which is high in sugar and fat.  So if you really want to take care of your body you need to make sure that it is getting a good range of living nutrients and you are far less likely to suffer cravings which will mean you are far less likely to heat foods that don’t have such nutrients in them because they are reduced through heat and processing.  By drinking raw fruit and vegetable juices you are giving your body super doses of vitamins, minerals, enzymes and phyto-nutrients which would be in a form that Darwin feels would be ideally suited for the human digestive system.

By making your own raw, nutrient packed healthy drinks using a juicer and blender at home is a cost effective form of health insurance.  Many people who juice various ingredients often report that they start to lose weight because their food cravings have been reduced.

The main objective is to improve one’s health for any juicing enthusiast.  But you will be surprised to learn that along with helping to control weight vegetable juices taste delicious, especially if you have only ever drunk the preserved bottled juices from your local supermarket.  For those who are trying to lose weight by have a juice or smoothie for breakfast or lunch is not only healthy but is a risk free way to achieve your weight loss goals.  However, for most people the real benefit of this type of healthy lifestyle activity is you won’t actually need to diet.

You should use your juicer regularly and be selective as to what foods you eat and eat more of them in a raw state.  Plus you should do some moderate exercise and you should find your natural body weight without having to make it your main goal in life.

You Should Use Your Juice and Blender As Often As You Use Your Cooker

This is a very simple piece of advice as it show how important that eating foods in their raw state if you want to be get closer to a natural diet that we have evolved to consume.  If you want to improve your healthy then you need to own a good juicer and fairly powerful blender or smoothie maker so that you can create a wide array of living nutritional foods in liquid form in your own kitchen.

Juicers and blenders carry out different functions and the advantages they provide can be easily misunderstood.  Juicers separate the fibre or pulp of the fruit or vegetables from the liquid juices.  You need a good quality juicer so that most of the goodness gets extracted into the juice rather than left with the pulp.  In fact when it comes to non organic fruit and vegetables any residue agrochemicals will remain in the fibre, so getting rid of the pulp is a good thing.  As the fibre is removed so your body is able to absorb the raw fruit and vegetables juices more quickly and easily and less energy is needed to help digest them.

Juicers provide us with much of the goodness to be found in fruit and vegetables when extract the juice.  As much of the fibre is removed this means the quantity of goodness we get from the fruit and vegetables are far greater than if we were to eat them in their raw state.  If you were to put 1lb of carrots, half a head of celery and an apple through a juicer in a matter of minutes you would have most of the goodness your body needs in an easily digestible drink, which is not only full of minerals and vitamins but tastes delicious.  Whereas chewing and digesting the same ingredients would be a very arduous task.

With a juicer you are providing with a way to help improve your western diet by providing you with easy access to large amounts of living nutrients that cooking takes away from the food we eat.  You must ensure that you still consume an adequate amount of fibre in your diet, stripping this out with a juicer allows you access too many different nutrient rich drinks which can improve your health.

With a blender the fibre is left in and makes a thicker drink which we call a smoothie.  In recent years this is what most blenders in kitchens are used for and some manufacturers of blenders now market theirs as “smoothie makers”, which adds to our confusion.  Simply put there is no difference between a blender and a smoothie maker; they are in fact the same machine.

You need to be aware that these blended health drinks take much longer to digest than fresh juices do and offer different advantages.  These are more fruit based and the typical kind of health smoothie you would make at home would have apple, melon, and orange or pear juice from your juicer as the liquid base.  Then added to these would be frozen fruits such as bananas or berries which add texture and flavour.  These kinds of mixtures are easy to process in a good blender and smoothies go well with other healthy ingredients such as natural yoghurt, wheat germ and oatmeal.

Many raw food enthusiasts will purchase commercial grade blenders as these can blend fibrous raw vegetables in to raw soups along with make smoothies and other types of nutritional foods.  Fresh juices from a juicer can be satisfying but a smoothie made in a blender is more like having a meal in a glass.  This machine offers you the facility to blend different ingredients and super foods.  The smoothies and juices you drink can be customised to provide specific nutritional goals say for cleansing the body, providing energy, to help it repair and heal, to build up blood and much more.

So What Are You Waiting For?

By getting a juicer and blender which are built to be used on a daily basis will help to ensure that you are getting the health benefits in your own home from smoothies and fresh juice.  Remember fresh is best.  Yes you could walk into a juice bar each day to get what you want, but you will find it much more fun making your own juices and smoothies at home.

With the economic situation at the moment you can squeeze quite a lot of juice without it affecting your finances when you make them yourself.  Along with the possibility of losing weight you are going to be spending far less because you are going to be having more natural ingredients in your diet instead of relying on the convenience of processed foods that cost more.  In all likelihood you will begin to benefit in other ways as well, you will have more energy and vitality, you will get far less colds and sniffles in the winter, plus you won’t become so tired and your immune system will have been boosted.

If you haven’t started already then the sooner you get juicing or making your own smoothies the sooner you will start to reap the benefits that these healthy drinks have to offer.  Remember that no juicer and blender is the same so you should invest money in the tried and tested models which will make juicing and blending more enjoyable.

If you need a blender that will be required to regularly blend frozen fruit then make sure it is powerful.  In fact you should consider getting a masticating juicer as these will extract more goodness compared to the common centrifugal kinds of juicers which are readily available on the high street.

Today UK Juicers Limited offer a delivery service across Europe on a wide selection of juicers and blenders that are proven to work.  Plus they offer a bespoke email and phone advice service to help you decide which would be the right juicer or blender for you.

- UKJuicers

Is liquidised fruit, like is a smoothie, just as good?

They say you should eat at least 3 pieces of fruit a day, i was wondering if the fruit is put into a juice, smoothie or what ever, does it still have the same nutritional value as eating it solid? My mother always use to say that eating fruit also softens up other digested food so it easier for the body to get rid of waste. Does it still do this if its liquidised?

Many thanks =)
Who adds sugar to a smoothie..? :)
- Earth Mama

Supercharge your health with Absorbable Nutrition

Absorbable nutrition simply means eating good food that’s good for you – all the time.  Food that, from the moment you put it in your mouth, really works for you. It is immediately being transformed into vitamins, minerals, enzymes, and fibre that your body needs and can use. There are so many rules and laws about how to eat, when to eat, why to eat, what mix to eat, etc etc etc. that we spend our days in total confusion. Then when we add to that the various ‘thoughts’ on how food should be taken to be of most benefit to you and your body, we get even more confused.  Much of this is because there is such a wide gulf between what we were taught to eat in what I will call ‘Old theory’ and what we now know to be good for us in what I will call ‘Nosh Theory’.

OLD THEORY

This is based on various ideas that have now become accepted wisdom such as ‘Cow’s milk is needed in a healthy diet because it provides calcium’, or ‘Meat is the best source of protein’ or ‘bread provides energy and protein’.

And this is despite scientific evidence producing result after result showing that after the age of about 5, over 70%   of people cannot break down the lactose in milk because their bodies no longer have the enzyme lactase.  So for them, milk does not provide as much nutritional value as believed.

Then you have people living on raw food diets and using colonics and other tools to show conclusively that meat and flesh products literally rot in the intestine – so how can they be good for you?

Imagine being told categorically that there is no evidence that organic food has more nutritional value than non-organic?  That doesn’t even sound right.

Now I am not advocating turning into an orange robe wearing, OM chanting raw food vegan – although that may well be good for you.

I am suggesting a few, relatively painless changes to your daily routine which just require a little thinking about to initiate, but then pay huge dividends very, very quickly.

 NOSH THEORY

Essentially I believe that the food should be organic, freshly bought, seasonal, lightly cooked, and frequently raw.  I also believe that fresh herbs and spices are good for you and that chemicals and preservatives are not.  I believe that some frozen foods, packaged at source are nutritionally better for you than fresh food that has been flown a million miles to get to you in a semi-preserved state – and that goes for locally sourced food too.  Food that has been grown in a smallholding locally to you is better for you than food that has travelled long distances. 

Find out as much as you can where your food comes from and it pays immediate dividends in your health. Food that is freshly made, is always better for you than food that has been sitting around for days bathed in preservatives to keep it ‘fresh’.

All our food is gluten and dairy free, and as much of it is in its natural raw state as is possible to be, whilst producing a good, delicious traditional meal plan. 

We do look at portion sizes but we never, ever look at calories.  What is the point when you can eat a Mars bar, and it could be your entire calorie intake for the day?  It doesn’t make it any better for you if all the calories you eat in a day are made up of ‘bad’ food.  However, if you eat good, natural, green, pure foods, you literally will find it quite hard to overeat.  Your body just gets full faster, as it naturally needs less of it.

And you never need to look at a calorie again.

THE JUICE FAST

At Nosh, many of our clients come to us in a physical state induced by eating according to ‘old theory’ described above. They are tired, sluggish, and often physically overweight. In order to move them forward from there to the newer and higher level of health that they desire, we need to do a number of things. One of the most important of these is to remove the waste that has built up in their body as a consequence of prior eating habits. The Nosh Juice fast was developed as a way of doing that.

Take 4 500ml bottles of Nosh Juice every day for 5 days (that’s 2 litres of juice per day), as a substitute for your normal meals, and watch the transformation of your body occur before your eyes.

THE CONTENTS

The ingredients in the smoothies are rich in minerals, vitamins, antioxidants and chlorophyll and help redress the deficiencies inherent in modern cultivated food due to soil erosion and lack of freshness. Superfoods also help compensate for our bodies’ current lack of efficiency at absorbing nutrients form food. Green Superfoods are very alkalising which is important because a healthy body is in an alkaline state.

RECOMMENDED ADDITIVES

Nosh smoothies contain juice, only juice and nothing but the juice. No chemicals and no preservatives. They are not heat treated and they contain no additives.   While, Nosh juices are fabulous alone, we recommend a few additional supplements be added to your smoothies to really skyrocket your results.

Each of the recommended vitamins and minerals are specially selected and work in synergy with the juices to rehydrate, eliminate, heal and rejuvenate the body.

For re-hydration we suggest Pure Synergy Green Superfood Powder as it is simply the best green superfood on the market. Pure Synergy contains 62 of the world’s finest and most potent Superfoods available. For you, this means an ample dose of all those nutrients your body has been craving.

Flax seed, packed with remarkable health benefits, is the ideal dietary supplement to aid in the elimination cycle of your detox. Flax seed oil – the richest plant resource for Omega 3 – sweeps the artery walls ridding them of an undue formation of HDL (bad cholesterol), thus preventing the onset of hypertension, heart disease, and strokes.

Aloe Vera, known for its soothing and healing effects, is also one of the only known natural vegetarian sources of Vitamin B12. It contains many minerals vital to the growth process and healthy function and is a general tonic for the immune system, helping it to fight illness of all kinds.

Acai, loaded with antioxidants, amino acids, essential omegas, fibres and proteins, this little berry works wonders on the body. A few health benefits associated with Acai are increased energy, lower cholesterol, improved immune system and strengthening.

Enjoy the difference this will make in your body.

© 2009 Geeta Sidhu-Robb

 

- S K Sidhu-Robb

Natural Smoothie Formula To Stop Constipation And Acne

Here is how to build a natural smoothie that can stop constipation, relieve acne, improve your skin and give you more energy. The smoothie base is a liquid slurry that can be used to add more natural ingredients.

The liquid base can be made from various fresh juices or rice, oat, or almond milks. I stay away from milk since milk creates mucus along the gastrointestinal lining. Choose and mix any of the following liquids and pour them into a blender.

Juices – apple, pineapple, orange, tangerine

Milks – rice dream, oat milk, almond milk

I use a combination of 40% rice dream, 40% almond milk, and 20% apple juice. You can use the combinations you like. Sometimes I might just use all rice dream. Other times I will mix 75% almond milk with 25% fresh apple juice.

All of these juices provide liquid to your colon to help your stop constipation.

Sesame Milk

You can also make sesame milk and use this in your smoothies.

In his book, Blending Magic, Bernard Jensen, Nutritionist, has a real nice recipe for sesame milk.

“I believe that sesame seed is one of our best. It is a wonderful drink for gaining weight and for lubricating the intestinal tract. Its nutritional value is beyond compare, as it is high in protein and minerals. This is the seed that is used so much as a basic food in Arabia and East India.

Blend for 1- 1 1/2 minutes to make smooth,

·2 cups of distilled water

·1/4 cup of Sesame Seed

·2 Tablespoons Soy Milk Powder”

In place of 2 cups of distilled water use 1 cup of water and 1 cup of low fat rice dream and leave out the 2 tablespoons of soy milk powder. This will make this drink less fattening. I prefer not to give children soymilk or soy products because of their estrogen mimicking characteristics.

Banana Base

Next I always put in a banana. This gives the liquid a bit more thickness. Also bananas are high in potassium and other minerals. They contain little fiber and yet do not create constipation when used with other fiber fruits. Use bananas that are not spotted since at this point they are quite ripe and are more fattening.

Read More Health Acne Article

- rashidasaleem

Do I get the same nutritional value from a fruit smoothie compared to just eating the fruit?

I like to make a fruit smoothie every morning
half a cup of OJ
apple
banana
strawberries
pear

Or should I just eat the fruit instead of putting it in the blender?
- jessiejag2003

1. Eat At Least ONE Green Salad Each Day

North Americans are only consuming on average 2-3 servings of fruits and vegetables per day! When you consider that the recommendation is for 5-10 servings per day and that most of our produce is nowhere near as mineral-rich as it was just 50 years ago, consuming greater amounts of vegetables and fruit has never been as necessary as now for nourishing your body with vital nutrients, alkalinity, and the life-prolonging food enzymes that it needs.

2. Drink At Least ONE Fresh-Pressed Juice or Green Smoothie Each Day

We live in busy lives. No one has time for anything anymore – not even healthy eating. Therefore, one of the greatest ways of supplying tremendous amounts of vitamins, minerals, food enzymes, and alkalinity to your body is through juices and smoothies. And remember, the greener the better!

It might be tough for some people to physically eat 5-10 fruits or vegetables during a day but with just 1 juice or smoothie you can easily meet that quota!

3. Eat 80% Whole Living Foods (raw)

Ever wonder why animals in their natural habitats do not suffer from the diseases that plague mankind? Isn’t also interesting that humans are the only species on earth that apparently “needs” to cook their food! There is no greater gift you can give your body then eating foods in their natural state – that is living or raw.

Cooking foods dramatically reduces their vitamin, mineral, and phytonutrient content and destroys their vital food enzymes that are so beneficial to our health. Simply incorporating more raw fruits and vegetables into your diet can make a profound difference in how you look and feel…and in no time at all!

4. Eat Every 2-3 Hours (but only if you’re hungry)

It’s a fact – most people eat too much food! It’s no wonder that more than 60% of the North American population is overweight. One of the reasons for this is eating copious amounts of “empty foods”. These are foods that have no nutritional value. Eating empty foods only prompts you to eat more food since your body is not receiving the nutrients it requires.

By eating smaller “nutrient-dense” foods more frequently throughout the day you will avoid cravings caused by blood sugar irregularities and you will also tend to eat less since your body will now be receiving all the nutrients it needs.

5. Eat Meat No More Than 2 Times Per Week

Let’s face it – meat is detrimental to your body. You can turn a blind eye if you want but the truth is that meat is acid-forming and causes inflammation in the body. Both of these conditions are common to every single disease known to mankind!

Oh, and don’t forget about the hormones, antibiotics, and inhumane conditions in which animals (for human consumption) are raised or the higher levels of cholesterol and saturated fats found in heavier meats.

Meat (especially red meat) also deprives your body of energy because it requires a tremendous amount of digestive energy and water to be broken down and assimilated into your body.

- Yuri Elkaim

What are you favorite ingredients for your homemade fruit smoothies?

For those who like to make healthy fruit smoothies at home, what are some of your favorite ingredients to use?

Do you ever like to throw in any extra stuff (e.g. wheat germ) for extra nutritional value?
- Krezip