Juicing 101 (with recipes)

Querian

I'm no expert but I do juice daily and I'm about to begin my 2nd juice fast. I get a ton of questions about juicing, juicers and recipes so I'm posting this thread so I can refer back to it in the future and not have to keep sending the same info over and over again. I like sharing with my MFP friends but I'm sure you understand. :flowerforyou:

Why juice?

Juicing makes me feel great. It is a great way to get a concentrated dose of nutrients from a natural source. I know juicing can be controversial to some people but if you are interested I suggest watching the movie Fat, Sick and Nearly Dead by Joe Cross. You can also check out the website RebootWithJoe.com which is a great resource for juice recipes and for healthy eating in general.

What juicer do I use?

I have a Jack Lalanne juicer which I got for about $90 at Costso which works great for me. You can spend a lot more on a juicer if you want but personally I didn't want to make an investment until I knew for sure I would be using it all the time (it has been since September 2012 and I do juice daily). There are lots of options and if you google "juicer reviews" and look at the videos you will find a lot of info here for you to make a decision about what juicer is best for you.

Why Juice Fast?

I admit that the first time I did a juice fast my primary reason was for weight loss. I did lose 5.8 pounds in 10 days but I came away from the experience with the realization that there were much more valuable results of juicing. The best reason for me is that my juice fast got rid of chronic headaches. Serious, daily headaches I have been struggling with for 20 years were gone completely after 3 days of juicing. The second best reason, and almost as great a reason, is that the juice fast resets your palette and gives you a true appreciation of healthy plant-based foods. This is why Joe Cross calls it a "Reboot". The fast "Reboots" your life and your taste buds and really does make it a lot easier to eat healthy, at least it does for me.

How long should I fast?

This is a personal decision best made in consultation with your doctor. Joe Cross and Phil Staples fasted for 60 days in the film Fat, Sick and Nearly Dead. I did a 10 day juice fast and the last 2 days I was crazy for real solid food. This upcoming fast I am going to juice for 7 to 10 days. A lot of people drink juice for breakfast and lunch and then have a solid dinner because they don't feel like they can completely give up solid food. Some others go on a raw food diet using only fruits and veggies in place of a juice fast. There are examples of all of these options on the Reboot with Joe website. This is a personal decision for you to make but please make an informed decision after researching the options on your own.

What about fiber?

The biggest criticism I hear is that you want to eat your fruits and veggies in order to get your fiber. Personally I consume between 30-50 grams of fiber when I am not fasting because I am still eating a lot of fresh fruits and veggies. Juicing is not a substitution for me, rather a supplement. I eat a whole foods plant based diet and I urge you to consider trying such an approach to eating yourself. The more fruits and veggies the better, in my opinion.

My favorite recipes:

Most of these are from Reboot with Joe website but some come from other various places on the internet.

Please note if you ever find a juice "yucky" please trying to add another apple or maybe some grapes to sweeten it up more. Also feel free to play around with the recipes to create juices that fit your personal taste.

Mean Green Juice
1 cucumber
4 celery stalks
2 apples
6-8 leaves kale (Australian tuscan cabbage) or use 2-3 c spinach
1/2 lemon
1 tbsp ginger

Mexican Style Jugo – Juice
2 large Cucumbers
4 cups Cilantro, leaves and stems, roughly chopped and packed into the measuring cup
1 Lime
1 Poblano Pepper, ribs and seeds removed
1 Golden Delicious Apple
(sometimes I add greens to this juice)

Paradise Green Juice
1 cup of fresh spinach
3 leaves of Kale
1/2 bunch of cilantro
1 to 2 Carrots
1 cucumber
1 red Apple

Sunburst Juice
1 orange
1 red bell pepper (red capsicum)
3 carrots
1/2 lemon

Fennel-Pear
1 bulb fennel
1 pear

and my favorite
Apple, Celery, Carrot
1 apple
2 stalks celery
4 large carrots

Please feel free to add your own favorite juicing recipes here. And Juice On! :drinker:

calimoma

thanks so much for posting this! i was very interested in finding out more info from you! i watched the joe cross movie and it totally got me! i love juicing! i just wish i could do the fasting part. i just cant seem to wrap my mind around it. right now i do a juice for breakfast and lunch and have a healthy dinner. this seems to work for me, but i stil wanna try a fast, just to see.

i have a breville jucie fountain plus, like joe. i love it, but i think so much juciing may wear it out!

my fav juice is carrot, apple, ginger juice...i always add lemon to all my juices as it makes it taste so much fresher!!!

happy juicing!!

kathitoo2

What type of juicer? An extractor or high blender type? We have both, my husband used the extractor but it takes so much fruit/veg that and makes a huge mess to clean up,but it is pure fresh juice. ( I have to have it cold!!) I make mine in my vitamix, throw anything edible and peel non edible, rinds, etc. and Let it fly, add ice for coldness, I love it. I have been making a green juice with Kale, parsley, apple and banana. I even chop everything up and put it into baggies and into the freezer. Then I put it in my vitamix with some water and maybe a splash of OJ, great! Thanks for the great recipes~

annascrapper

:flowerforyou:

aritchey1977

**BUMP**

PRIMEJuicers

Thanks for posting. I juice daily too and am anxious for Spring to get here. There's nothing like fresh vegetables from the garden. I use both a centrifugal juicer and masticating juicer. I blend too. It's all good. Thanks and happy juicing!

LesaLu4

I just started juicing again this morning.

I love juicing beets. Never have liked them before, but something about beet juice really energizes me. I always feel a little fuller after drinking juice with beets too.

Thanks for the recipes. You have inspired me.

DaisyDi65

Thanks for this post. I just received a juicer from a friend and am eager to try it!

Hearts_2015

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SbetaK

Just bought a juicer to supplement my daily diet. Thanks for recipes.

Querian

I wanted to edit my post but can't so here is a little more info:

How do I track my juice calories?

I can find most juices in the database. I usually search for "raw _______ juice" where the blank is whatever fruit or veggie I have juiced. When I make my juices I use a 2 cup measuring cup with markings up the side and note how many ounces of each juice I get. Then I go into the recipe function and create a recipe for my juice of the day. I search for each juice type and try to find an entry by ounces. This makes it easy for me to use the same juice recipe another time and just make adjustments in the quantities of each juice if needed. I also think I look like less of a crazy person by putting a juice recipe on my food log than if I put 6 different entries for each type of fruit or veggie that went into each juice. There are a couple of exceptions, I find the best raw carrot juice entry to be in mL so I convert in order to enter carrot juice that way. I also have to search for "kale juice" instead of "raw kale juice". I am sure there are other ways of tracking juice but this is how I do it.

How do you juice greens?

Greens are not very "juicy". I try to buy bunch spinach (instead of bagged or boxed) because I find it is the "juiciest" Sometimes when you juice kale you will put a lot of kale in and get nothing out. But when you follow it with a cucumber or some celery a bunch of super dark green juice comes out then. I usually start my juice with greens and then follow the greens with juicier items and let that second juice push the green juice through. I Jack Lalanne Juice I have sometimes spits flecks of greens through the back of the juicer and this is easily wiped up or you can just put a dishtowel over the back so anything that gets spit out just goes into the towel. You only need one or two ounces of green juice in a recipe usually or your juice will be too strong tasting in my opinion.

Where can I learn more about doing a juice fast?

This is the plan I used for my first fast:

http://issuu.com/rebootwithjoe/docs/new-year-quick-start-reboot/15?zoomed=&zoomPercent=&zoomX=&zoomY=&noteText=&noteX=&noteY=&viewMode=magazine

I followed this basic outline for 10 days and did use some other juice recipes that kept with the spirit of the plan.

Can I drink coffee or caffeine with my juice fast?

The point of a "reboot" is to clean all other chemicals out of your system and let your body do the job of healing itself with the least interference possible. Ideally you would use all organic produce and stop using any other chemicals including caffeine and all over the counter medication. I was a coffee srinker before my first juice fast and it was very difficult the first 3 days getting over the caffeine withdrawal. After my juice fast I did not go back to drinking coffee although I do occasionally have hot tea with caffeine these days. But again, this is a personal decision and you need to figure out what will work for you.

Can I buy juices somewhere or drink bottled juices?

If you have a juice bar nearby you can purchase fresh juices during your fast. I did this during a fast. My husband wanted to go out to eat while we were out one day so I deliberately figured out where a juice bar would be and we went there. He had a burger and fries, I had juice. As far as bottled juices go I would say no since the point of juicing is getting the freshest vitamins and minerals possible and bottled juice isn't fresh. But again this in another personal decision based on your lifestyle and what is available to you.

Querian

thanks so much for posting this! i was very interested in finding out more info from you! i watched the joe cross movie and it totally got me! i love juicing! i just wish i could do the fasting part. i just cant seem to wrap my mind around it. right now i do a juice for breakfast and lunch and have a healthy dinner. this seems to work for me, but i stil wanna try a fast, just to see.

i have a breville jucie fountain plus, like joe. i love it, but i think so much juciing may wear it out!

my fav juice is carrot, apple, ginger juice...i always add lemon to all my juices as it makes it taste so much fresher!!!

happy juicing!!

I hear the Breville juicer is great (I think it is what Joe uses). I like adding lemon and/or ginger to a lot of my juicers, too. It really does add interest to the juices

Querian

What type of juicer? An extractor or high blender type? We have both, my husband used the extractor but it takes so much fruit/veg that and makes a huge mess to clean up,but it is pure fresh juice. ( I have to have it cold!!) I make mine in my vitamix, throw anything edible and peel non edible, rinds, etc. and Let it fly, add ice for coldness, I love it. I have been making a green juice with Kale, parsley, apple and banana. I even chop everything up and put it into baggies and into the freezer. Then I put it in my vitamix with some water and maybe a splash of OJ, great! Thanks for the great recipes~

Good points! It does take a lot of fruit/veg to make juice. This is actually one of the reasons for juicing instead of eating the whole food because if you tried to actually eat all of the fruits and veggies that went into a juice you would be overwhelmed by that sheer quantity.

I like to serve my juices over ice because I like them cold and the ice helps to water them down a little bit.

I also like making green smoothies. I wish I had a Vitamix but instead I use a blender that I sweat is from the 1960's - a hand-me-down that my husband got from his parents. It takes some work but it still makes nice smoothies.

A Green Smoothie recipe:

2 cups Beet Greens, Swiss Chard, Kale, Spinach or a
combination (roughly chopped)
1 Banana
1 Apple
10 Strawberries (green tops cut off) (I like to use frozen strawberries)
1 cup Coconut Water

Querian

Thanks for posting. I juice daily too and am anxious for Spring to get here. There's nothing like fresh vegetables from the garden. I use both a centrifugal juicer and masticating juicer. I blend too. It's all good. Thanks and happy juicing!

Thanks and thanks for the friend request too!

Confuzzled4ever

Thanks I didn't know how to log the juice. My guy just bought me a juicer today so I'm gonna make juice starting tomorrow. I don't plan on doing a juice fast, I just want to have good healthy juice every morning. I miss juice a lot. Too much sugar in most of it.

mrsozzy4

How often can you do a juice fast? I did a 2-day juice fast in February, and really enjoyed the benefits you mention of "resetting" my eating habits and cravings. I also lost a few pounds and have kept them off since.

I'm planning on repeating the same 2-day juice fast on Tuesday and Wednesday of this week. Curious to know how often you fast and if you've heard of a good rule of thumb for frequency.

Confuzzled4ever

If i log a cup of pineapple chucks, will that be different then the calories in the juice????

Christina9388

www.myphytos.com

A website that allows you to calculate the calories and nutrients of a homemade juice. Then if you want to, you can create a new food and enter in the calories. Hope that helps!

atynk

bump!

UsedToBeHusky

How does pulverizing these foods into a liquid make them anymore beneficial than eating them whole?

Addicted2_fitness

<----New juicer here! Thanks for this post!

ashleyngill

Bump

tracymat

Great post! I just got a Nutribullet today and am looking forward to using it!

montana_girl

Been thinking about juicing (or least trying it) so thank you for the post. Gained a lot of information and insight! :flowerforyou:

Confuzzled4ever

www.myphytos.com

A website that allows you to calculate the calories and nutrients of a homemade juice. Then if you want to, you can create a new food and enter in the calories. Hope that helps!

Thank you! Cuase 71 for what I just did doesnt' seem right!! I have a nutribullet.. so there is no pulp or anything spit out.. it's all in the juice. Does that make a difference?

Confuzzled4ever

How does pulverizing these foods into a liquid make them anymore beneficial than eating them whole?

They are easier to digest and you eat the entire fruit instead of just parts of it.. including the seeds and many of the peels. Plus by drinking them you eat a lot more of them then you would if you had to chew them up. I eat a lot of fruits and veggies as is, but adding in juice is going to double how many I eat.

I have 10 pound to lose in a month.. I can do it

Querian

How often can you do a juice fast? I did a 2-day juice fast in February, and really enjoyed the benefits you mention of "resetting" my eating habits and cravings. I also lost a few pounds and have kept them off since.

I'm planning on repeating the same 2-day juice fast on Tuesday and Wednesday of this week. Curious to know how often you fast and if you've heard of a good rule of thumb for frequency.

Joe Cross from Reboot with Joe does a 7-10 day juice fast quarterly and that is also my plan. :drinker:

Querian

How does pulverizing these foods into a liquid make them anymore beneficial than eating them whole?

It would be difficult to eat the amount of foods that go into a juice. The juice allows for a nutrient rich dose of vitamins and minerals that is easily digested.

For example,my juice today was 16 ounces, 182 calories, and consisted of the following:
1 head of romaine
a handful of cilantro
2 Persian cucumbers
1/4 lime
1 poblano pepper
1 large apple

It would have been very difficult for me to eat all of that but it was pretty easy for me to drink the juice with my lunch.

AuntieMC

bump

jenniejengin

bump

mysti77

This for this post