Juicing -- The Key to the "Fountain of Youth"

Those who desire to look younger than their chronological age should eat 75 percent raw foods and they will be well on their way. Unfortunately, Americans, in general, do not eat the required five to nine servings of fruits and vegetables necessary to protect health and slow the aging process.

For every four servings of vegetables there should be one serving of fruit. Eating raw is another area where we are lacking. It only makes sense that living foods are essential for a vibrant life.

For those who desire the benefits of more raw and living foods but cannot see themselves eating this quantity, juicing is a healthy alternative. For busy people, just a little preparation will make this easy and time efficient.

Another reason to consider juicing; Juices are the best form of supplements available. Not only do they contain whole food vitamins and minerals, they also contain enzymes and oxygen. Many of you are still taking synthetic multivitamins that serve little or no benefit to the body.

As far as healing goes, juicing goes back to the nineteenth century where juicing was done with chopped fruits or veggies squeezed through muslin. If there were no benefit, I doubt this tedious process would have continued. For those healing from surgery or serious illness with out much of an appetite, there is no better way to nourish the body.

There are many accounts of terminally ill people recovering when they switched exclusively to juicing. Too many individuals focus on calories and load up with sugary products which is a sad attempt to prevent weight loss but does very little to nourish and heal the body.

Don’t confuse juice with juicing. Commercial juices are loaded with sugar and chemicals to enhance the flavor and color of a very diluted juice that rarely has nutritional value. Juice from freshly juiced vegetables provides the body with extremely bioavailable nutrients that your body recognizes and knows what to do with.

There are a variety of good juicers out there and my personal preference is the Omega juicer. I recommend borrowing a juicer from a friend or consider renting one to see if juicing is for you. If someone in your household is chronically ill, I highly recommend purchasing one and using it at least twice daily.

Whenever you can, it is best to use organic produce. If organic produce is not available, wash with a biodegradable soap and scrub well. Avoid moldy and bruised produce. Apple seeds contain trace amounts of cyanide and should be avoided along with peach and plum pits. Lemon, lime, melon and grape seeds can be safely juiced and you can safely juice the stems and leaves of most plants except for carrot and rhubarb greens. Certain fruits such as avocados and bananas do not juice well and you are better off with a blender in this case.

Most juicing recipes, and there are thousands, yield a six to eight ounce serving. Carrot, celery and apple combinations are most popular but a great cleansing cocktail may contain 1/4-inch slice of ginger, 1 small beet, 1/2 apple, and 4 carrots. That is a ton of nutrition loaded into a 6-8-ounce glass of juice.

Benefits of juicing are numerous and it requires very little digestion. This is very important especially for those with digestive difficulty or serious illness. Juicing requires more fruits and vegetables than most people could actually eat in a day and is very useful in liver detoxification. The liver has over one hundred important functions. One of its main functions is to clean the blood by removing toxins and metabolic waste.

Juicing also helps your body become more alkaline, a very important benefit. Those who juice with greens will help build healthier red blood cells an if suffering from anemia, you may want to consider juicing with wheat grass, kale, parsley, spinach and beet greens.

We spend so much money trying to stay healthy and combat the aging process. Most fail to see that the majority of prevention can be done right in our own kitchen. Foods really do heal and the concentrated juicing potion may be the closest thing we have to the fountain of youth.

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