A healthy lifestyle begins with healthy habits.  One of the best choices you can make for your family is to bring the habit of juicing into the home.  All members of the family can benefit from the nourishment of raw fruits and vegetables and with the help of a juicer machine everyone can enjoy their favorite juices as a healthy snack or meal.

Raw foods retain all the nutrients and vitamins that are damaged in the conventional cooking process.  The vast majority of people cook every meal that they eat, whether by stove top, oven, grill, or microwave.  This results in an intake of nutrients that is far less than adequate for the body to be healthy.  Other than eating the occasional salad or raw carrots, most people do not know how to get more fresh vegetables into their diet.  Juicing provides a way to create a variety of raw meals as a healthful addition to the traditional diet. The process of juicing removes the water and nutrients from the fiber of fresh grown foods.  Both the juice and the pulp (fiber) can be used in a variety of ways such as soups, smoothies, and more.

While juicing helps maintain a healthy lifestyle, some people opt for a more intense experience with their juicer machine.  Juicing all meals for a period of one to five days is a cleansing method that allows the body to heal and detoxify itself.  The potential benefits of a juice cleanse include improved digestion, more energy and mental clarity, and relief from many chronic conditions.

By adding juicing to your dietary choices you’ll be taking a step toward a healthier and enjoyable way of living.  Juicing can be a great introduction to the concept of a raw food diet or simply a fun way to offer healthy snacks to your family.  For more information and some creative recipes for juicing, try The Juicing Bible.

Related posts:

1. Juice Detox
2. The Benefits of Juicing Fruits and Veggies
3. 3 Ways Juicing Opens Doors to Fitness

Fruit has many benefits for a juice cleanse. Lemons are alkalizing. Grapes purify the blood. Oranges contain loads of vitamin C. Apples may strengthen your bones and lower your cholesterol.

So why do some experts tell you to stay away from fruits when juice cleansing? These fruits, while beneficial, also contains a lot of sugar. Natural, yes, but sugar nonetheless. I have found that when I’m juicing, if I consume too many fruits, it makes me rather shaky. This is because fruits actually speed up the detoxifying process. Detoxifying too quickly can cause many side effects.

If you want to add fruits into your juice detox plan, I suggest limiting them to your morning juice, or adding only one type of fruit to a vegetable juice blend. Prepare for your cleanse by eliminating processed foods and caffeine at least one week prior. This may help reduce side effects.

Should people with diabetes avoid eating fruits? Here is Dr. Andrew Weil’s viewpoint.

Detox Your Body with a Simple Juice Cleanse

Drinking fresh juice that has been separated from the plant fibers is one simple way to detoxify your body. This makes the nutrients easier to absorb by your body and allows your digestive tract to rest. Why does the digestive tract need to rest? Think back to the last week or month. How many times have you fed our body fast food, ice cream, chips, or heavy meals?  When you overload your system with these types of meals, some of the food that the body can’t digest gets stored away and eventually becomes toxic.  Just as you need a break from your work week, so does your colon need a break from its heavy work load!

Your body can detoxify itself if you give it a rest.

A juice detox can be as simple as replacing one meal a day with healthy fruit and vegetable juice. Or you may want to detoxify by drinking only juice for one day each week.  Personally, I like to replace my morning meal with juice because that’s the time of day when I’m most positive and am in the right frame of mind to think healthy thoughts!

Tip: Don’t make it too complicated.  Use fresh vegetables and fruits that you have already in your refrigerator.  You can start with a fruit like apples, add some carrots or cucumbers, then add some celery, spinach or other leafy greens.

Lemons, those bright, cheery and sour fruits are one of your best bets for cleansing the body.  You may expect that they contain lots of vitamin C, and they do.  Lemons also contain vitamin B6, calcium, potassium, pantothenic acid, magnesium, copper, and dietary fiber.  They’re also low on the Glycemic Index which means  that they don’t cause large fluctuations in blood sugar levels after eating them.  Lemons help to alkalize the body which creates an unfavorable environment  for viruses and bacteria.

It’s really simple to get fresh lemons into your daily diet.  It’s not necessary to do the master cleanse (diluted lemon juice with cayenne pepper) and starve yourself for days.  A simple routine of drinking lemon juice in the morning can give you a healthy start to the day.

Simple Lemon Juice Cleanse

Juice of one lemon
8 oz filtered water
8 drops stevia

Try this juice first thing in the morning before consuming other foods or drinks.  Wait at least 30 minutes after drinking this juice before eating a healthy breakfast.  That’s it!

photo credit: alasam