How to Make Vegetable Juice Video

Veggie Juice Ingredients

The beauty of making vegetable juice is that you can pretty much improvise with what you’ve got in your kitchen or garden.

That being said, here’s what I used in this particular juice.

• Carrots (tops and all)
• Apples
• Ginger
• Celery
• Parsley

Juicer Recommendations

I’ve heard great things about the Breville Juice Fountain, and many raw foodies recommend it. One of the benefits is that it’s a good quality juicer, for a pretty fair price.

It also has a wider opening, so you don’t need to cut fruits or vegetables as small to get them juiced.

The juicer I own is the Omega J8005 Nutrition Center Single-Gear Commercial Masticating Juicer. What I like about it is that you can use it to make green juice, and other treats like nut butters, raw fruit sorbets and ice creams, and baby food.

It’s got a heftier price tag, but because it uses a mastication system you’re actually getting more juice for your buck. Before I got this blender I always cringed when I saw how much juice was left in the pulp. Now the pulp is totally dry.

What is Your Favorite Mix?

I’d love to know what your favorite mix of vegetable juice is. I’m pretty partial to my “Beet Goes On” beet juice recipe. What else do you like to drink?

If you’re familiar with drinking freshly-squeezed juices, I think you already know the powerful effects it can have on your body. What most people don’t notice are the effects it can have on the non-physical you.

Photo by Alfonso

Four years ago I had my first real date with juicing. You see, I bought an Omega 8005 Juicer and started throwing everything in it. The results were interesting, but not particularly tasty. You live and learn.

After awhile I decided to go on a juice fast, which is where I noticed the 5 subtle, yet profound ways juicing can transform your health and consciousness.

1. Intuition

Intuitive knowing sounds mystical, but for me it’s just a feeling or thought that suddenly bubbles up. When I’m doing something I might get a thought or feeling helping me decide which apple to buy or even which country to live in.

When I was on my juice fast my intuition became stronger. It was interesting, almost like having someone there to help guide you through life.

2. Courage

Fear penetrates even the most hidden parts of our lives. We tend to look at fear with fear, but how much would your perspective change if you looked at it with a fresh pair of eyes? Because what is fear? For me fear just shows me where my belief systems are not aligned with who I want to be.

Two of my biggest fears are public speaking and not having enough financially. When you go deeper and observe them, they are really not as big, bad and mean as you think they are. This awareness is amplified many times when you’re juicing and it allows you to break through these barriers and exercise courage.

3. Clarity

As you put less and less strain on your body, it starts to cleanse, detoxify and heal, which leads to enhanced clarity, focus and other mental functions. During my juice fast and when I juice daily I notice more clarity and an increased ability to make decisions.

Clarity is not only important in making decisions in your day to day, but in your life as well. What is your life purpose? What is your passion? What would you do if money didn’t exist? As I juiced, things suddenly started to become a lot clearer. Now, I am not saying I know everything about my life, just that it got a whole lot easier ;).

4. Awareness

Meditation is an awesome awareness expander, but cleaning up your body does that too. I remember walking down a quiet road in Spain (I lived in Spain then and will again soon, but that’s another story) and noticing new trees.

Had these trees appeared out of nowhere? How did they grow up so fast? I finally concluded that it was my awareness that had expanded. It’s almost as if I had been awarded the keys to a new world, the world of hidden trees.

(Editor’s Note: Maybe some of those trees were planted through my Tree Planting Initiative. If you could go back and in time, and all that. Ahem.)

5. Gratefulness

I was never the grateful type when I was younger, but as I’ve gained a few pearls of wisdom throughout the years I’ve noticed that being grateful feels awesome and is extremely uplifting.

If someone as anti-gratitude as me can become 87% more grateful on a juice fast, I’m sure you would notice it even more. How did I come up with 87%? I made it up, don’t you just love statistics?

To Juice or Not to Juice, That is Not the Question

We already know juicing rocks, so the question is: what benefits have you noticed from juicing? Any health benefits, healings or even subtle, transformational shifts?

About the Author: Henri Junttila is the founding father of the Wake Up Cloud, a place where you can discover your passion in 5 days and get conscious about your life.

Before I go into today’s topic, I just wanted to let you know how I’m doing. (Hi, Mom!) To my great surprise, I’m really not hungry or craving food.

My boyfriend came home with two bags full of lemons and limes, and it was the cutest thing.

For those of you who might be wondering, I’ve still been having regular bowel movements. Crazy, huh? I know that this is likely old toxic matter that needs to be eliminated.

Now onto the white tongue issue…

Traditional Chinese Medicine and White Tongues

Photo by SeenyaRita

If you’ve read about my story with birth control pills and losing my period, you’ll know that I’m a big fan of Traditional Chinese Medicine.

Actually, it was a TCM doctor who really helped me balance out my hormones.

One of the things that TCM doctors look at is your tongue. If it’s “abnormal” then they can figure out which parts of your body are out of balance. Now all of this may not seem scientific. But I know it works.

If your tongue is pale or white, then it means that you might have a Qi or blood deficiency. That might mean you’re feeling tired, or have low energy. You can read more about TCM tongue interpretation here.

At the time I was visiting my TCM doc, I had a pale white tongue and that was definitely true for me. For past few years my tongue had returned to normal.

Except now that I’m doing the master cleanse, my tongue has turned pale and become coated with white stuff again.

Coincidence? I think not. Keep reading to see what’s causing this.

What a Healthy Tongue Should Look Like

A healthy tongue is usually pink, and smooth.

If your tongue is always white or has weird fuzz, then medically speaking it could mean a few things.

White Tongue and Dehydration

The easiest to check is dehydration. If you aren’t drinking enough water, then that could definitely be causing your tongue to be too white.

Another thing to keep in mind with dehydration is that not all liquids are hydrating. For example coffee and tea are very dehydrating, and you would need to drink twice the water to compensate.

I always recommend you drink 1/2 a Liter (16 oz.) of water right upon waking up. Trust me, your body needs water first thing in the morning.

White Tongue and Candida

Another possibility is an overgrowth of yeast, also known as candida or thrush. This was a big ah-ha for me, because I know that I have to balance my beneficial bacteria and yeast since I’ve taken the birth control pill in the past.

I am under the impression that this whole white tongue thing is related to processing the yeasties and candida in my body.

According to an article on the Master Cleanse web site, it is common for the first few days to produce a white coated tongue. After the first few days it goes away, while your body goes to work healing and detoxing further.

This naturopathic article on white tongue may give you more insights if you want further information.

Tongue Tied Together?

Taking the TCM approach and the naturopathic or scientific explanations together really work for me. They might not be enough to explain your white tongue experiences, so I encourage you to do more research if this didn’t answer your questions.

I just know that I feel better knowing that I am actually bringing on this white tongue effect through my detoxification efforts. It’s definitely one of the detox symptoms and side effects.

Thanks for reading about my experiences with the Master Cleanse. Yay for getting through this cleanse, and getting rid of these yeasties!

Surprisingly I wasn’t really hungry. I did find myself scratching my head a few times, at lunch and dinner because I usually take a break from work then.

I also noticed that I like to take breaks to eat and relax throughout the day. And yeah, eating frequent small meals works for me. But fasting made me realize that I can take breaks without eating.

Food and breaks are not tied together. If I’m feeling overwhelmed or stressed, it is perfectly okay to take a walk, get away from the computer, or read a chapter of a book.

Imagine that!

So What is This Master Cleanse Thing, Anyways?

I wanted to give you a few more details about what the master cleanse consists of. It’s a liquid only cleanse, so there is no solid food consumed.

Here is the basic lemonade recipe for 1 Liter:

• 3 oz. Freshly squeezed lemon or lime juice
• 3 oz. Grade B Maple Syrup (the darker the better)
• Pinch of Cayenne Pepper
• Filtered or spring water

So far I’ve been drinking 3 of these 1 Liter mixtures per day, as recommended. You can drink more, but should not drink less.

Take a sip every 15 minutes, or more often as desired throughout the day. This ensures your blood sugar stays stable and you don’t experience hunger pangs.

Until tomorrow…

I’ve heard that days 2 and 3 tend to be the toughest, because that’s when the majority of toxins tend to be released in the blood stream. So far, so good. I’ll definitely write about any detox symptoms in my next installment.

Talk to you soon!

Photo by Bu

Honestly, I feel like I should post a note that says “I’m not an expert” somewhere on this blog. If only for this reason.

Luckily, my friend Elizabeth P.W. reminded me that it’s okay not to have all the answers. She voiced what I’ve been noticing around the web: people trust those who are honest with them, even if that means admitting faults or problems.

For me that means letting you know that I’ve never done a real fast before. Well, unless you count that time where I decided to eat nothing but apples for one day. (Didn’t do much!)

But that’s all going to change…

I’m about to embark on my very first real fast! I’m going to do the lemonade fast, also known as the Master Cleanse.

I’ll be posting about my experiences here on the blog. I will be as honest and transparent as I can be, without sharing too many of the gory details, if you know what I mean.

It’s funny because before I went raw I always thought fasts had to be for an ulterior motive. Like a 24 hour fast for charity. Or for spiritual reasons.

My rationale for doing this 10 day cleanse is a lot less righteous. Here are a few of my thoughts and reasons:

1. Winter is coming and I want a strong immune system, so giving my body time to heal would be good.
2. I’ve been working hard on my Cure Cravings Forever program, and I could use a boost of energy.
3. I realized that there’s never a perfect time for a cleanse. I was going to do a juice feast in the summer, but somehow the timing didn’t work out. Now or never, I say.
4. It would be great to know what it’s like to experience “crippling cravings” again so I can really delve deep and share my insights in my Cure Cravings Forever program.
5. I’m very curious about the reported benefits and I want to know whether to recommend it to people or not.
6. This master cleanse will be an interesting way to build up my self confidence, and willpower. When you commit to something like this, it’s transformational. (Or so I hear.)
7. I want to see how much yeast vs. beneficial bacteria I seem to have gathered over years of being on birth control pills and taking antibiotics.

Oh, food cravings…

I’ve gathered a lot of craving busting tricks up my sleeve over the past few years.

I go into all the details in my new program called Cure Cravings Forever. I wanted to let you know that the program registration closes on Wednesday November 4th at Midnight, Eastern time.

So if you want to hear my advice on cravings, without the “high and mighty” voice (I’ll be just as bent on cravings as you during my fast!) then this is your time.

I look forward to working with you on kicking some craving butt!

Raw Food Detox Video

(Click here if you can’t see the video.)

Is Detox a Myth?

Take a look at this fictional scenario: You increase your intake of raw food or cut out certain things like processed sugar, processed starch, and/or meat and dairy.

Suddenly, you can feel yourself getting edgy. It’s as if someone took away a drug addict’s stash. All you can think about is food, and you crave a spoonful of that sugary cereal, pretty please.

That’s detox. That’s withdrawal.

Okay, Nathalie, so where does the myth come from? The truth is that sometimes people use detox as an excuse to ignore their body’s signals.

For example, maybe your skin breaks out because you’re eating nothing but dates and raw sweets. (They’re good, but you still need to balance sweets out with other stuff, like greens.) The danger creeps up when someone brushes off these signals as a sign of detox.

Common Detox Symptoms

Here is a short list of possible detox symptoms to help you recognize detox when it happens.

• Skin breakouts
• Bloating, stomach pains
• Headaches
• Food cravings
• Trouble sleeping, nightmares
• Diarrhea and constipation
• Fatigue, drowsiness, low energy levels
• Irritability
• Congestion or Mucus that feels like a cold

Detox Madness

Photo by Kathleen

The short version of detox: when you eliminate or cut back on certain foods, your body eliminates toxins. Your body will try to expel toxins in any way it can: from your liver, via bowel movements, and through your skin’s pores.

While you are detoxing, your body focuses on releasing toxins, so you might feel under the weather because you have all of this garbage traveling throughout your body.

Think of it as deciding to clean a very dusty house for the first time in years. When you start sweeping the dust, it’s going to get into the air and make it hard to breathe. You’ll feel better when you’ve gotten all the dust out, of course.

The same goes for trying to brush away toxins in your body, you will feel the ill effects of drudging toxins up and out. Once they’re out you’ll feel better, but the process is not so peachy.

Why do we need to Detox?

You might be wondering what it is you need to expel exactly?

If you’ve been eating a fairly processed diet for many years, you might be surprised to find that a lot food might have gotten stuck, turning toxic.

In addition to left over food matter in the body, we are all constantly bombarded with modern day chemicals and toxins in the air, water, and products we use.

I believe every one of us could use a little detoxing.

Caution: I do want to caution against getting “detox fever” and constantly wanting to fast, cleanse, and detox. At some point you need to give your body a chance to rest from eliminating toxins.

Detox Magick

Photo by Kenna Takahashi

Now that I’ve thoroughly scared you, I’ll put on my Good Witch’s hat and discuss the magickal aspects of detox.

If detoxing is so uncomfortable, why should you do it? The simple answer is because you’ll feel so much better afterward.

Going through bouts of detox really makes you grateful for those times when you’re just humming along. Plus, every time you detox, you reach a new level of cleanliness. Imagine a car running on the cleanest fuel without any impurities slowing it down.

Assuming you don’t revert your detoxing efforts, you’re going to continue to operate at such a higher level of energy and cleanliness, you’ll be grateful for detox.

Benefits of a Cleansing Detox

• Clearer sinuses
• Weight loss
• Clearer skin
• More energy
• Regular bowel movements
• Mental Clarity
• Emotional stability / eliminated depression

Every time you detox, you peel away one layer of the onion. If you’re not ready to experience a full on detox, simply add a bit of the foods you’re cutting out.

For example, if the headaches of your detox are killing you, just add back a bit of cooked grains or dairy, if that’s what you cut out. It will slow down the detox, and make it easier for your body to adjust to the changes you’re making.

You can control how fast you want to detox. I recommend you detox slowly, unless you give your body the support it needs to eliminate toxins: with hydrocolon therapy, dry skin brushing, or a supportive system for detoxing.

Read my follow-up article full of tips to stop detox, or speed up detox so you can get back to feeling good again.

What Detox Symptoms have you Experienced?

I’d love to know if you’ve ever had a bout of detox, and how severe it might have been. Let me know in the comments!

The Benefits of Blenders and Smoothies

1. Smoothies keep longer in the refrigerator than juice does.

Smoothies contain all of the fiber that the fruits and vegetables initially came with, albeit in a blended form. Because everything is still in the drink itself, you can actually store smoothies longer without losing too much nutritional value.

To preserve a smoothie you simply need to put it in a glass container like a mason jar filled to the brim. This keeps the air out, so that the smoothie will not oxidize. Seal the jar and drink it within 24 to 32 hours. You might need to shake it if the water separates.

2. The fiber of a green smoothie acts like chimney sweepers.

Smoothies have a cleansing effect on the bowel. Since smoothies still contain all of the fiber from the fruits and vegetables, you get a chimney sweeping effect. One of the reasons I’m so fond of smoothies is that they keep me regular, and cleanse my body on their way out.

3. Sugar is absorbed slower because of the built-in fiber.

Green smoothies allow you to have fruit without experiencing the aftermath of a sugar spike and crash. The fiber will keep the flow of sugar regular as your body digests it and it enters the bloodstream. Fruit smoothies will have the effect as eating whole fruits, so you may experience a bit of an up and down, but nothing compared to fruit juice. (By the way, store bought fruit juices are the worst, and I don’t recommend them at all.)

4. Commercial smoothies are “tainted”.

Most store-bought or juice-bar smoothies are less than ideal. These smoothies are made with frozen fruit, with store-bought sugary juices and liquors for added taste. Most store-bought smoothies are packed with sugar so that they taste extra yummy. These smoothies also tend to include dairy of a questionable quality and source.

Though commercial smoothies are tainted, commercial juices are even worse. Bottled juices are almost pure sugar with very little nutrition at all. They are also high in calories, and just plain bad for the health.

5. Blenders are easy to clean.

A blender is easily cleaned by running it under the tap. Or adding a bit of water and soap to the blender and pushing the clean cycle button for a few seconds. Because blenders are so easy to assemble and clean a lot of people gravitate towards blending instead of juicing.

6. Fruit smoothies are great tasting for the whole family.

Smoothies are great for making fruit-based drinks because it contains the whole fruit. They are also great for green smoothies because you can mix and match to please the taste buds of anyone in your household. A little extra fruit, or maybe a spoonful of cacao for an added twist.

7. With a blender you can make sauces, salsas, and dips.

Blenders are great for making sauces and dips. With a blender you can make all kinds of different things aside from smoothies, like salsas, guacamole, sauces, and soups. Though you can most certainly make soups with a juicer, blended soups tend to be thicker and creamier.

8. You can easily add supplements and superfoods into smoothies.

When you’re making a smoothie you can add a spoonful of hemp protein powder, spirulina, maca root powder, and so on. You wouldn’t necessarily add these supplements to a glass of juice, either because of the taste or the texture. That makes smoothies ideal for superfoods and giving yourself a nutritional edge.

My Recommended Blender of Choice

If you’ve got the means then I definitely recommend you go with a Vitamix blender. Otherwise, Amazon has a nice selection of mid-range blenders like the Oster Professional Series Blender.

The Benefits of Juicing and Freshly Squeezed Juice

Many long time raw foodists (ugh there we go with labels again!) state that their success is in part due to juicing.

1. Fresh juices are the shortcut to pure nutrition.

Freshly made juice gives you all the nutrients without any of the associated digestion. A freshly made juice bypasses your need to digest through the fibers before you get all the nutrients of the fruits and vegetables. This is ideal for people who have digestion problems and who need to heal themselves before they can absorb nutrients from whole foods. This ability to bypass your digestion and go straight into your nutritional system is important for giving your body a break and allowing it to heal itself fully.

2. Juice is ideal for cleansing and healing.

Many people have healed themselves and undergone complete transformations by following a supervised juice fast or juice feast. The idea is to drink only freshly made juicer for an extended period of time to allow your body to take a break and work on deeper issues that require healing. Remember to consider the benefits of organic produce when you’re juicing, especially if you aren’t peeling your produce.

3. Juice vegetables, but eat fruits.

Jay Kordich (The Juice Daddy) believes that you should juice vegetables and eat fruits. Vegetables are better juiced whereas fruits are better eaten whole. Fruits need all of the fiber in order to slow down the absorption of sugar in your blood stream. The exception is that of mixing apple juice with vegetables. Vegetables contain less sugar and therefore don’t need as much fiber to slow down the absorption. This goes back to the idea that store bought fruit juices are not a healthy drink.

4. Juice gives you an instant energy boost.

When you’re drinking freshly made juice, you’re getting all of the energy right away without waiting for your body to digest through it. Whenever I drink freshly squeezed vegetable juice I always feel energized and more alert.

5. Even without fiber juice is a great way to flush your system out.

Even without all of the fiber of smoothies, juices are a great way to give your body a chance to expel things via bowel movements. If you “chew your juice” as recommended, you give your body a signal that begins peristalsis and gets your bowels moving. That leads to a bowel movement and you are cleansing your body even without eating the fiber.

6. Cleaning a juicer can be quite a task.

I think it’s a tossup between making juice and making a smoothie in terms of time. For a smoothie you need to cut the fruits that you’re going blend, and for a juice you might need to cut apples or carrots if they don’t fit in the juicer.

A juicer definitely requires a little bit more time for cleanup. Although I’ve been able to time myself and make an entire batch of juice in less than 15 minutes, I think all of these things come with practice.

7. Juices don’t make you feel full.

After drinking juice you might be satisfied for 30 minutes to an hour. After drinking a smoothie, you might be satisfied for two to three hours. So I see juice more as a way to add nutrition into your day, and not as much as a meal like a smoothie might be.

8. Juice allows you to juice almost any produce.

You might never put a beet or a carrot in one of your smoothies, but you can definitely make juice out of these ingredients. Interestingly enough, you can disguise bad tasting vegetables with other better tasting vegetables and apples to make juices that contain a larger variety of ingredients. Not necessarily so with smoothies.

9. The debate over unlocked nutrition in juice and smoothies.

It’s still up for debate whether juice or smoothies unlock all the nutritional value in fruits and vegetables. Some juicer and blender manufacturers say that all of the nutrition is unlocked and is therefore superior to eating the fruits and vegetables themselves. This would potentially lead to increased absorption of nutrition. This is certainly the case for the elderly, or people who have a hard time chewing through foods properly.

While I cannot quote any scientific studies, I can definitely vouch with my experience that it is very easy to digest smoothies and juices.

My Recommended Juicer of Choice

Earlier this year I bought an Omega Masticating Juicer, and I’m so pleased with it! There are also some great mid-range juicers available like the Breville Juice Fountain.

Watch the Cliff Notes Version via Video

(Watch the video here if it’s not viewable.)

Is Juicing Better for you than Smoothies? Or vice versa?

I think it really comes down to what you’re more likely to use on a daily basis. The blender might work better if you’re in a rush and you need a very filling meal. In this case I definitely recommend making lots of blended green smoothies.

If you have a lot of produce from your garden or from a weekly produce delivery service and you don’t know what to do with all of it, I definitely recommend a juicer. Remember not to mix fruits and vegetables in the same juice except for apples and to some extent lemons. Though it is preferable to make vegetable juices over fruit juices.

When I first went raw I bought a blender and a juicer. If I had to do it all over again I would have just bought a blender. Now I have both a blender and a juicer and I’m definitely making good use of my juicer because of all the produce in my garden.

If money is an issue then I definitely think a blender is a better investment because you’re not wasting the fiber of the fruits and vegetables that you’re blending.

I do think that juice have an advantage in terms of nutrition because it simply gives your digestion system a break.

Have your say…

So if you were starting over with raw foods, or if you’re in that place now… which one would you recommend to others in this situation? A blender or a juicer? Let us know in the comments!