How to Use Juicing to Help Kickstart Your New Year (+ Free 6 Day Juicing Challenge)
When it comes to healthy drinks, there are three main paths to take – blending, smoothie making, and juicing. Each has its pros and cons but if you are looking for a simple way to kickstart your New Year, juicing is a perfect option.
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But what is juicing, and what makes it great as a detox option for New Year or any other time? Let’s take a look at the basics of how to use juicing to kickstart your detox or boost your body.
Juicing versus blending
To start with, it is key to understand the difference between juicing and blending (and, to a lesser degree, with smoothie making).Â
Juicing removes the pulp
The first difference is that with a blender, you use all of the ingredients, and this means there is going to be some pulp in there. However, when you use a special juicing machine, there is a compartment that collects the pulp and other scraps. This means the drink produced is completely smooth and without bits.
Juicing has no cream
In almost all smoothies, there is a component that comes from cream, milk, or other similar liquids. This is how the smoothie is made and the ingredients are blended together. While this is great, if you want to cut back on dairy products or have an allergy, then juicing is a better option, as there’s no need for any of these products in the mix.
Juicing produces less fat and calories
Interestingly, juicing produces drinks that are often lower in fat and calories than a smoothie. This is because you need to add those other ingredients to a smoothie in order to blend everything and create the drink. With juicing, these ingredients aren’t needed, so the drink is lower in calories and fat.
Juicing and sugar
Another big reason to consider using juicing to help with detox, general health, and feeling good is that there is less sugar in it than some drinks. That isn’t to say there’s none, because some fruits are naturally high in sugar. But you can control it better when you make the drink yourself.
Avoid the sugar crash
Top of the list of reasons to cut back on sugar is to avoid those sugar crashes. Do you know when you get near a mealtime and feel jittery and shaky? Maybe you are tired and lethargic, like someone stole all of your energy? This is often due to a sugar crash.
When we have sugary foods, we get an instant boost, but these don’t last for long. It leaves the body craving more or facing a crash when that sugar boosts run out. By cutting back on the sugar levels in drinks and foods, you can balance your energy levels and avoid those nasty crashes.
Other benefits to less sugar
For some, there’s a strong connection between losing weight and cutting down on sugar – this is an individual thing but if you try cutting back on sugar and lose weight, then this may be part of it for you. There are also strong links between too much sugar in the diet and diabetes later in life, usually Type 2. So, cutting back on sugar could reduce your risk of developing this condition as you get older.
You might also like 5 of the Best Superfood Smoothies Recipes to Detox by The Smoothie Bird
Key fruit and vegetable ingredients
At the heart of juicing, there is the fruit and vegetables that make up the bulk of ingredients for any drink. Many of these ingredients can help to detox the body or to handle a specific issue, such as missing certain nutrients. Here are five examples of key ingredients to include in your juices where possible.
Apples
Apples have loads of vitamins and minerals, including antioxidants and Vitamin C, as well as phytochemicals which are natural detox agents. Apples also help with digestion due to the presence of dietary fibre.Â
Grapefruit
Grapefruit is tasty with a sweet yet tarty flavour that it brings to any juice. It is a great one to cover the flavour of green ingredients like kale and spinach. It is also a detox ingredient that cleanses the liver and brings a range of vitamins and minerals. It does also have laxative properties, so watch if you are on any medication as some tell you to avoid it for this reason.
Kale
Love it or hate it, kale is stuffed full of goodness, and having it in juices means you can’t really taste it either. It has anti-inflammatory and antioxidant properties, cleans the liver and kidneys, and other nutrients too.
Lemon
Lemon is a natural cleansing ingredient that helps clear toxins from the body. You can easily add half a lemon to every juice you make, and this will help to clean nastiness out of the body.
Lemongrass
Lemongrass is a great herb to add to juices because it helps to clean the kidneys, liver, and bladder and assists the digestive system. It also aids circulation and can help boost the condition of the skin.
Other ingredients to add to juices
These are some of the mainstays of the world of juicing but there are loads of different ingredients that you can add to boost the nutrient levels in every drink or to focus on a specific problem. Common superfoods like blueberries, kale, and oranges are great, but don’t stop there.
Acai berries
Acai berries have become easy to find in recent times, most commonly in powder form. These little purplish berries are ideal to add sweetness to green juice and have a large number of antioxidants in them. They also contain oleic acid, which is similar to the healthy fat in olive oil, which is unusual in fruit.
Cinnamon
This spice can help with reducing blood sugar levels and the risks of heart disease as well as adding a great flavour to any drink you mix it into.
Ginger
Ginger is ideal to add in small amounts and doesn’t add any fat or calories to the recipe. It is great to help calm your stomach and clear nausea and indigestion, as well as having other nutrients in it.
Goji berries
Goji berries are small red berries that are usually seen in frozen form as they don’t have a naturally long shelf life. Other times they come in powder form. They are used in traditional medicine to cure a range of illnesses.
Mint
Mint is used to help mask the taste of other ingredients that aren’t as delicious and also helps with fresh breath. It is particularly added to strong flavoured drinks or ones that are mostly green ingredients.
Turmeric
Best known as a spice in many Asian cuisine dishes, turmeric is definitely full of good stuff and is also easy to incorporate into juices. It is anti-inflammatory and antioxidant as well as helps with digestion, avoiding heart disease, and even helping with arthritis. It is also ideal for athletes and as a post-workout ingredient.
The best juicing equipment
Now there’s nothing to stop you from using your kitchen blender to make juicing recipes – you will just need to give it a run through a fine sieve a couple of times if you want that pure, smooth result. However, if you are serious about juicing, then getting the right equipment for the job can help.
Breville The Juice Fountain Cold Juicer
This juicer from Breville was listed as one of the top 15 kitchen gadgets of the year by Google and while it is a little investment, it will save you time and get the best results if you are regularly juicing.
The Juicer uses cold spin technology that combines a stainless steel cutting disk with an Italian mesh filter to make sure the juice isn’t heated as it is created. The wide chute lets you juice whole fruits and vegetables and there’s a safety locking arm to prevent those messy accidents you always see on the TV when the lid isn’t in place.
The jug has a 70-ounce capacity so you can make a batch of drinks at once and there are two speeds to better control. There is also a 3.4-litre pulp bin container to hold all the bits you don’t want in your drink.
Using juicing to detox
There’s no doubt that juicing is perfect to detox your body after the excess of Christmas, before a holiday, a special occasion or just when you feel a bit sluggish. But there’s also no reason why not just incorporate it into your daily routine and enjoy all those health benefits. To help you out, check out this free 7-day Juicing Challenge to help you get started!
