Unlock Your Health Potential: The Power of Juicing for Vitality and Well-being

Chapter 5: Body Detox And Cleansing Myths And Facts

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There are a lot of detoxing diets around as well as items or foods that claim to “detox” the body.

Detoxification is designed to rid the body of unnatural chemicals and pollutants that are said to damage the liver, damage the kidneys, and help you lose weight.

Unfortunately, if detoxification were really all that helpful, everyone would be doing it.

Doing detoxification the wrong way can be damaging to your health. Before you get out the juicer and gather a bunch of healthy vegetables to eat at your next meal, you should really think about these myths and facts about body cleansing and body detoxification.

Detox Myth #1: Detoxification is the quickest way to lose weight. The truth is that while detoxes actually do help you lose the weight very quickly, most of the weight lost is body water and the weight will come right back on as soon as you stop doing it.

Detox can also help you lose stool through diarrhea and that will cause your weight to drop fast but as soon as you eat, the stool will build up again.

You can lose only so much weight when participating in a cleanse diet. It is much better to lose weight the conventional way—through eating a low-calorie diet and exercising in order to lose the pounds. It is much easier to stick to a diet this way as well.

Detox Myth #2: Detox diets are better for you than a diet consisting of exercise and eating a fewer number of calories. While a diet claiming to be a detox diet is able to get rid of a few toxins from the body, it won’t help you lose a lasting amount of weight.

It is much safer to eat healthy unprocessed foods and get to the gym for some exercise.

Detox Myth #3: You don’t have to exercise with a detox diet. While it is possible to lose weight with a detox diet without exercise, you are losing muscle mass by engaging in a detox diet and avoiding exercise.

If you want to gain or tone muscles, going to the gym or exercising at home or outdoors is the best way to keep those muscles healthy.

Detox myth #4: You need to take it many strange juices and avoid eating food when detoxing. There are many healthy foods that will cleanse your system without needing to take in only expensive juices or eating so little food that you quit eating solids.

Instead of juicing your way through a detox diet, you should eat a lot of sesame seeds, leafy green vegetables, and lemons (in a recipe or as the juice).

Green tea is another inexpensive thing to add to your diet that will clean your body out without starving yourself; it is a natural detoxification drink for those who really want to detox but don’t want to buy a juicer and juice up veggies and fruits.

Detox Myth #5: Drinking an excessive amount of water will detoxify the body. This is a myth that has some partial truth to it. Water does help the kidneys and liver function better but if you drink too much of it, it can be dangerous to your body.

Too much water can negatively affect the electrolytes of the body and can cause your kidneys to work overtime trying to get rid of the excessive amount of water you are trying to take in as part of a detox diet. Drink plenty of water while dieting but don’t go overboard.

Detox myth #6: You only have to go to the sauna to detoxify the body. While saunas are an excellent way to get rid of toxins after working out at the gym, this isn’t a way to have longstanding detoxification.

If you spend too much time lounging in a sauna, it is just too easy to become dehydrated. In addition, trying to use sweat to get rid of your toxins, you can block your ability to detoxify your body over a period of time.

While many people take on these types of detox diets with the best of intentions, you need to know that it is possible for them to be dangerous to your body if you don’t do them right.

Start your healthy diet and exercise plan the right way, by lowering your caloric content, continuing to eat healthy foods in moderation, and exercising hard at the gym or in your home (or outside) in order to keep your muscle mass up or to tone your muscles as you help your body lose weight.

Best Raw Food And Juices For Energy To Jumpstart Your Day

A large number of us struggle to get going in the mornings and reach for the coffee as soon as we are awake. We think and/or hope the caffeine in the coffee will help us wake up enough to get going with our day.

However, the effects of caffeine on health are well documented, so many people are looking for an alternative to jumpstart their day.

There are a number of raw foods and juices that can make a difference in the mornings and help you to get going.

Below are some of the best foods and juices that can give you that boost in the mornings.

Energy Bars

There are numerous recipes online for making your own energy bars that you can eat quickly and easily when you are on the go in the mornings.

Most contain a mixture of nuts, seeds, and raw vegetables that provide a mix of vitamins and help increase energy levels. For added variety, you could add fruits into the bars such as oranges for added vitamin C.

Chia Pudding

There are endless varieties that you can go for if you want to mix it up a bit when it comes to chia pudding. Options such as celery, cucumber, and apples naturally contain a lot of water so help to make it more of a juice than a smoothie. Again, this could be made the night before to save time in the mornings.

Beet and Celery juice

There are so many health reasons to drink this in the mornings, and you will instantly feel refreshed and energized. Not only is this juice good for your vital organs, and overall health, but it can also help to improve your skin.

Citrus and Vegetables

Combining the effects of citrus and vegetables such as carrots and peppers will definitely help to jumpstart your day. There are numerous vitamins and minerals in this sort of juice, and you will instantly feel a burst of energy. The added citrus will give you a healthy dose of vitamin C, which can also help with general health and wellbeing.

Greens

Whatever form you get your greens in, from juices to salads, they will always provide you with many health benefits. There are so many options available, so everyone is likely to find something they are happy with. Options include cucumber, apples, kale, and spinach; these give you a good base of many different juice options.

Pineapple and Peppermint Juice

Combining pineapple and peppermint has hugely beneficial effects and can really jumpstart your day. This helps with dehydration, which can be the cause of fatigue. Moreover, there are so many vitamins and minerals in here that you can’t help but feel energized afterwards.

Oatmeal

Oatmeal is excellent and providing energy and keeping you filled up until lunchtime. Add in flaxseeds and some fruit such as apples and bananas and you have a tasty and healthy breakfast that will jumpstart any day.

Banana Pancakes

Everyone loves pancakes for breakfast, and you can even have them on a raw food diet. By making them with ingredients such as coconut flakes and fruit like bananas, you will be giving yourself a good start to the day. The vitamins will help to give you energy, and the bananas can prevent unhealthy snacking throughout the day.

Raw Granola

You can buy raw granola in most health food shops, so stock up on it. You can do so much with granola from snack bars to cereal.

Combine it with some fruits, nuts and seeds and you will have a healthy and nutritious breakfast that will jumpstart your day.

Can Juicing Help Menopausal Symptoms?

Menopause is a difficult time for many women. It is a time when the menses stop and are replaced by hot flashes, night sweats, and mood changes.

Besides hormone replacement therapy, there are few medical options for the management of this time in a woman’s life. This leaves us with natural remedies to combat the symptoms until the menopausal symptoms stop.

Juicing For Menopause

While there are no scientific research studies out there that prove that juicing is beneficial for women undergoing menopause, there are plenty of anecdotal reports that show that drinking vegetable and fruit juices can help a woman suffering from menopausal symptoms.

For one, juicing can easily result in a loss of weight. Menopause is, unfortunately, a time when many women gain weight, which can lead them to an increased risk of diabetes, heart attacks, and stroke. By juicing, the weight gain can be prevented and perhaps some weight can be lost so that these diseases can be prevented.

Just about any kind of juice will result in weight loss but the vegetable juices are believed to be the best. Vegetable juices are low in sugar and calories and can be sweetened slightly be adding carrots to the mixture or by adding a small amount of apple to the juice.

This makes the juice more palatable so that it can be taken in by the woman several times per day, resulting in weight loss and a reduction in risk factors for the above diseases.

Juices, especially carrot juices, have been found to be preventative against breast cancer, which reaches its peak right around menopause. Research has shown that the daily intake of carrots can reduce the risk of breast cancer.

In one study alone, it was found that woman who consumed raw carrots daily had a 5 to 8 times decreased risk of getting breast cancer when compared to women who did not consume any carrots.

The reasons for this are unclear but it is believed that the beta- carotene in the carrots is what prevents breast cancer. Other types of cancer, including lung cancer and colon cancer are prevented by eating carrots.

Juicing and Constipation

Many women in menopause suffer from a slowing of their metabolism leading to chronic constipation. When juices are made with a blender rather than with a juicer, the insoluble fiber remains in the juice and this allows for an increase in the bulk of the stool. Peristalsis is increased and the woman will have a reduction in the symptoms of constipation.

The juices that work best for this are the vegetable juices that are naturally high in fiber when blended. Juices made from berries also have a high amount of insoluble fiber in it and will also be preventative against constipation in menopause if they are blended so as to retain the insoluble fiber in the juice.

Juices and Heart Disease Prevention

Women who enter menopause begin to have an increased risk for cardiovascular disease because of the loss of the protective effect of estrogen normally produced by the ovaries. Many juices are high in potassium, which lowers blood pressure and therefore puts less stress on the heart.

Carrot juice is particularly high in potassium and can reduce the risk of cardiovascular disease by lowering the blood pressure. Other vegetable juices contain potassium and other substances that are protective against inflammation, which is believed to be related to getting heart disease.

Juices also cause weight loss, which is protective against heart disease. Weight loss brought on by juicing can reduce the risk of diabetes in menopause, which is one of the risk factors for heart disease.

Does Juicing Help Menopausal Symptoms?

There is no study showing that juicing helps reduce the hot flashes and night sweats seen in the menopausal period, but many women swear that juicing positively impacted their symptoms of menopause.

Juicing provides the body with excellent nutrition that is easily absorbed by the body. This improved nutrition could be why a woman in the perimenopausal years suffers from fewer menopausal symptoms.

If you are in menopause and want to try juicing to reduce your menopausal symptoms, try the vegetable juices over the fruit juices, as the fruit juices are higher in calories and cause fluctuations in blood sugar. If you are suffering from constipation, use a blender rather than a juicer in order to get the insoluble fiber that can counteract the constipation brought on by the lowered metabolism seen in menopausal women.