Juicing and Blending—Why?

“The food you eat can be either the safest and most powerful form of medicine or the slowest form of poison.”—Ann Wigmore

Most of us don’t eat enough plant foods on our own. We fall short of the recommended daily amounts of fruits and vegetables in our diets. Juicing and blending smoothies are easy ways of introducing a variety of vegetables and fruits into your everyday diet. Juicing and blending makes it almost effortless to get your daily requirements of fruits and vegetables. Regardless of your lifestyle, most people agree more fruits and more vegetables is a healthier way to eat. That being said, sometimes it is difficult to include them in your everyday diet! That’s where smoothies and juicing come in and make it much easier. For example, one green juice could have almost a head of kale in it and maybe even an apple, too, so in that alone, you are covered for half of your daily requirements. Again, the daily requirements are different for different people, but with juicing and smoothies, you are able to pack a lot of nutrients into one serving. It also satiates your body, filling it with vital nutrients so you are truly fueled to live the best, healthiest life possible.

I have chosen to focus on juicing and blending in this book because I think everyone can benefit by adding one of each to your day. It can change people’s lives and health so drastically, and with this book, it makes it very simple. And when it comes to time and clean up, it takes less time than making eggs and bacon, plus your body will be thanking you! The section on nut and seed milks is also a great place for someone to start, especially if you are trying to remove dairy from your diet. The boxed nut and seed milks out there are filled with questionable ingredients and you’ll be able to see how easy it can be to make your own at home!

JUICING

Juicing is a process that extracts water and nutrients from produce and discards the indigestible fiber.

Without the fiber, your digestive system doesn’t have to work as hard to break down the food and absorb the nutrients. Juicing allows the nutrients to be immediately absorbed into the body. This allows your body to focus on healing itself on a deeper level because the energy your body would normally have taken to digest and break down the food is instead spent on rejuvenating. Juicing also adds the benefit of getting a larger and wider range of nutrition from different ingredients. When the fiber is removed, your body literally has more room for juice. And more juice means more nutrition. The less your body has to work, the more energy you have and the younger you feel and look. Juicing also makes the nutrients available to the body in much larger quantities than if you were to just eat the fruits and vegetables whole.

BLENDING

Smoothies typically consist of the entire fruit or vegetable, sometimes even the skin. The blending process helps to break down the fiber, making the fruit and vegetables easier to digest, and it also helps create a slow, even release of nutrients into the bloodstream, which keeps your body from avoiding the crash of blood sugar spikes. When blending smoothies, the fibers are still intact and the blade of the blender is being used like our teeth to break them down so the fiber is included with the other nutritious vitamins and minerals, making blending an excellent option that keeps the digestive system working well and helps smooth the colon and elimination process.

Smoothies are also more filling because of the fiber. More protein can go into the drink because, for example, you can put your chia seeds and superfoods into the mix. Don’t be scared to put greens in your smoothies; they add important nutrients as well as enzymes that help digest the food. I recommend having more greens than fruits in your smoothie, especially if you’re having a smoothie as a meal replacement. Try not to think of just sweet smoothies; savory ones are quite delicious, as well. Think of them as cold soups. You can even pour them into a bowl and eat them with a spoon!