The Complete Book Of Juicing, Revised And Updated

With fifty new recipes and new information on the benefits of juicing and juice cleanses, here is the completely revised and updated edition of this juicing category killer. The first completely revised edition of this juicing classic, The Complete Book of Juicing is packed with new information on super fruits such as pomegranate and papaya, weight-loss and juice fasts, immune function, juicers, and more. With one hundred fruit and vegetable recipes and a fresh new package, this book is a user-friendly and fun necessity for any juicing kitchen.

Autorentext

Michael T. Murray, N.D.

Leseprobe
1

why juice?

Quality of life begins with the quality of the foods that sustain it. The surest path to health and energy, strong bones, and beautiful skin begins with a diet rich in natural foods such as whole grains, legumes, fruits, and vegetables. Especially important on this road to health are fresh fruit and vegetable juices. Fresh juices provide vital proteins, carbohydrates, essential fatty acids, vitamins, minerals, and other nutrients critical to good health in one serving.

The Surgeon General, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, the National Cancer Institute, and many other experts have long agreed that fresh fruits and vegetables are the key to good nutrition. Juicing is the most fun and efficient way to increase your consumption of these life-giving foods as it provides the nutritional advantages of plant foods in a concentrated form that is easily absorbed by the body.

The advantages of increased energy, strengthened immunity, reduced risk of disease, strong bones, and the glowing complexion that is the evidence of great health can all be yours when fresh fruit and vegetable juices play a key role in your daily diet.

what do americans eat?

The so-called Standard American Diet, or SAD, does not provide adequate levels of fruits and vegetables. According to National Health and Nutrition Examination surveys conducted by the U.S. National Institute of Health over the past 20 years, French fries or potato chips notwithstanding, fewer than 10 percent of Americans meet the minimum recommendation of 2 fruit servings and 3 vegetable servings a day—in fact, the average number of daily servings of dark green or orange vegetables in American adults is 0.3 servings per day.

Instead of eating foods rich in vital nutrients, most Americans focus on refined foods high in calories, sugar, fat, and cholesterol, filling up on cheeseburgers, French fries, ice cream, and chocolate chip cookies and washing them down with artificially colored and flavored fruit drinks or colas. More and more food additives (such as preservatives, artificial colors, artificial flavorings, and acidifiers) have been shown to be extremely detrimental to health. Many have been banned because they were found to cause cancer and a great number of synthetic food additives are still in use that are being linked to such diseases as depression, asthma and other allergies, hyperactivity and learning disabilities in children, and migraine headaches. Synthetic food additives need to be avoided. It is a “SAD” fact that diet has replaced cigarettes as the number one contributor to premature death, and that 8 out of every 10 Americans over the age of 25 are now overweight or obese. Diet and obesity contribute to heart disease, cancer, strokes, diabetes, and virtually every other major disease afflicting our society. It’s little wonder when you take a look at what we eat.

Based on detailed national health and nutrition surveys, it has been estimated that in one year, the average American consumes 100 pounds of refined sugar and 55 pounds of fats and oils in the form of:

•300 bottles of sugary beverages

•18 pounds of candy

•5 pounds of potato chips

•7 pounds of corn chips, popcorn, and pretzels

•63 dozen doughnuts and pastries

•50 pounds of cakes and cookies

•20 gallons of ice cream

On top of this, nearly one-third of our adult population smokes and at least 10 percent are alcoholics. And what about the health effects of the more than 4 billion pounds of additives, pesticides, and herbicides added to our foods each year? It is no wonder that as a nation, according to the World Health Organization and the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs, the United States ranked lower in life expectancy than 39 other industrial nations in 2012, despite the fact that we spend more money on health care than any nation in the world.

antioxidants and the battle against free radicals

Throughout this book, many key benefits of consuming fresh juices will be pointed out, but perhaps the greatest benefit is that they provide high levels of natural plant compounds known as antioxidants, which can protect the body against aging, cancer, heart disease, and many other degenerative conditions. The cells of the human body are constantly under attack. The culprits? Compounds known as free radicals and pro-oxidants. A free radical is a molecule that contains a highly reactive unpaired electron. A pro-oxidant is a molecule that can promote oxidative damage. These highly reactive molecules can bind to and destroy other cellular components. Free-radical damage is a cause of aging and is also linked to the development of cancer, heart disease, cataracts, Alzheimer’s disease, and arthritis, among others.

Most of the free radicals zipping through our bodies are actually produced during normal and necessary metabolic processes like energy generation, detoxification reactions, and immune defense mechanisms. The major source of free-radical damage in the body is actually the oxygen molecule, the very molecule that gives us life! Just as oxygen can rust iron, when toxic oxygen molecules are allowed to attack our cells free-radical or oxidative damage occurs.

Although the body’s own generation of free radicals is significant, the environment contributes greatly to the free-radical load of an individual. Cigarette smoking, for example, greatly increases an individual’s free-radical load. Many of the harmful effects of smoking are related to the extremely high levels of free radicals being inhaled, depleting key antioxidant nutrients like vitamin C and beta-carotene. Other external sources of free radicals include ionizing radiation, chemotherapeutic drugs, air pollutants, pesticides, anesthetics, aromatic hydrocarbons, fried food, solvents, alcohol, and formaldehyde. These compounds greatly stress the body’s antioxidant mechanisms. Individuals exposed to these environmental factors need the additional nutritional support that fresh juices can provide.

With the help of antioxidants and enzymes found in the plant foods we consume, including carotenes, flavonoids, vitamins C and E, sulfur-containing compounds and many other phytochemicals, our cells can protect against free-radical and oxidative damage. Free radicals must be broken down by enzymes or be chemically neutralized before they react with cellular molecules. Examples of the free-radical scavenging enzymes produced by the body are catalase, superoxide dismutase, and glutathione peroxidase. Taking enzymes as an oral supplement has not been shown to increase enzyme tissue levels. However, ingesting antioxidant nutrients—such as manganese, sulfur-containing amino acids, carotenes, flavonoids, and vitamin C—has been shown to increase tissue concentrations of the enzymes.

The other way the cell can protect itself against free radical or oxidative damage is by chemical neutralization, or antioxidants binding to or neutralizing the free radical or pro-oxidant. Dietary antioxidants block free-radical damage by chemically reacting with the free radical or pro-oxidant to neutralize it. Ingesting fresh juices can increase tissue concentrations o…