Random Thoughts on Juicing

lowkeyelv

I wrote an email to someone with my thoughts on juicing, which I do very habitually (at least when I am not travelling).

Would like to hear other's thoughts as well.


1. Peel your cucumbers as the skin is waxed. Most other veggies you'd juice, no peeling. You'll miss out on a lot of the antioxidant value from taking the skin off.
2. Stay mostly green (or at least orange). Doesn't mean you can't mix an apple in or a pear here and there. Too much fruit will make the juicing high calorie and can cause other issues, depending how much you juice. Veggie juicing is far lower in sugar and has more nutritional value than most fruits (yes, even blueberries). Google ANDI Score for more details on the most nutritious foods per calorie.
3. Easiest to prep, drink and clean, for my money are mixes of celery, tomato, cucumber and carrot. Tastes super refreshing and light.
4. Kale is super dense nutritionally (1000 ANDI score, along with collards and mustard greens) but i'd say, if you can eat it, its probably better, since the fiber is beneficial (there is no fiber in juice) and Kale doesn't yield that much juice. That being said, if you like the taste go for it.
5. Radishes. Don't juice em. Take my word for it. Yuck.
6. Don't make juice in advance (maybe a day max) of drinking. The vitamins remain but oxidation will rob the other, more important benefits from the juice (the vitamins are easy to get from a mult-vitamin and are not nearly the best reason for regular juicing). Different juices have different fridge lives, but I generally juice and then chug.
7. There are a lot of mixes of fresh juices that would seem to be weird combos, but as juice they taste nice together, e.g. tomato with any number of types of fruit, or apple/celery.
8. You'll get a little charge of energy after drinking your juice - its the sugar, even in green juice. Can be useful when heading off to the gym, and its not even cheating as you're not screwing with your adrenals.
9. Finally, for a number of reasons you can read about online, and another reason to go "green," think of juicing as a way to go alkaline. Good for your organs, your skin, anti-aging, etc. Check it out. Enjoy.