Health Blog

Juicing, quite simply put, is using a machine to pulverize fresh fruits and vegetables, separating the liquid from the pulp and drinking it. This method of feeding yourself falls under the banner of a raw food diet because there is no cooking involved.

Proponents of juicing tout the benefits of using only organic produce because today’s farmers use an overabundance of dangerous pesticides and chemicals on their mass produced crops. It is these chemicals and pesticides that while successful at prolonging the shelf life of food, is actually slowly killing the consumer who eats it. Organic produce is grown without the use of pesticides and chemicals and therefore doesn’t last as long as regular produce. That’s a good thing. You really don’t want to eat anything that won’t eventually die, according to most food experts.

So when juicing for health, it is best to drink your freshly made concoction first thing in the morning on an empty stomach. This will ensure quick absorption of all nutrients. Now when starting out, choose to juice the fruits that you like, maybe apples, oranges or watermelon. Once you get used to the fruits then try adding a vegetable into the mix. Juice a carrot or two with your apple juice. Later you can add other vegetables. Veggies take a bit more getting used to because of taste, as some of them are not naturally sweet and because they have a tendency to cause gas and stomach upset. This upset only lasts for a few days, until your body gets used to the change.

While many people use juicing as a means of fasting to cleanse their bodies of toxins, many others simply combine juicing with the consumption of solid foods. Replacing a cooked or prepared meal is a great way to lose weight. Replacing all solid meals with fresh fruit and vegetable juices for a week or two will cause immediate and dramatic weight loss. Care should be taken not to prolong the fast, or you can actually weaken your body sending it into malnutrition. Remember, two day out of a week or one week a month for a couple of months can produce the kind of healthy weight loss that you want without going overboard.

A good rule of thumb with veggies is that the greener the veggie, the more nutrient rich it is. So using leafy greens like spinach, cabbage or endive really do pack a nutritional wallop. The taste however, is an acquired taste. But hang with it. You can grow to like it. There is also a bit of preparation needed for your produce if you didn’t initially buy organic. You can still use regular store-bought produce. You will need to remove the pesticide and chemicals.

This is done by soaking the produce in a mixture of water and hydrogen peroxide, which can be purchased at any drugstore. Add a cap full of the hydrogen peroxide to the water and allow the produce to soak for about ten minutes, or until you can smell the water. That smell is the toxin coming off the produce. Remove the produce, dry it off, and store it in the refrigerator. You should use it within three day after purchase.

Asparagus, or Asparagus officinalis, is one of nature’s very nutritionally dense vegetables. It provides high levels of folic acid, Vitamin B6, A, C, E, and K, calcium, potassium, magnesium, zinc, thiamin, riboflavin, rutin, and other really important vitamins. Six spears of asparagus provides half the adult RDI of Folacin, which is essential for blood cell formation and growth. Folacin is also crucial for the prevention of liver disease, as well as neural tube defects in infants. Its high levels of potassium prevents calcium from leeching out of the body. Vitamin C assists the body in its production and maintenance of collagen, as well as being a good immune booster.

In the 1st century AD, Asparagus was used as a diuretic and used for the treatment of kidney issues, jaundice, and sciatica. Now it is more commonly used as a diuretic for urinary issues, as well as cystitis.

As I was researching the benefits of Asparagus, I came across an abstract from the 2003 Indian Journal of Medical Sciences, stating that Asparagus is referred to in Ayurvedic books as a preventative for the treatment of gastric ulcers, dyspepsia, nervous disorders, inflammation, liver diseases and certain infectious diseases.

Another article entitled Asparagus for Cancer was published in the Cancer News Journal in Dec 1979 and has been circulated around the web. In this article 2 clinical studies was said to have been conducted with patients using the normal green asparagus.

In case no. 1, a man with an almost hopeless case of Hodgkin’s disease (cancer of the lymph glands) was completely incapacitated. However within 1 year of starting the asparagus therapy, his doctors were unable to detect any signs of cancer, and he was back on a schedule of strenuous exercise.

In case no. 2, a successful businessman, 68 years old, who suffered from cancer of the bladder for 16 years, and didn’t improve in spite of years of medical treatments, including radiation without improvement. After 3 months on the asparagus treatment, examinations revealed that his bladder tumour had disappeared and that his kidneys were normal.

These are only some of the research on the benefits of the asparagus plant. I hope that you start to incorporate asparagus even more into your diet.