The Health Benefits of a Daily Juice Habit

If you are interested in more energy, increased focus, mental clarity, and weight loss, then it's time for you to start a daily juice habit.  A juicing habit offers tremendous health benefits, all by adding just one juice a day to your health routine. I'm talking about fresh, raw, cold-pressed, unpasteurized, vegetable, leafy green and low sugar fruit juices, not the store-bought, sugar-laden bombs in little boxes, fancy bottles or anything close to orange juice. I'm talking the real stuff, the good stuff. Real juice.

The Popularity of Juicing

With juice bars popping up everywhere, it's impossible to ignore the the skyrocketing popularity of juicing. Juicing isn't new; its been around for a long time, and the potential health benefits are amazing when you drink a juice a day with a daily juice habit.

Using raw fruit and vegetable juices as medical therapy goes back to the 1920's and 1930's. But it was the Juiceman, Jay Kordich, a trailblazer in natural health, that is considered the modern day Father of Juicing. Kordich tributes juicing to his beating cancer, then dedicated his life to spreading the word.

Why a Daily Juice

Daily juice is about adding a single juice a day to your current routine. Daily juice doesn't require you to give up anything. It is a supplement to eating a diet rich in fiber and plants, not a replacement. Start with 18 ounces and work your way up to  24 - 36 ounces a day of fresh, raw juice. We usually drink 1 - 18 ounces bottle a day. It's a nice pick-me-up in the afternoon when energy might lag.

For maximum health benefits, drink your juice on an empty stomach and wait 20 minutes. Adding a juice a day is easier than juice fasting or doing a juice cleanse and provides ongoing, long term benefits.

The Health Benefits of a Daily Juice Habit

Here are the many health benefits that my friends and clients report since starting daily juicing:

• Increased energy
• Increased focus and mental clarity
• Weight loss and weight optimization
• Improved eating habits
• Greater productivity
• Healthier aging
• Reduced food cravings
• Improved elimination and detoxification
• Boosted immune function
• Elimination of afternoon fatigue
• A healthy replacement for sugary drinks, sodas, and processed juices for kids
• Juicing to lose weight by replacing one meal a day with a fresh vegetable juice

Why Does Juicing Work?

It takes 1-2 pounds of produce to make a single juice. By drinking juices, you are adding far more produce to your daily diet than you could ever eat. And because juices are raw, it's considered living food, full of powerful enzymes that are usually destroyed with cooking.

Enzymes are the construction workers of the body, while nutrients are the building materials. They speed up chemical reactions in the body. Enzymes are vitally important for maintaining optimal health, and raw fresh juices deliver them in abundance.

Consuming fresh raw juice floods your body with nutrients such as vitamins, minerals and phytonutrients - those special plant compounds that help fight disease and increase health. Juicing removes the fiber in fruits and vegetables, allowing for fast assimilation by your body. Think of juices as being pre-digested, as the juicer does it for you, relieving your body of the energy it takes to digest food. You just reap the benefits.

Is Juicing for Everyone?

Almost everyone benefits from daily juicing. If you are diabetic, pre-diabetic, or trying to lose weight, stick with vegetables juices and those with lots of leafy greens. A little low sugar fruit, such as a Granny Smith apple or pear is fine, and lemon or lime for their bright flavor. Stay away from high sugar, tropical fruits such as pineapple, mangos, oranges, etc. If you have any special health concerns, be sure to check with your healthcare provider for any ingredient limitations.

What Kind of Juicer is Best?

There are many juicers on the market and deciding is not easy, so let me save you some work. Get a slow, cold-press juicer. It's preserves more of the nutrients and slowly grind every bit of beautiful juice from your produce. After using another well marketed brand, I learned about slow, cold-pressed juicers and switched to Tribest.