Liana Werner-Gray is the founder and owner of The Earth Diet, author of diet-related books and an advocate for natural healing using a healthy diet and lifestyle. Check out her books: Cancer-Free with Food, Anxiety-Free with Food, The Earth Diet, and 10-Minute Recipes. Connect with her on Facebook or Instagram @lianawernergray.  

Let’s face it – sometimes we are just not up to eating our daily amount of fruits and vegetables.  Thankfully, we have juicing on our side.

Juicing has been a hot topic for at least the past decade and a half, and it’s not just a fad or another detox scam. It truly is an effective way of getting nutrients to our body and contributing to our daily health.

What is Juicing?

Juicing is exactly how it sounds – extracting the juice from vegetables and fruits. By juicing, you retain the vitamins, minerals, and nutrients in a liquid form. For a lot of people, juicing is a convenient alternative to actually eating their fruits and vegetables. It’s especially beneficial to those who don’t like the texture or taste of veggies. 

Juicing can also help heal us from numerous diseases. Unfortunately, it took a health scare to make me realize this.

When I was 21, I developed an early-stage cancerous tumor in my lymph node, which is when I knew I had hit rock bottom with my health. I decided I would not live another day like that and started to self-heal using Earth’s natural means. I began juicing every day and developing raw and cooked recipes made from fresh, organic, natural ingredients. Whether you are looking for healing or just want to maintain your health, I recommend introducing juicing into your diet. Check out my tips for a successful juice journey. 

Do’s and Don’ts of Juicing

DO:

Use organic produce

Organic food is grown without the use of toxic pesticides, herbicides, fungicides, and chemical fertilizers, and are not genetically modified. Organic foods are also cleaner and provide our bodies with higher nutritional value. Using organic produce gives us a higher quality of nutrients. 

Juice with beets

Beets are great digestive cleansers. When juiced, they not only detoxify the blood and liver, they also help lift compacted waste from the bowel wall, which will enable your bowels to absorb brain-healthy nutrients more effectively. Beets also help soothe anxiety and are a source of nitrate, which increases the level of nitric oxide in our blood. This means beets relax the inner muscles of the blood vessels, which increases our blood flow while lowering our blood pressure. Beets also help reduce inflammation and oxidative stress.

Invest in a cold-pressed juicer

Using a cold-pressing (or “slow”) juicing machine is more beneficial than a “fast” juicer because the ingredients aren’t zapped with a lot of electricity (as happens with many other juicers). Cold-press juicers leave more of the nutrients intact, and is the juicer of choice at most fresh juice bars. You can definitely taste the difference! Using a cold-press juicer also allows you make juice ahead of time, since it will keep in the fridge for up to four days. I recommend the Namawell juicer because it uses cold-pressed technology, is affordable for its kind, and is easy to clean. This juice machine makes cold-pressed juices as well as smoothies and nut milk!

Juice daily

Drinking green juice daily is the best way to get instant nutrition directly to our cells. I recommend having a green juice as soon as you wake up so the nutrients from the juice are the first thing your cells digest. Juicing is a great way to keep your immune system boosted, increase energy levels, reduce inflammation, and maintain overall health. I’ve committed to this goal and I’ve had a juice every day for 13 years! There is no better feeling than this. 

DON'T:

Use conventional produce 

Non-organic soil is depleted of nutrients because of the chemical sprays, so it’s highly important to exclusively juice with organic produce. Conventional produce is also sprayed with harmful pesticides. When we juice, we are extracting every ounce of the fruit or vegetable, which means any pesticide residue on the produce could get into our juice and into our bodies. 

Add too much fruit 

When adding too much fruit, the juice becomes sugary and our bodies will absorb the sugar before the nutrients. Although fruit sugars are natural, when drinking juice for nutrients it's better to keep it lower in sugar. If you don’t love the taste of green juice, try adding a lemon or green apple to your recipe. This helps to add a little sweetness but keeps the juice lower in sugar.

Replace a meal with juice

Keep in mind a juice is not a meal. While juice is loaded with vitamins and minerals, it is more of a supplement, not a meal or a snack. To achieve proper nutrition in your day, I recommend drinking green juice in addition to a meal to receive added vitamins and minerals in your day.

Throw away the juice pulp

When juicing you will notice the pulp of the fruits and vegetables coming out of the juicer. It's cool seeing how all of the nutrients are being extracted from the produce and the pulp is what is leftover! Save this pulp to be composted or add it to recipes. By adding the pulp to recipes, you are adding extra nutrients and fiber to a meal. The pulp can be good in soup, banana bread, cookies, or crackers. 

Let’s Get Juicing!

Juicing is a great way to kickstart just about any healthy diet. Gain energy, boost your cellular health, and start experiencing a healthier lifestyle simply by drinking your fruits and veggies! To get you started, here is my green lemonade juice recipe. It’s simple, refreshing, and is alkalizing to your body!