There are not many people who know how to cook vegetables so that they taste great and are appealing. A great option when it comes to vegetables is juicing. Juicing is not as difficult as it seems and the tips below will help give you the guidance you need to make an informed decision when it comes to juicing.
Before juicing, find out what items you need to peel and what you can leave whole. Citrus fruits generally need to have the peel removed before juicing. Be careful however when peeling, the white area immediately underneath the peel is fine to juice and it is where MOST of the nutrients are.
If you’re going to start a juicing diet, it may be helpful to start with a few days of eating primarily fruits and vegetables before going over to all-juice. This helps reduce dependence on sugar, flour, and other common diet staples that can make a juice diet difficult to swallow.
When preparing for a juice diet, make sure to stock a LOT of fresh fruits and vegetables! On average, it takes 4.4 pounds of raw fruits and vegetables to make just a single quart of juice, so you’ll need lots. Also make sure to get a large variety of ingredients so that you don’t get bored with the same old juice.
Leafy greens such as kale, spinach and parsley are sources of a variety of health benefits. The idea here is to use leafy greens not for their flavor, but for their health benefits. So use at least 50% leafy greens and then supplement other items for flavor. Fruit juices are unhealthy and sugary compared to green juices.
Put all your fruit on one shelf in your refrigerator, preferably the top shelf. This way, nutrition and juicing will be the first thing on your mind when you open your refrigerator every day. You’ll also be able to keep an eye on how fresh the fruit is, and remind yourself to use it before it decays.
Buy a juicer made of high quality. This is important if you plan to use your juicer regularly. A good juicer will make as much juice as you want, be easy to maintain and clean, and last a long time. Don’t try to skimp on price or you might end up buying more juicers than you want to; bad juicers just don’t stand the test of time.
While you may want to keep some extra juice on hand in the fridge, remember that you should drink it soon. Valuable nutrients will begin to be lost as the juice sits. Make enough extra for your next snack time and keep it to that. Making juice for the next day will rob you of the nutrients you were juicing for in the first place.
Find a juicing community online and sign up to learn more about what others have tried. They’ll have tons of recipe ideas, warnings about things they tried and failed, and support for you when you’re feeling overwhelmed. They will also have money-saving tips and tricks that you might not have thought of before!
Your favorite vegetables can make one of the tastiest, healthiest drinks you can have. Not only do you get the freshest vitamin intake possible, but the taste is great. Carrots, celery and cucumbers are a great way to start your juicing experience. The flavors will make your taste-buds dance.
It’s important to juice wheatgrass as our bodies can’t actually process the plant fibers contained in it. I like to include wheatgrass in my apple/ginger/orange juice, but you can come up with a hundred more recipes that make great use of wheatgrass and it’s wonderful earthy flavor. Give it a try!
To make an 8 ounce glass of juice you would need about three to four pieces of whole fruit the size of apples or oranges. Layer your flavors by alternating the order in which you insert the produce into the machine. Try two pieces of pineapple, then add some mint and finish with more pineapple.
Pour that lovely juice into ice-pop makers in the summer for a sweet, healthy, tasty treat the kids will enjoy! It won’t be as nutrient-rich as drinking it immediately after making it, but it’s a lot better than giving your children a commercially-produced ice-pop laden with sugar and preservatives.
If you’d like to put low-water fruits like avocado or bananas in your juice, put them in a blender first. It’s difficult for your juicer to process these types of produce and it can actually damage the expensive juicer or burn out the motor. Blenders are built to deal with thicker items, so give them a whirl and then pour them into your juicer.
In regards to juicing, it is important to consider the fact that it is best to drink your home made juice at room temperature. This is important to consider because this temperature provides the best environment for adequate consumption of nutrients into your body. Always store your juice in a cool environment, however.
The recommended daily amount of juice intake for an adult is 32 to 64 ounces. Obviously, the more you drink, the less fruit should be included, so only go to the high end if you’re using low glycemic vegetables as the base of each juice. Remember that some vegetables, like carrots, are high in sugar and should only be included in small doses.
Juicing allows you to get the nutrients that are found in vegetables without having to actually eat them. Many people are not able to eat the quantity of vegetables that is needed to stay as healthy as they possibly can. The tips that were provided above gave guidance on how to juice vegetables and what things to consider. You have to make the ultimate decision to juice or not.
