Just a quickie blog post today. If you hadn’t already noticed from my joyous health twitter feed, I’m a green-juicing-fanatic. Why? Because it is an extremely effective way to clean the pipes and aid the liver in detoxification which is absolutely essential for joyous health. This is exactly why I created a 2-day Juice & Smoothie cleanse!
I call this one Mr. Clean because it cleans you from the inside out. Keep in mind, if you are new to juicing, this recipe is pretty potent and you might want to add an apple to cut the bitterness a touch.
Mr. Clean Green
Ingredients
- Half cucumber
- 3 celery stalks
- 4 beet green leaves or 4 kale leaves
- 2 thumbs of ginger
- Half lemon
I get a lot of questions about juicing, so here is a little juicing FAQ to help you out:
What kind of juicer do you recommend?
It all depends on your budget. I love the speed and strength of the Breville which is what I currently own. However, you can spend as little as $80 up t $500++ for a juicer. My juicer is NOT a masticating juicer which many experts believe to be the best method for juicing to keep all the enzymes intact. The heat generated in the center of the juicer that I own may destroy some enzymes, but it’s still a megawatt dose of vitamins and minerals. My next juicer will probably be the Hurom.
Aren’t juicers a pain to clean?
Contrary to popular belief, no. If you plan on leaving your juicer full of pulp for hours after juicing then yes, they are big pain in the pinny. The trick is to disassemble it immediately, run it through water to clean off all the pulp, give it a little scrub and leave it on your counter to dry. It takes a few minutes, that’s it!
What are the best ingredients to juice?
Always make sure your juices are 80% veggies and 20% fruit. Juice concentrates the sugars in fruit and if you juice only fruit this is not good for blood sugar or diabetics. My fave veggies to juice as a base for a decent amount of liquid are celery, cucumber and romaine lettuce. Leafy bitter greens are excellent because they are amazing detoxifiers and a potent dose of cleansing chlorophyll. Beets, beet greens, kale, spinach, lemons, limes, ginger, apples and pears are my top juicing ingredients.
Can juicing replace eating vegetables and fruits?
Definitely not. Juicing eliminates the fibre which is an extremely important part of healthy digestion. Juicing is an excellent way to get a mega-watt does of enzymes, vitamins and minerals. That is why I recommend juicing.
What should I do with the leftover pulp?
You can use it to make a mineral-rich vegetable broth, add it to a smoothie, make cookies or raw crackers if you have a food dehydrator or compost it.
Should I be using organic fruits and vegetables when juicing?
Yes, it’s a good idea to juice organic produce because you are concentrating the pesticides otherwise. Meaning, you would never physically eat the amount of vegetables you could juice. So if you juice one of the dirtiest foods, celery, you effectively concentrate those pesticides. This is why I juice more often when certain foods are actually in-season. See this downloadable chart for a list of the 12 most highly sprayed fruits and vegetables and the CLEAN 15 (those with the lowest dose of pesticides).
For more juicing recipes and more tips, please visit these links:
- http://www.joyoushealth.ca/2011/02/06/sweet-smoothie-recipe-2-fresh-juice-recipes/ There’s a wonderful smoothie recipe there too.
- http://www.joyoushealth.ca/2010/04/23/an-alternative-to-lemon-water-and-a-new-green-goddess-juice/
Love whipping up different shakes in my blender. Would definitely love to start juicing as well. Thanks for the informative article.
Should I use veggies and fruit that are organic when I juice or does it not matter?
Hi Dorothy, yes definitely use organic when you are juicing. You will use a lot more produce to juice than you would actually eat, making it even more important to choose organic.
Hi, what would you recommend to be a good combination for healing digestion (after years of binge purging and overuse of medications and laxatives).
Thanks
Hi Joy,
Hope you’re well. Just tried this recipe this morning. It tastes great! Will definitely be drinking this regularly.
Thanks for this information. I plan on purchasing a Breville juicer this week and I needed a few starter juice recipes.
Excellent, so happy to hear this!
After reading your comment: “Juicing eliminates the fibre” it got me thinking….
For those of us who do not currently have a juicer but are using a blender or magic bullet type tool do you recommend straining the fibers out of our green juice?
Hi Jen, I don’t recommend that only because it would be such a pain in the butt – very time consuming. Wait till a juicer goes on sale and then get one, as opposed to resorting to the hassle of straining it.
I’ve made this a couple of times since you posted and its delicious! We didnt have lemons the other day and replaced with a grapefruit which was just as good… not sure if its a healthy as lemon but still tasty
Thanks for this useful information. excellent post with great resourses! This is by far one of the most comprehensive posts i’ve seen here and look forward to more.
Hi! I was wondering if you have any tips when juicing leafy greens? When I tried to juice kale, I got no juice – it just ground it up as pulp! Perhaps certain greens are better when juicing? Thanks!
Swiss chard and romaine lettuce will yield the most juice. However, it could also be your juicer?
Hi Joy
I am fructose intolerant so my choice of fruits and veggies to juice are very limited. I mostly just have a vegetable juice with carrot, celery, kale, ginger and tumeric – does this sound ok to you?
I suffer from autoimmune disease so I have the above juice twice daily and find it helps me so much
Thanks
Chloe