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- Herausgeber: John Wiley & Sons
- Kategorie: Ratgeber
- Sprache: Englisch
Lose weight and cleanse your body with juices and smoothies Losing weight and being healthy is often on our minds, but not everyone has the time to spend several hours a week at the gym. The beauty of dieting and cleansing with juices and smoothies is that you can take them anywhere, and they only take minutes to prepare. Juicing can be done from one to three days to cleanse the body of unwanted toxins and lose weight, while smoothies provide a longer-term meal-replacement strategy that keeps you feeling full--and Juicing & Smoothies For Dummies brings you up to speed on everything you need to start incorporating this healthy lifestyle option right away. * How to safely cleanse the body of toxins * Tips to increase nutrition with protein and fiber supplements * Juicing and smoothie tips and techniques * A month's worth of grocery lists for items to have on hand, making it easier to make healthy juices and smoothies in minutes * 50 recipes for juices and 50 recipes for smoothies for breakfast, lunch, dinner, and dessert Juicing & Smoothies For Dummies gives you everything you need to enjoy the benefits of this exciting new lifestyle choice.
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Seitenzahl: 427
Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2012
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Juicing & Smoothies For Dummies®
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Table of Contents
Juicing & Smoothies For Dummies®
by Pat Crocker
Juicing & Smoothies For Dummies®
Published byJohn Wiley & Sons Canada, Ltd.6045 Freemont Blvd.Mississauga, ON L5R 4J3www.wiley.com
Copyright © 2013 by John Wiley & Sons Canada, Ltd.
Published by John Wiley & Sons Canada, Ltd.
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Library and Archives Canada Cataloguing in Publication Data
Crocker, Pat
Juicing and smoothies for dummies / Pat Crocker.
Includes index.
ISBN 978-1-118-38749-8
1. Fruit juices. 2. Vegetable juices. 3. Smoothies (Beverages). I. Title.
TX840.J84C75 2012 641.87’5 C2012-902736-7
ISBN 978-1-118-39570-7 (ebk); ISBN 978-1-118-39571-4 (ebk); ISBN 978-1-118-39569-1 (ebk)
Printed in the United States
1 2 3 4 5 RRD 15 14 13 12 11
About the Author
Pat Crocker knows about food, herbs, and health from the ground up. She has enjoyed a long career teaching, researching, writing about, growing, and speaking about healthy food and herbs. A home economist (Ryerson University, BAA, 1975), she taught high school immediately upon graduating from the University of Toronto’s Ontario Institute for Studies in Education.
After leaving teaching, Pat started a niche food public relations company, Crocker International Communications, Inc., operating in Toronto with food and consumer accounts. She sold the company, moved to a log cabin on the Saugeen River in southern Ontario, and hosted Riversong Herb Walk and Gourmet Lunch programs in the 1990s.
Now an award-winning author and regular writer for food and garden magazines, Pat’s articles have appeared in national and international magazines and newspapers. She has been profiled in Herbs for Health and the Toronto Sun; on Canada’s CTV, CBC, and City Television; and on radio stations throughout the United States and Canada. She lectures about food and herb topics throughout the United States and Canada.
The 2011 International Herb Association Professional Award given for outstanding contributions to the Herb Industry and the 2009 Gertrude H. Foster award from the Herb Society of America for Excellence in Herbal Literature have both honored Pat. Her books, The Juicing Bible and The Vegan Cook’s Bible have won “Best in the World” awards from the International Gourmand Culinary Guild.
Pat’s other books include The Healing Herbs Cookbook; The Juicing Bible; The Smoothies Bible; The Vegetarian Cook’s Bible; The Vegan Cook’s Bible; The Yogurt Bible; 150 Best Tagine Recipes; Everyday Flexitarian: Recipes for Vegetarians and Meat Lovers Alike, co-authored with Nettie Cronish; Oregano; Herbs of the Kasbah; Pelegoniums, co-authored with Joyce Brobst and Caroline Amidon; and Preserving: The Canning and Freezing Guide for All Seasons.
Pat’s lifework embraces food, her spirit is entwined with plants, and she nourishes readers, listeners, and audiences with her knowledge and love of both.
Dedication
This is a book for people who envision a healthy life for themselves and their families. I dedicate it to you, no matter where you are on the path to healthy living.
Author’s Acknowledgments
With 13 books under my pen, I have come to understand how to write cookbooks. I’ve worked with co-authors, editors, copy editors, food editors, designers, recipe testers, and several publishers. And from each, I have learned more about the business of developing, testing, and writing recipes; researching health issues; and the art of writing. Thanks to all the professionals for sharing what they know.
I was delighted to write this book for John Wiley & Sons Canada. Thanks to Anam Ahmed, acquisitions editor, for asking.
Elizabeth Kuball is amazing. While we’ve never met face to face, I know that we would have much to discuss if ever we did. Her editing skills have shaped this book from the Table of Contents forward.
It’s nice to know that someone has your back, and with this book, I had three experts on my team: Emily Nolan tested the recipes, Patty Santelli did the nutrition analysis, and Candice Schreiber was the technical editor. Thanks for your professional work on this book.
After 13 books, my family and friends know the drill. They give me space and time to do the long and solitary job of crafting words for paper. They nurture me when I just want to linger in a garden or on a trail. And they cook and clean. Thank you, each one, especially Shannon and Gary for loving and caring.
Publisher’s Acknowledgments
We’re proud of this book; please send us your comments at http://dummies.custhelp.com. For other comments, please contact our Customer Care Department within the U.S. at 877-762-2974, outside the U.S. at 317-572-3993, or fax 317-572-4002.
Some of the people who helped bring this book to market include the following:
Acquisitions and Editorial
Project Editor: Elizabeth Kuball
Acquiring Editor: Anam Ahmed
Copy Editor: Elizabeth Kuball
Technical Editor: Candice Schreiber
Recipe Tester: Emily Nolan
Nutrition Analyst: Patty Santelli
Production Editor: Lindsay Humphreys
Editorial Assistant: Kathy Deady
Cover Photos: © Ivan Mateev/iStock
Cartoons: Rich Tennant (www.the5thwave.com)
Composition Services
Senior Project Coordinator: Kristie Rees
Layout and Graphics: Andrea Hornberger
Proofreaders: John Greenough, Penny Stuart
Indexer: Ty Koontz
John Wiley & Sons Canada, Ltd.
Deborah Barton, Vice President and Director of Operations
Jennifer Smith, Publisher, Professional and Trade Division
Alison Maclean, Managing Editor, Professional & Trade Division
Publishing and Editorial for Consumer Dummies
Kathleen Nebenhaus, Vice President and Executive Publisher
Kristin Ferguson-Wagstaffe, Product Development Director
Ensley Eikenburg, Associate Publisher, Travel
Kelly Regan, Editorial Director, Travel
Publishing for Technology Dummies
Andy Cummings, Vice President and Publisher
Composition Services
Debbie Stailey, Director of Composition Services
Introduction
I’m excited to be writing this book, and I’m even more excited that you’re reading it. I’m delighted to have the chance to share all that I know about being healthy and preventing disease, along with my tips and recipes for making great smoothies and juices. I’m thrilled that you’ve chosen this book to help start you on an adventure that can take you, your body, and even your mind and emotions to places you never thought you’d go. And I’m glad to be part of the spark that guides you toward drinking your way to better health.
I call this decision to make juices and smoothies part of your diet an adventure because, although it may not give you the breathtaking adrenalin rush of bungee jumping or rock climbing, you’re starting out on a journey that could change your life. You’ll be doing something that may be outside your normal routine, and you’ll likely be exploring options you may not have considered before. Like any good road trip, this book offers you a map — but you’re the one behind the wheel. You call the shots and you determine just how much you’ll benefit from this trip into health and well-being.
Do you want to lose weight? Have more energy? Get stronger? Stop getting colds? Remember more? Have vibrant skin, hair, and nails? Slow the aging process? It’s all possible by eating the right foods, exercising, and including fruits and vegetables in your daily regime.
I know this because I haven’t just listened to experts and read about and researched ongoing medical studies, but actually experienced the benefits of good food and a healthy diet that includes juices and smoothies. I’ve experienced the “juice high” from cleansing and detoxifying, and I’ve come to agree with dietitians, nutritionists, food scientists, and medical researchers in many fields when they say that diet, exercise, health and well-being are inextricably entwined — modern disease is a curse that is a product of chemical pollutants; high-fat, high-sugar, highly refined and processed foods; over consumption of caffeine and alcohol; and a lack of physical exercise.
Even though there may seem to be contradictory, complicated, or even depressing news about food and disease, there is one constant fact that was expressed over 7,000 years ago by Hippocrates, the father of Western medicine: “Let food be your medicine and your medicine be your food.” This is just as true today as it was then. I’m convinced that eating a wide variety of colorful fresh fruits and vegetables is key to experiencing optimum health. Turns out that it’s pretty simple: Eat or drink more fruits and vegetables to be well.
About This Book
Juicing & Smoothies For Dummies is a reference book. You don’t have to read it straight through, from beginning to end, to get what you need out of it. Instead, you can use the table of contents and index to locate the information you need when you need it.
The book is loaded with recipes — 50 juice recipes and 50 smoothie recipes — so you’re bound to find a wide variety of drinks you’ll love. But this isn’t just a recipe book — I also provide a wealth of information on equipment, fruits and vegetables, and a healthy lifestyle.
Conventions Used in This Book
I don’t use many conventions in this book, but I do use a few that you should be aware of:
When I introduce a new term, I italicize it and define it shortly thereafter (often in parentheses).
I use monofont for all web and e-mail addresses.
Note: When this book was printed, some web addresses may have needed to break across two lines of text. If that happened, rest assured that we haven’t put in any extra characters (such as hyphens) to indicate the break. So, when using one of these web addresses, just type in exactly what you see in this book, pretending as though the line break doesn’t exist.
What You’re Not to Read
You can skip sidebars (that’s the text in gray boxes). Although the sidebars are interesting, they’re not critical to your understanding of the subject at hand. You also can skip anything marked with the Technical Stuff icon (see “Icons Used in This Book,” later, for more information).
Foolish Assumptions
I don’t make a ton of assumptions about you as the reader (after all, you know what they say about assuming). But I do assume the following:
You’re interested in being healthy by replacing meals with juices and smoothies.
You’re interested in trying new juice and smoothie recipes.
If this is you, you’ve come to the right book!
How This Book is Organized
This book’s 20 chapters are divided into five parts. Here’s a guide to what each part covers.
Part I: An Introduction to Juicing and Smoothies
Part I gives you the what, how, and why of juicing and smoothies. This is where you discover the difference between the two drinks and what each will do for you. This part gives you tips for buying a juice extractor or a blender and loads you up with great information on shopping, handling, and storing fresh fruits and vegetables.
Finally, it shows how juices and smoothies can meet the needs of people at every stage of life, from babies to teenagers to seniors and people who are pregnant or diabetic. It even gives you some help with healthy choices for your pet.
Part II: Liquid Gold: The Health Benefits of Juicing and Smoothies
In this part, you explore the benefits of smoothies and juices. I’ve researched a wide number of sources in order to give you up-to-date information on nutrients and where to find them in foods. Part II also shows you how to use these drinks to look younger and live longer; improve your skin, hair, and nails; lose weight; increase energy; and boost your memory and immune function.
Part II is also where you find the details of cleansing and detoxification. I outline the difference between a cleanse and a detox program and explain how to safely enjoy one or the other. Finally, I lay out a short, five-day detoxification plan and a longer, 28-day plan with lots of room for personalization.
Part III: Getting Juiced
Part III gets you going with the ingredients and techniques of juicing. This is where all the juicing recipes are located. Chapter 11 has fruit juices for every time of day. Vegetables are juiced in Chapter 12. Chapter 13 explains how you can deal with all the pulp you’ll be left with when the juicer extracts the juice from the fruit or vegetable.
Part IV: Serving Up Fresh Smoothies
Part IV gets you making smoothies. It explores a pantry of healthy ingredients that can be added to smoothies and gives you some great recipes for fruit and vegetable smoothies that will take you from breakfast to lunch, as well as snacks. I include recipes for milkshakes, cocktails, and other treats for special occasions, not because these drinks are particularly healthy, but because they’re a natural part of a book on this topic — and of life.
Part V: The Part of Tens
This wouldn’t be a For Dummies book without a Part of Tens. This part is a very good place to start if you want to find some tips and quick facts about juicing and smoothies. Here I answer ten frequently asked questions about juicing and smoothies and list ten antioxidant-rich fruits and vegetables.
Icons Used in This Book
Icons help you to zero in on important facts and things that are worth noting. Here’s a key to what the icons mean:
Anything marked with the Tip icon makes your life easier — at least when it comes to juicing and smoothies.
When I want to draw your attention to an important piece of information, I use this icon. The Remember icon indicates something I think is worth remembering.
When health or safety issues arise, the Warning icon appears. It lets you know that you need to heed with care the subject at hand.
I don’t use the Technical Stuff icon very often, but when I do, it adds some extra scientific or technical information that offers a bit more information on a topic. Feel free to ignore anything marked with this icon.
Where to Go from Here
If you’re shopping for a blender or juice extractor, Chapter 3 is a good place to start. If the produce section of your local supermarket is a foreign land to you, turn to Chapter 4 for tips on shopping for fruits and vegetables. If you’re not really sold on the health benefits of juicing and smoothies, check out Part II. And if all you want is to make something delicious right here, right now, turn to Parts III and IV.
I hope you achieve a healthy lifestyle that includes juices and smoothies and a whole-foods diet because I know for a fact that it’ll be a great place for you to be.
Part I
An Introduction to Juicing and Smoothies
In this part . . .
If you’re just getting started with juicing and smoothies, this part is a great place to begin. It starts by telling you what juicing and smoothies can do for you. Then it walks you through the equipment you need (don’t worry — it’s not much) and how to buy fruits and vegetables. I end the part by giving you juicing and smoothie guidelines for every stage of life, and special needs such as pregnancy and diabetes.
Chapter 1
Drinking Your Way to Better Health
In This Chapter
Getting acquainted with the liquid lifestyle
Looking at what juices and smoothies offer
Juicing for the joy of it
Savoring smoothies
Welcome to a healthier life through juicing and smoothies! With this book, you can regain your natural energy or life force by eating and especially by drinking to be well. Energy is the basic force throughout all of nature that drives life. It starts at the cellular level. To nourish the cells and live life at optimum health, we need four essential components: sleep, air, water, and nutrients.
You can get those nutrients from a variety of sources, but you get the most bang for your buck with whole, organic foods. Whole foods are unprocessed and unrefined, not chemically treated, and they’re in as pure a state as possible when we eat them. Whole foods are fresh fruits and vegetables, whole grains, legumes, lentils, nuts, seeds, herbs, unprocessed meat, and dairy products. Whole foods offer a wide variety of nutrients including phytonutrients; not only are they a source of soluble and insoluble fiber but they’re also relatively low in fat.
Juices and smoothies offer immediate results and a gigantic step along the path towards health and wellness. If you own a blender, you can start today and with very little money, time, or effort, you’ll have more energy, improved digestion and elimination, a stronger immune system, a better memory, and healthy skin and nails — and you’ll likely lose some weight, too.
When you start drinking your way to better health, you’ll feel positively charged and fully able to take whatever life has to offer.
The Liquid Lifestyle
Let me explain what I mean by the term liquid lifestyle. First, I use the word liquid to describe juices and smoothies. I like to think of juices and smoothies as drinkable whole foods. They’re liquid and, therefore, drinkable because:
A juice machine has pressed or spun the water along with the nutrients out of them.
The powerful blades of a blender have broken down the carbohydrate and fiber so much that they’re liquidized and easily swallowed.
The word lifestyle indicates that drinking juices and smoothies is something that becomes a part of your life because it’s incorporated into a daily routine. So, the liquid lifestyle is a convenient way to incorporate organic, whole fruits and vegetables into your daily life in order to feel great and stay healthy.
The liquid lifestyle starts with healthy habits. You don’t need a miracle pill or expensive supplements to enjoy good health, and you don’t need to radically overhaul your life or your diet. When you opt for a liquid lifestyle, you’re choosing to add one new healthy habit. That’s it — simple and convenient. It’s not daunting or mystifyingly complicated. Instead, it’s easy and fun, with rewards that you may not expect. And if you keep at it by following some of the tips in this book, it’s a habit that will lead to other healthy food decisions without making you feel like you’re giving something up.
By making this one healthy decision to drink juices or smoothies when your energy starts to wane or when you feel thirsty or hungry, you’re doing more than just one positive thing for yourself. Here are just some of the magical things that result from choosing a liquid lifestyle:
You’re eliminating high-fat and high-calorie foods that only add calories with no nutrients.
You’re resetting your taste sensors to eliminate your craving for salty or sugar-filled junk food.
You’re adding valuable fiber to help your body eliminate toxins and keep you regular.
You’re flooding your cells with high-quality nutrients that repair cells and protect against diseases.
In fact, when you’re enjoying a liquid lifestyle, you’re doing so much more than simply feeding a thirst or hunger. A liquid lifestyle can change the way you think about yourself. It can pave the way for a shift in your diet almost automatically, without making you feel deprived. After all, who wants to follow a refreshing fruit or vegetable juice with french fries?
Life in the 21st century is exciting, fast paced, and, at times, stressful. It’s a double whammy that as life gets faster, so does our food. So, most people are grabbing refined and processed foods with less fiber and nutrients when their hectic jobs and busy schedules are actually pushing their bodies to require more and more quality foods just to keep them functioning.
I know from experience that from the very first glass of raw, fresh vegetable juice, you’ll feel the immediate response from your body. Keep up the liquid lifestyle, and you’ll be drinking yourself to better health.
The one key benefit of juices and smoothies is that they boost your intake of fresh fruits and vegetables, two of the most important whole foods.
Healthy Living in a Glass
Opting to make your own smoothies and juices means that you’re making a fresh start. Commercial juices and smoothies, whether purchased at your grocery store or at a juice bar, are still better for you than junk food and soft drinks, but making your own allows you to be in total control of what goes into the drink. You can save money and still buy organic, fresh fruits and vegetables that are at their peak of ripeness and, thus, bursting with optimum nutrients.
Reaching for a glass of homemade juice or a smoothie means that you can stop taking commercial supplements. You’ll save money and get more of your daily nutrient requirements by drinking two or more pure fruit or vegetable drinks. The advantage of eating or drinking whole fruits and vegetables is that they contain so many complementary nutrients and trace elements, not just the major ones such as calcium or vitamin C or A. These complementary nutrients help the body metabolize or use the vitamins or minerals that we assume we’ll be getting from a particular food or a commercial supplement, and they help to boost their effectiveness.
Commercial supplements that have isolated one or two nutrients lack all the other substances that occur naturally in foods and allow the body to fully use them. For example, if you were taking a multivitamin with 10 mg of iron and it didn’t have enough vitamin C and calcium to assist the body in taking up and using that iron, the iron would pass through your body virtually unused.
My advice for complete and optimum healthy living in a glass is to drink the rainbow twice a day. Try to include as wide a variety as possible of the vibrant and colorful fruits and vegetables available to you. This approach ensures that you’re getting the best and the most nutrients that nature offers. And if you drink two or more glasses of juice or smoothies every day, you’ll be providing your body with a continuous replenishment of nutrients that are lost in normal daily living. Think of your body as a bank: If you deposit only lower value coins (or empty calories), you won’t have the cash (or energy) to do the things you want. Worse still, eventually, you won’t have the reserves to defend yourself against a tough economy (bacteria and deadly diseases).
Eating well and adding two or more fresh juices or smoothies to your daily routine will top up your nutrient reserves all day long so that you’ll actually notice a change in your physical well-being. Take a peek at what you can expect from healthy living in a glass:
Glowing skin: Collagen is made up of proteins that forms the “glue” used by the body to connect and support tissues such as skin, bone, tendons, muscles, organs, teeth, gums, and cartilage. Vitamin C is essential in building collagen. Fruits and vegetables high in vitamin C — citrus fruit, strawberries, cabbage, peppers — are essential for healthy skin. Vitamin A, found in apricots, carrots, spinach, and squash, protects the skin from sun damage. Skin cells are protected from aging by Vitamin E, found in dark green leafy vegetables, wheat germ, and nuts and seeds.
Bright eyes: Beta carotene, as found in the carotenoids of fruits and vegetables, is converted to retinol by the body. Retinol protects the surface of the eye, or the cornea, and is essential for good vision. Vitamin A is so important to your eyes that a deficiency (rare in developed countries) results in blindness.
Buff bones: In the United States, 40 million or more people have osteoporosis or are at high risk for low bone mass, according to the National Institutes of Health. Among several other things, a diet low in calcium and vitamin D will make you more prone to bone loss. This is something you can totally control by including calcium-rich foods in smoothies and getting lots of fresh air and sunlight for vitamin D. Dark green leafy vegetables, beans, tofu, sesame seeds, sea vegetables, and oranges contain lots of usable calcium. Dairy products have calcium with vitamin D added; yogurt, milk, eggs, and cheese are good sources of vitamin D.
Jumping into Juicing
Although the water or juice of mainly fruits has been enjoyed for centuries, it wasn’t until the beginning of the 20th century that two men began to look at raw juice as a medical cure. Called the Roshåft Kur, or raw juice cure, it was revolutionary at the time, and its developers, Dr. Max Bircher-Benner and Dr. Max Gerson, used it to promote health and well-being for patients suffering from fatigue and stress.
Just about everyone living in the 21st century suffers from fatigue and stress at some point. And raw juicing would be a quick and positive step toward repairing the damage to cells from modern-day stress.
Food flows through your gastrointestinal tract, which extends from your mouth to your bowels, and must be absorbed through the walls of the stomach and intestines before it can enter the bloodstream. Like most things associated with the body, assimilation (absorption of nutrients) is complicated. For total transport of nutrients through the intestinal cell wall, key enzymes and minor nutrients must be present. Once absorbed, nutrients circulate to and feed all your tissues by way of your blood. Nutrients, which are tiny molecules, are bound up in the larger cells of carbohydrate, and they’re in the water or juice of fruits and vegetables. When you juice, you remove the fiber and cellulose tissue in order to leave the pure water and nutrients. In fact, by juicing, you’re performing critical steps in the digestive process, which would normally start by chewing to break down the flesh of fruits and vegetables. All the nutrients in juice are instantly available for moving into the blood and, in fact, they’re completely taken up and on their way to repair cells within 10 to 20 minutes of drinking them. They save the body from doing digestive work — the gallbladder, pancreas, and stomach from excreting bile and digestive enzymes and the liver from separating toxins.
Juices are the fastest and easiest way for the body to take up the nutrients it needs to feed and detoxify itself.
If you want to jump-start your adventure into health, jump into juicing. Today’s juice machines are leaps ahead of the juicers of years ago. Chapter 3 fills you in on how to buy and care for equipment, but for now, trust me that juicing at home is more economical, faster, cleaner, and more convenient than ever before.
Savoring Smoothies
Smoothies are the darlings of the healthy-drink world. They taste divine; they can be as nutritious as a salad and as satisfying as a light lunch; they’re so easy to make, drink, and clean up after; and they enrich the diet without adding too many calories or unwanted fat. Who wouldn’t want to savor them?
Beyond the basics of fruit and fruit juice ingredients, smoothies are exciting in their range of possibilities and are limited only by your imagination. Although fruit smoothies are the most popular by far, vegetable smoothies can be just as rewarding, and adding milk or organic soy boosts protein and calcium.
Smoothies are a delicious, guilt-free alternative to high-sugar, high-calorie iced drinks. For people who love iced-coffee drinks, milkshakes, and the like, smoothies make the transition to healthier drinks easy. You don’t need to feel deprived, and you don’t have to sacrifice taste and texture while enjoying maximum health benefits. Make your own smoothies and iced drinks (see Chapter 18) and save money while actually doing something healthy for your body.
With dairy ingredients, nuts and seeds, legumes, herbs, and protein supplements, smoothies can be used as the occasional meal replacement (see the breakfast, snack, lunch, and dinner smoothies in Chapters 16 and 17). Check out the incredible ingredients that you can add to smoothies in Chapter 14.
Here are a couple of the benefits you can enjoy by using herbs in smoothies:
Enhanced energy: The University of Maryland Medical Center says that American ginseng is “widely used to strengthen the immune system, and increase strength and vigor.” The American Cancer Society acknowledges that ginseng is used to provide energy, among other things. One teaspoon of powdered ginseng in smoothies no more than twice a day is all you need.
Improved memory: Ginkgo biloba increases blood flow to the brain and is widely used in Europe for treating dementia. According to the University of Maryland Medical Center, “A number of studies have found that ginkgo has a positive effect on memory and thinking in people with Alzheimer’s or vascular dementia.” You can add drops of the tincture or stir a teaspoon of the powdered ginkgo into smoothies.
I like to savor fruit smoothies made from fresh local fruit in the morning. I’ve found that if I add 1/4 cup of low-fat cottage cheese or yogurt, it gives me the protein I need for staying focused right up until about an hour before lunch. That’s when I make a vegetable juice as a sort of appetizer, which keeps me sated and allows me to make really good choices about the lunch I’ll have. In this way, I’ve found a rhythm to getting the most out of juices and smoothies.
Chapter 2
What Juices and Smoothies Are and What They Can Do for You
In This Chapter
Defining juices and smoothies
Understanding the value of juices and smoothies
Recognizing what juices and smoothies will do for you
Not only are smoothies and juices good for you, but they’re fun, easy, and convenient, and they taste like an indulgent treat. They make enjoying your local abundance of fresh fruits and vegetables an everyday pleasure simply by drinking them. They do so much for your body, and developing this one healthy habit is as important as deciding to quit smoking.
Reaching for fresh homemade juices or smoothies every day could be the single most important decision of your life. Why? Because it will impact your mental, physical, and emotional well-being. It will bring about even more changes in your life and in ways that you can’t begin to know when you start.
The quality of your life is only as good as the quality of the foods that sustain your body. The surest way to attain the goals of health, energy, and freedom from disease is to eat a diet rich in whole foods, such as whole grains, legumes, fruits, vegetables, herbs, nuts, and seeds. Fresh smoothies and juices are bursting with proteins, carbohydrates, essential fatty acids, vitamins, minerals, live enzymes, and phytonutrients that are vital to your health.
In this chapter, I give you a close look at what makes a smoothie different from a juice. If you’re wondering exactly what they do for your body, you’ve come to the right place — this chapter highlights the benefits of both. Finally, it helps you decide whether one or the other (or both) fits you and your lifestyle.
Juicing and Smoothies Defined
Both juices and smoothies are incredibly good for your body, taste great, and can be enjoyed any time. But if you think that smoothies and juices are the same, you don’t know how these healthy drinks are made and what ingredients are used to make them. In this section, I fill you in.
Juices and smoothies are made mostly of fruit and vegetables, so you may be interested to know the components that make up these foods. Whole fruits and vegetables are made up of between 80 percent and 95 percent water (this is what makes them so refreshing); the other 5 percent to 20 percent is carbohydrate or fibrous cells and nutrients (see Chapter 6).
What is juice?
Juice is the water and most of the nutrients that have been separated from the carbohydrate or fibrous pulp in fruits and vegetables. Sometimes a very limited number of healthy ingredients are added to juice, but these aren’t necessary and only boost certain nutrients (see Chapter 6).
You can squeeze or press citrus fruit (like oranges, grapefruits, and lemons) in order to get the juice, but the only way to juice at home is to run raw, fresh fruits and vegetables through a juicing machine that presses or cuts and spins them so that the juice is extracted from the pulp.
You need a juice machine to make fresh homemade fruit or vegetable juice, and you need a citrus press to make citrus juices. You can’t make juice in the blender.
What are smoothies?
When a liquid (such as fresh juice, milk, or broth) and fresh fruits and/or fresh vegetables are combined in a blender and processed into a purée, the resulting drink is called a smoothie. The whole fruits and vegetables with the skin (if organic), but not inedible seeds, are blended until the cells in the fruit and other ingredients are so small that they’re transformed into a drinkable liquid. Smoothies may have lots of other ingredients added (see Chapter 14), but the main ingredients are the liquid and the fruits and/or vegetables.
The best machine for making smoothies is a blender or a Vitamix. You can use a food processor, but the drink won’t be as thick and smooth, and it may leave a mess when the bowl is removed from the base.
A brief history of juicing
The Dead Sea Scrolls have revealed that mashing pomegranate and figs for “profound strength and subtle form” was practiced from before 150 b.c. This is perhaps the first record of man’s attempt to separate the vital juices from fruits and vegetables for their healing benefits.
Throughout the ages, herbalists and other health practitioners have grated or ground fresh herbs and soft fruits and pressed the juice along with the healing, active constituents from them. Dr. Max Gerson was the first to put forth the concept that diet could be used as cancer (and other disease) therapy, but it wasn’t until the 1930s when author and raw food proponent, Dr. Norman Walker invented the first juicing machine that juicing became widely available. Cumbersome and yet effective, Walker’s machine, called the Norwalk, first grates and squeezes fruits and vegetables. The pulp is placed into a linen bag and pressed using a hydraulic press. The first of its kind and still available, the Norwalk allowed ordinary people to effectively extract the juice from fruit and vegetables.
Around the mid-1950s, the Champion machine, the first masticating juicer, was invented. The high speed (4,000 rpm) of the turning rod causes friction, which heats the juice and destroys the live enzymes and other nutrients.
In 1993, the world’s first twin-gear juice extractor, called the Greenpower juicer, was produced. It’s based on the old mortar-and-pestle method of pressing out the maximum living nutrients from fruits and vegetables without losing them to heat.
Today, many great makes and models of juicing machines are available.
What’s the difference between the two?
The differences in these healthy drinks are in the ingredients and the equipment used to make them. Juices are made from fresh fruits and vegetables, and that’s it. You need a juicing machine to separate the juice from the pulp of the fruit or vegetable. Juices are the pure water and nutrients, including the pigments of the fruits and vegetables they’re made from, so they’re thin and range in color from bright green to yellow to orange to red and pink and even blue.
Smoothies, on the other hand, are made from a large range of many more ingredients. They, too, are made from fresh fruits and/or vegetables, but they have some liquid (fruit or vegetable juice, broth, milk, or yogurt) added and may include nuts, seeds, ice cream, frozen fruits or vegetables, supplements, and other health products. Smoothies are smooth and thick and tend to be lighter or more muted in color than their juice counterparts.
A brief history of smoothies
Around the turn of the 20th century, soda fountain jerks were hand-tossing stainless steel cups of creamy milkshakes from milk, ice cream, and flavored syrups. But the fruit smoothie hadn’t even been thought of yet, nor was it possible until Fred Waring marketed Steve Poplawski’s new invention, which came to be known as a blender.
The blender was first sold to drugstores with soda fountains and to bars and restaurants with bars. Milkshakes were the first drinks to be made in the new blender machines. These new machines didn’t come to be used on the beaches of California until around the mid-1960s. The earliest fruit smoothies were thick, frozen drinks made from orange juice, strawberries, and ice, and although they shared the electric blender in common with the longer-standing milkshake, smoothies were a completely different drink aimed at cooling and refreshing beach-goers. Catering to the resurgence of macrobiotic vegetarianism in the United States, restaurants added smoothies to their menus, and the drink spread around the country.
Many commercial products have evolved since the late 1960s, and now the word smoothie is generic, meaning a thick drink blended from fruit juice and fruit. Today the international smoothie industry is a multi-billion-dollar revenue generator with new drinks sporting supplements and herbal tinctures along with other healing substances.
Cookbook authors (like me) have expanded the smoothie category to include vegetables and dairy, bringing it right back to the milkshake. But the true smoothie will always be the icy cold fruit juice, fresh fruit, and ice beach quencher.
An Introduction to Juicing
With science backing the idea that diet has a direct effect on health, more and more people are coming to realize that fresh juice can be used to help prevent disease and all sorts of modern ailments. It didn’t take long for gyms, clinics, health clubs, pharmacies, health or whole-food shops, homeopathic establishments, and even chain fashion stores and, of course, malls to realize that the health drink trend was something they could capitalize on.
Although you can buy commercial juices in stores and restaurants, it’s still healthier, not to mention less expensive, to juice at home using fresh, organic fruits and vegetables. A whole new generation of affordable, centrifugal juicing machines that are smaller and easier to clean have made the juicing revolution a fact of modern life.
If you don’t have a juicer, flip to Chapter 3 — it defines the types of juicers available and gives you great tips on what to look for in buying one. You can’t make juices without a juicer.
The benefits of juicing
There are many, almost too many, benefits to list. And you may find, as I did, that some benefits you just can’t know until you experience them. If you get into the habit of making and consuming fresh juices twice a day, you’ll sense the juice instantly release nourishment into your bloodstream. It’s a close-your-eyes-and-savor-the-experience kind of moment when you tip the glass and let the brilliant liquid slide effortlessly down your throat. Taking a juice break is like a visit to a spa — relax and enjoy doing something special for yourself.
Contributing to your daily intake of fruits and vegetables
Many health professionals and institutions tell you how many fruits and vegetables to eat in a day, and as long as their minimum numbers are no less than five, they aren’t exactly wrong. It’s just that, in their desire to get you to eat more than the average two vegetable servings most Americans eat in a day, they’re happy just to see you increase that less-than-adequate number.
What they may not explain is that if you eat at least seven and closer to ten servings of fruits and vegetables daily, the antioxidants and other phytonutrients will help reduce the risk of modern diseases such as cancer, obesity, heart disease, stroke, arthritis, asthma, macular degeneration, and diverticulosis. But man, that’s a lot of fresh fruits and vegetables!
That’s where juicing comes in. A juice may consist of one apple, two carrots, one beet, a piece of ginger, and half a lemon. It delivers a full serving of fruit, along with three servings of vegetables — all in one drink.
You can dramatically increase your daily intake of fruits and vegetables by drinking smoothies and juices.
Preventing modern diseases
People don’t get scurvy nowadays, but from as far back as Hippocrates in 400 b.c., it was a dreaded and fatal disease. Long-voyage sailors ate fresh lemons or limes to prevent scurvy (hence the name “limeys” for Englishmen). Jacques Cartier, a 16th-century North American explorer relied on native people, who gave them a boiled tea of juniper needles and saved his small group that had tried to overwinter in what is now Nova Scotia. The action of preventing scurvy was called antiscorbic long before anyone knew about vitamin C.
The discovery of vitamin C around the turn of the 20th century was a major turning point for food research. We’ve come a long way in understanding just what’s in the foods we eat. Today we know the science behind what the ancients knew from experience: that fruits and vegetables actually prevent diseases. We also know that we need to eat a wide variety of them to ensure that we get the full spectrum of the nutrients they have to offer. Here’s a quick highlight (see Chapter 6 for more):
Fiber: Only fruits and vegetables contain soluble and insoluble fiber, which controls blood glucose levels to prevent diabetes, reduces cholesterol and the risk of heart disease, and reduces the risk of diverticulosis and a variety of cancers.
Antioxidants: Found mostly in fruits and vegetables (along with red wine and dark chocolate), antioxidants reduce the risk of coronary heart disease, reduce cell damage, and prevent aging and cancers.
Phytonutrients: The phytonutrients in fruits and vegetables prevent a variety of human ailments, including arthritis, diabetes, and osteoporosis.
Vitamins and minerals: More than any other foods, fruits and vegetables are high in these essential nutrients that build and repair cells and tissue, protect against colds and flu, and keep the organs and glands functioning at their best.
