The Best Home Remedy for Fighting Colds This Season

I'm not a doctor or medical profressional. I'm not a dietician or nutritionist. I am a mom doing my best to keep my family and my kids healthy. For years, my husband and I have made eating healthy a priority in our family. We haven't done anything extreme like cutting ALL sugars or cutting ALL wheat or eliminating ALL gluten, but we have slowly and steadily minimized our sugar intake and maximized our vegetable intake.

I've talked with my husband over and over again about the debate over meats and fats and carbs. How much? What kind? The questions go on. We've noticed, though, very few debate over the benefits of fruits and vegetables. Most people seem to agree that fruits and vegetables are healthy for you and should be eaten in high quantities.

In the midst of our quest to eat healthier and healthier, we bought a juicer. We bought this one years ago, and we've used it more than we ever thought possible. I honestly figured we'd just use it a couple months and lose interest, but we kept on juicing and juicing. During this time, we started making a strong connection between staying healthy and juicing.

Most of our juicing is done with apples, oranges, carrots, pineapple, and some vegetables. The most common juice we started making was pure carrot juice.

Color is usually a good thing in our diets, and as you can see, the carrot juice is an amazing hue of deep orange. It's packed with nutrition.

It didn't take us long to find a very strong connection between staying healthy and drinking CARROT JUICE.

When I'm at my most disciplined, I drink about eight ounces of pure carrot juice around 9:00 every morning. Otherwise, we being drinking carrot juice at any sign of a scratchy throat or runny nose.

I've learned about half a bag of large carrots from Aldi makes about eight ounces. Since my four year old has a bit of trouble drink pure carrot juice, I usually add an apple to his. It works almost like a sweetener and makes it more tolerable for him.

I have grown to enjoy pure carrot juice fresh from the juicer. Whether I'm sick or not sick, drinking pure carrot juice really makes my body feel so much better.

As you've likely gathered, I haven't done scientific research on carrots. I'm not sure what kind of nutrition they contain, but I have learned they have the right nutrition for my family and for me.

Are there pros and cons to juicing?

Absolutely.

Juicing takes time. You will often find me standing at the kitchen counter for half an hour with a baby strapped on me in his Ergo. My two year old quickly pushes a chair over to help peel the carrots. After peeling a whole bag of large carrots, I cut the ends off and begin moving them through the juicer.

We all drink our juice and sometimes I put some in the refrigerator for later when my husband comes home from work.

After that, I compost all the pulp and begin the process of taking apart the juice. It's so much easier to clean if I wash it right away. I submerse most of the parts in hot water and begin scrubbing. It doesn't take long to wash the juicer, but it's a process.

I'll be honest that juicing takes time and energy. It's not always convenient but it's healthy and quite rewarding knowing you're fueling your body with such great nutrition.

Medicines and vitamins in tablet form have their pros and their cons. My husband is prone to ear aches and infections. He's take decongestant his entire life. It wasn't until we bought this juicer that he decided to use nutrition to fight his colds instead of medicine.

I sincerely encourage you to give carrot juice a try. Don't turn your nose too fast at the thought of drinking it. The taste is not repulsive at all, and I've learned to enjoy it.

Plus, like I said above, for our family, this juice has kept us healthy time and time again.

I'd love to hear your thoughts! What has worked for you? How do you keep yourself healthy through cold and flu season?

Do you have a juicer? Do you have a favorite nutrition packed combination that you've found you drink time and time again?