Raw juices have always been used and recommended in natural medicine as part of the healing system for many ailments and chronic diseases. For thousands of years, plant juices have been used for their medicinal properties. In fact, the word chemical comes from the Greek word chemia, meaning ‘the juice of a plant’. Drinking juice (or juicing) is also one of the least expensive and most beneficial therapies that you can practise on a regular basis.
Juicing is the easiest and most efficient method for extracting the high levels if nutrients stored within the individual cells of fruits and vegetables. Fresh juices take a fraction of the energy needed to digest solid foods, and are ex tremely high in enzymes.
With juices, you can eliminate or prevent many chronic and degenerative diseases, stimulate the immune system, reduce blood pressure, aid in detoxification, revitalise your blood, sharpen your nerves, rejuvenate glandular activity and, in just a few days, restore the acid-alkaline balance in your body. What better way to look and feel younger, stay fitter physically and mentally, and ultimately, live longer?
When fruits or vegetables are juiced, their enzymes are released and immediately go to work when they are consumed. This aids the body in it constant work of dissolving and eliminating wastes as well as speeding delivery of the vital nutrients contained in the juice. When your body receives a plentiful supply of enzymes, its internal enzymes supplies are preserved for the important work of maintaining metabolic harmony. As a result, many body systems are strengthened. Used a nutritional support during periods of stress and illness, juicing can also be used as part of a comprehensive health maintenance plan.
Juices in their raw and unprocessed form are a natural concentrated source of energy. As cooked foods are lower in nutrients, individual cells don’t receive enough of the nutrients they need. Nutrients like vitamins, minerals and amino acids are depleted, destroyed and altered by cooking or frictional heat through high speed juicing. The natural aging process is accelerated by cooked food; people who switch to raw food often become biologically and visibly younger.
By separating the mineral elements and the distilled water in the food from the fibre in the raw fruit and veges, the liquid food is digestible in a matter of minutes. The human body’s digestive process which separates minerals from the fibre takes hours and a lot of energy by the digestive organs, plus a huge amount of chewing, to extract quality living juice liquid.
It is important to use a good quality juice extractor (juicer) – one that does not use high-speed or sharp chopping blades. Juicing by crushing and squeezing opens the cell membranes and releases more nutrients. Not many people are aware of this, but high-speed juicers have a similar effect as cooking on raw food, killing the essential vitamins and enzymes. High-speed and friction = heat. Enzymes are sensitive to temperatures above 45 degrees, and after 48 degrees they become sluggish. After 50 degrees the life of enzymes is gone and they are dead. Low-speed juicing creates minimal enzymes damage during the juicing process and therefore gives you substantially higher nutrient absorption.
Fresh juice is often referred to as ‘live food’ because it contains enzymes. Enzymes are the body’s life force and are constantly breaking down substances and rejoining substances to rebuild and repair. Without enzymes, all life would simply be a collection of lifeless chemicals – in other words, the element that enables the body to be nourished and live, the element that is hidden within seeds of plants in the sprouting and growth of plants, is a life principle known as enzymes.
If you’re thinking about buying a good juicer, choose a juicer that:
• Does not destroy enzyme or nutrient content
• Runs its motor at a low RPM to reduce heat
• Crushes and squeezes, and not rips or tears food
• Applies a slow constant pressure to food
• Is not noisy
• Is easy to clean, with minimal detachable parts
• Is user friendly
• May have other useful functions
• Has a warranty
“There is no doubt in my mind that raw juice can save your life. I have seen it work miracles in some of my patients who were stuck on the merry-go-round of drug therapy. The juice from raw fruits and vegetables has powerful healing and rejuvenating properties that can help people with all sorts of health problems.”
– Dr. Sandra Cabot (author of The Liver-Cleansing Diet, Raw Juices Can Save Your Life, and other great books)