The Black Informant | African American Commentary, News and Community Building

The following excerpt provides some information on the importance of juicing. If you are not a big salad eater like me, juicing is a wonderful option.

In most cases, jucing is a much better alternative to a muti-vitamin.

Fresh juices are a tremendous source of enzymes. In fact, the “freshness” of juice is one of their key features, because enzymes are destroyed by heat. When you eat cooked foods, whether its meal, grains, fruits, or vegetables, if the food is cooked at temperatures above 114 degrees, the enzymes have been destroyed by the heat. Since fruits and vegetables are juiced raw, the enzymes are still viable when you drink the juice.

Coincidentally, many of the phytochemicals that nutritional researchers are focusing their attention on are either enzymes, or more often, they are substances that help build or activate enzymes that play essential roles in protecting cells from damage.

In addition, fruit and vegetable juices are good sources of the traditional nutrients. Citrus fruits (grapefruit, oranges, etc.) provide healthy portions of vitamin C. Carrot juice contains large quantities of vitamin A, in the form of beta carotene. A number of green juices are a good source of vitamin E. Fruit juices are a good source of essential minerals like iron, copper, potassium, sodium, iodine, and magnesium, which are bound by the plant in a form that is most easily assimilated during digestion.

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.

Finally, fruits and vegetables provide one more substance that is absolutely essential for good health – water. More than 65% of most of the cells in the human body are made of water, and in some tissues, for example the brain, the cells can be made up of as much as 80% water. Water is absolutely essential for good health, yet most people don’t consume enough water each day. Plus, many of the fluids we do drink, coffee, tea, soft drinks, alcoholic beverages and artificially flavored drinks each contain substances that require extra water for your body to eliminate. Fruit and vegetable juices are free of these unneeded substances and are full of pure, clean water. (more…)

Here are some other tips on starting out juicing:

If you are thinking about trying juicing, I have a couple of suggestions:

1) Don’t go right out and buy your own juicer. There are lots of things to think about with regard to owning your own juicer. I would suggest you first try some juices from the Nature’s Harvest juice bar at the Confederation Court Mall downtown and then talk to a few people who juice to find out preferences of juice, make and model of juice machines, preparation, clean up etc., before you make any decisions.

2) Start out slowly. Generally, most people find it quite easy to drink a freshly extracted fruit juice, no matter what the fruit. However it is usually a little different with vegetable juices. I would suggest starting out with either one juice such as carrot or a mixture of a couple of juices such as carrot and apple for your first vegetable juicing experienced the sweetness of carrot juice, then you can begin adding other vegetables for a delicious healthy colorful mixture.

It is recommended that you consume two glasses of live juices ad day for maintaining your health and four glasses a day if you are trying to recover from an illness. Here are a few tips to help you ensure that your juices are pure, nutrient rich and appetizing.

Whenever possible, buy and use organically grown produce. This will prevent chemical residues from ending up in your juice. (more…)