Down Home Articles

If you are seeking a simple and effective way to improve your health and well being, then the benefits of juicing might just be the way to go. Juicing fruits and vegetables at home can greatly improve the amount of vitamins, minerals, enzymes and antioxidants we can achieve compared to eating whole fruits and vegetables.

1) The digestive process required to break down whole fruits and vegetables is almost completely bypassed by drinking fresh juice. The tough fibers of fruits and vegetables are discarded in the juicing process and are we are simply left with a juice that is brimming with goodness and is completely absorbed into are blood stream and cells with in 30 minutes.

2) Fresh raw juices are one of the best way of providing living enzymes in our diet. These enzymes are used for important metabolic functions and therefore speed up the metabolism which can help us burn off a few more calories each day. Enzymes also help to convert food into energy. Enzymes found in papayas and pineapples, for example, are excellent at helping to break down proteins in the digestion.

3) Juicing is an exceptionally good way of providing phytochemicals in our diets. Phytochemicals are compounds found in fruits and vegetables that are potent antioxidants that help to protect is from developing cancer. Because many of these phytochemicals are buried deep in the fibers of fruits and vegetables simply chewing doesn’t break many of them free. The blade in a juicing machine, however, tears open the fibers greatly pouring forth these phytochemicals into the juice.

4) Anti-aging effects is another great benefit of juicing recipes. Phytochemicals and other antioxidants that are abundant in juice recipes, like vitamin C and vitamin E, boost our immune system and help protect us from oxidative stress. Oxidative stress is a condition where there are more free radicals (harmful oxygen molecules) in our bodies than the antioxidants of our immune system can handle. This greatly speeds up the aging processes of the body and increases our risk of developing degenerative diseases like heart disease and age related macular degeneration.

There are a variety of healthy juicer recipes all over the internet as well as in the cooking section of just about any book store. Juicing is a great way of feeding your body the right nutrients it needs to perform at its best day in and day out. We all probably have so much junk in our bodies simply as a result of growing up in the junk food culture that so closely defines America. Fortunately there appears to be a trend toward healthier and more conscious living.

Consuming fruits and vegetables in the form of juice offers many benefits to the body because it is a concentrated potion chock full of nutrients, vitamins, and minerals. There is a double benefit to being liquid, not only is the excellent substance more concentrated so you have the equivalent of multiple fruits in one glass of juice, the liquefied juice means the body can absorb the nutrients with maximum effectiveness.

Solid foods basically waste a lot of the nutrients since they are trapped inside solid particles and cannot be extracted from the solid parts fast enough. Some of the nutrients will pass through the digestive system without being fully released from the solid parts so it is wasted as it passes out of the body. But it is still important to eat solid fruits and vegetables as it provides the fiber and other nutrients you would otherwise miss out on by only drinking juice. There are juicer pulp recipes that allow you to make use of the pulp after the fruit or vegetable has been juiced.

Make sure that you do not consume too much fruit juice without vegetable juice as well. The balance is important especially to avoid any blood sugar problems since fruits are high in natural sugar. That is what makes it so tasteful and delicious but is also why it can be dangerous if you drink too much.