Wednesday, April 30, 2014

Preparedness Through Good Health - Juicing

I have only been juicing for 2-3 months, but the results have been amazing. This decided me to share the health benefits with my readers.

You may already know that I believe that one of the basics of emergency preparedness is staying in good health. This is because medical providers are usually overwhelmed during an emergency. This is the last time you want to have a non-emergency health problem. 

The line at the emergency room door will probably go around the block at least once, and you will have a long wait behind the people who are bleeding a lot and screaming in pain.

You may also be aware that I think staying healthy through good nutrition is the best way. One of the ways to do this is through making and drinking your own fresh juice.

If you get your juice from a bottle in the store it will not be very fresh. After the juice in your bottle left the farm it went through an assembly line full of people. You have no way of knowing whether each one of those people washed up after using the toilet or how many scratched themselves, etc.

If you make your own juice you know exactly what happened to that juice after you washed the fruits and veggies that made it. It is also very fresh.

Fresh is good. According to experts on juicing, you will get the most benefit from juice if you drink it within 30 minutes of when it is squeezed. Part of the reason for this is that the natural enzymes in the juice start to become inactive after 30 minutes. 

Other people tell me that they do not get as much of a boost in energy from juicing as I do, but I drink juice almost every day. Most of them do not drink fresh juice that often.

I have health problems that make me tired a lot. Drinking fresh juice has made me so much more energetic that I am now able to get a lot more done each day. It is possible that you can have this happen to you also.

Naturally, I put a lot of my extra energy into working on emergency preparedness. You could do the same if you get more energy from juicing.

I have found two juicing experts that I like quite a bit. One of them sells juicers, the other one does not, but she has ads for them. 

I bought my first juicer from Wal Mart. It was on sale. It has a wide mouth so you are not supposed to have to cut up your produce as much before you put it in the juicer. Hah! Sure my carrots will go into the juicer in big pieces, but that doesn't mean they won't get stuck in there. 

That means that the juicer makes a horrible noise and no juice comes out. I shut it down and take it apart and put the veggie back in the juicer and try again. 

I am working out the optimum size for getting everything to go through the juicer without jamming and still big enough to get ground up before getting shot into the pulp catcher. 

The Hamilton Beach Wide Mouth is the brand I have been talking about. I can't say I really recommend it. I think I will get my next juicer from the juice expert that I mentioned before. His name is John Kohler. He sells juicers on the internet and his online store is Discount Juicers. Here is a link to his site:
http://www.discountjuicers.com/bestjuicer.html
He is pretty up front about his products and makes nice comparisons between different juicers. He has lots of videos explaining the differences between juicers and how to use them.


He also makes hundreds of videos about how to grow your own food to put in those juicers. It is a wonderful public service. 

I am busy now working on making a hydroponics set-up to grow my own food and herbs. I plan to share information on how that goes, when I get that far. 

Here is a link to Food Babe:
http://foodbabe.com/

She has some especially good posts about why juicing is good for you and recipes to get you started. 

Most people do better when they start juicing by having mostly fruit in their juice. It is better for you to have mostly vegetables in your juice, though. I find the vegetables give me more steady energy for a longer time than when I have more fruit in my juice. Beets and ginger roots seem to give me the best energy boost when I include them in my juice. 

If you decide to use beets in your juice you might want to start out with only 1/4 of a beet, or less, for a glass of juice. It may take a bit to get used to the taste and get to like it. I am happy to put a whole beet in my juice now. Yum.

I gather that greens like chard and kale give you the most benefit when you juice them. They are pretty expensive and you can go through a lot of greens very fast when you juice. That is one of the reasons why I am getting ready to grow stuff with hydroponics. I want more greens to make my juice with.

I wish lots of readers will start juicing and get healthy and ready for whatever emergencies come your way.