Juicing Adds Nutrients Most People Are Missing, Naturally

From juice fasts to health juicing to adding juices to your normal diet—there’s a way for everyone to juice that is healthy, natural and satisfying. In fact, juicing might even cure you of certain ailments.

If you’ve spent any time on the internet, you’ve probably seen all sorts of people putting forth all sorts of crazy diet plans. The juice fast diets are right up there among the most crazy ones to many people, but if you stop a moment to think about juicing, you might be surprised at the amazing health benefits it can provide. I’m not going to talk about the more extreme juice fast diets, though. I’m going to talk about adding juicing into your normal diet and lifestyle, the way I did, and share my experiences with juicing.

First, it’s hard to argue that most people who aren’t vegetarian or vegan in American don’t get enough vegetables. Sure, we’ll eat a salad now and then with our steak, and we’ll throw in a side or two once in a while with a meal, but when we look at the average American diet, or what is called SAD-Standard American Diet (and it is sad, indeed), fresh fruits and vegetables are severely lacking.

Juicing Vs. Juice Fasting: What’s the Difference

With juice fasting, you will be consuming nothing but juice. Website like Joe’s “Fat, Sick & Nearly Dead”, based off the movie and subsequent books about juice fasting, talks about how to incorporate a juice fast into your lifestyle. (http://www.rebootwithjoe.com/) If, however, eating-or in this case, drinking-nothing but juices is not your thing, Joe’s website also provides information on how to incorporate juicing into a healthy, mostly vegetarian diet, by adding juices in between meals and with meals that are mostly vegetarian.

The difference between juice fasting-which is drinking nothing but juices and not eating any solid foods-and juicing-which is adding juices in between meals or with meals to increase your vegetable and fruit intake, can make the difference between successful juice dieting or failure.

For me, Dr. Mercola talks about nutritional typing, and as a protein type, there was no way I could drink nothing but juice and feel full, satisfied or even healthy. Three days into a juice fast attempt, I felt miserable. I had no energy, no desire to get up and move or do anything, and worse, I started to hate juicing and the taste of the juices. I had no idea at the time this was because I was a protein type. My best friend did the juice fast with me, and she’s a carbohydrate type, and she absolutely loved the juice fast. She felt fantastic, light, energetic and loved the juices. What a difference!

Juicing Provides Nutrients Without Supplements

What we discovered is that different body types have different needs when it comes to dieting, so juice fasting isn’t right for everyone. I was definitely proof of that. But when I moved to juicing instead of juice fasting, everything changed. I started to enjoy the taste of the juices again. I looked forward to them as snacks between healthy meals. Also, when juicing properly, there’s no need to take artificial vitamin supplements for health, because you’re getting all the nutrition you need in natural, whole foods–which is really the best way to get them. But more than that, I learned that metabolically, the juicing was changing things for me.

How did I know this? Well, I take two medications that have to build up levels in the blood and I’m regularly tested on these levels, and one medication that I can feel the effects of (it makes me loopy) when I take it. When I started juicing, by about the fifth day, I was feeling more loopy than usual when I took the medication. Also, when I went in for the level tests on my other medication, my levels were too high, and for the first time in a year, I had to reduce the amount of medication I was taking.

Juicing Provides Other Health Benefits Without Medication

While we don’t often like to talk about our digestive and bowel functions, when they aren’t functioning right, we certainly feel the effects. Juicing caused everything to clear out of our system, like a big purge, for several days. We both thought we might never leave the bathroom! But after about three days, juicing provided a regular, consistent bathroom experience, nearly like clockwork. But more than that, it seemed to clean things out, and in that three day time period, both of us lost weight!

After about a week, adding two 12-16 ounce glasses of juice to each day, plus adding whole fruit and veggies to every meal, I had more energy, was sleeping better, felt more rested, concentrated better, had less chronic pain (I suffer from a chronic pain condition) and overall simply felt better.

Sustaining a Juicing Lifestyle

The key to sustaining a juicing lifestyle is to get a good masticating juicer that is super easy to clean. Research the reviews on Amazon and find a juicer that the reviewers say cleans up easily, because, the truth is, if you find that cleanup takes too long to do, you won’t sustain juicing. Our juicer cleans super fast with a quick rinse after making the juice.

Try to plan ahead and make all the juices you need in the morning, saving them in airtight, sealable containers in the fridge for later in the day. Juices taste best when they Are fresh, so you really don’t want to keep them more than a day. Plan to do all your fruit-based juices first, then do the stronger vegetable juices second, since they will overpower the fruit, if you do it the other way. Then store them and you can pour a drink out any time you choose. Try to get in at least 20 ounces of juice each day, along with a healthy meal plan that includes fresh fruit and vegetables, and you’re well on your way to eating a healthy diet with plenty of macro- and micro-nutrients.

The health benefits of getting in six to eight servings of vegetables per day or more are amazing. One way to get this much on the go without feeling full or having to cook all the time is to juice your fruits and vegetables and drink them raw and refreshingly fresh. Give it a try for just five days, and see if you don’t feel the difference too.