We all know we should be getting more fruits and vegetables in our diet, but often, life gets in the way. Juicing can be an easy way to incorporate some missed servings into our day.

As I am a believer of “everything in moderation”, I am not a fan of strictly following a juice diet that only has you drinking your fruit and veg. Balance is key, as our body has complex requirements, and we need to incorporate adequate protein, carbohydrates, and fat into our meal plans.

It is easy to consume too much sugar on a juice diet. Fructose, which naturally occurs in fruit, becomes a free sugar when the fibre is removed as it is absorbed more quickly. When you eat a whole fruit, the fibre remains intact as the sugar is contained within the fruit’s cells. It takes our digestive system longer to break these cells down, which delays the fructose from entering our bloodstream. Fibre, of course, is super important, and, with the average adult only consuming an average of 15 grams per day, we should be eating whole fruits and vegetables to ensure we are getting enough. On average, we should be doing our best to consume 25-40 grams of fibre per day.

A good way to reduce the sugar in our juice is to include vegetables when juicing fruit.  Vegetables provide more nutrients and less sugar– but, like juicing fruit, the valuable fibre is absent.

If you're going to use juice as a supplemental way to get more fruit and vegetables into your diet of course this is completely fine but do try to still eat the whole fruit or vegetable instead of relying on juicing alone.

I try to juice three to four times per week as an added benefit and my preference is using vegetables versus fruit. I typically throw in whatever I have on hand, but my go-to’s are celery, beets, carrots, and ginger. If I have too many cucumbers on hand, I will juice a whole cucumber on its own. Same goes for celery. I have done Anthony Williams celery juice protocol a few times and it works well for me when I need a bit of a reset.

I personally prefer a masticating juicer over a centrifugal. A masticating juicer is a cold-press juicer which does a great job of extracting juice from anything, including leafy greens. A centrifugal juicer is faster but doesn’t extract as much juice and can heat up. This can kill off the healthy nutrients in the fruit or veg. Masticating juicers are more expensive, but I believe it’s worth it, particularly if you are going to make juicing a regular habit. These last a long time (I have had one of mine now for over 10 years), are super quiet, and do a great job juicing. You can also use masticating juicers to make nut juice, something I do frequently.

To get the full health benefits of juicing, you should be consuming your juice while it’s fresh. Too long in open air and the enzymes in your juice start to degrade. When that happens, your juice starts to lose some of its nutritional value. If you are purchasing store-bought juice, don’t wait too long to drink it after it has been opened.

If you are going to purchase store-bought, freshly-pressed juice, be sure to select cold-pressed instead of heat pasteurized. Cold-pressed is a process that uses a hydraulic press to apply pressure when extracting juice from fruits and veggies. Heat pasteurization, on the other hand, is a process that exposes juice to high heat to kill bacteria. Heat and oxygen not only kill the bacteria, but also destroy the natural enzymes and nutrients which kind of defeats the purpose!

When possible, try to use organic fruits and vegetables when juicing. Juicing produces a highly concentrated, nutrient-rich drink and any pesticides and chemicals on your fruits and vegetables will form part of what you ingest, essentially cancelling out the nutrients. Pesticides are toxic and can potentially cause damage on a cellular level. Fruits and vegetables that are grown in organic soil provide more nutrient-dense food due to a more nutrient-dense soil.

If you are new to juicing, here are a few easy ones to get you started. Simply chop everything up into chunks and feed into the juicer!

Green Juice

• 3 stalks of celery
• 1/2 large cucumber
• 1 medium pear
• 1 medium green apple

Immune Booster

• 2 oranges, peeled
• ½ cup lemon juice
• 1 inch piece of fresh ginger, peeled
• 1 inch piece of fresh turmeric, peeled
• Pinch of freshly ground black pepper

Beet Juice Elixir

• 2 medium beets, peeled
• 1 granny smith apple, cored
• 3 medium carrots (I just scrub my carrots and feed into the juicer with the peel – but feel free to peel them)

Detoxifying Beet Juice

• 3-4 beets, peeled
• 1 large cucumber, or 3-4 small ones
• 1 apple
• 1 bunch of parsley
• 1 lemon or lime
• 1 inch piece of fresh ginger