Rainy days & Tuesdays & a glass or two of warm juice

It’s been raining for more than a week now here in Manila and according to news, we will continue to have more rains in the next days.

While juicing is healthy and fun during hotter weather, it isn’t so in this cold, bed weather.  Before I share personal tips on juicing in this weather, allow me to share why juicing is the juiciest decision you will ever make.  Full text on juicing is available in the FIT + FAB Guide by Raw Yogini Sonia published by Moulinex Philippines.

Why juicing is the juiciest decision you will ever make

You’ve probably heard it in the locker rooms where health or yoga enthusiasts gather. “Yes, I had green juice before I left home” or “What’s in your juice?” or “I used kale, celery, spinach, cucumber, lemon, and a bit of apple in mine, oh and ginger too, that gave it a kick!” or “Oh I tried my new masticating juicer and it works so well, I’m getting rid of my centrifugal!”

Allow me to list a number of reasons why juicing is so juicily good you want this in your life:

• Juicing removes the fibers in your fruits and vegetables allowing you to easily and quickly absorb and assimilate most of the nutrients from the food.
• It allows you to use the nutrients from the food much of which is lost by cooking.
• It gives you more energy because your body will not be spending most of its resources digesting solid foods.
• It keeps your body and your organs hydrated.
• It allows you to consume more fruits and vegetables than you would normally consume in their solid form.
• It allows the body to naturally heal, cleanse, and repair with its abundance of energy that often is used for food digestion.

The good juice is…

Now that you’re thinking about juicing you ask yourself, what do I juice? What’s a good juice?

Most fruits and vegetables can be juiced except for a few that have very low water content such as bananas and avocados. Bananas and avocados are often added in smoothies, which require a blender but not so much in juices where we use a juicer. Remember that in smoothies, all the fibers of the fruits and vegetables are still in the drink while in juices, the fibers are taken out. In this case, you may still juice them but separately from others and you may want to add in a bit of water.

While good and tasty flavor is a must in any food that you want to consume, consider proper food combination when juicing or when eating in general.

Dr. Amy Rachelle, ND in her New You, Real You – Pure Raw 101 manual recommends that fruits must be eaten alone and not combined with vegetables and that fruits must not be eaten in between meals while other food is digesting in the stomach. While all fruits and vegetables are good in smoothies and juices, for proper food combination, she does not recommend eating sweet fruits (bananas, dates, currants, figs, dried fruits, grapes, papaya, persimmon, prunes, and raisins) with acid fruits (blackberry, grapefruit, lemon/lime, orange, pineapple, sour plum, pomegranate, raspberry, sour apple, and strawberry) and while melons are best eaten alone, they can be mixed with acid and sub-acid fruits (apple, apricot, blueberry, cherry, kiwi, mango, papaya, peach, pear, and sweet plum).

In case you find green leafy vegetable juices too strong for your taste, always add in cucumbers and lemon juice to balance the flavor while being faithful to good food combination.

Slow or fast?

Now that you’re even more convinced about juicing, the next question to ask is, do you buy the slow or the fast juicer?

When I first heard about juicing and its benefits, I was one of those few who ran to the department store and bought my first ever juicer – the fast juicer or the centrifugal juicer. While I am satisfied with it, the more I read about it, the more I could see why the slow or masticating juicer is a better choice, which of course prompted me to get a new one.

The centrifugal juicer shreds the fruits and vegetables and forces the juice out and, in the process, loses some of the nutrients from heat and oxidation. Masticating juicers, on the other hand, press and squeeze the juice at a slower rate and retain the necessary enzymes of the fruits and vegetables. Juice from masticating juicers may be kept in the refrigerator for up to three days, while those from centrifugal juicers need to be consumed immediately.

When getting your juicer, choose a slow juicer over a fast juicer if you can.

Some people ask how about if you only have a blender. You may still use your blender to make juice, but you need a nut milk bag or a strainer to remove the pulp produced after blending.

Juicing in this cold weather

Now that you’re ready to juice…  are you really ready and committed to it?  Here are quick personal tips on how to stick to your juices in this cold weather.

• Start your day with a hot tea.  I recommend ginger tea.  Ginger is very warming for the body.  I’m one of those people who used to feel cold almost all the time.  A Traditional Chinese Medicine doctor told me that I have too much cold in the body thus I need to warm it.  I was working full time at that time and didn’t have much time to prepare tea in the morning.  The solution?  I was advised to chew on ginger every morning for at least 30 minutes.  For several weeks, ginger became my candy.  I’d chew it while at the gym or while getting ready for work.
• If you prepare your juice a day before drinking them, make sure to take them out of the refrigerator an hour or two before consuming them.
• Add warming ingredients to your juice.  Again, ginger is the best.  A personal favorite is pineapple-ginger juice.  Or even a pinch of cayenne or black pepper.
• Stick to your morning exercise to even warm the body.

Categories: Raw Food Tuesdays!, Raw Recipes