Juices for Healthier Living

Want to live healthier? Want to try something tasty while you are living healthier? You have to get one of these juicers. I got mine about a year ago and I love it. I have tried several different recipes and have my favorites. I mix vegetables and fruits to make a sweet variety. Sometimes I don't even peel the lemon or lime since a lot of vitamins are in the peal. The juicer is fast and efficient. It is also easy to clean, which is a big deal in my world.

Maybe it’s just me, but I find the best recipes add fruit with vegetables. Apples with carrots, berries with kale, lemon or lime with spinach, etc. It may just be a matter of taste but if I add some sweet with the bitter veggies, I feel like I am somehow rewarding myself for the consumption of the healthy parts.

What is more, it always helps to add some ice to the glass as well. You get the benefit of a cool summer drink without all the sugar and carbonation. Another healthy plus.

The first recipe I tried was a concoction I made up myself.

1 carrot

1 apple

1/8 cabbage

5 leaves spinach

2 carrots

5 leaves spinach

1 small lime

2 stalks celery

This one is surprisingly tasty too. I didn’t even peal the lime but some of the rind did get into the juice and made it a tiny bit tart. Most of the nutrients are in the rind anyway so I can’t complain.

Try your own concoctions and see what you like. I can say for sure that I hate eggplant in juice form. It is way too bitter for my taste.

1 apple contains Vitamin A, Vitamin C (10% daily value) some calcium and iron.

1 carrot contains Vitamin A (428% daily value), Vitamin C (13%), Calcium (4%) and Iron (2%)

1 cup raw spinach contains Vitamin A (56%), Vitamin C (14%), Calcium (3%), and Iron (5%)

2 sticks of celery contains Vitamin A (10%), Vitamin C (6%), Calcium (4%), Iron (1%)

Recently I decided to go vegetarian. It merely meant cutting all meat from my diet. It was a really easy change as I was leaning away from all that meat anyway. However, the change to vegan was more difficult. Dairy, milk, eggs, cheese and ice cream were a bit harder to give up. I really liked cheese. I did find several substitutes for cheese that taste quite nice. It is the juicing that has taken the place of ice cream for me. I simply use lots of ice and frozen fruit in my juice and put it in a blender to make it smooth. Lovely.

A friend of mine was just diagnosed with stage 4 cancer a couple of months ago. He immediately got proactive with his diet. He switched to more healthy vegetables in his diet and eliminated the red meats, sodas, and an overabundance of heavy starches from his diet. In just a couple months he lost 35 pounds (not from cancer or treatment but from diet changes) and he already feels much better about himself and his life. He is undergoing a chemo treatment currently and that does make him tired and a little nauseous at first but so far he is feeling better than he has in years. His positive attitude will go far in beating this thing and I’m sure the vegetable and fruit juices are helping as well.

When my cousin was diagnosed with breast cancer she switched to juicing her vegetables and fruits and drank them religiously. Unfortunately, it isn’t a miracle cure and she already had cancer spread throughout her body before she was able to stop its progression. I hate that it took her so quickly but I have admitted that some things cannot be prevented. Nothing is 100 percent, not even healthy living.

My father used to always say “what use is it to eat rabbit food in misery and live a long time if you are unhappy about every meal?” He ate like there was no tomorrow: fried food at every meal, fried potatoes, fried pork chops, fried steak, fried chicken, fried rice, etc. He died at 60 but I guess he lived happily. He poured big tablespoons full of sugar on his cereal whenever he condescended to eat cereal. He smoked about 3 packs of cigarettes a day also. However, he died of a brain tumor. No one saw that coming. I guess the truth is that no one knows how long we will live or what will take us to the end.

My wish for everyone is to live as long as you like and eat as you will. Age happens to all of us. My blessings you all.