I’ve become somewhat addicted to my new gadget. I think it may verge on the line of obsession. Behold My Juicer!
Sometime last year, I watched a douc-film: ‘Fat, Sick & Nearly Dead’
http://www.fatsickandnearlydead.com/about.html
It grabbed my attention. I watched with ears perked and eyes focused, indeed if I were a dog my tail would have been wagging also.
It left me wanting to know more. Not that I considered myself Fat sick or nearly dead (well, at least I hoped none of these applied to me)! I’ve always felt my attitude towards food, drink & what I put into my body to be a healthy well rounded one. I’m not a follower of ‘faddy diets’ and believe in a ‘lifestyle’ rather than any ‘diet’.
This is partly due to the fact that I can’t have gluten (coeliac disease) & a fructose malabsorption, but also because I’ve always been keen on health & fitness. What is good for me may be different for you & the key to success is what works for you as an individual. To maintain any kind of ‘lifestyle’ or ‘diet’ change I’m also firm with my philosophy ‘everything in moderation’.
Because of the nutrition issues I have, I am always keen to increase my understanding of the different approaches to boost health (I guess we could say inner health). So I didn’t look to this as a diet but rather how to supplement nutrients to my body in a way that was fresh, clean & good for you. I’ve been pleasantly surprised by the results.
First off I ought to explain to you from the knowledge I have been given, what is involved with ‘Fructose malabsorption’ (& then you’ll understand why I’ve come to be rather happy with juicing). In the simplest sense, fructose is a naturally occurring sugar found in various fruit, honey and agave nectar. Dieticians & the medical world refer to it as a FODMAP (Fermentable, Oligo-saccharides, Di-saccharides, Mono-saccharides And Polyols). FODMAP’s are basically poorly absorbed foods. The FODMAP diet essentially excludes all food that contain any of these FODMAP’s & is recommended to those who suffer IBS & similar gut disorders. It’s bloody boring & not much fun, at all.
This means that in theory I can’t eat more than 1 portion of fruit or veg at any one time. Whilst I followed this, I can confirm it did work & I was symptom free. But it’s all a bit bland. & crikey! I missed my fruit & veg. Now here’s the interesting bit: when I ‘juiced’ these offending fructose-containing foods I’ve had no problems drinking them! I think this is something to do with the fibre: Juicing removes the insoluble fibre from fruit & veg & I believe this is what enables my body to digest them. Ok, it also removes other good stuff in the process, but c’mon: it’s swings & roundabouts! If you cook fruit & veg you remove some of the nutrients too.
Juicing is probably no healthier than actually eating your fruit & veg whole. But if like me this isn’t an option then juicing opens up a whole new chapter. I’m sure it certainly can’t do you any harm by topping up your nutrient intake this way. I’ve certainly felt an improvement.
As far as some of the ‘reported health benefits’ it’s been said juicing can: boost your immune system, help give your digestive system a rest from fibre, aid digestion, help remove toxins from your body, reduced risk of cancer,  & help loose weight. Don’t quote me on this, as I haven’t seen any scientific evidence to back it up & I’m not a doctor.
There’s a wealth of information available at your fingertips online about juicing & an overwhelming amount of different machines available to purchase. Initially I bought one of the cheapest on the market: Cookworks £40. It was atrocious! The pulp was so wet I had to put it back through the machine again, every time. & the shoot was too small for whole apples therefore it seemed too time consuming (cutting to size & feeding pulp back through the shoot). My new weapon of choice is still a ‘budget’ machine, but is tons better & is the ‘Sage’ juicer pro. In fact it is the same one Joe Cross uses in his Documentary (just sold under a different name in the UK).
I’ll share with you my favorite juice recipe so far:
- 6-8 Kale leaves
- 2 cucumbers (whole)
- 2 celery sticks
- 2 big handfuls of spinach
- 2 green apples
- a few slices of cantaloupe melon
Juice ‘bars’ are popping up all over the place, & I stumbled across this one locally to me this week: Saints & Sinners, Petts wood
If even after reading this you’re still not quite ready to dive head first into the wonderful world of juicing, then visiting a juice bar is a great place to start.
From my own personal experience, I honestly can’t speak highly enough of juicing. It’s added some much needed variety & colour to my diet. I boldly quote ‘YOLO’ (you only live once), so why not give it go & see what it does for you?