The Easiest Way To Get All Of Your Servings of Vegetables Every Day - Juicing!

I have mentioned in previous blog entries that my wife and I have started juicing. It's something that we decided to start doing for a number of reasons, but mostly it was to improve our health. The average American diet is not very good and even though ours was a little better than normal, we still had a lot of room for improvement. The number one thing that we needed to improve upon was our intake of vegetables and juicing is by far the easiest way to get your daily servings
of vegetables. So we pulled out our 10 year old Jack LaLanne juicer and went to work!

We start out in the morning by juicing a wide variety of veggies.Over the past couple months we've juiced: beets, romaine lettuce, kale, spinach, zucchini, carrots, sweet potato, broccoli, cauliflower and squash. We do add a little bit of fruit just to make it a little more palatable, but it's important to maintain an 80/20 ratio between vegetables and fruit. Some of the fruit we've added are: peaches, grapes, cantaloupe, watermelon and strawberries. It also important to mix up
the vegetables that you use, so don’t use the same combination every time. Honestly, it has taken some getting used to, but now I really look forward to my morning juice "cocktail". I find that it gives me energy throughout the day and I definitely notice it when I haven't had my juice.

The recommended amount of juice is 16 ounces a day, which really isn’t much. You can divide that between two 8 ounce servings through the day. If you are not a big fan of vegetables, juicing makes it a lot easier and quicker to get those essential vitamins. Our daughter, who’s 17 months old, likes vegetables, but she gets bored with them quickly. Sometimes they end up on the floor, as she thinks the dogs might enjoy them. We’ve realized that by freezing some juice into popsicle form, she really enjoys it! I don't know how long we'll be able to "trick" her, but we're
sticking with it for now!

Vegetables are such an important aspect of your diet and most American’s do not get the amount that they need every day. Your diet has a direct link to your life expectancy and it’s important that you pay attention to what you are consuming. When it comes down to it, it’s a pretty simple concept: People with proper nutrition live a long and healthy life and people who do not get proper nutrition live a shorter life that could include cancer, heart disease and diabetes. It’s completely up to you which path you take. Make sure you are using vegetables that are grown
locally and without pesticides whenever possible. The easiest way to do that is to visit the local farmers’ market every week and pick up what you need!

There was a recent article posted by Dr. Mercola on the benefits of juicing, which I recommend checking out. Benefits of Juicing

Also, check out the movie/ documentary Fat, Sick & Nearly Dead to see how juicing can help with weight loss and other health issues.

If you have any questions about anything, please contact me.

Dr. Mark