Now that the holidays are over, many people are refocusing on their diets – specifically on making healthier choices in the New Year. One of the easiest ways to get more fruits and veggies is to introduce juicing into your diet. Not only is it easy and tasty, juicing gives your body much needed nutrients, vitamins and enzymes in one glass.
The Benefits of Juicing
It is recommended that adults get between five and nine servings of fruit and vegetables a day, however, most people find this difficult to fit into their daily diet. Juicing presents a wonderful opportunity get a lot of nutrients from various sources into one glass. A lot of people would find nearly impossible to eat a bag of spinach and two cucumbers for breakfast, but you can easily fit that into a juicer (plus more)! The process of juicing vegetables and fruits extracts water and nutrients and discards the indigestible fibers, compared to blending when the whole fruit or vegetable is utilized. Juicing makes nutrients and enzymes immediately available to the body to utilize, and in larger quantities than if you were to eat the fruits or vegetables whole.
Tips for Juicing
If you are juicing dark, leafy greens (such as kale), add cucumber to cut the bitterness. Leave the skin on the cucumber, as it contains many vitamins and minerals.
Try make your juices about 80% veggies and 20% fruits to keep the sugar content low.
Drink your juice immediately. Fresh juice loses nutrients as it oxidizes. If you do make extra, refrigerate it in an airtight container and consume within 24 hours.
Use juicing as an easy way to incorporate super foods such as chia seed, flax, goji berries, wheat grass and turmeric.
