Juicing

In my quest for ideal health, I have purchased a juicer. It was after watching a movie called "Fat, Sick & Nearly Dead". Which was about an Australian man who came to America and made a documentary about his two month diet of nothing but juice. He spent the first month in New York, juicing and talking to people on the streets. The second month he spent driving around, with a juicer in the back of his car, continuing to talk to people, get their opinions, and living on nothing but juiced fruits and vegetables. He lost an huge amount of weight, and inspired people along the way. Interesting movie.

Anyway, so I decided that a juicer would be perfect for me. Because I find it very difficult to get the required amount of veggies into my daily diet, let alone variety. So the answer to that problem seemed clear - a juicer. Not only am I getting a variety of vegetables and fruit (mostly veg) to my daily diet, but I'm feeling ASTOUNDING. And I truly believe it has something to do with my body finally getting nutrients it craves from vegetables. I am not on a juice fast, but rather, I am enjoying a few glasses of fresh juice daily.

It doesn't look appealing, I'll admit. But no matter what combination of vegetables I use, it never tastes bad. Even when I use cabbage. Not kidding. I've been doing this for many weeks now and it seems that I still get carried away with the amount of veggies I juice at a time. Because I want to make sure I get certain favorites in every time. And so instead of getting one glass of juice, I usually end up with two, or as the case was for lunch today, 3 glasses. Oh man, I was FULL!

See, it really doesn't look tasty but I assure you, it is awesome.

I was never one to think that juicing vegetables would be the best option. I was concerned about the fiber of the vegetable being stripped away in the juicing process. BUT, it turns out, that by juicing, you remove the indigestible fiber and release nutrients that are otherwise trapped in the fiber. Read this: 

"Plus, since juicing removes the indigestible fiber, these nutrients are available to the body in much larger quantities than if the piece of fruit or vegetable was eaten whole. For example, because many of the nutrients are trapped in the fiber, when you eat a raw carrot, you are only able to assimilate about 1% of the available beta carotene. When a carrot is juiced, removing the fiber, nearly 100% of the beta carotene can be assimilated."

Taken from here.

Also...

"the body can quickly absorb larger amounts of nutrients from juices than from solid foods because the process of digestion that is necessary when you eat whole foods is bypassed. Another one of the major health benefits of juicing is that it is an easy way to get beneficial enzymes, which are primarily found in raw foods, into the body. Enzymes in fresh fruits and vegetables have the vital role of converting food into body tissue and energy."

Taken from here.

So I figured, whether it is or it isn't better to eat a fruit or vegetable raw and whole, juicing was a better alternative to nothing at all. If it comes down to not eating vegetables (because honestly, I don't like them enough to eat them all the time) or juicing them and getting lots of them daily, I'll take juicing. And I still eat them whole too. It's not like I'm promoting NOT eating vegetables and fruit unless they are juiced.  

I usually will drink my juice on an empty stomach because I read that you absorb the nutrients better than if you had just eaten a meal. Also, I've read that juicing can reduce cravings, although I'm not sure anything is going to stop my craving for chocolate cake.

I'm not going to lie, using and washing this cumbersome juicer 2-3 times a day is a pain in the butt. But I have been able to sustain it for weeks now and so seeing as how I haven't given up on it just because I don't want to wash the equipment, it isn't really THAT bad.

My husband is someone whom I will never be able to convert to a "juicer". He likes to eat his vegetables whole. Good for him. But I doubt he gets enough.

Coincidentally, I've felt better in these last few weeks than I can remember. Literally. I have tons of energy, my mood is fantastic, I am happier. I don't know for a fact that it's all the micronutrients that I'm now getting, but I certainly can't discount it.