Wednesday, 22 July 2015

FOOD: The Green Life


Let me start off by saying that I am unashamedly a huge believer in the greatness of green juice. It may look like swamp water and quite frankly it does sometimes taste like swamp water, or rather what I imagine swamp water to taste like as funnily enough I've never tasted it myself, but this glass
of juice is a pint of pure goodness. I've been juicing now almost daily for about a year and was initially drawn to it from all the great things I'd heard about how good it is for you and with my ongoing quest to recover from M.E., I was ready to try anything. It hasn't cured my M.E. unfortunately but it really helps me out when I desperately need it. When I'm feeling really ill and fatigued, I'll have a green juice and it will perk me up a bit and just give me a little boost to make my day just that little bit easier. When my dad (who I've managed to convert) has one however, as a generally healthy person, it gives him a massive boost and really increases his energy to get him through hard, physical days at work. You can make a green juice however you want really but I thought I'd talk you through what I like to put in mine.
The above picture shows what I typically like to put in mine, I normally add spinach as well as kale but I'd ran out so I added a couple of extra carrots although I normally only include one small one to keep the natural sugar level down. It's best to add mostly vegetables to your juices because as there is no fibre in the juice, all the nutrients flood straight into your body including the natural sugars in certain fruit and veg so if you want to keep your juice as healthy and as beneficial as possible then it's best to include mostly greens. So as you can see, I like to put in kale, spinach, celery, carrot, apple, cucumber, lemon and my absolute favourite, ginger which is full of goodness but also gives it a great fiery kick. Now, the flavour of your juice can really vary depending on what you put in it but also differs due to the different seasons and flavours from the vegetables, the carrots you use can particularly change this as sometimes they can be bitter and sometimes deliciously sweet. They do take a bit of getting used to but after a while they are easier to drink but if you're particularly struggling with the flavour then put more cucumber in because it really helps mellow the taste and then as you get used to it you can gradually reduce the amount if you like and you could always hold your nose when you drink it which admittedly I do sometimes.
A few notes on the juicing process. Firstly, I always use organic produce because I think that if all the nutrients are flooding into your body to get absorbed then you don't really want nasty chemicals going in and also they taste much better but that's down to personal preference and budget, however where possible do try to follow the rules of the Clean Fifteen and the Dirty Dozen. I also think it's important to drink your juice as soon as you make it because as soon as it's been juiced the nutrients start to decline as they're exposed to the air so it would be a great shame not to get as much goodness into your body as possible. Secondly, when it comes to juicers, I like to use a macerating juicer because it doesn't create any heat from a fast running blade unlike centrifugal juicers so you don't lose any vital nutrients in the juicing process. I use the Omega 8006 which I can't recommend enough, it's a really great juicer which is easy to use and is also a pasta maker, mincer and homogeniser so you can also make nut butters in it and one of my favourite things to do with it is to put in a frozen banana which is then  churned up so that it comes out almost like an ice cream which you can have on it's own or add some nuts or maple syrup...delicious. It is quite pricey but if you plan on juicing for the rest of your life like I do then it's a worthwhile investment and it does come with a lifetime guarantee so if anything were to ever go wrong you're safe in the knowledge that it will be replaced.
I know a lot of people are sceptical about juicing but I really do urge you to give it a go for a while and see how you feel.

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