Can you really get heart healthy by juicing? Those who know say that a plant based diet can prevent even reverse heart disease. Juicing is a nutritionally sound practice that helps to detoxify the body with a plant based diet. It also gives your own immunity a kick start. Juicing can be a wonderful way to fight off illnesses, even reverse any current illness including cancer and heart disease.
When wanting to get heart healthy by juicing many people do not know where to start. They need some help. This article will provide some juicing tips that can point you in the right direction.
How Does Juicing Improve Heart Health?
Juicing is a great way to remain healthy and have fun creating your own concoctions. Using fresh fruits and vegetables to create your own juice can ensure that you are getting the live, active vitamins and nutrients you need that are lacking in commercial offerings. Commercial juice offerings lack live enzymes, vitamins and phytonutrients because they are killed by the pasturization process. Fresh, organic juice solves the nutrition problem. Creating your own organic juice also eliminates the added sugar, preservatives and pesticides found in commercial offerings. All good reasons to start making your own healthy juice however …
When it comes to heart health juicing offers more benefits. As I have stated above making your own fresh, organic juice is 100 times better than drinking some dead store-bought brand. Fresh organic juice has LIVE enzymes, vitamins, minerals and phytonutrients called polyphenol flavonoids and …
Natural live heart healthy vitamins like vitamin K (regulates blood clotting) which in conjunction with vitamin D3 (cod-fish is an excellent source) can actually prevent coronary artery disease. Then there is natural vitamin E that helps to widen blood vessels, keep blood from clotting within them and destroy free radicals that oxidize cholesterol. In addition, cells use vitamin E to interact with each other and to carry out many important functions. Then there are the phytonutrients which can do things like help lower blood pressure and homocysteine levels and keep LDL cholesterol from oxidizing. Vitamins K, E and D are fat soluble meaning you need to eat some fat with that veggie juice to absorb and utilize those fat soluble vitamins effectively. Cold water fish (cod, salmon, sardines, mackerel, tuna) with veggie juice is excellent.
Get Heart Healthy By Juicing Tips
Always try to make your juice just before you drink it, for maximum health benefits. If you must store it, use an opaque, airtight container with no air inside. Add a tablespoon of lemon juice. This small amount of lemon juice shouldn’t have a major effect on the flavor, but it will keep the juice from becoming discolored, creating a more appetizing effect.
If you want your juice to be a certain texture or thickness, softer fruits make thicker juice. The meat of softer fruits breaks up easily making a thicker juice. Add some harder fruits, such as apples and pears, for a thinner juice.
Juicing can be expensive. If you’re making a few wheat shots a day as well as larger amounts of fruit and vegetable juices, expect your grocery bill to pile up. One way to reduce costs is to use a lot of carrots, which are very inexpensive compared to the amount of juice they produce.
Juicing is just part of a healthy lifestyle. You should practice excellent health choices that compliment juicing such as a complete review of your daily food intake (dump the junk), an exercise routine (work up a sweat) and some real relaxation (mind and body).
When making healthy juice from vegetables I tend to go overboard with variety. You may want to stick with using 2-3 vegetables in your juice blends and incorporate apple into the mix. You will minimize the amount of flavors you are trying to combine and the apple will add the right amount of sweetness to the mix for extra enjoyment. It’s all good, just a matter of what you like and the results you are trying to achieve. For example …
If you are trying to lower your blood pressure tomato, kale or spinach, celery, carrot and garlic should do the trick if your blood pressure is high due to a lack of minerals and this happens more often than you’d think. You may be one who needs the big three heart minerals (potassium, magnesium and calcium). Many people find that by infusing their system two or three times per day with those minerals, especially potassium, their blood pressure drops.
Some produce items just aren’t made for the juicer. Soft and mushy doesn’t work well. For example, you’ll never be able to make a juice that is mostly banana, but you CAN put a banana in a juice made with other firmer produce. Peaches tend to give the same result.
Substitute meals on occasion with fresh organic vegetable and fruit juice. There are multiple servings of fruit and vegetables going into your mix which equates to a very heart healthy meal. Occasionally substituting a juice blend for a meal will reduce the amount of junk ingredients you consume by eating processed foods. You will get more than enough nutrition with a good juice blend and avoid crap foods.
When it comes to juicing, one thing that you want to keep in mind is the fact that many fruits and vegetables have the most amount of nutrients either in the skins or directly beneath them. This is important to consider when deciding whether or not to peel your ingredients. I prefer not to peel many fruits (berries, plumbs, apples) and most vegetables in order to extract the phytonutrients found in the skins. I also wash, core and otherwise prepare them in such a way that the left over pulp can be used for making things like smoothies and soups. This way I can reap the benfits of fiber and the nutrient content that is still in the left-over pulp.
Your hair and skin can greatly benefit from cucumber juice. Cucumbers contain large amounts of silica. Apart from strengthening hair and nails, silica is also able to strengthen the body’s connective tissue, bones and muscle.
Jerusalem artichokes are an excellent addition to the juice you make as they will kill any craving your sweet tooth throws at you! They aren’t the most flavorful food, though, so add other items like lemon juice and carrot to make a drink that you’ll enjoy and will keep you healthy.
If you have trouble juicing ginger, use a garlic press on it first! This will release the binds within the pulp itself and allow your juicer to extract as much juice as possible from the chunk of ginger. You can also do the same for garlic you wish to use.
A great juicing tip is to combine different fruits and vegetables so that you’ll end up with a balanced juice. Soft fruits and vegetables will typically produce very thick juice. In order to balance this out you should add any fruits or vegetables that will make a thinner juice. Carrots and apples make juice thinner. The downside to combining fruits and vegetables is that using the left-over pulp to make smoothies or soup may not be posible or tasty. So choose your combinations wisely because wasting the pulp is expensive indeed.
If you have problems with acidity like heartburn or reflux juicing may make you apprehensive but there are fruits and vegetables that will actually combat the acid and help heal your gastrointestinal tract. They include beets, carrots, grapes, oranges, peaches, spinach and tomatoes. Try to drink at least 32 ounces of these items a day for maximum health benefits.
A great juicing tip is to always chop up produce that’s too big. You run a big risk by putting big chunks of produce into your juicer because you can potentially ruin the motor. Chopping produce into smaller chunks will also provide you with a much better juice solution.
Buy A Juicer
In order to begin juicing you need to buy a juicer. Quality is more important than price when selecting from the home juicers available if you plan to use your juicer regularly . The Breville juicer is one of those high quality home juicers yet is surprisingly affordable. Don’t try to skimp on price or you might end up buying more juicers than you want to; bad juicers just don’t stand the test of time. A good juicer will make as much juice as you want, be easy to maintain and clean, and last a long time.
If you don’t feel you’re getting an adequate amount of a vitamins and minerals in your diet, don’t bother buying a cheap crap supplement (I won’t mention names but they are constant advertised)! Instead, buy a juicer and do your research to find out which fruit and vegetable are rich in the vitamins, minerals and phytonutrients you need and want. For example, if you’re low in calcium, potassium and magnesium you should juice dark green vegetables like kale, spinach and chard.
Buy a juicer that does NOT heat up any parts near the items being juiced. The heat can cause the juice to begin oxidation, leading to a breakdown of the nutrients and the destruction of live enzymes. Choose a juicer that says specifically that the parts touching the juice will remain cool throughout the juicing process. The Breville juicer is one of those.
If your blood pressure is high, it’s time to buy a juicer! Vegetables and fruit carry so many health benefits, and increasing your intake will not only help you lower blood pressure, but it’s likely to cause weight loss and replace sodium-rich foods you might not eat otherwise. Choose cucumber, kale, spinach, chard, carrot, tomato, garlic, lemon, parsley or pear for the biggest blood pressure regulation benefits.
Juicing is an incredibly healthy practice. It can detoxify the body, provide essential nutrients, and generally kick start your own immune system. As stated, there are many components to juicing that people need to learn. The process doesn’t have to be confusing though and I hope the tips that were provided help you on your way to “get heart healthy by juicing” success.