Try Something New: Juicing

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juicing

Juicing is all the rage right now. I am sure you have seen or heard friends or family members talking about juicing. I have been drinking  a vegetable fruit juice concoction since November that my coach makes. For the last month, I have been juicing myself. I am not talking about a juicing fast- I like food way to much for that!

So why juicing instead of just eating fresh vegetables and fruit?

We all know that vegetables and fruits contain vitamins, minerals and antioxidants that are necessary for good health. What juicing does is allow you to consume a higher amount of the beneficial nutrients by taking out the fiber and pulp. Think about it, it would be hard to eat five carrots, a bunch of spinach and a couple of apples in one sitting. However, it would be very easy to consume the juice! Plus your body can uptake the nutrients from juice faster than eating the produce in a whole form.

Juicing also allows you to “hide” vegetables with fruit. My boys will drink juice, even if it is green, as long as it is sweet. Their favorite juice right now is made with spinach, carrots, apples and pears. Sometimes I can sneak lettuce or kale in their too.

What do you juice?

There are so many fruits and vegetables that can be juiced. Based on my coaches recommendation, I typically combine kale, beets, swiss chard, bok choy, parsley, cilantro, habanero pepper, garlic, apples, lemon, pear, carrots, pomegranate and lettuce. Yes, I know that’s a lot of ingredients and you are probably thinking it tastes terrible. It does take some getting used to but now I crave it! I typically drink my juice for a mid-morning and afternoon snack.

What type of juicer should you get?

omega juicer

The type of juicer you use does matter. You should invest in a good masticating juicer. The reason being is you want to extract as much juice from the produce as possible. Also the masticating juicer is a low speed juicer which will prevent the enzymes from being harmed. Plus the slow speed juicer allows you to make juice and store it for 72 hours sicne the enzymes aren’t destroyed. The higher speed juicers ruin the enzymes. The lower end juicers don’t extract all of the juice either and there is more waste. I have an Omega Nutrition Center Juicer. It also doubles as a food processor and can make homemade pasta and peanut butter!

Benefits for Kids

b juicing

My boys have really taken to juicing. They LOVE helping with the process. I do all of the washing and chopping of the produce and they conduct the processing. Once of the neatest things is the are more open to trying different types of produce. As the produce is being pushed through the juicer, they often ask “What is this? or Can I try this?” It turns out that Mr. B really likes parsley! He will eat it plain. He also enjoyed eating raw bok choy, spinach, swiss chard and kale. He wasn’t a big fan of ginger though! Nonetheless, the boys are learning about different types of produce and they are willing to try them in juice form and raw.

I would love to hear your thoughts on juicing! Have you tried it? Do you have questions about it? We are still learning, but I will try to answer your questions as best as possible!

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Renae is a married working mom of two handsome boys. She works as a registered dental hygienist by day and blogs here at How to Have it All by night. She enjoys cooking from scratch, working in her vegetable garden and functional training.

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Comments

  1. Love, love fresh juices at home! We enjoy carrots the most but would love to experiment with a combination of ingredients! We tend to stick to smoothies but my juicer begs to be used! Looking forward to you sharing favorite juice recipes with us! Trying new juice combinations is definitely on spring list!! Thanks for sharing!

  2. Nina Mills says:

    What do you do with the fiber that’s left. Wouldn’t something like a vitamixer or one of those that use the whole fruit,veggie be even better. Just wondering. But anything that can get kids to try different foods is a blessings. Best wishes. I enjoy your blog.

    • Hi Nina,
      I haven’t tried it yet, but you can make bread type crackers out of the pulp. I hope to try this soon! Here is the thing with juicing versus blending, you can get more nutrients quicker with juicing over blending. For example in blending you might only be able to consume a cup or two of blended fruits and vegetables before you are full. With juicing you can consume a lot more of the produce since you are not filling up on the fiber- you are just squeezing out the vitamins, minerals and enzymes that can easily be absorbed by the body. Juice is absorbed quicker than the blended whole foods since your body has to break down the blended fiber. There is not right or wrong, but I find that the juicing works best for me. I feel more energized and don’t get sick as often as my hubby who won’t touch the juice! But, yes there is waste with juicing. I hope to find some good recipes for the pulp to share with you soon! Hope that helps!

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