Drink your Medicine
(Page 3 of 4)
May/June 2001
By Pat Crocker and Susan Eagles
Chlorophyll. Found only in plants, chlorophyll has a unique structure that allows it to enhance the body’s ability to produce hemoglobin, which enhances the delivery of oxygen to your cells.
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Juicing as Part of a Healthy Diet
Juicing plays a major role in ensuring a healthy diet by making it easier to consume the recommended eight daily servings of fruits and vegetables. One large glass of pure, raw, fresh juice per day will help improve the immune system, increase energy, strengthen bones, clear skin and lower the risk of disease. For maximum benefit, consume a wide variety of juices from different types of organic herbs, fruits and vegetables.
Be sure to incorporate juices into a well-balanced, high-fiber, whole-food diet. Extracted juices should not completely replace whole fruits and vegetables because their fiber is important for eliminating toxins and preventing cancer.
A healthy diet includes protein, carbohydrates, fat, vitamins, minerals, enzymes, phytochemicals, fiber, and water in proportions that promote growth and maintain vibrant, salubrious cells. Eat food in its natural and whole state where possible, avoiding packaged, refined, preserved, colored, pickled, salted, sweetened, and artificially flavored foods.
Foods for your juicer
Buy fresh. When choosing fruits and vegetables, make sure they are firm and ripe. Herbs should show no signs of wilting, yellowing, or rust. Buy only what you plan to use in the next day or two; longer storage will destroy live enzymes in plants. Ideally, you should shop daily for fresh fruits, vegetables, and herbs you need to make the recipes featured here. If this is impractical, store them in the refrigerator for no more than two days. As a rule of thumb, 1 pound of produce yields roughly 1 to 11/2 cups of fresh juice.
Buy organic. Organic agriculture is a holistic method of farming based on ecological principles with the primary goal of creating a sustainable agricultural system. The U.S. Department of Agriculture National Organic Program defines this goal as “optimizing the health and productivity of interdependent communities of soil life, plants, animals, and people. Management practices are carefully selected with an intent to restore and then maintain ecological harmony on the farm, its surrounding environment, and ultimately the whole planetary ecosystem.”