What are the benefits of juicing?
In this article, we will discuss the top benefits of juicing so that you can live a healthier lifestyle.
Quick and Easy
First, a brief word about juice machines. You probably have one stored somewhere. You may even have tried juicing and abandoned it because preparation and cleanup was a pain! Now everything’s changed! New juice machines are quiet, durable, and make cleanup quick and easy. Best of all, these new machines known as “slow” juicers give you a more nutritious juice at an affordable price.
Get All Your Daily Requirements of Fruits & Vegetables
This is the major reason I started juicing! Our busy lives leave us little time to prepare fresh meals and eat all of the 7 to 9 servings daily of fruits and vegetables recommended by nutritional science. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) the lack of fresh fruits and vegetables is a major reason for the alarming deterioration of our overall health.
A glass of fresh juice is more than a pound of produce which is more than a couple of large salads. Just a glass of fresh juice each day will deliver all your minimum daily requirements. To put it simply, juicing is a quick and easy way to get all the nutrients you need to increase your energy and improve your health. And there’s no better time to start juicing because it’s more important than ever before with over-farming, food processing, and chemical additives that render our food less nutritious.
Nutrients Found Nowhere Else
We try to make up for a poor diet with multivitamins and other supplements, and vitamin infused water and other drinks. Stop wasting all that money! You can get all your vitamins and minerals and much more in a glass of fresh juice!
Many nutrients in fresh fruits and vegetables are simply not found anywhere else! Not in any commercial drink, even the best organic brands. Not even in the best home-cooked meal. This is because all commercial juice is pasteurized, and the heat in this process just like the heat applied to any cooked food, kills many vitally important nutrients.
What we get from fresh juiced fruits and vegetables that we can’t get anywhere else are enzymes, phytochemicals, and nutritional synergy! Let’s take a closer look at these.
- What Are Enzymes? Any food that’s cooked, dried, or stored destroys most enzymes! Enzymes are so important that their lack may be why chronic diseases are on an alarming rise! There are thousands of enzymes and they all have a hand in every bodily function such as digestion, vision, sight, smell, hearing, breathing, and even thinking.
- What Are Phytochemicals? These nutrients have healing properties. There are hundreds in every plant and we are just beginning to discover what each one does. Sure, you can go out and buy a pill form of several known phytochemicals, such as plant sterols which reduce cholesterol and prostate problems, or flavonoids which fight heart disease and slow tumors, but what about the hundreds more we haven’t identified yet? You only get those by eating fresh fruits and vegetables.
- What Is Synergy? This is when 2 or more nutrients come together and do something completely different, something unexpectedly and surprisingly MORE than what they do by themselves! This idea calls into question whether a pill or powder form of anything is ever as good as the fresh form. For instance, vitamins E and C when taken separately perform certain tasks. Put them together and they perform at an even greater capacity. The same is true for beta-carotene when ingested with zinc. I just read a study that found apples when eaten with kiwi significantly helps reduce insomnia.
Diseases Prevention & Treatment
And talk about healing powers? A growing body of research now shows that drinking fresh juice can prevent and even treat many of our chronic diseases such as diabetes, heart disease, asthma, arthritis, and even cancer. Research conducted by Dr. Garnet Cheny of Stanford University’s School of Medicine found that cabbage juice helps treat peptic ulcers. Research conducted by L.W. Blau and published in the Texas Report on Biology and Medicine shows that cherry juice effectively treats gout.
Other studies show that three glasses of grape juice daily are just as effective as aspirin in preventing heart attacks, and cranberry juice prevents urinary tract infections and kidney stones. We’ve even discovered nutrients in fruits and vegetables that delay the effects of aging by fighting high blood pressure, memory decline, cataracts, wrinkled skin, and many cancers.
Recent studies also show that fresh vegetables and fruits are particularly healthful for diabetics, stabilizing blood sugar levels in ways that cooked meals cannot. Prior to these findings, doctors discouraged fresh fruits and veggies for diabetics, worried about sugar of any kind, even natural forms.
We can start letting all these healing enzymes and phytochemicals do their magic by just drinking fresh fruits and vegetables that we make right at home.
Better for Children
Perhaps the best reason of all to juice is to provide our children with a healthy alternative to sugary drinks. Most store-bought juices are loaded with added sugar. And if your produce is organic you’re reducing your child’s intake of pesticides. Fresh juiced fruits and vegetables gives your child the most nutritious food.
In Summary
For further reading about new research on the benefits of fruits and vegetables I highly recommend this article by The Harvard School of Public Health.