September is my new favorite month, and it is not because the Pumpkin Spice Latte is back early. It is my favorite because it is National Fruit and Veggie Month. Fruits and vegetables are the key to good health; they contain vitamins, antioxidants, healthy sugars and fiber. I also love that this month puts a spotlight on our dangerously low consumption of fruits and vegetables. The average person should get ~5 cups of produce a day. Too many people today are going entire days without eating any vegetables. This is partially due to our fast-paced, eat-healthy-later culture and partially due to the fact that fruits and veggies do not travel as well as a bag of chips. That is why I love juicing. Juicing revitalizes digestive excretions, strengthens muscle action and gives your body the ability to absorb nutrients more efficiently. Improving digestion improves your overall health and gives you more energy. Juice is also perfect on-the-go; it makes it easy to get at least two servings of fruit or vegetables in one cup, it is portable and it is delicious!
Juicing can be intimidating. Especially with so many “Big Green Monster” juice recipes that call for almost all kale or broccoli. If you are new to juicing, do not feel like you have to start choking down straight kale juice because your sister-in-law does it. The best way to start is with sweeter, mostly fruit juices. Then work your way up to the all-vegetable juices. The great thing about juicing is that once you acquire a taste for the nutrient dense drinks, the habit builds on itself. It does this by cutting your cravings. You get cravings when your body is low on a vitamin or mineral, juicing offers so many vitamins and minerals that your body is satisfied and no longer has cravings.
Juicing is also a great way to sneak more fruits and vegetables into your child’s diet. One of my favorite kid-approved juices is Carrot-Orange juice. It still looks like orange juice; it tastes like a creamsicle, it has less sugar and more vitamins than straight orange juice. To make it is just a 1 carrot to 1 orange ratio, how easy is that?
Remember, juicing is about your health and your tastes. It is important to like the juices you are drinking. Even if they are the healthiest juices in the recipe book, if you do not like them, you are not going to drink them.
