Juicing

[Mother]

I pulled this from my files recently. I wasn't sure if I had posted it before but felt it was worth repeating if I did.

 

 

Like other alternative therapies, juicing has it’s proponents and it’s opponents both equally zealous. In this discussion of juicing we are talking about fresh juices, not bottled or canned store bought juices which are pasteurized for sale which kills the life giving enzymes that make juicing so beneficial. Bottled juices often contain additives and preservatives, things that will only add to your health problems, not help correct them. Juicing without a mechanical juicer is not only difficult but normally includes a cooking or steaming step that basically gives you the same product you can find in the store. The one difference is that you might be able to use your own or organic fresh produce which would be better for you than none at all. It is possible to accomplish fresh juicing without a juicer. It’s been done for centuries. Basically you chop the fruit or vegetable very fine and devise a way to apply sufficient pressure to force the juice from the pieces. Most cider presses still work on this principle. I have made fresh juice using an old cast iron lard press, an old fashioned hand turned fruit press and at one time worked at an apple orchard helping to make cider on a large commercial hydraulic press. They all work but for pure ease of processing and clean up, give me a small electric countertop juicer. You can buy a small centrifugal juicer for as low as $15 or $20 dollars all the way up to hundreds of dollars. (I got my last one for a dollar at an auction and it works fine) There are some great masticating juicers out there but the prices are equally great. There are pro’s and con’s to both. It would be great to hear from those of you that do have juicers, giving us your opinion of them.

 

OK, lets look into some questions concerning juicing.

 

Why should I drink the juice instead of the whole food?

Juicing concentrates the nutrition in the food and allows the body to assimilate it more easily. It is difficult for a person to get all the nutrients required in a day’s time if the whole food product alone is consumed. Drinking specific juices or combinations of juice has been shown to be beneficial for specific health concerns. As an example, cabbage juice has been found to help heal a stomach ulcer.

 

Don’t I need fiber?

Definitely! Fiber is an essential part of a healthy daily diet. Unless you are using juice as a fast or for a specific healing purpose such as cleansing, you should continue to eat a healthy portion of fruits and vegetables whole daily. Juicing doesn’t replace a healthy diet, it just adds dimensions to it.

 

Can’t I get the extra nutrients I need from Vitamin/mineral pills?

Vitamin/mineral supplements can be useful in a poor diet but unless they are of the ‘whole food’ type, they only contain specific parts of whole food and are deficient in not only the enzymes but in the “unknown” components in the food, (those helpers that modern science has not as yet identified or been able to synthesize) that cause a synergistic reaction in the body that make fresh whole foods the ideal fuel. If you do take vitamin/mineral supplements for some reason, consider taking them with your fresh juice to boost their affect.

 

What about pesticides and herbicides on the fruit and vegetables? Won’t they just be concentrated in the juice?

Ideally, fruits and vegetables used for juicing should be as fresh as possible and organic. If you are using regular store produce be sure to thoroughly wash it before use. Peeling may be necessary in some cases especially where a product might be waxed. There are various washes you can use to help remove the chemicals. Food grade Hydrogen Peroxide is one but be sure to use only food grade, not the type used medicinally. Some people swear by vinegar in the wash water, some say you need to soak the produce at least fifteen minutes. Personally, I try to use organic produce when possible and what isn’t, I wash very well in running water using a brush to physically help remove dirt and chemicals and then pray. I peel most tropical fruits and citrus. The peels on citrus can be bitter and tropical fruit is often from out of the country where spraying is not always regulated, not that we really have a lot of regulation in our own country. Don’t juice any part of the produce that is not normally edible, such as rhubarb leaves, pits and some seeds.

 

How much juice should I drink in a day?

That is considerably variable and depends on your constitution and system. I would start out slowly so that your body will get used to the concentration. Perhaps water down the juice to begin with. All green vegetable juices should be watered down as they are quite potent. When starting on any health regime, remember that you can have what is referred to as a “Healing Crisis”. You feel like you are getting sick or having a reaction to the substance but in actuality, your body is throwing off toxins, which cause a sort of illness in itself. The body works hard to eliminate these toxins so give your self a break and take it easy when first starting any healing routine. Soon you will be able to judge how much your system can handle.

 

Aren’t juices high in calories?

Fruit juices and vegetables like carrots can be high in both calories and natural sugars. If you have problems such as hypoglycemia or diabetes you might want to check with your doctor before starting a juice therapy that contains those types of juices. There are lots of low calorie vegetable juices though that should be perfectly safe. I have hypoglycemia and usually try to keep my juicing focused more on vegetables and use only well watered fruit juices or keep them to small amounts throughout the day. I often do a juice fast using mostly vegetable juices and have no flare ups of hypoglycemia.

 

I feel that juicing is an extremely effective health therapy but this post is meant only as an introduction to juicing, not as a prescription. If you are truly interested in trying this therapy for yourself, I suggest you get one of the many books that are available on juicing. Juicing for Life by Cherie Calbom and Maureen Keane is very good. Heinerman’s Encyclopedia of Healing Juices by John Heinerman is another. Most of the well-known juicers such as the Juiceman’s or Jack LeLane’s come with books. If you have more questions go ahead and ask them here. If I can’t answer them I’m sure other members will be able to help.

 

 

[Belle]

I have a small centrifigal juicer. I'm not wild about the juice it makes because it is foamy. Letting it sit doesn't seem to help (or maybe I'm not waiting long enough). Is there any way to get rid of the foam (it's throughout the juice, not just on the surface)?

 

Also, if you remove anything inedible, such as stems and seeds, before juicing, how could you use the fibrous remains? I feed them to the pigs, but that seems so wasteful. Is there some way to use them to benefit my family?

[Mother]

Belle, I'm sorry I didn't get back to you sooner on this.

 

I, too, get quite a bit of foam with my centrifigal type juicers. I'm not especially fond of it either so I usually just skim it off and set it aside. Eventually it does subside but I find that I'm not losing any appreciable amount of juice with it. I also find that gently shaking the juice and foam in a jar tends to reduce the amount of foam but it also tends to put more oxygen into the juice which starts the nutritional breakdown process so I usually just discard the foam.

 

As for the pulp left from juicing, there is several uses for some of it. If there are seeds left in the pulp I usually discard it in the compost heap or feed it to critters. Chickens especially love it. But if it's just clean peel and pulp I often use it in baked goods or add it to a salad or soups. Carrot is especially useful for this and makes some fine carrot bread. Apple and other fruits can be used this way too. Vegetable pulp is useful in soups and stews. The pulp of most foods can be dehydrated if spread very thin and can be used as a fiber substitute in most foods or drinks after being powdered or ground. Remember though that this is fiber at it's ultimate and would be pretty laxitive.

 

Another use, not often thought of, is to use the pulp of certain fruits and vegetables as a facial scrub or pack. Some are nourishing, some exfoliating and some soothing, espeially if mixed first with honey.

[Belle]

Mother, your timing was impeccable. I've been off the computer for a couple of days of R&R (changing schedules whips my tail) and just got back on tonight.

 

Thank you for all the ideas. I, particularly, like the ideas of adding it to breads and dehydrating and powdering it. It could be added to meat or fruit pie fillings, depending on whether it's fruit or vegetable, as a thickener (pie is my favorite food in the world). I'll bet it would even be nice in oatmeal or other hot cereal.

 

Grandma always said to be sure and get enough roughage. (Grandma was into health foods long before it was trendy. She was a follower of Gaylord Hauser. I even found an ancient 'Your Health' magazine, very much like today's 'Prevention", from 1947, in her buffet after she passed on!)

[Mother]

I have read a few of Gaylord Hauser's works and also have a few of his contemporary Adelle Davis's books. They are finding more and more that the older books were correct in most of their assumptions about health. Even the very old herbals are so close in their usage of herbs to what's been found today in many of the herbs that it's almost ironic.

 

Did you know that Jack LaLanne is a contemporary of the others too. Now HE'S an advertisment for juicing if I ever saw one.

 

BTW, I love pie also but I don't seem to have the touch making them. I can make bread as light as a feather but my pies always turn out tough crusted. I always say it's because I can take my frustrations out on bread and it only makes it better but pie crust takes a really loving touch. LOL. My DD makes wonderful pies so she's the designated pie maker in the family.

[Belle]

Like I always tell my sister and daughter, if peasants in the middle ages could make bread and pie, you can, too. I just coax my pie crusts into cooperating, rather than beat them into submission, like bread. Biscuits are somewhere in between.

 

I love the Gaylord Hauser books. I have my grandmother's and another one that I found at a resale shop. Almost everything in them is in line with today's thinking, including the best way to exercise. Gaylord Hauser was big on stretching (think yoga)

 

I've been reading his books since I was about 13 or 14 (late 60s) and watching Jack LaLanne since I was little. When I was around 5 or so, I would exercise along with him.

 

I'll have to find out more about Adele Davis. I'm not familiar with her, other than 'You are what you eat'.