Juicers Reviews - Best Juicer Reviews
It is the New Year. As regular as the tide, we make our New Year’s resolutions. For most of us, this includes some kind of health resolution. These health resolutions range from quitting smoking and drinking alcohol to exercising more and losing weight. I also have made a New Year’s resolution. Yes, it is health related. My resolution is to incorporate more vegetables into my diet.
Twenty years ago, I used the “Fit for Life” diet and lifestyle to lose weight and gain energy. What I remember, all these years later, is that there was a huge emphasis on eating whole fruits and vegetables. Raw juicy fruits and vegetables were recommended because their juice was filled with healthy enzymes that were not destroyed by cooking. This book also gave me my first introduction to juicing, and this type of juicing required an expensive juicing machine that I could not afford, so I didn’t juice at that time. I do remember walking on Venice Beach in California and buying shots of straight wheatgrass juice—potent stuff–and I have flirted with the idea of juicing ever since.
Times have changed. Today I juice because it is an easy way to increase the vegetables in my diet, and I use a blender. The benefits of a blender are the cost is less; it can do more, i.e., it is a multipurpose machine; and I get the fiber that I need from my vegetable juices—so I guess they are more like smoothies—but for me that fiber is important.
When I started juicing, I used a basic recipe that called for celery, carrots, and parsley. I followed all the amounts religiously. Now I start with a base of spinach leaves and add kale, parsley, a peeled carrot (reduces bitterness), celery, and half a cucumber, peeled. This is my basic blend and then I add other things that are in season. I also add some filtered water to the blender before I let it rip. At times, I have added fruits such as bananas, oranges, strawberries, or apples to my vegetable juice mix as well, to help with bitterness issues. One time I threw some fresh ginger in the mix, and boy was it spicy. As you can tell, I don’t follow a given recipe any more, but put in some of this and some of that to vary the flavor and use what is in season.
Since I have started juicing, I have also taken an interest in the raw food movement. A town nearby has a raw food eatery. It is open two days a week, and you leave a donation for the meal. My 19-year-old daughter loves to cook and try different cuisines, so I took her with me as backup support. Trust me, the whole meal was an eye-opening experience as we tasted raw soups, salads (of course), and the entrée of a nut-based “meatball” with a raw sauce. However, they started the meal with a cup of wheatgrass and sprouted mung bean juice. You could tell that they had a juicing machine, as there was no fiber in the juice. It tasted just like apple juice, sweet and smooth and was easy to drink. Even though we were both out of our comfort zone, I think I enjoyed the experience more than my daughter did.
Juicing can seem intimidating, but it is very flexible and can fit into any lifestyle. Get a book from the library and read up on the benefits of each vegetable to create your own blends. Use organic leafy greens if possible, and clean and then clean your produce again to get out any dirt and grit before you blend. Above all, take time to experiment and enjoy the process as you discover what vegetable juice blend is just right for you.
Juicing Reviews
It is the New Year. As regular as the tide, we make our New Year’s resolutions. For most of us, this includes some kind of health resolution. These health resolutions range from quitting smoking and drinking alcohol to exercising more and losing weight. I also have made a New Year’s resolution. Yes, it is health related. My resolution is to incorporate more vegetables into my diet.
Twenty years ago, I used the “Fit for Life” diet and lifestyle to lose weight and gain energy. What I remember, all these years later, is that there was a huge emphasis on eating whole fruits and vegetables. Raw juicy fruits and vegetables were recommended because their juice was filled with healthy enzymes that were not destroyed by cooking. This book also gave me my first introduction to juicing, and this type of juicing required an expensive juicing machine that I could not afford, so I didn’t juice at that time. I do remember walking on Venice Beach in California and buying shots of straight wheatgrass juice—potent stuff–and I have flirted with the idea of juicing ever since.
Times have changed. Today I juice because it is an easy way to increase the vegetables in my diet, and I use a blender. The benefits of a blender are the cost is less; it can do more, i.e., it is a multipurpose machine; and I get the fiber that I need from my vegetable juices—so I guess they are more like smoothies—but for me that fiber is important.
When I started juicing, I used a basic recipe that called for celery, carrots, and parsley. I followed all the amounts religiously. Now I start with a base of spinach leaves and add kale, parsley, a peeled carrot (reduces bitterness), celery, and half a cucumber, peeled. This is my basic blend and then I add other things that are in season. I also add some filtered water to the blender before I let it rip. At times, I have added fruits such as bananas, oranges, strawberries, or apples to my vegetable juice mix as well, to help with bitterness issues. One time I threw some fresh ginger in the mix, and boy was it spicy. As you can tell, I don’t follow a given recipe any more, but put in some of this and some of that to vary the flavor and use what is in season.
Since I have started juicing, I have also taken an interest in the raw food movement. A town nearby has a raw food eatery. It is open two days a week, and you leave a donation for the meal. My 19-year-old daughter loves to cook and try different cuisines, so I took her with me as backup support. Trust me, the whole meal was an eye-opening experience as we tasted raw soups, salads (of course), and the entrée of a nut-based “meatball” with a raw sauce. However, they started the meal with a cup of wheatgrass and sprouted mung bean juice. You could tell that they had a juicing machine, as there was no fiber in the juice. It tasted just like apple juice, sweet and smooth and was easy to drink. Even though we were both out of our comfort zone, I think I enjoyed the experience more than my daughter did.
Juicing can seem intimidating, but it is very flexible and can fit into any lifestyle. Get a book from the library and read up on the benefits of each vegetable to create your own blends. Use organic leafy greens if possible, and clean and then clean your produce again to get out any dirt and grit before you blend. Above all, take time to experiment and enjoy the process as you discover what vegetable juice blend is just right for you.