Vegetable Juice Guide
For juice fasting, it is not just fruits that you can juice. You can also consider juicing vegetables. A vegetable juice detox can help your body remove its toxic waste and its cleansing process.
Vegetables also contain an abundant sources of vitamins and minerals not found in other foods. In fact, if you find that you are not eating enough vegetables on a daily basis, you can also think about consuming vegetable drinks. In this manner, you will ensure that you do not give up on including phytochemicals for a balanced nutrition.
Beets
Famous for their ability to cleanse the blood, beets contain calcium, sulfur, iron, potassium, choline, beta-carotene, and vitamin C. Beets are also high in minerals that strengthen the liver and gall bladder, and are the building blocks for blood corpuscles and cells. Beet greens are excellent for salads and juicing. Beet greens are a good source of carotenoids that help in the prevention of all types of cancers. They are high in manganese, an important mineral for brain function.
Broccoli
Broccoli is a flower top picked before it blooms. It is dense in nutrition, full of beta-carotene and an excellent source of fiber. Inexpensive and available all year round. It is full of vitamins B1 and C, and has a generous amount of calcium, sulfur, and potassium. Surprisingly, forty-five percent of calories in broccoli are protein.
Cabbage
A vegetable full of history. It was a mainstay during the great depression but unfortunately was often overcooked and garnished with fat.
Cooking cabbage destroys most of its nutritious value and causes gas because of the sulfur. Raw cabbage is an excellent source of beta-carotene, sulfur, vitamin C and the trace mineral selenium, which is excellent for fighting cancer, protecting against heart disease, improving conditions of arthritis, slowing the aging process, encouraging beautiful skin and increasing male potency. Within cabbage is a delicate amino acid called glutamine. This is excellent for healing stomach disorders, including ulcers. When making cabbage juice, it must be consumed within 60 seconds or this precious amino acid will begin to decay. If straight cabbage juice causes gas, mix with carrot and celery.
Carrots
Deep within the soils of the earth grows a golden root that has amazed nutritionists and scientists alike in its powerful healing qualities. One 8-oz. glass of carrot juice contains 20,000 mg. of vitamin A. Toxicity can occur when vitamin A is taken in supplement form or in fish oil, but is completely safe in the vegetable form. Vitamin A is an antioxidant that is able to attach to free radicals in the body. The damaging effect of free radicals has been associated with cancer.
Cucumber
Being as cool as a cucumber comes from the fact that the internal temperature of cucumbers remains 20 degrees lower than the external temperature on a hot day. People living in the Middle East and India have been eating cucumbers for hundreds of years as a natural coolant. When buying cucumber for juicing, look for non-waxed which allows you to juice the cucumber in its skin. Always wash vegetables thoroughly before juicing. This juice contains 40% potassium, 10% sodium, 7% calcium, 20% phosphorus and 7% choline. It is an excellent source of silicon. Cucumber is good to rub on your skin, giving it elasticity resulting in a more youthful complexion. It is suspected to help in reducing hair loss. Cucumber juice is usually mixed with other juices.
Collards
Per calorie, collards have more calcium than milk. Thirty calories of collards equaling one cup, contains an incredible 218 grams of calcium! It is twice as high in vitamin A as carrots. An excellent source of organic, highly absorbable iron, and high in chlorophyll.
