To Juice or Not to Juice To Achieve Optimum Health
In medical and nutritional circles this subject is the topic of a lot of conversations which means that there is probably not one single answer. I think it is the same answer the elderly gentleman gave the young clothing salesman that asked him if he wore boxer shorts or briefs. His answer: Depends
Depends on whether your goal is to achieve optimum health or whether you will be happy with pretty good health or whether your goal is just to be up and about and able to take care of most of your daily work. I am going to talk a bit about that goal and if your goal is just for fair or even pretty good health the answer is less critical.
To achieve optimum health it is pretty well agreed that along with adequate protein and fat intake and exercise that our body needs 6-9 servings daily of dark green and yellow vegetables and fruits. The more color in them the higher the vitamin and nutrient content and usually the lower the caloric content. So if even most physicians, health care workers and both republicans and democrats agree on that it is likely somewhat correct. Here are the ways to get them on a daily basis:
- Eat them, preferably raw or lightly steamed, if cooked. This gives us all of the fiber and also all of the juice but is a lot of bulk. They may be running out your ears.
- Juice them and drink the juice. This is quite a lot more hassle but even more importantly it results in throwing away all of the fiber and drinking a sugar laden liquid. It does though provide a lot of nutrient value and a nice sweet and pleasant taste.
- Blend them into smoothies. Like eating them, this gives you 100% of both the juice and fiber and all of the nutrients in a pleasant tasting and convenient form. It reduces the bulk amount greatly and clean up and prep time is also greatly reduced. It can even be frozen for later use or into frozen treats. This is as healthy as any method, is the fastest and most convenient and is the easiest and most convenient clean up.
In today's world most people, even if they want to achieve optimum health, are busy and on the run so convenience is a huge factor as long as it is as good. Smoothies or eating the dark green and yellow foods gives us a daily intake of very nutrient dense foods, those with a lot of nutrition and few calories and a lot of bulk so they are filling and satisfying.
Usually, if we will eat all we need to eat daily we will have no or very little craving for junk foods. This eliminates fighting with our cravings all day each day.
I have tried several types of equipment and by far the best I have found are the Nutri-Bullet and the Vita-Mix. Both are available on Amazon and almost all large box stores carry the Nutri-Bullet in 3 sizes. The 900 watt unit is not that much more and is the best unit. I will have reviews on my web site if you wish to access them.
I hope each of you will realize the value of your health while you are young enough to influence it with your life style. The object is not just to see how long you can live but to maximize the quality of your life during those yrs. so you are not sitting around somewhere in a wheel chair not knowing anyone and with oatmeal dripping off your chin.
Best to all of you.
Harold
Recent Comments
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Oh Harold, I luv ya!:) I really like your post as well! :) I could not afford a Vita Mix (I have wanted one for a very long time & they are made not far from me), but because I was in a situation where it was important to focus on rebuilding my body after two challenges to my body, one layered on the other, I put a NutriBullet on the charge, lol. It is wonderful. I use it almost daily. I like that you get the entire substance of the fruits and vegetables with the richness of all the nutrients in a more digestible form! Thank you for another awesome post! Christa :)
Christa, I am so glad you are happy with your Nutri-Bullet. It does a great job with smoothies and you capture 100% of the nutrients. The Vita Mix does much more but many people never do anything with it but make smoothies so it is very expensive if you don't use the other features. Best to you.
Harold
Harold, what a great article! I found the hard way how necessary juices are for our health. I drink an aloe vera smoothie everyday and I really feel much healthier. Thanks a lot for all the useful information you share with us. Blessings!
Hilda
Hey Hilda, I am way ahead of you on the info trade. I just printed off your last blog to use as a daily guide reminder. Have a good one.
Harold
Harold, as always a fantastic post, well written and superb,. May I suggest that under your blog posts here on WA you put something like, -
To read more about being healthy visit my blog at http....etc. That way you have a chance to drive traffic to your own blog.
Hope this makes sense but if you don't want to do it just ignore this
It makes perfect sense and I really appreciate the thought. I have been uneasy about the self promotion aspects involved in terms of what is acceptable within WA. By way of total honesty I also am afraid there are only a very small percentage of people really interested in making the effort to learn all that is necessary to achieve optimum health. I would like to know more about what you think.
Harold
Hi Harold
Here I am, weighing in again - hope you don't mind. I think that is correct, by and large, but there are also always many people "searching" for ways to stay or get healthy, and it may take years of being exposed to good advice and information, until one day when the blinkers are off it will just click for a person at a point in time, when they come across something which resonates with them - a little bit like religion, I feel. I guess we are all relying on people with your knowledge (and patience) to keep putting it out there till it clicks with us.
Really a great analysis of a difficult problem. What is the old saying? When the student is ready the teacher appears! Sometimes too, just saying the same thing in a slightly different way will resonate. Anyway, let's stay on course.
Harold
Harold, I am a senior as you can see and i have recently decided to approach old age as healthily as possible. It started because my husband was diagnosed with diabetes at 60, and it took me three long years to convince him that in this day and age it was not a life sentence, he had to do something as he was on the maximum metformin a day and hte next step was diabetes 1. it took him ten months to reverse it and he is now medication free nad has been for four years, this may change as he ages of course, but hey it has given him some extra diabetes free years.
I think many many people are super interested in what you have ot say and all you need ot work out is how you are comfortable to market it. I can certainly help you here. However it may take an hours chat and I am certainly not prepared to type it. If you have skype and want ot discuss how you proceed with a business plan then please feel free to contact me catherinefordlondon
Harold: do you recommend and particular fruits and vegetables within the confines of the description you already provided? Are particular dark green veggies better than others, or should you just try them all and rotate?
Yes, definitely. I will work up a list and some comparisons and either put them in a post or put them on your profile very soon.(4-5 days) I am glad you are interested. There is a huge payoff, in my opinion. Always good to hear from you.
Harold
I am really working on eating better. eating a lot more salads. Mostly good lettuce; some onion and cucumber and some radish and some tomato. Maybe some squash now and again and some carrots....pretty straightforward stuff. wondering where I should branch out....
I will get you some good reliable info but in the meantime add kale and spinach to any salads or smoothies you make. They are both extremely nutrient dense and packed with lots of good stuff.
Harold
All dark green veggies are healthy, but my general rule is the more different fruits and vegetables you eat the greater the health benefits. I make sure to eat at least 5 different colours of the rainbow daily, its often 7 but never less than 5. Comparisons would be great though
your website is connect with my website. My friend, Harold,
www.the-healthy-diet.com
and see the page, directly move to your website! Cheers!@@
Hello Harold, Always a pleasure reading your posts.I think the smoothie sounds good. I guess the juicer destroys a lot of the nutrients. I remember my parents bought one and think they used it once. Gotta tell them about the Nutri-Bullet so i can use it also. Thanks for sharing Harold and I loved the Depends joke lol. Have a great night Harold:)
Jasmin, there are two major problems with juices. One is that they are so loaded with sugar and the other is the fact that we throw the fiber away and it is so beneficial to the body in so many ways. Inadequate fiber intake is the cause of a lot of people's health issues in today's world. If they do decide to buy one I would get either the 600 or the 900 watt. Either will do well for you. I am always glad to hear from you and hope you are doing well.
Harold
Do you have them on your site? If you do could you send me your link. Always a pleasure to hear from you also Harold:)
The fiber just acts like a pipe cleaner. It provides the bulk and the means by which you body is able to propel dispose of waste products through the colon after eating and digesting. It may seem gross, but the reality is that without that fiber pushing through your innards and scrubbing the waste out in the form out "poop"....ok I said it....lol....uh......guess where that stuff stays? Inside you! Not good! It is supposed to come out. You don't want all of that waste matter lingering around and festering in your innards; that is what happens if your body does not get what it needs to scrub it self.
You don't need Metamucil; have a bowl of spinach!
Or whatever else works for you; a handful of sultanas are great, as well as soup bulked up with lentils (just try it) or the mixed pulses you get in the packets of dried soup mix (even more potent). They don't need hours of soaking, and after about 90 mins of simmering in stock also laden with chopped veges, are ready to give the colon a good scrub. Throw them into a litre or more of stock, some celery and other chopped veges (clear out your crisper), couple of potatoes, maybe toss in a bone or two, and set on simmer and forget for 1.5 to 2 hrs. So easy. But I do know what you mean, Tribe82. Maybe the Metamucil is for those who can't or won't cook or look for the natural alternative? They don't know what they are missing!
Metamucil doesn't sound very interesting in comparison to your description of the lentil soup which I really enjoy. Now I am hungry, just thinking about it. I have no clue about the mixed pulses in packets of dried soup mix...What are they?
Harold
The sultana is a "white", oval seedless grape variety also called the sultanina, Thompson Seedless, Lady de Coverly, and oval-fruited Kishmish. It is assumed to originate from the Asian part of the Ottoman Empire. Wikipedia
I had no idea what a sultana was. I am getting better at looking things up as opposed to asking other people to do that work for me. This way I learn something faster myself. I did no t know a sultan was a variety of a grape......interesting.... grape soup!
Sorry, Harold, I will have to get another packet and read if off - basically they are the edible seeds, usually dried, of the pod-bearing family of vegetables collectively known as Legumes, and include lentils, peas and beans. Some brands also included barley. Anyway, they are an exceptionally rich source of protein, vitamins and minerals, making them important part of a vegetarian diet.
I had been cooking for my family from basic soup recipes and never came across or even known to look for them, but when we bought and ran a convenience store, start of winter we were asked by a large number of people for them, so we sourced and stocked them. Then I started to wonder how you use them, and just from the instructions on the packet I realized you didn't need to soak them, just simmer and add whatever you wanted. So now I have two versions of soup with them in it; a chicken version and a beef version.
What used to put me off was thinking I had to create a stock first, then basically start again once you had the stock. No more. Easy Peasy.
Quantities are approximate:
Stock (can be bought liquid - I like Massell's best personally, or Vegeta, but there are other brands too. So, use at least 1.5 1 litre of stock, or make up stock easily with stock powder of the same brands, or cubes - experiment to get yummy strength - taste as you go. If you like to add bones or meat, do it at the beginning, or just leave meat out.
CHICKEN VERSION: Add wings, two or three, cut away fat and skin as much as possible. Chicken stock, cubes or powder to make up approx. 1.5 litres.
Add cup of the soup mix (RINSE DRY MIX FIRST UNDER RUNNING WATER THROUGH A FINE STRAINER) and toss rinsed pulses in.
Roll up the sleeves and chop finely veges such as celery, potatoes, cabbage, spring onions, parsnips, carrots, zucchini, all or as many of these as you have. Variety is the spice of life. However, only add broccoli florets in the last minute to retain colour and firmness.
Sometimes, as the lentils are less potent than the mixed pulses, I use them instead.
If you rinse and chop everything finely at the outset, you can just start it all off at the same time, and around 1.5 hrs to 2 hrs later, you will be eating the delicious result without having to do anything more.
If you like a nice thick soup, and want to use less of the pulses and lentils (for obvious reasons - you're running out of toilet paper) - then I use much less of them, and put in more potatoes and pumpkin, which break down to a nice smooth pulp. You might just have to press down on the soup with a potato masher (no effort) a few times to finish it off and blend it a bit better. Hardly worth it to get the blender out and keep feeding it through.
Sorry for such a long post. Another tip if making a beef based version; some paprika added to sautéed onions instead of the spring onions (say average spoonful) and a can of crushed tomatos at the beginning, then add to everything else will give you a nice rich colour and flavour to complement the beef.
For extra flavour, there are bay leaves, pepper and herbs - oregano, basil, Italian herbs are my most used.
Everything is flexible and to taste. Love it, as I can stagger in from work, throw a pot on the stove and toss it all in and forget till I'm rested. You can as rough or fancy as you like with it. Now I AM sorry for the long post. Need some (instant) coffee!
Katharina
Thank you so much for taking the time to send that info. I love to eat but have not found the joy of cooking yet but soups and stews are easy and nourishing. I will be trying these soon.
Hey, Tribe82, I have grown up with sultanas - they are a staple in my pantry and I can't imagine not knowing what they are, but I am sure you have foods that I have no idea of! As well as using them in cooking, I keep a tub of them in the pantry, mixed with walnuts, and they are a very handy and healthy munchy when I am at the computer, for instance! No lollies in my cupboard.............(they are naturally sweet, though, so one has to factor that in if keeping a watch on sugar in the diet).
Harold, once again, you did it. Such a great read, if it was for me this article could carry on for a bit longer. Pleasure to read. Thanks for sharing Harold.
Thanks Daniel. I just left you a note on your search for accurate site rankings and will try to find some info for you. It has been within the last couple of weeks that someone gave us a way to do that and it didn't require FireFox. Best to you.
Harold
Wow, Harold. So happens I have a Nutri Bullet I have never used, as I just wasn't sure about it (bought it after seeing it advertised on TV... seemed a great idea at the time. However, it came with a couple of books, but there was nothing about the originators and I started to wonder about the claims etc.), but your comments above make so much sense, as I am running around not feeling satisfied half the time and battling against junk cravings. Even though it is the smaller size, I will take it out of its box finally, and give it a go. Can't wait now.
Thanks for addressing that, and have a great day.
Katharina
I think you will find it really a useful little tool. Even the smaller one will probably do fine. You may need to let it run a bit longer since the rpms will be somewhat less. I am glad you are going to give it a try. Please let me know how it does for you.
Harold
I certainly will, Harold. I would like to enjoy my grandma years and be an inspiration showing that getting older does not need to mean sitting in a wheelchair with oatmeal dripping off one's chin. Besides, I HAVE to stay fit - the family is growing and there is so much to do! This gizmo might make all the difference! Cheers
Katharina
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Now that last line (and mental visual), I could have done without. LOL. In any case, I have a hard time with juicing. If I don't chew it, I'm not satisfied with it as a meal. I know, it's a mental thing. I'm a really slow eater though and I think that's 1/2 the joy. ~Debbi
Sue, it is good to see you back with us. Sounds like you had a fabulous trip and the photos were great. I had some oral surgery while you were gone and was out of commission a few days during which I got nothing done. Will be getting some things in the mail to you very soon.
Harold
I meant to add that the chewing is of great value in preventing bone loss and promoting good dental health. Smoothies are a great supplement but not ideal for meal replacement unless it is a choice of that or no meal!
Harold
No problem, I have a stack of mail 12" high. I think I must be on everyone's catalog list. Good thing I have a big recycling bin! Oral surgery is the worst!!!!! Hope you're feeling better now.
I think that is good to eat slow. You savor the food and enjoy it and I think you eat less that way.