Juice Cleanse – Often The First Step In Transforming One’s Health

A juice cleanse means incorporating freshly squeezed juices into your diet for a period of time.

The juices are either homemade (preferable) or store-bought. If store-bought, you’ll want to select brands that are non-pasteurized, as pasteurization heats the juices and destroys valuable enzymes that offer benefits for your health.

Juices Versus Blended Drinks or Smoothies

The juices on this type of cleanse are not drinks that are blended or blenderized. Most people have seen the demonstrations in grocery stores where a store clerk creates a fabulous tasting drink with a VitaMix. This is a very expensive, well-made blender. The difference between a juicer and a blender is that a juicer extracts the phytonutrients, antioxidants, vitamins and minerals out of the cells of the produce juiced whereas all a blender does is pulverize the cells. It’s hit or miss whether or not those nutrients become bioavailable to you.

You may buy the line of thought that the VitaMix juices are great for juice fasts because you are getting all the fiber from those fruits and vegetables. However, the fiber actually limits just how much of the juice your stomach can process at one time. As a dietitian in nursing homes, I had to create diets that were blended – called Pureed diets – for residents who were unable to physically chew their food. They never experienced additional benefits for their health because all the fiber was kept in those foods.

If I had the chance to go back into those types of facilities to work with their residents, I would incorporate fresh vegetable juices prepared right there in the kitchen into their diets. Over time, I’d expect to see their alertness improve, fatigue eliminated, skin color look more full of vitality and some health issues reversed. And it would only occur with the juicer, not blenders, no matter how expensive they are.

Guidelines for Juice Fasts

Juice cleanses should follow certain guidelines so you can reap the most benefits from them:

1. Decide how long you’ll be cleansing. One to three days is good for those who are new at the process. Seven day juicing cleanses or even 21 days of cleansing can totally transform one’s health.

2. Decrease your consumption of caffeine prior to starting the cleanse.

3. Strive for two pints of juice daily if your goal is a detox or weight loss plan. One pint and a half should be vegetable juice and the remaining half pint may be fruit juice.

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