Juicing and its benefits

Juicing has become popular all around the world to treat ailments, lose weight, detoxify and cleanse. By juicing one does not mean to go to the supermarket, and grab an orange juice or carrot juice, as a lot of them are pasteurised to remove bacteria and to make it last longer.

Unfortunately, a lot of minerals, vitamins and enzymes are destroyed in the process. Consequently juicing refers to freshly extracted juice from both fruits and vegetables in your own juicer without any heat or pasteurisation.

Over the years I have recommended various juice blends; plain or with lemon, often combined with condiments or spices like turmeric, ginger, cinnamon, to cure various ailments like lowering levels of blood sugar, cholesterol, blood pressure, acidity, gout, increasing the haemoglobin or production of milk for a lactating women or just to increase immunity.

The habit of juicing is probably the fastest way to absorb the nutrients in your body as food has to be converted to liquid in your body to absorb nutrients. If one chews properly, the human mouth and body is one of the most advanced juicing machines.

I rate green juices on top of my list. Green juice can be wheat grass as it contains higher amounts of chlorophyll, which is similar in structure to haemoglobin. Or simply a coriander, tulsi with mint, as it is packed with essential vitamins, minerals, anti-oxidants, phytonutrients and enzymes that are instantly absorbed by the body and it boosts immunity, cleaning out clogged arteries, etc and is an amazing stress buster.

I am a strong believer of juices, they should be of leafy greens or vegetables and not with fruits in them as it keeps your blood sugar levels more stable. Fruits normally have a higher sugar, glucose and sucrose content unlike vegetables, plus juicing removes the fibre that helps to slow down the sugar in the gut.

So juice from fruits can spike up blood sugar levels, affecting insulin levels, in turn, causing cravings and potentially weight gain. In addition, sugar is also bad on tooth enamel. Lemon juice: reduces acidity, boosts immunity helps digest proteins.

Turmeric and awala juice: reduces blood sugar levels. Cinnamon with lemon juice: reduces triglyceride level. Coconut water, lemon and green leaf juice: coconut water is nutritional content, and is similar to blood plasma and leafy greens like coriander are high in chlorophyll and iron.

Therefore choose your juices, wisely so it has positive effect. Add it to your daily diet. As you see from the above, juice combinations which are chosen wisely aids to improve immunity and reverse diseases.

By: Naini Setalvad