The Most Important Discipline for Achieving Perfect Health
June 16th 2008
The absolute best way to transition to raw foods is through fresh, raw juices. Some people may have trouble digesting the fiber in plant foods. If your previous diet was low in fiber, then suddenly increasing the fiber could be a big shock to your digestive system.
The whole point of juicing is to remove the fiber. The nutrients are immediately absorbed and assimilated into the body.
A common problem people may have is that they don’t have enough mineral salts in their system, which are essential for digesting plant fiber. Health and nutrition author Bernard Jensen found that the mineral most of his patients were low in is the sodium salts. We need both potassium salts and sodium salts for proper digestion of raw plant foods.
Potassium salts are easy to find in most plants. The sodium salts are a little harder to find, and many people are deficient in them. Celery is high in sodium electrolyte minerals, and this is why I recommend celery as the foundation of juices.
Get started with a discipline of drinking green juices. You could either make them yourself, or purchase them at your local juice bar.
My favorite green juice recipe is made daily at Hippocrates Health Institute in Florida, the worlds leading raw foods health retreat.
The Hippocrates green juice is made with one quarter celery, one quarter cucumber, and one half sunflower green sprouts.
This drink provides carbohydrates, electrolyte minerals, enzymes, chlorophyll, sodium salts, fats, and it contains more protein than most Americans receive in two days. You could add in a little carrot juice to sweeten it up, or substitute other leafy greens for the sunflower greens.
The next most important juice is wheatgrass. I can’t say enough good things about this beverage! It is the food highest in chlorophyll (70% chlorophyll), it contains essential amino acids, essential fats, and it may contain up to 92 minerals. It is a powerful detoxifier, it alkalinizes the body, it’s a blood and liver cleanser, and it’s great for healthy skin and hair.
Wheatgrass is simple and inexpensive to grow. It is available at your local juice bar, but It’s much cheaper to grow your own. The juice may cost $1 an ounce in the store, and it only costs about three cents an ounce when you grow your own.
The arithmetic screams loudly:
‘Grow your own!’
You only need between 2 to 4 ounces of wheatgrass juice per day. I recommend chewing the juice for two minutes to assist in digesting the complex carbohydrates.
Chewing the juice allows the nutrients to be absorbed under the tongue and helps strengthen the teeth. You could also chew the grass, but don’t swallow because grass fiber is indigestible.
Another juice I really love is watermelon juice. The secret with the watermelon is to juice the rind and seeds along with the fruit. The rind is where you’ll find most of the minerals and sodium.
The watermelon is an excellent food for cleaning out the kidneys. It is a diuretic and disinfectant. This is the perfect thirst quencher on a hot summer day!
Another powerful juice is the lemon ginger blast. This recipe is similar to the famous Master Cleanser lemonade drink made popular by Stanley Burroughs.
Lou Corona, a holistic health educator from California, created this recipe. He has been eating 100% vegetarian raw and living foods for over 30 years.
To make this, you juice a couple apples, a lemon, a half-inch to an inch of ginger root, and throw in a pinch of cayenne pepper powder. I use the hottest cayenne pepper I can find.
I enjoy the blast first thing in the morning, and always drink it on an empty stomach.
This drink is an excellent super tonic providing numerous health benefits. The lemon juice is one of the best foods for restoring alkalinity to the body. Our body’s pH must be slightly alkaline at 7.4, and lemon juice is one of the most alkaline foods available.
Cayenne pepper and ginger are the best foods for improving blood circulation, the digestive system, and they really get the energy moving through the body. They help remove any blockages or mucous that are preventing proper circulation. The apple sweetens up the drink and provides valuable vitamins and minerals.
Basically, you can and should juice most produce in the market.
One food group that is often overlooked is the root vegetable. The root vegetables make excellent juices and contain many unique vitamins and minerals. The root vegetables include potatoes, yams, beets, carrots, turnips, parsnips, burdock root, and celeriac (a.k.a. celery root) among others.
(Don’t forget to juice the beet greens!)
Some foods don’t juice well and should be avoided. For example, foods such as bananas, dates, and strawberries don’t contain much juice. I don’t recommend juicing rhubarb or buckwheat green sprouts, they contain some toxins that are concentrated in the juices.
One of the best books ever published on the subject of juices is “Fresh Vegetable and Fruit Juices” by Dr. Norman Walker.
All of Dr. Walker’s books are essential reading for health seekers. Dr. Walker was a raw foodist who lived to be either 114 or 118 years old in perfect health. He drank live fruit and vegetable juices on a daily basis.
Fresh living juice will provide you with great health benefits. They are without a doubt the best tool available for maintaining and restoring health.
Michael Snyder is an author and wellness consultant from Portland, Oregon. He publishes a weekly newsletter on topics related to the vegetarian raw and living foods diet, available at http://www.TheRawDiet.com
Tags: diet, health, juices, juicing, nutrition, raw foods, vegan, vegetarian