Fresh fruits and vegetables are the healthiest foods around, and one great way to unlock their nutritional bounty is through juicing. Converting vegetables and fruits into liquid form preserves all of their great benefits and makes them more palatable and easier to consume. Here are just a few of the ways that juicing can contribute to a healthier diet:
If you are starting out with juicing, do not drink too much too fast. Drinking too much can put too much stress on your body and can cause nausea or vomiting. Instead, drink small portions, and as your body gets used to it, increase your dosage a little each time.
Consider using a food saver to remove all the excess air from your juice before storing it. This will allow your juice to keep its maximum nutritional content. It also allows for a longer shelf life, reducing spoilage and waste. If a food saver is not available, you can also use air tight jars.
If you are going to be juicing do some research first. Certain combinations of fruits and vegetables when mixed together in a juice are phenomenal, which can be seen with the V8 companies’ success. On the other hand, certain combinations are so bad they will make you gag, so make sure to read up on what you are mixing.
Buying fruit and vegetables for your juicing can be easy by using all five senses to find the freshest produce to bring home. Sniff the item and make sure it smells good, like you would want to eat it. Squeeze it and feel if it’s too hard or too soft. Look it over for imperfections, and then take it home and taste a bit. Enjoy!
If you’d like to put low-water fruits like avocado or bananas in your juice, put them in a blender first. It’s difficult for your juicer to process these types of produce and it can actually damage the expensive juicer or burn out the motor. Blenders are built to deal with thicker items, so give them a whirl and then pour them into your juicer.
Stick with fruits that have higher water contents. Fruits that have low-water content are much harder to juice; they clog up your juicer and require many more pieces of fruit to make even a small serving of juice. If you insist on using fruits such as avocados or bananas, make sure to blend them first in a blender, and then add them to your juicer with other fruits with a higher water content.
When making juices, you should always go organic. Organic fruits and vegetables are usually tastier and healthier. According to studies, organic foods have higher amounts of nutritional value. You also don’t want to put pesticides in your drink, which are used to treat conventional produce. So if you want to make healthier juices, stick to organic produce.
Juicing is a great nutritional process that can be just as simple or as complex as a juicer wants to make it. Quick, cheap techniques can offer dramatic health benefits, and a greater investment of time and money can provide even bigger results. Hopefully, the tips presented above can be of use in starting or improving a great juicing routine.
