JUICING TIPS

When you start juicing, start with some vegetables that you like and enjoy while avoiding overly sweet juices. The sweet juices are nice as a treat, but you do want to minimize the sugar content. So start with vegetables juices that you enjoy and slowly introduce a vegetable or vegetables that you are not so fond of in small amounts.

With time, you will most likely find that your taste buds and body might enjoy the juices that in the beginning you did not enjoy.

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Start slow. You do not want to overwhelm your body nor do you want to feel nauseous.

Anyone who has juiced will know their stomach will send clear signals about if you are juicing vegetables that you shouldn't be juicing, at least, not at the moment. You might find that certain vegetables are okay as long as you juice them in smaller doses. Other juices you might discover that your body simply is not ready for. Everyone will be different and it is therefore important that you listen to your body.

While it's easy to drink fruit juice, fruits are high in sugar and should be juiced less often and even better, fruits should be juiced rarely. Fruits are natural cleansers of the body when eaten whole.

When juicing, you will create pulp. You can add some of the pulp back into your juice to get the benefit of the fiber also. When adding pulp back to the juice, the amount you add really depends on your personal preference.

Initially, when you start juicing, you will want to avoid the really dark green leafy vegetables such as kale, dandelion leaves, Swiss Chard, etc. These dark green leafy vegetables are very high in nutrition but also very powerful. Introduce these vegetables slowly into your routine after you and your body get used to drinking fresh juice.

Start with gentle vegetables such as carrots, celery and cucumber. But do not overdo the carrots. Use ¼ to ½ of a carrot. If you use too much carrots then you will increase your blood sugar level too much. With time, you will actually want to remove carrots from your juice routine and instead focus more on the nutritional rich and low in sugar vegetables.

When your body is comfortable drinking the more basic vegetables like carrots, celery and cucumber, which could be a week or so, then move onto vegetables like broccoli, cauliflower, zucchini, lettuce, etc. Introduce all new vegetables slowly but surely. Once your body is acclimatized to these vegetables then you can try other vegetables.

When you feel ready, begin to mix it up a bit. Try some asparagus, spinach, endives, etc. Begin to introduce the more commonly eaten vegetables and slowly introduce some herbs such as parsley and cilantro.

Over a period of time and as your body gets more used to juicing then you can slowly introduce some dark green leafy vegetables such as kale, Swiss Chard, wheatgrass, collard greens, mustard greens and dandelion greens.

I never use more than ¼ dark green vegetable juice. The dark green vegetable juice can be quite powerful. You will know what I mean after trying some Swiss Chard, kale or wheatgrass for the first time.

Do not introduce the dark green leafy vegetables too soon. Wait until your body is used to juicing and when you do start juicing the dark green vegetables, introduce them very slowly.

Vegetables that are grown underground tend to be higher in sugars. This includes carrots, beets, yams, etc. These vegetables do provide important nutrition but they are high in sugar. The key is to not juice them too often and when you do juice them, use smaller amounts. The nutrition in all vegetables is important but we want to juice responsibly by being aware of our blood sugar level.

I suggest people juice a little carrot in the beginning simply because it tastes great. But I do not like to encourage juicing carrots long term. Carrot juice is a great way to introduce you and your body to fresh vegetable juice but the keyword here is "introduce". After your body has been introduced to juicing, it's time to focus less on carrots and more on vegetables that are grown above ground.

I still drink carrot juice. I just don't carrot juice every day nor do I drink it in large amounts.

When juicing, it's important that you listen to your body. Your body will tell you which vegetables your body likes or dislikes. Whenever introducing a new vegetable, start slow and with a small amount of the new vegetable. In this way, you safely discover if there is a vegetable that your body does not like.

I like to suggest that people never add more than one new vegetable to their juice. The reason why is that if you add two or more new vegetables to your juice and if your body does have a reaction to the juice, then which vegetable is the culprit?

By adding one new vegetable to your juice, you can then easily identify which vegetable is the culprit.

When you drink your vegetable juice, the juice should be at room temperature. This means you should take your vegetables out of the fridge and place on the counter for a few hours before juicing. Ideally and if you can, leave your vegetables out overnight to ensure they are at room temperature. Cold food shuts down the digestive system and this would then defeat the purpose of juicing.