Get the goods & the greens

Get The Goods and The Greens

Now comes the fun part. You get to shop for and create your own
juice combinations. Do you want to begin juicing for detox? Juicing
for mental clarity? Or do you simply want to add more juices to your
diet to achieve balance?
The produce you choose to juice will really depend on your personal
needs as well as what’s in season and available where you are.

Here are some popular and ultra effective juicing ingredients:

1 Green Leaf Lettuces

Leafy green lettuces are an excellent
addition to your juices. They are
abundant in vitamins, minerals, and
protein -- and are not offensive to the
taste buds. The darker the green, the higher
the mineral content, and the more intense the
flavor of its juice.
If you want to reap the benefits of lettuce in your juice, but are
skeptical of the taste, try juicing a combo of darker and lighter greens
to balance out the flavor.
You can also use lettuce, like romaine to help balance out sharper
tasting juices like ginger, fennel, garlic, and cilantro.

2 Ginger

Ginger is a spicy root vegetable that
can help add zest to your green juices.
Sometimes adding ginger can flavor a juice
well enough to eliminate to temptations to
add sweeter fruits. Of course, anything that you
can do to reduce your sugar intake will help promote
optimum health.
Ginger relaxes the intestinal tract so it is very good for reducing
nausea, gas and bloating. Studies have even shown that ginger’s
anti-inflammatory and antioxidant properties have helped reduce
symptoms in patients with rheumatoid arthritis.

3 Garlic

Garlic is one of those tastes that you may have
to work up to when it comes to adding it to your
juice. But again, since juice is so readily
available to your cells, you never really
need to drink too much of it at once.
Garlic has been known to have antibacterial
and anti-microbial affects, enhance your immune
system, eliminate heavy metals, and help balance cholesterol levels,
high blood pressure, heart disease, diabetes and candida.
Buy fresh plump garlic for juicing. To juice it, simply peel the white
papery skin and run a clove or two through your favorite juicer.

4 Fennel

Fennel, like ginger, adds a certain spicy quality to your
juice and can be a good addition if you wish to keep
your juices more vegetable-based. Fennel tastes
like black licorice and has been known to have
many medicinal properties.
Besides being a digestive aid and useful in the reduction of gas, just
like ginger – fennel also contains phytoestrogens which is especially
useful to women during menopause.
When juicing fennel, use both the stem and the bulb. It does have a
very intense flavor. If you’ve never had fennel or fennel juice before,
do a taste test to determine how much of it you want to drink or if you
need to add it to other juices.

5 Lemon and Limes

Lemons and Limes are a great way
to sweeten your juice without raising
blood sugar or feeding infections
(yes, infections will feed on all of the
sugars in your foods, even natural sugars).
Lemons and limes are very high in vitamin C and are great for
assisting circulation and enhancing the skin.
You can juice the entire lemon or lime including the rind for the most
nutritional benefit. Of course, this will create a more bitter flavor.
If adding these citrus fruits to your juice, you can balance out the
bitterness by adding something mellow like cucumber.

6 Cilantro

Cilantro has a fresh taste and also has
metal chelating properties. This means
that it can help your body detoxify
from metals that may be stored
from old dental amalgams or simply
everyday life.
To best juice cilantro, you should use a screw juicer, or
simply blend in your blender, and strain. Other juicers will do the job,
but won’t yield as much juice.

7 Cucumber

Cucumber is very mellow tasting
and makes a great addition to most
juices because it helps balance
the taste of the more pungent tasting vegetables. Cucumbers are
composed mostly of water and minerals like silica. This makes them
especially hydrating and beneficial for gaining great skin.
You will want to juice the entire cucumber – skin, seeds and all,
because most of the cucumber’s nutrition is stored in its skin.

8 Mint

Mint is very cooling and refreshing.
You can add it to your juice to
enhance the flavor and make your
greens more palatable.
Juicing mint is much like cilantro and grasses. You want to use a very
high quality juicer like the Twin Gear to get the most out of your juice.
But, you can also just blend it and add it directly to your juices, or
blend and strain it before adding it to other juices.