Juicy, Juicy, Juice...

     Good morning, Healthy Family...  How are you?  I am hobbling along on this foot.  I am still restricted to NO WEIGHT bearing on my right foot.  Trying to do my intermittent exercises the best I can, but I am not liking it AT ALL...  I get a good work out going back and forth from room to room on these dang crutches...  Oh well, I gotta do what I gotta do.
 
     Earlier this year, the discussion of "juicing" came up.   Is it really any good for you?  Can you lose weight by juicing?  Are there different types of juice machines?  The answer to ALL 3 questions is, yes!   Now,  the down side to juicing is, you will lose the healthy fiber element because you are not eating the whole fruit, but the positive thing is, it will be easier for you to absorb all the nutrients from the fruits and vegetables, as the juicer breaks the solid fruit/veggie down to a liquid.  Some people feel that drinking the juice prior to their meal satisfies their cravings and they tend to eat much less--some people and I am not on of them.  Finally, there are many juicing machines available to use. 
     There are several types you may want to consider.  I have the Jack Lalanne Juicer.  Do you remember him?  I use it quite often.  My only gripe is,  it is a process to break the machine down to clean. 

•      There are cetrifugal juicers that tend to be the least expensive.  They have a pulp collector where all the fiber and pulp residue goes.  They work by spinning the the produce at a high speed and seperates the juice from the pulp.
•      A masticating juicer finely chops the produce and forces the pulp through a mesh to separate the juice.  These are great for making baby foods.
•      Food processors have various attachments that you can use to achieve the end result you are looking for.
•      Blenders have a plastic or glass container that is placed on top of a motorized blade.  These tend to work better with soft fruits like bananas, peaches, berries to which you would add additional liquid.  These are great for making smoothies.
•      The citrus juicer which is available as a manual or electric product catches the juice in the a base and the pulp and fiber pretty much remain intact.
•      In addition there is the Vitamix which can be used as a juicer and mixes the pulp with the juice.  For the folks that like Wheatgrass there are also Wheatgrass juicers.  The list goes on and on...

     There are some things that you MUST remember when juicing.  First, juice is not a complete food.  There are no fats or proteins in juice and at the end of the day, you need some in your diet.  Secondly, you should juice only what you are going to eat at the moment.  Freshly squeezed juice can develop bacteria and the end product tends to degrade quickly.  Also, you must wash your produce, as many are harvested with pesticides.

       I started juicing about 2 years ago, but not as a "dieting" element.  I juice so that I can get something healthy without all the sugars and preservatives that are added to commercial products.  I tend to juice more often in the summer when fruit in the area I live is sweeter, in abundance, and big on variety.   Through my experimentation, I have found a liking for various produce that I had never tried in the past or just never liked.   As an example, I LOVE the sweet juice that carrots produce even though I do not like carrots.  Weird huh?   
    
     My suggestion is to do your research prior to heading down the road of JUICING.  There are websites dedicated to juicing.  Check out   www.juicingjuice.com,  and

 www.bestjuicing.com.     TRY it, you just may like it...  SMOOCHES...