Juicing Dental Office

Juicing is a wonderful way to improve your health and help maintain a nutritious raw lifestyle. As the Health Consultant here at Coda Health Kitchen, I’m always asked to name one thing that can be done right away to get healthier. With respect to food choices, the best suggestion I give is to drink freshly pressed vegetable juices. Drinking just one freshly pressed juice each day is a reliable way of infusing your body with a wide variety of vitamins, minerals, and phytonutrients that can protect your cells against premature aging and disease.  Coda Health Kitchen has partnered with Dental Health Colorado to provide classes, information and services that offer preventive health and holistic care at the dental office.

With so many people planning detoxes in the springtime, I thought what a better time to conduct an Introduction to Juicing Class. I spoke to some friends in town who confirmed my suspicions about juicers: they have one but don’t know what to put in it. And it’s gone unused for years. Collecting dust in the kitchen cabinet, as so many other appliances do.

I took part in an all juice detox years ago when I lived in Miami. I consumed nothing but juices for 7 days straight. It was a truly eye opening experience and everything that I was told would happen to me while juicing happened: my eyes became whiter, clearer even. I had much more energy, especially after day 3. My cravings for sugars were gone. I lost belly fat and became leaner. Lastly but most importantly, I gained a better knowledge for food and health.

So of course I wanted to share this experience with everyone who attended our class at Coda Health Kitchen. Months ago, we started offering freshly pressed juices to the patients at Dental Health of Boulder. I can’t believe how excited they all were about this. It’s so much fun for me to see the faces of people who try a juice for the first time. Read more about our unique approach to holistic care at Coda Health Kitchen.

I wanted to make sure to make a few different juices to appeal to the majority of people here in Boulder. Hence the breakfast juice, the post workout juice and the energy booster juice (see recipes below).

Next I wanted to make sure they all tasted different but still very delicious. That’s a big misconception about juices. They taste how they look. And to me, they don’t. Most people who try juice are pleasantly surprised with the taste, saying things like “wow this is actually quite good.” Or “I never thought I would say this, but I love this juice!”

I wanted to educate my attendees on making sure that the bulk of what they juice is made up of mostly green vegetables. This would include spinach, chard, kale, romaine lettuce, etc. So you always want to begin with vegetable juices, avoiding high-sugar veggies like carrots and beets. I like to have people learn to appreciate the natural alkaline taste of green veggies. It’s certainly acceptable to put one small carrot in your green drink, especially if you decide to use a lot of greens like kale and parsley.

The class was so much fun. We made all 3 juices and everyone had a favorite. At the end of class, we all decided it would be fun to make a juice with everything in sight. This included garlic (5 cloves!), beets, spinach, kale, cilantro, etc.  Surprisingly, every participant loved it.

If you missed the class and are interested in juicing, try my recipes below. And keep in mind the following juicing basics:

– Use as much organically grown produce for greater nutritional density and to avoid pesticides and genetically modified foods. If you can’t get organics, wash thoroughly with a vegetable wash, peel and avoid anything that is known to be heavily sprayed (strawberries, blueberries, spinach, bell peppers, etc.) or cannot be peeled (like berries).

– Peel oranges & grapefruits. These skins contain a toxic substance and taste bitter. Leave some of the thick white inside part of the peel since it is rich in bioflavonoids & vitamin C. Always peel imported tropical fruits since they are usually sprayed with chemicals. Peel any fruits or veggies that have been waxed.

– Remove pits before juicing. Seeds can be juiced, except for apple seeds which can be toxic.

– Be sure to juice all the stems and leaves with your fruits & vegetables – they are rich in nutrients are alkaline forming (except carrot and rhubarb greens which are toxic).

– Prepare your fruits and vegetables in advance by chopping to fit the mouth of your juicer. For single auger juicers like the Samson, chop hard vegetables (carrots) into smaller or thinner pieces so they go through easier.

– Don’t juice produce that is low in water content, like bananas and avocados. You can add these ingredients later in a blender.

– Drink juice on an empty stomach for best nutrient absorption. Remember to “chew” your juices – as we say here at Dental Health of Boulder, digestion starts in the mouth!

– As nutritious and delicious as juice is, it is not a good idea to use it as an ongoing meal replacement. (except during a controlled cleanse or detox, like the one 7 day cleanse I mentioned above).

– Get a quality juicer that is easy to use and clean. If it difficult and time-consuming to use you might not use it.

 

Juicing Recipes:

Rise & Grind Breakfast Juice:

Wake up bursting with energy and ready to grind for the day. Break that fast with a natural stimulant. No artificial stimulants like coffee.

Apples

Cucumbers

Celery

Ginger

Cinnamon

Apple Cider Vinegar (Braggs)

Post Workout Elixir:

In this juice, cucumber meets fresh mint and sweet pear for a perfectly refreshing blend. There’s spinach as well, with a touch of lemon. It’s simple, easy and delicious, and I can tell you is perfect for after a tough workout. Remember, you’ll want to have something with lots of carbs pre-workout and something with protein post-workout. Greens have a tremendous amount of protein, but stick to the best- romaine and spinach!

Cucumbers

Lemon (peeled)

Pears

Mint

Spinach

Afternoon Energy Booster:

Always tired in the afternoon? Instead of reaching for a coffee, try this green juice instead. Chlorophyll, the green pigment in plants, helps oxygenate the blood, creating increased brain function and physical energy.

Kale

Spinach

Cilantro

Green Apples

Lemon

Cucumbers

Frequently Asked Juicing Questions:

Q: Should you buy all organic produce to juice?

A: Ideally, the answer is yes. We all know that organic vegetables are better than non-organic or conventional vegetables. But I believe that the health benefits of drinking juices made with well washed, non-organic vegetables far outweigh not juicing at all. If you are only able to juice non-organic vegetables due to financial or other life circumstances, it’s still well worth your while to do so.

Q: I heard that beets and carrots are high in sugar and I should not juice them, is this true?

A: The key to making healthy vegetable juices is to make green vegetables the bulk of every serving. Green vegetables won’t spike your blood sugar and insulin level like fruits and sweet vegetables like carrots and red beets will. This is not to say that you can’t juice fruits, carrots, and red beets. Fruits and sweet root vegetables can be healthy additions to your drinks, and they’ll definitely add sweetness and flavor. You just want to make sure that they never make up more than one-third of each glass that you drink.

Q: Do I have to drink the juice right away or can I make a large batch and drink parts of it throughout the day? I heard that it loses the health benefits if you don’t drink the juice within a certain period of time?

A:  You can absolutely, you can juice your juices in the morning and then save the rest for later. People do this all the time. It’s always best to juice and then drink it immediately because it starts to lose nutrients and oxidizes as time passes on.
However, it’s fine to drink your juices within 8 hours, but unless you have a very good juicer then you really shouldn’t drink your juices if they are older than 24 hours, and that’s pushing it. But if you are just going to wait about four hours or so, that’s fine.

If you are at home for breakfast and lunch, you can just store it in a glass in the fridge (amber or dark colored, the better). If you are taking it on-the-go or for errands, then a stainless steel container is the best.

Q: When is the best time to juice?

A: Studies show that drinking juice in the morning (on an empty stomach and alone) is the most beneficial time of day to have fresh juice. The nutrients will be absorbed more easily and it doesn’t have other food to interfere with your body’s cleansing. Juice is mostly for cleansing.

Fruit juice is the best in the morning hours.

As a general rule, it’s always best the morning to have something light (bowl of fruit, smoothie or juice). Heavy foods in the morning slow our digestive systems down and make us sluggish.

Drinking juice in the evening or anytime is still beneficial. The benefits of juicing still remain no matter what time of day you drink it. But the morning is the best.

Follow these two general rules when drinking juice:

1) Juice is best drunk alone in fruit only combinations in the morning hours. Wait at least 10 minutes before having food.

2) If drinking juice with a meal later on in the day, be sure to drink slowly and swish it around your mouth to get the digestive enzymes going.

Excerpts taken from All About Juicing.

Bridget Hobart

Coda Health Kitchen Consultant