Create a Fruit Explosion!

Once confined to the fringes, to health food stores or the infrequent vegetarian restaurant, juicing and fresh juice have finally stepped out into the open and into the home.

Fresh Juice is Delicious!

Some people find it hard to believe that fresh vegetable juice can taste so good, especially if they’ve tasted those nasty bottled versions. Carrot juice is surprisingly sweet and children love it. Adding apple juice to vegetable juice gives an amazing range of juice cocktails to experiment with and those new to juicing at home are delighted by the fresh natural flavours of raw juice. Spinach and apple is a firm favourite – it really is delicious and with all that chlorophyll and iron it’s a super-dose of top quality nutrition.
Thousands of people are now juicing fruits and vegetables themselves. With a small investment, anyone can set up their own in-home juice bar. Then, with a little patience, time and perseverance, it's possible to make fresh juice a regular part of your daily diet.
 
The trend couldn't come at a better time. Recently the National Cancer Institute began a campaign to get people to do one simple thing - EAT MORE FRUITS AND VEGETABLES. Specifically, the recommendation was to eat five servings of fruit and three servings of vegetables a day, and their reasoning was simple: a diet high in fruits and vegetables will prevent or cure a wide range of ailments.
 
In some ways, this isn't news. For years, epidemiological studies that compare disease states and diet in large populations of people have already been bearing out the value of a diet high in fruits and vegetables. Such studies, which have been done in Africa, China, the Mediterranean, Russia, and elsewhere, have shown that in cultures where the diet consists of fruits and vegetables, making it high in both carbohydrates and fibre, a number of diseases that afflict us here in the UK and over the pond in the States simply don't exist. For example, during more than 30 years of study, British researchers working in Africa didn't find a single case of such common ailments as diverticulitis, hernia, cancer of the colon, or cancer of the prostate. The only reason that they could attribute to the lack of these diseases: differences in diet.
 
But these studies (more than 150 have been done in the last decade) don't really prove that it is only diet that makes the health difference There are simply too many other factors that may influence health to make the studies conclusive. Is, for example, the lack of disease because of the subject’s diet or, instead, is it because they live in a relatively unpolluted environment? If it is diet, which part of their diet, specifically, is making the difference?
 
These are the questions that led researchers at the National Cancer Institute, at the department of Agriculture, and elsewhere, to begin looking for specific substances in foods that could be providing protection against disease. In the process, they have found quite a few.
 
A tomato, along with vitamin C, vitamin A, and several minerals, also has 10,000 other chemicals in it, most which researchers are trying to isolate, identify, and study.
 
The phytochemicals that researchers have uncovered are changing the way we think about food, especially fruits and vegetables. For example, broccoli contains a substance that may prevent - even cure - breast cancer. Citrus fruits have substances that make it easier for your body to remove carcinogens, thus decreasing the chance of contracting cancer. Grapes contain a phytochemical that appears to protect each cells' DNA from damage. Similarly, a number of green vegetables contain phytochemicals that appear to offer protection against cancer-causing substances. The list goes on and on: bok choy, broccoli, Brussel sprouts, cabbage, cauliflower, carrots, collards, kale, kohlrabi, mustard greens, rutabaga, turnip greens, red beets, peppers, garlic, onions, leeks, and chives are but a few of the vegetables that appear to have cancer-preventing phytochemicals.
 
The problem, though, is that most of us don't eat enough fruits and vegetables to reap the benefits they offer. For example, although the National Cancer institute recommends five servings of vegetables and three of fruits each day, the truth is this: The average Briton eats only 1/11/2 servings of vegetables and, on average, no fruit on any given day.
 
Maybe the business men and women who frequent trendy juice bars, the company that delivers carrot juice, and the grocery stores that are beginning to carry fresh fruits and vegetable juices are on to something. Possibly, juicing could provide the answer to fixing our fruit and vegetable deficient diets.
 
Really, it isn't a new idea. Fresh juices are a tremendous source of enzymes. In fact, the "freshness" of juice is one of their key features, because enzymes are destroyed by heat. When you eat cooked foods, whether its meal, grains, fruits, or vegetables, if the food is cooked at temperatures above 114 degrees, the enzymes have been destroyed by the heat. Since fruits and vegetables are juiced raw, the enzymes are still viable when you drink the juice.
 
In addition, fruit and vegetable juices are good sources of the traditional nutrients. Citrus fruits (grapefruit, oranges, etc.) provide healthy portions of vitamin C. Carrot juice contains large quantities of vitamin A, in the form of beta carotene. A number of green juices are a good source of vitamin E. Fruit juices are a good source of essential minerals like iron, copper, potassium, sodium, iodine, and magnesium, which are bound by the plant in a form that is most easily assimilated during digestion.

5 pieces of fruit a day in 5 minutes
To meet your "five to nine pieces of fresh fruits a day" you can squeeze the fruits instead of peeling them and eating them by hand. Squeezing is much more efficient: one glass of 2 squeezed oranges, 2 mandarins and 1 grapefruit can be squeezed in 5 minutes. If you eat 1 banana afterwards you already have consumed 6 pieces of fresh fruits! This also means that you can consume the largest part of the required nutritional elements you need for a day in just 10 minutes...
Create a Fruit Explosion
The best way to consume fruit and vegetables is raw, with its skin or with the skin peeled off on an empty stomach or 20 minutes before other meals. If you're not a great fruit and veggie-eater and want to have more from the good stuff, the best way to start eating fruit is to squeeze fruit juices. In this way you can get used to fruit and after drinking juices for a while you'll see that your appetite to have raw fruits will increase.
Create at least one fresh vitamin dose a day; it will also cheer you up!
Try to get it into your system: squeeze those wonder-fruits yourself everyday. Freshly squeezed juices are best. Avoid drinking fruit juice from a can or glass bottle because when the bottle or can is closed the juice is heated and gets an acid structure.  The important point is that the juice is fresh and in its raw natural state, which means not treated by heat in any way. This is the difference between fresh juice from the varieties found packaged in stores and supermarkets.
There is a huge variety of fruits
Just wait until you get started with mangos, strawberries, peaches, apricots, limes and melons! There are thousands of combinations possible!
Have a fruit party everyday!!
Our top tips:
·      Squeeze at least one fruit/vegetable drink a day. In this way you eat at least 3 to 4 fruits so you can fulfill your daily need
·      Put a little bit of banana in your juice mix and blend it like a milk-shake. This gives your fruit drink a certain softness and reduces the bitterness (caused by grapefruits for example)
·      All those beneficial veggies like Broccoli and Carrots can be juiced – great for children
·      Use your new found interest to educate the children in healthy eating
·      Another tasty and highly nutritious blend is to combine 16oz. of carrot juice with 1oz. of wheat grass juice.
·      Drinking your food or eating your drinks? In liquid form though – JUICE – 90% of the nutrients reach cellular level. Without having to digest your food, the body instantly benefits from this live charge.
·      Fruit juices are the cleansers of the human system… Vegetable juices are the builders and regenerators of the body.
·      Whether you’re in need of a breakfast bevy with nutritional punch, a speedy lunch in a glass, a mid-afternoon battery re-charge or even a naughty-but-nice evening treat, there’s a fruity recipe at hand. We recommend Easy Juicing by Nicola Graimes – link to book page???
·      Put some ice cubes in the blender with your juice. This cools your fruit drink quickly in summer;
·      Carrot juice is the richest source of vitamin A which the body can easily absorb and use. It also boasts large amounts of vitamins B, C, D, E, G and K.
·      Carrot and Fennel juice - Fennel juice is a strong blood builder and is therefore highly beneficial in menstrual ailments. Fennel also has a sweet aniseed flavour which compliments the carrot to produce a warming and satisfying beverage with all the nutritional benefits included.
·      Tomato and Parsley juice - Fresh tomato juice is rich in sodium, calcium, potassium and magnesium which will supply more than just a health pep. The humble parsley is one of the most potent of the juices and therefore small doses (i.e one or two ounces) should be taken unless mixed with other juices. It has been used effectively in every ailment connected with the eyes and the optic nerve.
·      Watercress juice – Watercress juice can be added to carrot, parsley and potato juices as a combination to help emphysema sufferers.
·      Potato juice - Strange but true. The raw potato contains naturally digestible sugars which turn to starch when cooked. Raw potato juice is a cleanser and works well with carrot juice. It has been used in clearing up blemishes because of its high content of potassium, sulphur and phosphorus. My favourite is sweet potato.
·      Colds and flu - Colds can be easily treated by fasting for a day and taking 3 one ounce shots of garlic juice during that time.
 
* These combinations are truly effective but please combine them with a healthy diet high in live foods and exercise.