healthy living | HEALTHY GLOBETROTTING

Juicing is surprisingly easy and great for your health.

As you’ve probably guessed by the image above, today I want to deviate away from travel and talk about something a bit more person in terms of my health and lifestyle. Nowadays, you can’t pick up a magazine or surf online without someone proclaiming that juicing saved their life. I’d always previously dismissed it as a bit of a fad (along with the 5:2 diet, Atkins, the cayenne pepper fast… The list goes on and on!) However, since being diagnosed with crohn’s, juicing is something I did a lot of a research into. It started as an occasional juice and quickly escalated into 1-2 juices a day! While I am not claiming it was ‘life changing’ it has made a real difference to be health and just general well being so I thought I’d share some tips with you today.

Let me just say before I begin that I’m not endorsing a juice only diet (ain’t nobody got time for that!) As my prime interest isn’t weight loss, I tend to have a juice with my breakfast and only use it occasionally to replace a meal.

TIP ONE: Know the difference between a smoothie and a juice! A smoothie blends all the ingredients together by breaking it down into chunks. You are still eating all of the fibre along with the nutrients so it tastes a lot thicker than a juice. However, Juicing remove the fibre altogether so you’re just left with pure liquid nutrients.

The main differences between juices and smoothies.

That’s why it’s so beneficial for people who have crohn’s , IBD or IBS(as fibre can be tricky to digest). It is also beneficial for those with poor health as it allows the nutrients to have more of an impact as they are absorbed much quicker (the body isn’t wasting time breaking down the fibre.) However if you’re looking to boost your fibre intake, them incorporate a smoothie or two into your routine too.

TIP TWO: Juicing can be expensive! In china, it’s cheap. In England, it’s probably cheaper to go to McDonald’s than it is to make a juice! To combat this , pick fruits that extract a lot of juice and therefore can be the main base of your juices. Cost efficient fruit and veggies include…

Pick veggies that contain the most juice such as carrots and apples.

-Apples

-Carrots

-Pineapples

-Beetroot.

-Celery

My go to cheap and easy juice is one apple, one carrot and a small (see tip 5!) piece of ginger. It makes loads of juice and saves faffing around first thing.

TIP THREE:. Certain veggies create very little juice. Use these sparingly in addition to the above items, otherwise it will take forever and will be extortionate! The below veggies are very difficult to get juice out of:

-Kale (I’ve read this can be done but I’ve never managed to extract any juice out of it!)

-Spinach

-Lettuce

-Strawberries

TIP FOUR: Like apple juice? Good, because you’ll notice that whatever disgustingly healthy veggies you put into the juice, as long as you chuck an apple in to, that’s the way it will taste! Use this to your advantage and juice things you usually never eat. I absolutely despise peppers but when juicing them with an apple, I don’t even notice the taste.

TIP FIVE: Do not add more than a small piece of ginger. Otherwise it will BURN! (I’ve been there and its not fun!)

TIP SIX: Do some research into juicing for certain health conditions/benefits. I am turning into a bit of a health geek lately, so I love to read about the health benefits of certain veggies. For example, turmeric is a really good anti-Inflammatory so I’ve been chucking it in alongside a fruit juice in a bid to get my crohn’s under control.

TIP SEVEN: Drink it immediately. The reason why it’s not as good to just buy shop bought juices, is that juices quickly lose their nutrients. So it’s best to drink straight away rather than store for later.

TIP EIGHT: Don’t worth about chopping and peeling. For juicing to be a part of your life, you need to create a quick routine. Nobody has time in the morning to chop and peel, so invest in a whole fruit juicer instead. There’s no need to do anything except simply chuck it in.

TIP NINE: Clean the juicer immediately. Once you’ve used the juicer, rinse it out straight away. If you leave the left over bits in the juicer, it will a) become much more difficult to wash b) turn rancid quickly and leave a smell that no amount of scrubbing will get rid of.

TIP TEN! Experiment! Although I started off pretty safe, anything goes when it comes to juicing! A good place to start are recipe books by Jason Vale who has written many books on the topic of juicing. Of course, there is plenty of stuff online too. Below are some of my favorite concoctions!