Juicing. You know the drill. All you do is squeeze or pound or basically pulverize the life out of your fresh fruits and guzzle them down instead of eating them one by one. Wondering why you should bother making your own juice? Especially when it would be a whole lot easier to just load your grocery cart with cartons, bottles and cans that boast impressive vitamins and minerals right there on their labels? Nothing wrong with being a diva, we always say.
Well, as far as we can tell, this juicing fad just keeps on growing, so we’re thinking it must be good a good idea. So why Get Juicing? There are lots of reasons, says naturopathic doctor Michael T. Murray, who wrote The Complete Book of Juicing: Your Delicious Guide to Youthful Vitality. The bottom line claim: Sipping homemade juice is well worth the trouble—because it’s not only the yummiest way to go, but also the healthiest.HERE ARE 5 REASONS TO GET JUICING
Juicing is Fresh
To derive the greatest benefit from our foods, we should consume them in their freshest forms. Why go canned when you can have the real thing?
Juicing is an Energy Booster
The body converts the foods we eat into juice so it can be absorbed. So juicing it before you consume it may save the body energy, or so the thinking goes.
Juicing is Packed With Nutrients
Fresh fruit juice has more nutrition than store-bought. It’s full of vitamins, minerals, and other nutritional compounds, such as enzymes and flavonoids and most of all, it hasn’t been cooked free of its nutrients in order to keep it on the grocery shelf.
Juicing Helps Digestion
Some claim that juice is easier to digest than whole fruit so the thinking is that absorption of nutrients may happen faster.
Juicing Makes You Feel Awesome
Diets containing a high percentage of uncooked foods are associated with lower blood pressure. Fresh juice (especially raspberry and blackberry) has more ellagic acid, a potent anticancer and antioxidant compound that is stripped from juice when it’s processed.
QUICKIE JUICING RECIPE IN 3 STEPS
For a delicious, nutritious fruit juice, just do this:
1. First, get your juicer out. It’s spring, after all.
2. Now drop all this into your juicer:
- two whole apples, sliced in quarters
- 1/2 cup raspberries
- 1/2 cup blackberries
3. Down it for a blast of energy and nutrients.
Michael T. Murray is a naturopathic physician regarded as one of the world’s top authorities on natural medicine. An educator, lecturer, researcher, and health food industry consultant, he is the author of more than 30 books.
