Have you ever seen what they recommend for a daily intake of fruits and vegetables?It’s pretty darn overwhelming, and that’s with the normal food pyramid. Forget it if you’re trying to eat 80% fruits and veggies in your daily diet!

That’s where juicing comes in.

Now, I want to say right off the bat, juicing isn’t everything. I once thought it was, but I now know it’s not. Juicing does just that–gives you juice. There is no pulp, no fiber to what you’re getting when you juice.

You do however, receive vital nutrients such as vitamins in their potent form, from juicing. Just drink some fresh apple juice mixed with carrot juice and you’ll feel an energy charge similar to that as a grande Starbucks.

Later in the series we will take a look at the benefit of smoothies in addition to juicing but for those just starting out, drinking juice is more palatable than spinach smoothies.

What Should I Juice?

Pretty much anything goes–except beets. Don’t juice beets alone! Always juice them in a small – very small – ratio compared to whatever else you are juicing. Beet juice is exceptionally potent stuff and can cause your heart to race, hives to break out, and even your vocal chords to become paralyzed. I had a friend experience this first hand. It terrified her! Beet juice is a great toxin eliminator but your body must become used to it over time, so please, start out small!

Other than that, juice anything you can find in your produce section. My favorite combination is:

2 – 3 cups of greens (kale, spinach, bok choy, parley, etc)

3 apples

2 oranges

2 large carrots

1 cup of pineapple

half lemon (detox)

Mmmmmm! That is some good stuff!

Higher Fruit to Vegetable Ratio

When starting out, you’ll want to have a higher fruit ratio to your vegetable ratio. If you have more apples and pineapple than spinach, you’ll never even taste the spinach. With time, you may not only get used to the greens taste, some days you may want to taste that more than the sweet fruit taste.

If you don’t have a lot of fruit, carrots are just as good of a sweetener for your greens as fruit. Carrot juice alone is amazing in fact!

What is the best juicer

Here is where hot debate comes in. Some people swear that the high priced machines are the only way to go. Those of us on a much tighter lifestyle swear that cheap works fine.

Here is the biggest difference between the two as I understand it. The cheaper juices generate more heat, thus destroying vital nutrients as they push through the juicer. The juicers that can run in the $1,000′s do not generate heat, keeping the nutrients and also getting more out of the vegetables *the pulp is much dryer after the juicing process, indicating more was taken out*

I use the well-known Jack LeLanne’s Juicer, which can be found for less than $100 on sale at your local Target and after five years am still going strong with it. Would I buy a power juicer that runs in the $1,000′s if I had the money? Yes. I do believe they are better. But for where I am, what I have works for now.

Some juicers on the market include the following

Omega 1000 Juicer

Breville 800JEXL Juice Fountain Elite 1000-Watt Juice Extractor

Jack Lalanne’s JLSS Power Juicer Deluxe Stainless-Steel Electric Juicer

LEquip 306601 XL Juicer

Reviews of these juicers can be found here and here.

Week 1, Part A

Week 1, Part B

Week 2, Part A

Week 2, Part B

Week 3