A Beginner's Guide to Juicing

A Beginner's Guide to Juicing

When you think of juice, commercially made juice that comes in a bottle might come to mind. Many of these juices are pasteurized and contain sugar, artificial colors, and artificial flavors. Homemade juice has a variety of benefits that can improve overall health in both the short term and the long term. Making your own juice is surprisingly easy, and there are virtually limitless options for flavor combinations. After learning the basics, you'll be ready to add juicing to your daily routine.

What Is Juicing?

Juicing is the process of extracting liquids from raw fruits and vegetables. After extraction, you have juice that is full of phytonutrients, antioxidants, anti-inflammatory compounds, minerals, and vitamins. You can juice manually with very inexpensive tools. You might also choose to invest in a high-tech juicer that will make short work of your fresh fruits and vegetables.

Benefits to Juicing

Juicing has many benefits. When you juice fresh fruits and vegetables, you have access to fresh, raw juice that contains high amounts of nutrients that the body needs daily. The juice created by juicing contains nutrients that the body absorbs more easily, which means that every cell and organ in the body can benefit from the juice. Many people experience more energy, less stress, better sleep, more mental focus, weight loss, better digestion, an improved immune system, better skin tone, stronger hair and nails, and less joint pain with juicing.

How Does Juicing Work?

Juicing breaks open the cell walls of fruits and vegetables, which releases the nutrients more quickly so they're more easily absorbed. This makes it easier for the body to digest the nutrients. Faster and easier digestion means that the nutrients are available for the body to use more quickly.

Juicing for Weight Loss

People who incorporate fresh juices into their daily diet will often experience weight loss. Fresh vegetables and fruits are naturally low in calories and high in nutrients. This combination helps detoxify the body, which makes it easier for the body to release the fat cells that stored the toxins. Juicing also enables people to increase their nutritional intake while simultaneously consuming fewer calories.

Juice Cleanses

The body naturally detoxes each day. However, those who ingest a significant amount of toxins on a regular basis may take in more toxins than the body can eliminate. This leads to an overabundance of toxins in the system. Over time, the body may also become sluggish with its detox mechanism, which can lead to further chemical imbalances. Juicing helps speed up the elimination process to balance the body. A juice cleanse can help with detoxification and cellular repair.

Symptoms of Detox

It's normal to feel unwell during a juice cleanse, but symptoms typically last for only a day or two. Everyone's body will detox differently, and some people may have more uncomfortable symptoms than others. It's possible that you will break out in a rash or have an acne flare-up when you're detoxing with a juice cleanse. You may also experience nausea, have headaches, or notice unusual body odor.

What About Fruit Juice?

Sweet vegetables and fruits break down into glucose and other simple sugars when digested. When you eat whole fruits and vegetables, this process isn't usually problematic. However, when you consume only the fruit juice without the fiber, the fiber won't slow down the digestion, so insulin levels can spike. People who are overweight or have diabetes, high blood pressure, or high cholesterol need to be careful when consuming fruit juice. Try to focus mainly on juices made from green and leafy vegetables.

How to Store Your Juice

Making juice and drinking it immediately gives you the most nutrition. However, it's possible to make juice ahead of time as long as you store it correctly. Pour juice into a glass jar and fill it to the top. Seal the jar with an airtight lid. Keep the juice in the refrigerator.

How to Make the Perfect Juice

  1. Start With Your Base: Choose vegetables with a high water content that are easy to digest, such as cucumber, celery, bok choy, and romaine lettuce.
  2. Add in Some Greens: Increase the nutritional content by adding kale, spinach, collard greens, Swiss chard, and herbs.
  3. More Veggies, Please: Add naturally sweet vegetables such as bell peppers, beets, butternut squash, carrots, and sweet potato.
  4. Natural Sweetener: Sweeten the juice naturally with a small amount of ingredients such as Fuji apple, grapefruit, green apple, lemon, orange, pineapple, and watermelon.
  5. Detoxifying Extras: Throw in aloe vera, garlic, ginger, turmeric, or sprouts to make a detoxifying juice.

Juicing Recipes