I’ve been drinking delicious fruit and vegetable juices for well over a decade now, and it is, without doubt, the number one thing I have done for my health. Juicing has some truly awesome benefits, and these days I just couldn’t live without my daily juices. So what benefits does juicing have? Here are 11 awesome health benefits of juicing.
1. Helps You Lose Weight
Juicing has been used successfully by hundreds of thousands of people to help them lose weight. Just do a Google search of juicing for weight loss, and you’ll find millions of articles. The desire to lose weight is probably the number one reason that people turn to juicing. And there is a very good reason for this – it works.
Traditional dieting, where you restrict your calories for a few days or weeks, is doomed to become a failure. The main reason for this is because it tends to leave you constantly hungry because your body just doesn’t get the nutrients it needs. Then this puts your body in starvation mode, and your metabolism slows down to compensate. Once the diet is over, most people go back to their old way of eating. And this is the same diet that made them gain weight in the first place. But the diet will have slowed down their metabolism, so they now end up gaining even more weight than they previously had. It’s a very common phenomenon for people to lose weight during a diet and then put more weight back on than they lost in the subsequent days and weeks. They then go on another diet and start the process all over again.
This yo-yo dieting, where your weight is going constantly up and down, is very bad for your general health. It also means that for most people, they will never lose weight and keep it off. But juicing is different. To lose weight via juicing, people generally go on a juice fast or juice detox for a set number of days. Some people will just drink fruit and vegetable juices for 5-30 days at a time, while others will juice for one or two days a week, every week. Both methods can work, although the longer juice fasts will work more quickly.
The reason many people can stick to a juice fast for 30 days when they can’t stick to a diet, is that on a juice fast they can drink as much juice as they like. That means that their bodies are getting massive amounts of nutrients, so it doesn’t leave them hungry and craving unhealthy foods. The longer juice fasts also give you a general sense of well-being and have other benefits (see below) that will make you want to continue the juice fast for longer. If you do get hungry, you can just drink some more juice. Most juices are pretty low in calories, so you can drink them throughout the day and still lose weight. I have done 30-day juice fasts in the past and have had great success with them. I also know many people that have lost large amounts of weight on 30-day juice fasts, and the weight has stayed off – as long as they stick to more sensible eating patterns at the end, which most people tend to do.
For many, the overall results are so good that their bodies just don’t crave junk food as they did before the juice fasts. This is because a long juice fast can normalize many of your body systems, and this enables you to more easily get back to a sensible way of eating. And once you’ve done a long juice fast, you will be more likely to incorporate it into your diet, so this will also help to keep you from regaining the weight that you’ve lost. I personally start my day with a large, green juice, as this gives me a great start to the day, and I don’t then crave unhealthy food choices. Before starting any type of juice fast, I would advise checking with your doctor first, as there may be certain people for whom this isn’t suitable. If you are pregnant, I would strongly advise against any type of dieting or juice fasting. Some medical conditions may also get worse with a juice fast, so be sure to check with your doctor first. If your doctor says it’s okay for you to go on a juice fast, but you’re not sure if it’s for you, then start with a 1-day juice fast and see how it goes. You can then decide whether to continue or not. Maybe what will work for you is doing a juice fast one day a week, and having a healthy, green juice every morning. That combination works for many people. So, give it a try and experiment to see what suits you best.
2. Gives You Glowing Skin
Juicing gives you glowing skin. While many people juice to lose weight, the one thing that they tend to notice very quickly is that their skin improves, and positively glows. When I go on a juice fast of five days or longer, people always comment on how good my skin looks. And this is also one of the main reasons that I have continued juicing on a daily basis, as well as the fact that the juices are delicious. I have followed a healthy diet for years, and my skin has always been pretty good. But when I started juicing regularly, there was still a noticeable improvement. It went from pretty good to pretty awesome. And it wasn’t just me that noticed. Almost everyone else I came into contact with commented on it. Friends, family, and even complete strangers often ask what I use to keep my skin looking so good. They always seem to be expecting me to tell them about some expensive face cream I use, and they are almost always surprised that it is my daily juicing that has improved the quality of my skin.
Talk to anyone who juices on a regular basis, and you will see that their skin is much better than the average person who eats a junk food diet. So, what is it about juicing that improves your skin quality? I think the answer is two-fold. First of all, juicing gives your body massive amounts of nutrients in an easily digestible form. This means that when you start juicing, you are suddenly getting a much greater quantity of nutrients that you have been prior to juicing. To create a new skin, your body needs a whole host of nutrients. If these are absent from your diet, your body builds new skin that isn’t so good. Just imagine building a new house with low-quality bricks and cement. The finished house wouldn’t look so good, and wouldn’t age very well. But imagine building the house with the best quality bricks and cement. I’m sure you’d agree that you’d get a great-looking house that would age well. The same is true of your skin.
Feed your body low-quality nutrients, and you’ll get low-quality skin. Feed it high-quality nutrients in large quantities, and it will have everything it needs to give you skin that both looks good and feels good. Too many people make the mistake of thinking that they can only get great-looking skin by using expensive creams. And while I agree that many of these creams and lotions do work, it is what you put into your body that has the greatest effect.
I’m sure you’ve all heard the saying “We are what we eat”. Well, in the case of your skin, this really is true. The other way that juicing can help your skin has to do with the fact that when you are juicing, you are less likely to be eating junk food. Some foods, such as deep-fried foods, are known to be bad for the skin, so avoiding these has the effect of not making your skin look bad in the first place. So, even if you didn’t drink fruit and vegetable juices, your skin would still most likely improve if you cut out junk food from your diet. But the beauty of juicing is that it actually makes you less likely to crave junk food. Your body is being filled with lots of nutrients, so you feel more satisfied and just don’t need that junk food. So, juicing creates this double benefit, massive amounts of top-quality nutrients from the fruits and vegetables, plus the lack of craving for junk foods that can damage your skin. So, less damage to your skin takes place, and more nutrients mean your body can build skin of a much higher quality. So, if you’re one of those people that hasn’t considered juicing because you’re not overweight, just think about whether you would like to add glowing skin to your already slim body.
I have met many people that think juicing is just for losing weight, but this just isn’t the case at all. Most juicing articles seem to stress weight loss because that is the main benefit for most people. But the other benefits can be just as awesome. And having beautiful, glowing skin is a great reason for wanting to add juicing to your diet. For losing weight, many do a 30-day juice fast. But for improving your skin, a much shorter juice fast will work just as well. A 5 to 7-day juice fast should have your skin looking great. Just adding a big, green juice to your diet once a day can give remarkable results as far as your skin is concerned.
One point worth noting though is that a juice fast can make your skin worse before it gets better. This is because juicing will also detoxify your body, which means that the toxins that are released will often come out via the skin. So, during the first few days, your skin may look worse. But it should start improving quickly after that. Individual results can vary widely, as the number of toxins in a person’s body can vary widely from person to person. As mentioned above, talk to your doctor before starting a juice fast. In nearly every case, they will most likely say it’s okay for you. But it’s better to be safe than sorry. You don’t want to put your health in danger just because you didn’t check first.
3. Boosts Your Energy Levels
Juicing on a regular basis is a surefire way to increase your energy levels. If this was the only benefit I got from juicing, then I would still choose to juice on a daily basis. Juicing is the one thing that has increased my energy levels more than anything else. I just love the energy boost I get each morning from a big, green juice. And the energy boost isn’t short-lived but lasts throughout the day.
On days that I’m really busy or doing very physical work, I may also have another juice (or two or three) later in the day. Juicing is so easy that you can make a juice in minutes, whenever you like. Why is juicing so good at boosting energy levels? The answer is that your body needs an adequate supply of a range of nutrients in order to create the energy that keeps you going throughout the day. With juicing, you get a huge amount of extra nutrients in each juice you drink. This means that your body has all the nutrients it needs to sustain your energy levels all day long, whatever you’re doing. As well as providing adequate amounts of nutrients, juices also supply those nutrients in an easily digestible form. Eat 6-8 carrots, and your body will take a while to break them down and digest them. But with carrot juice made from the same amount of carrots, you are getting a similar amount of nutrients that your body can digest in a much shorter time. This means that your body gets the nutrients it needs into its system more quickly, and you get the energy boost more quickly. When it comes to boost your energy levels, the total daily energy expenditure (tdee) also does matter. The tdee calculator is your best companion that helps you to calculate tdee within an efficient way.
Many people make a big mistake by trying to get an energy boost from caffeinated drinks such as coffee, tea, and soft drinks. While these drinks do boost your energy levels in an instant, this can be very short-lived, and the after-effects can leave you with a lot less energy than you had to begin with. Do this every day for years, as many people do, and you will likely feel like you just can’t get going until you get your morning caffeine fix. You’ll also need your mid-morning caffeine fix, lunchtime caffeine fix, and mid-afternoon caffeine fix. This can lead to adrenal fatigue problems that can leave you tired all the time, something that millions of people in the world currently suffer from. In fact, it’s one of the main reasons that people see their doctors. As well as the caffeine mistake, many also turn to sugary foods and drinks, and other junk foods. These raise your blood sugar levels in the short-term, but then they crash back down leaving you feeling even more tired. As with caffeine, this way of trying to boost your energy levels can have long-term, adverse health implications. It’s also a reason why so many people these days end up overweight.
In complete contrast to this, juicing gives you a real energy boost. It’s not the false energy you get from caffeine and sugar, that leaves you worse off in the long run. The energy boost from drinking delicious fruit and vegetable juices is long-lasting and improves your overall health and energy levels over the longer-term, as well as over the shorter-term. And once you start drinking delicious juices on a regular basis, you’ll find that you naturally cut back on caffeine and sugary foods and drinks, because your body simply doesn’t need them. If you have abundant energy from your daily juices, your body won’t have the need to crave artificial ways to boost itself. If you add a big, green juice to your diet once a day, you should feel an almost immediate boost in your energy, as well as a gradual improvement over the following weeks and months.
If you opt for a longer juice fast in order to kick-start your system, it’s possible that you may initially have days when you feel more tired than usual. This is because your body is using this time to cleanse itself, and sometimes this can mean that it is diverting most of its energy to the cleansing process. This leaves little energy left over. But once the cleansing is done, you should feel a real boost in your long-term energy levels. Even though I have always thought of myself as being in pretty good overall health, I did find that my energy levels were lower than I would have liked them to be.
I was also one of those people who used to have a cup of coffee before I could start my day. But when I did my first 7-day juice fast, all that changed. The first day I had more energy, but then I had a real dip in energy levels for 2-3 days before it picked up again. By the end of my first 7-day juice fast, my energy levels were better than they had been for years. And the amazing thing is that my energy levels have continued to get steadily better over the years that I’ve been juicing. The only problem I have now is finding enough things to do to use up all that energy. But I’m not complaining. So if you have low energy levels, or if you feel that you’re overly reliant on caffeinated and sugary drinks, then give juicing a go. Say goodbye to that ‘tired all the time’ feeling, and say hello to abundant energy.
4. Boosts Your Immune System
Even though this may not be something that you notice right away, it is probably one of the most important benefits of juicing on a regular basis. Your body needs a healthy immune system in order to fight off viral, bacterial, and other attacks. This can be something as simple as a common cold, or something more serious like cancer. People with strong immune systems tend to get cold or flu much less frequently than people with weakened immune systems. And when they do get a cold or flu, it tends to last for a shorter period of time.
The reason for this is simply that their immune system is able to fight off these attacks from viruses and bacteria much more easily. Before I started juicing, I used to get a cold of flu a couple of times a year on average, but in the last five years, I’ve only had one case of mild flu. So that’s a vast improvement and a lot less suffering. It is worth juicing on a regular basis just to get these benefits. But what about more major diseases such as cancer. I don’t have any evidence to prove that juicing will help you avoid cancer, but it seems common sense to me that if you strengthen your immune system, then it will be more able to fight off even major diseases such as cancer. A healthier body is less likely to get any major diseases. So you may not avoid every disease, but you will most likely have a better chance of avoiding them than the average person.
The Gerson Clinic treats cancer patients and has had great success even in treating cases that conventional doctors had given up on. There are thousands of cancer patients that attended the Gerson clinic that no longer has cancer. They don’t claim to have cured the patients, but rather they facilitated the healing process. And while the Gerson Clinic uses a complete range of detox and cleansing methods, what is central to their program is juicing. Each cancer patient at the Gerson Clinic drinks 8-10 glasses of juice every day for two years. It’s a tough regime to follow, but the successes speak for themselves. If juices have the power to help people recover from cancer, then I think this should be enough to get people to want to start improving their health via juicing before any major diseases take hold. I am confident that by juicing daily and following other healthy habits, that I will never get cancer. With so many people dying of cancer, that gives me great peace of mind.
But this is my opinion, and others may have different opinions. I don’t have any definitive proof, but from what I’ve read, seen, and experienced myself, it seems that juicing is a very powerful tool that can greatly improve our health. It has certainly improved mine and that of many others. As we get older, our immune systems tend to weaken over time. And it’s usually when we get older that we need them the most. So it’s important to maintain a healthy and strong immune system throughout life. Juicing is the main method I use to ensure this. A healthy and strong immune system needs plenty of nutrients to help it work efficiently, and juicing provides these nutrients in abundance. Drinking fruit and vegetable juices regularly flood your body with nutrients, and this is just what your immune system needs. Why would you not want to juice, when doing so could boost your immune system and keep it healthy for the rest of your life?
5. Strengthens Your Hair And Nails
We all want to look our best and feel good about yourselves, and juicing can help us with this as well. Juicing every day means that you get vast amounts of extra nutrients that will both strengthen and enhance the look of your hair and nails. This can be a real boost to your self-confidence, especially when other people comment on how good you look. Some people may comment that this is a very superficial reason to start juicing, but the fact is that strong hair and nails are a sign of good health. It means your body is getting an adequate supply of the nutrients it needs.
Many people are aware that the best of breed dogs look so good because their owners are very careful that they get the best diet available. It’s no surprise to them that the dogs look so healthy, with wonderful coats of hair. We understand that feeding them an optimal diet is bound to have this effect. But when it comes to looking after ourselves, we seem to forget this logic, and instead opt for hair and nail treatments instead of improving our diets. While it’s true that hair and nails can be strengthened in this way, it’s a poor substitute for feeding them the nutrients they need.
Hair and nails need a good supply of minerals, and green juices provide these in abundance. Vegetables such as kale, chard, cabbage, and broccoli are some of the top performers when it comes to the supply of much-needed minerals. I always start my day with a large, green juice, and doing so has improved the strength and look of both my hair and nails. So if you too want great looking hair and nails, be sure to try some of the green juices from the recipes later in the book. If you drink just one large, green juice a day, you should see an improvement in your hair and nails within a matter of a few short weeks. If your hair and nails are already in good condition, it may be harder to spot the improvement yourself, but you will probably get comments from friends and family who notice it. For those whose hair and nails are in a not so good condition, you should easily be able to spot the improvement.
As mentioned above, healthy hair and nails are an outward sign of overall good health and can give a huge boost to self-esteem, which has the knock-on effect of improving your health even further. So while this may all seem superficial, there is more going on behind the scenes than most people realize. We all have bad hair days, but brittle, lackluster hair and nails can be a sign of mineral deficiency, so it is something to be taken seriously. It’s not just cosmetic, but an outward sign of what’s happening inside your body. With insufficient minerals and other nutrients, your body just doesn’t have the right building blocks to build strong and healthy hair and nails. If it doesn’t have enough for these basic nutrients, then you can be sure that there are other, unseen things happening inside your body.
The consequences might not show up immediately, but it’s possible that over the years these deficiencies will take their toll and be the start of some disease or other. So don’t think of the state of your hair or nails as just something superficial, but think of them as a sign of how healthy you are overall. Drink a green juice every day and see the improvement for yourself. You’ll have better-looking hair and nails, a healthier body, and increased self-esteem. They are three great reasons to start juicing today.
6. Improves Your Sleep
Not having a good night’s sleep and feeling tired when you wake up is one of the top reasons that people visit their doctor. It’s almost like a national epidemic of insomnia and tiredness. And the latest figures show that tens of millions of people take sleeping pills on a regular basis to help them sleep. So wouldn’t it be great if there was a simple and natural way to improve your sleep and wake up feeling great? Well, guess what, there is. And it’s called juicing. Now I don’t want you to get the impression that drinking a few juices will cure your insomnia, because that may not be the case.
There are a large number of reasons that people have trouble sleeping, and many people will need additional help with their problems. But I firmly believe that juicing can help with a significant amount of sleep-related problems. One reason that people have problems sleeping is simply that they consume too much caffeine during the day. But they feel like they have to have their caffeine fix via coffee, tea or soft drinks, as that is what helps get them through the day. It’s easy to tell these people to cut out caffeine, but doing so in practice can be very difficult. When I started juicing on a regular basis, I didn’t make any conscious decision to cut back on my caffeine intake. I used it in moderate amounts to help me get through the day but didn’t see it as a problem, although I knew it affected the quality of my sleep. But then I just cut back naturally.
I used to drink around 4-6 cups of coffee a day, and a few weeks later I suddenly realized that I had only been drinking 1-2 cups per day. This occurred quite naturally and without me even noticing. I think the reason for this is that the extra nutrients I was getting from the regular juices was helping increase my energy levels, and also sustain them throughout the day. I then didn’t need that regular coffee to boost my energy. If I’d made a conscious effort to give up coffee, I would probably have found it a bit difficult. This is partly because when we try to give up something, we are focused on it. And being focused on something makes us think of it more often. So thinking about giving up coffee just keeps it in your mind, and makes giving up more difficult. But my focus wasn’t on coffee, but on juicing. I used to drink 3-4 large juices every day, and I was totally focused on this. So somehow I just drastically cut back on the coffee without really noticing.
These days I have switched to green tea, and have 2-3 cups a day. Green tea has much less caffeine than coffee and has a much more mellow feel to it than the edginess you often get from coffee. It was a conscious decision to quit, but the juicing obviously helped. Another reason that may contribute to insomnia and other sleep problems is stress. We all have stress in our lives, but some people deal with it better than others. Some people seem to fall apart with the slightest amount of stress in their lives, while others sail through life even though they appear to have lots of stress. So what’s the difference here, and how can juicing help? It seems to be that the people that are the healthiest are the ablest to deal with stress, and the most unhealthy just can’t cope with any stress at all. I think this is at least partly due to the fact that unhealthy people don’t have an adequate supply of the nutrients needed to deal with stress. Any stress creates chemical and hormonal reactions in the body, and these have to be dealt with. If your body can deal with these efficiently, then you won’t really feel the effect of the stress. But without an adequate supply of these nutrients, you will likely feel the full effects of stressful situations.
Juicing can help here because it supplies those extra nutrients in an easily digestible form, and this helps your body to cope more easily with the stresses of life. Most people don’t eat nearly enough fruit and vegetables, but taking them in juice form means they can have 3-5 large helpings of fruit and vegetables in just one large juice. Have 3-4 juices a day, and you can see how easy it is to add massive amounts of extra nutrients to your diet. I have often heard regular juicers comment on how calm they feel compared to their pre-juicing days. It’s not an instant effect, but drinking regular juices can benefit you immensely over time. Green vegetables have a particularly calming effect. Low levels of folic acid have been linked to depression, and green, leafy vegetables are high in folic acid. So I’m sure you can see the connection there. Magnesium, which is a mineral particularly noted for its calming effects, is available in large quantities in spinach. So if stress is your main problem, be sure to start off the day with a large, green juice. If this is the only change you make to your diet, it will be well worth it.
7. Improves Your Concentration Levels
People who don’t sleep well, also tend to suffer from low concentration levels. And low concentration levels mean that your work, and your ability to earn, can suffer. My concentration levels have never been too bad, but I have noticed a distinct improvement over the years I’ve been juicing. So I don’t think this is something that juicing can fix quickly, but rather something that improves gradually over time. I take a holistic view of the body and see everything as being connected and working together in a very complex manner. So you can’t just isolate concentration levels, and fix that while leaving everything else as it is. Well, that’s not entirely correct, because caffeine is known to improve concentration levels almost immediately. But what I am talking about here is a sustained, and natural, improvement in concentration that lasts.
Caffeine will certainly boost your concentration, but once the effects wear off you’ll likely end up with concentration levels that are worse than before you took the caffeine. So while caffeine has positive short-term effects, it can have negative long-term consequences. I don’t see anything wrong with having a coffee before an important exam, but using coffee on a daily basis, just to be able to do your job, just doesn’t seem worth it. Another problem with using caffeine to boost your concentration levels is that you can get into a cycle that’s difficult to get out of. You drink coffee to improve your concentration levels, but then need to drink increasing amounts just to get the same effect. This can then lead to insomnia, which further negatively affects your concentration, and so the cycle continues. It’s incredibly difficult to break out of a vicious cycle like this.
But as mentioned above in the sleep section, drinking a few green juices every day can break this cycle without you even noticing. You will drink less caffeine as time goes by, and your concentration levels will improve. Your sleep will also improve, thus further benefiting your concentration levels. So you are then in a cycle that’s giving increasingly positive results. Sleep and concentration levels are intimately entwined, and if you suffer from the one you’re also likely to suffer from the other. So you’re really fixing two problems at the same. And concentration isn’t just about managing to focus on your work for a few hours.
Lack of concentration can actually lead to death in extreme cases, such as if you’re not concentrating properly when you’re driving. A lack of concentration of only a second or two can have devastating effects if you happen to be driving at the time. Many people who have been in accidents report that they momentarily lost concentration. This isn’t something we tend to think of, but it can happen so you need to be aware of it. Avoiding potential death seems a great reason to start juicing, but it’s a bit of a tenuous connection so may not convince many. But improving your general concentration levels may be enough to convince at least a significant number of people. People with higher concentration levels tend to have a better social life and spend more quality time with friends and family. This is most likely due to the fact that these people are generally less tired, and even after long periods of concentration their energy levels are still high.
Those who have difficulty concentrating need to expend extra energy on the tasks they are doing, and so end up not having enough energy for the fun things in life. I have been a writer most of life, and often spend hours at a time working. In the past, I used to have coffee every couple of hours in order to keep me going. By the end of the day I was always pretty tired, and so tended to neglect the social side of my life a little. But this seemed completely normal, as this seemed to be the norm for the majority of people I knew. But since juicing regularly, I can now work for much longer than I did the past and still have plenty of energy left over for the fun things in life. It is much easier actually experiencing this than trying to describe it in words. I have known many people that thought that their energy and concentration levels were normal, but it was only later when they had an improvement that they realized how bad they were, to begin with.
So you may think that your energy and concentration levels are normal, but that could be because you’ve never experience abundant levels of either. It really has been a revelation to me how much I’ve improved over the years. I had a noticeable improvement within a few days, then improved a little more after a few weeks, and then have had a gradual improvement over the years. In fact, I still feel like I’m improving even after over a decade of juicing. Sometimes I don’t think it’s possible to improve anymore, and it’s only when I look back a year or two that I realize that there has been an improvement. But this doesn’t mean that you will need to wait years to see an improvement. You should get a noticeable initial improvement, and then more to come as you continue juicing on a regular basis.
8. Improves Your Digestion
As we get older our digestion tends to get worse, so it’s great to be able to do something positive to help your digestive system to stay in peak condition for longer. And it’s not just older people that have digestion problems, but many younger people as well. In fact, antacid medicine is a billion dollar business, so this just shows how bad the digestive health of the nation is. And juicing comes to the rescue once again. I’ve never personally had any digestion problems, so have nothing personal to report about it. But I have friends who suffered from digestion problems of one sort or another for many years. And the only thing that helped some of them was introducing juicing into their diet.
Juicing helps your digestive system in a couple of interesting ways. For those with more severe digestive problems, even eating any food can put a strain on their system. If their digestive tract is inflamed, then it doesn’t get any time to heal because they still have to continue eating. But many people with more severe digestive problems have reported some remarkable benefits of juicing. As juice is much easier for the body to digest than regular food, there is much less for the digestive system to do, and this gives it a bit of rest, thus allowing it to heal. For people like these, a longer juice fast, of maybe 7 days or more, seems to work best. 7 days or more of just drinking juices gives your digestive tract an almost complete rest. This allows ample time for it to start to heal itself. Of course, not all severe digestive problems will heal this easily, so you should discuss with your doctor before you start on a juice fast. But I have read many reports of great recoveries, so it is something to consider if you’ve been having problems that you haven’t been able to resolve any other way. And for those with less severe problems, juicing can also help, as the extra juices are providing more nutrition than you have probably been getting. This increased nutrition can only be good for your body as a whole, including your digestive tract. Even one juice a day instead of a meal is giving your system an extra period of rest. And extra rest and more healing time are bound to have a positive effect over the longer term.
If you have a compromised digestive system, it also means that your body isn’t able to absorb all the nutrients from the food you eat. So, you may be following a great diet, but if your body can’t properly digest all that great food then you are missing out. This is also a situation where juicing can help because juices are much easier to digest, and so your body is more able to make use of the nutrients. Suppose you ate a large portion of kale, chard, and carrots. You may think that you are getting some great nutrition from all that food, but what if your digestive system can’t absorb it properly? Maybe you’re only able to make use of 50%, or less, of the nutrients. Now suppose you juice those vegetables instead. Now your body will be able to digest the vegetables much more easily, and you’ll be getting almost 100% of the nutrients. So by drinking juices, you’re having a double beneficial effect on your digestive health.
Firstly, your system is getting some rest because it doesn’t have to work so hard. And secondly, it’s getting lots of extra nutrients. So it’s getting extra nutrients by doing less work. So your system has more time to heal and also has the nutrients it needs to help repair any damage that has been done over the years. Those who have healthy digestive systems take them for granted and don’t even think about any problems that could arise. But for those individuals that do have problems, they suddenly realize how important their digestive system is to their overall health. Many make the mistake of not taking care of their digestive system until things go wrong. So even if you have a perfect digestive system, don’t take it for granted. Help to keep it in tip-top shape.
As you get older, you will certainly be thankful for this. And for those of you that are still young and invincible, don’t forget that we all age. And age brings a general decline in digestive health. So taking care of your digestive system while you are still young will bring large benefits as you get older. So whether you are young or old, in good or bad digestive health, juicing can still benefit you. It can either keep your digestive system in good shape or help bring it back to health. As mentioned above, talk to your doctor about any digestive system problems you may have, as they’ll be able to check that you don’t have anything more serious. Some conditions may require medical intervention, and the sooner you get this the better.
9. Floods Your Body With Nutrients
I’ve mentioned this a few times so far, but it definitely needs a section of its own. For me, this is the main reason why I see juicing as so beneficial to so many health conditions. No matter what ailment you have, extra nutrition can only help. And by drinking fruit and vegetable juices, it’s possible to get massive amounts of extra nutrition in an easily digestible form. How much this extra nutrition can help each individual can vary widely. If you’ve always followed a healthy diet and are in good health, you will still benefit, but the benefits may not be so noticeable. But by getting extra nutrition, it’s a way of ensuring you stay healthy for longer. But for the many people these days who follow a not-so-healthy diet, the benefits can be truly remarkable.
If your body’s been starved of nutrients for years, or even decades, then it will welcome the extra flood of nutrition it gets from the delicious juices that you drink. This can be the difference between remaining unhealthy and getting back to great health. You will certainly notice the difference. But the people that will notice the difference most of all will be those that already have existing health conditions and signs of aging. So if you have low energy levels, low concentration levels, lackluster hair, brittle nails, aging skin, bad digestion, low immune function, sleep problems, or are overweight, then you will likely notice the improvements most of all. Juicing on a regular basis can help fix all these problems. But this does depend to some extent on the original cause of the problems. But in most cases, nutrition plays a huge part.
It was Hippocrates that originally said, “Let food be thy medicine and medicine be thy food”. If he’d been around today, maybe he would have said: “Let juice be thy medicine and medicine be thy juice”. Nowadays, many people have reached the conclusion that conventional medicine cannot help them. They are therefore looking for more holistic and natural ways to heal themselves. And many of those people have decided that juicing is part of the answer for them. Another saying that you have probably heard is that “You are what you eat”. I have found this to be so true. Eat junk food, and you’ll end up with a junk body. Eat healthy food, and you’ll end up with a healthy body. I’m sure everyone can see how this is just basic common sense. But many of us ignore what we seem to know intuitively.
This is where juicing can really help. You don’t need to even think about cutting back on junk food when you start juicing, so you won’t feel deprived at all. Many fail to stick to new diets because they are always focused on what they can’t eat instead of focusing on what they can eat. So when you start juicing, just focus on one thing – having a delicious and healthy fruit or vegetable juice every day. Or better still, focus on having three juices a day. The first day you might still eat your usual junk food, but you may find that you don’t eat so much of it because the juices help keep you satiated. After a few days, you will likely find that you have cut down drastically, or even cut out completely, some of the bad foods that you used to eat. And you will have done it naturally, without even thinking about it. This is the key to sticking to a new diet long-term because you don’t feel like you’re missing out on any of your old comfort foods which may not be so healthy. I know many people who juice regularly, but still, like to have a slice of cake once a week or so. But this is something that is now a treat for them, and not something that they feel like they have to eat every day. I don’t see anything wrong with having these occasional treats, as long as they don’t turn into a daily occurrence. And with your body being flooded with nutrients from the regular juices you drink, your body will be much more able to deal with the effects of the occasional treats.
All the ailments mentioned in the preceding sections have at their heart a lack of proper nutrition that is either instrumental in starting the problem or in prolonging it. It’s just not possible for your body to function at an optimal level if it doesn’t get the optimum nutrition it needs. And juicing can provide that nutrition every day. Your body will go from being starved of nutrients to being flooded with nutrients. Just think about that for a few minutes. It seems common sense to me that once you flood your body with nutrients it will use them to help heal existing conditions, and also help to build up reserves for the future. These extra nutrients will help you sleep better, help you concentrate, improve your immune system, give you a boost of energy, improve your hair, nails, and skin, and help you shed any excess weight and keep it off.
Time and time again this is what people that juice regularly reports as the main benefits they get. So it’s your choice. Do you want to continue as you are, not getting enough nutrients and not feeling at your best, or do you want to flood your body with nutrients so that you can look and feel great? It’s not a difficult choice, and that you’ve bought this book already shows that you care about your health. So don’t delay any further. Get juicing today. You won’t regret it.
10. Alkalizes Your Body
The pH of our bodies is pretty critical, and there is much evidence that points to many of today’s diseases being the result of a body that’s overly acidic. Eating junk food, lots of meat, and lots of dairies helps create a body that is acidic. Cancer, one of the most feared diseases, can only grow in an acidic environment. Just this one fact is reasoned enough for me to want to keep the pH of my body at an optimum level. And green juices are a superb way to alkalize your body. My body always used to be slightly acidic before I started juicing regularly, but it’s been at optimal levels ever since. Your body is actually very good at balancing your pH levels. And it needs to be because you would die if the pH of your blood moved out of a certain narrow range. So if you eat foods that tend to make your body more acidic, your body will remove calcium from your bones in order to bring the levels back to normal. This is fine in moderation, but if your body needs to do this every day for decades, then the result is osteoporosis, which is a very serious condition.
This is why many people shrink as they get older. I’m sure you’re all familiar with very old people who have lost a few inches in height over the years. This is just a result of their bones thinning. And the reason their bones have thinned is that their bodies keep taking calcium from them in order to keep their pH levels within range. This presents multiple dangers as we get older. As we age, our digestive systems tend to weaken, which means that we’re not getting the nutrition we need. This leads to our bodies relying more and more on our bones to get the calcium and other elements that it needs. If this calcium isn’t replaced, then our bone structure will just get thinner and more brittle. And when you have osteoporosis, you are more likely to suffer from bone fractures. It’s a sad fact that most elderly people that fracture their hip die within 12 months of the fracture. This is partly due to the fact that they are suddenly bed-bound for months on end, which is detrimental to their health. In fact, it is often fatal. So while you’re younger, it’s critical that you build up your bone structure as much as possible, so that you have plenty of reserves for later in life when you need them the most.
The way to do this is to make sure you eat a diet that is more alkalizing so that your body builds bone instead of losing it. If you are shorter now than you were when you were younger, it is likely that you are losing bone density. It’s therefore imperative that you do something about it before the situation deteriorates further. You should talk to your doctor if you have lost any height over the years. I’m sure you’ve all seen old books that have turned yellow with age. This happens because books are generally printed on acidic paper. Books from even 100 years ago that were printed on alkaline paper still look good today. You have to see this with your own eyes in order to appreciate the difference. And I’m sure you will all have seen images of dead and dying trees that are the result of acid rain. Or dead fish floating in rivers that have become overly acidic. Those that keep fish will know that the pH of the water needs to be kept at a precise level for the fish to survive. Let the water get a little acidic, and the fish will die very quickly. As you can see, all life depends on this acid-alkaline balance. And it is the same with humans. Sometimes we can appreciate what we see in other animals and in nature, but do the opposite when it comes to ourselves. But we need to take note of these warning signs in nature, and apply what we see to our own situations. We all want to live long and healthy lives, but we can only do this as long as our bodies are in tip-top condition. And the acid-alkaline balance is one of the most critical elements of staying healthy.
It should be noted that drinking too many fruit juices can also lead to acidity, so it is best to stick to mainly green juices if we want your bone structure to be at its best. This is especially important if you already have osteoporosis or even some minor bone loss. If you are younger, then you have a little more leeway, but for others, it may be best to stick to a much higher proportion of green juices. Personally, I always start the day with a big, green juice, as I know I’m then set up for the day. Later in the day, I may have another green juice or a juice that’s a mixture of fruit and vegetables. I occasionally have a fruit smoothie, but this is more of a treat than part of my daily diet. I can’t emphasize enough how critical it is that you keep your body from getting overly acidic. As well as helping your bone structure, it will help you in other ways, both now and in the future. Good bone health is important, but often overlooked, an aspect of good health.
Most people don’t realize they have a problem until they are diagnosed with osteoporosis. By then, it can often be too late to correct the situation. It is heartbreaking to see elderly people that are bed-bound after fracturing a hip, so you owe it to yourself to make sure you don’t end up like that. Green juices can really help with alkalizing your body, so be sure to include at least one large, green juice in your diet every day.
11. Helps You Look Younger
While this may seem superficial to many people, how we look is actually an indicator of our underlying health. So by improving your looks via a healthy diet, you are actually also improving your health. And looking good can boost your self-esteem, which in itself also has positive health effects.
No one wants to have lackluster hair, brittle nails, and dull skin. But all of these are often just manifestations of a poor diet. Your hair, nails, and skin all need adequate nutrition in order to continue renewing themselves. Without adequate nutrition, the renewal process will be sub-standard, just as if you were renovating a house with sub-standard materials. People that have pets such as cats and dogs will probably realize what important part nutrition plays in how good their pet’s hair looks. Dogs that win dog contests are the ones that have the best nutrition, and this just seems like common sense to most people. And it is. But the same is true for us humans. To have strong hair and nails, and great looking skin, we also need great nutrition. And this is easily available to us by ingesting juices on a daily basis. As mentioned numerous times, this flooding of nutrients will have positive effects on your whole body, including your looks. People with dull hair, brittle nails, and bad skin often look many years older than they really are. But those with strong hair and nails and good skin will often look younger than their actual age.
And who wants to look older when it’s so easy to look younger? I have found that the best way to look younger is to concentrate on green juices. These can alkalize our bodies and keep our bones strong, which also helps with how we feel and look. And green juices contain large amounts of minerals, which are needed for healthy hair, nails, and skin. I’ve met many people that initially started juicing just to lose weight. But they were pleasantly surprised to see that some of their skin conditions, such as acne and spots, disappeared. Their hair and nails also became much stronger. It is a real revelation when this happens to people, especially when they suddenly start getting compliments on their looks that they never got in the past. It can be a huge boost to self-esteem, and it worth it for this aspect alone. Many people would love to follow a more healthy diet so that they can look and feel better. But many find this is something that is quite difficult, especially when so much food that’s sold is of the junk variety. And this is where juicing can really help because of it so easy to do. Making a delicious juice takes just a few minutes, and that includes cleaning up after you’ve finished juicing. Compared to cooking a healthy meal from scratch, juicing takes almost no time at all. You will actually save time while getting healthy into the bargain. I’ve already spoken previously of the ways that juicing can benefit your looks, so I won’t repeat myself here. So, just start drinking green juices on a regular basis and see how your looks change over the coming days and weeks. What’s also a good idea is to take some photos of yourself before you start, and then again a few weeks later. You will then really notice the difference. So if you want to look younger, get juicing today.