"Juicing - How Drinking Vegetables Can Supercharge Your Body"

On this page, I give an overview of how to do it, its benefits, the types of machines that are available and how to get started.

Freshly juiced vegetables provide your body with vitamins, minerals, enzymes and nutrients in a form that your body can quickly assimilate.

In fact, researchers have shown that the nutrients from fresh vegetable juice enter the bloodstream as soon as 30 minutes after consumption of it.

The primary reason that nutrients in this form are more easily absorbed is that the digestive process involved with eating whole foods is bypassed.

By eliminating the pulp and fiber, all that remains is a concentrated drink rich with a number of important nutrients.

You should avoid purchasing store-bought juices.

The primary reason that fresh juices are superior to processed, store-bought ones is, they are pasteurized, which allows for a longer shelf life. Pasteurization sometimes destroys many of these important nutrients.

Next, it gives your digestive system a rest. This allows your body to devote more energy to other, more important processes, including healing and detoxification.

As a result, you may feel more energized with a clearer mental focus.

Fresh fruits and vegetables contain enzymes that are often killed in food that is cooked. Briefly, enzymes are substances that cause other chemical reactions to occur in the body.

Without enzymes, your metabolism cannot function at its maximum rate.

Furthermore, fresh juice contains certain plant chemicals called phytochemicals, which may hold the key to preventing some of our most serious diseases including cancer and heart disease.

However, it is very difficult to get adequate amounts of phytochemicals from foods that are eaten. By getting your phytochemicals from juice, this is no longer a problem.

Additionally, it helps to speed the healing process after an illness. Certain fruits and vegetables provide massive amounts of nutrients that help speed up this process.

Drinking fresh juice also helps to treat depression. Many times, deficiencies in nutrients such as calcium, folic acid, iron, magnesium or potassium can help bring about a depressed state.

Everybody's heard about antioxidants, nature's secret weapon against aging.

Antioxidants combat free radicals and prevent the damage they can cause to skin cells. Free radicals can contribute to wrinkles, a loss of muscle tone, age spots and sagging skin.

The first type is called a centrifugal juicer which are the least expensive type.

They work by pushing a food into a tube where it is grated into a spinning basket that is rotating at a very high RPM. These tiny grated pieces are thrown against the sides of the basket, where the juice is extracted through centrifugal force.

They do have their pros and cons, however.

On the pro side, they are inexpensive with prices ranging from $40-$200. On the con side, they don't work well with leafy greens or sprouts.

Plus, because the basket is spinning at a high rpm, the juice has a tendency to become foamy, and oxidize quickly. With oxidation, much of the enzymes present are destroyed.

The next type is called a masticating or single gear juicer.

This type works in a similar fashion to how our teeth work. They have an auger that grinds the vegetable into a pulp that is similar to what happens to your food when you chew it.

Next, the liquid is extracted by squeezing the pulp against a mesh strainer, with the pulp subsequently left behind.

They are generally more efficient than centrifugal machines, as they tend to provide more product per unit of food. As they run at a lower RPM, there tends to be less foaming.

They range in price from $200 to $300.

The third type is known as a triturating juicer. This typeis the most versatile but the most expensive, with prices ranging from $200-$300.

It has two interlocking gears that grind up the raw food. Also, they run at the lowest RPM, so foaming and oxidation are very low. They can be used with almost any fruit or vegetable.

Almost any freshly grown vegetable can be used. Many people with a sweet tooth like to add fruits to their vegetables, but that is probably not a good idea because of the amounts of sugar fruits contain.

You should juice sugary vegetables such as carrots in moderation.

What are the best vegetables to begin with? Here are a few suggestions. It is probably best to start with vegetables that are easy to easy to tolerate. For example:

• Beets
• Carrots
• Celery
• Cucumbers
• Fennel

Making juices from the dark green vegetables is probably the healthiest choice. One green vegetable that is easy to use is lettuce.

Others include:

• Broccoli
• Cabbage
• Endives
• Escarole
• Green Leaf lettuce
• Red leaf lettuce
• Spinach
• Watercress
• Wheat grass

Many physicians recommend you choose foods that are compatible with your metabolic type for optimum results. Learning what your correct metabolic type is teaches you two things:

• First, what foods are compatible with your body chemistry
• Second, how to combine carbohydrates, fats and proteins in a ratio that is best for your body

Here is a brief overview of the three different metabolic types.

First, there's the machine itself. There are literally thousands of them on the market, and choosing the one best for you can be quite the daunting task.

You need to consider how much you wish to pay for one right now. Prices vary, with entry level machines going for less than $100, while high end machines can cost as much as several thousand dollars.

Next, you should determine what type of action is best for you. You should probably rule out centrifugal machines, as they can be too harsh on the vegetables.

Finally, think about what vegetable or fruit you want to process. Purchase one that works best with the fruits or vegetables you want to use.

In conclusion, the National Cancer Institute recommends that you eat five servings of fruits and three servings of vegetables each day. This is because a diet that includes many fruits and vegetables can prevent or reverse many medical conditions.

However, if you're like most Americans, you only get 1.5 servings of fruits and vegetables each day.

The solution to this dilemma is juicing. By drinking just a few glasses of concentrated juice, you can receive all the needed nutrients your body requires.