JUICE (and smoothie)

Its coming up on fathers day and pop recently emailed me a pic.  He's standing in the grocery store with an arm load of veggies and fruits for his new juicer.  His one line caption read: "See what you did to me??" I didn't do anything.  He did.  He bought the food and he's making his juice.  Made me proud.  So this post is dedicated to him and all other fathers (even non fathers) that mothers and children would never believe seeing walking down the aisle with an arm full of organic veggies and fruits.  Juice on cool men.  And so I begin... 

Just beyond the realm of average healthy living their lies juice.  Not the sugar kind you buy in the store.  The kind you masticate or mash until the macro and micro nutrients of all chosen herbaciuosness and fruit fill your glass and goodness.  If you think I’m high while writing this, well, I had some nausea and now I  feel much better.  

Juice is the kind that takes virtually no energy to digest and assimilate.  The kind that doesn’t need to be broken down to work.  The kind that’s in perfect harmony with your body.  The kind that aids in prevention of disease.  There really is nothing better than to commune with nature by drinking it.  Meditation is a close second I guess.  This post unfortunately is more infomercial with no “mercial.” Less ramble.  That “mercial” is up to you- meaning I’ve got nothing to sell, you just have some things to buy.  So please take a few minutes to open you heart and imagination to the holiest of all holy natural healers out there.  The one no one or thing can patent.  Juice. 

What you need (links to most of products on the gear section of “stuff” page):

Juicer.  You’ve heard of mastication right? Sounds like something else, but its what you do every day.  Mastication is chewing!  Crushing food to extract the most effective collection of healthy vitamin rich nutrients and enzymes.  That’s why you’re supposed to chew more than none, not swallow whole like I tend to do.  (tangent: there’s a meditation I try to do when reminded.  I silently count my chewing.  I try to get to twenty chews a bite.  Monks get up to 60 cpbs.  They also wedge themselves in tiny boxes for days, so I'd stick to twenty). What you want is a masticating juicer, also known as cold press juicer.  If you can afford a masticating juicer like the Champion or Omega, great.  If you want to spend a couple grand get a Norwalk. If you can’t, then get a L’equip or Breville or any juicer. Just get a juicer and start using it.

Blender.  Why confuse us?  Why bring in a blender into the mix when I’m trying to get the world to buy a juicer? The reason is threefold.  One has to do with green.  Greens have relatively little water content, so in a juicer you have to have a ton of greens to get a little juice.  Its not impossible, but if you can do it buy a decent industrial blender in addition to your juicer for heavier green shakes. Another is you can’t juice a banana.  For those who might be loose in the bowels, 1/2 a banana in the smoothie helps to bind.  And finally, whey is proven to be a good helper in the chemo side effect and cancer department, among other things.  Don’t bother trying to juice it, you’ll look silly with powder on your face.  But the whey must be high quality, cold processed, medium branch chain amino acids, no sugars, artificial sweeteners or artificial favors (according to my correspondent, and he’s never wrong).  Best one I’m told can be found on Dr. Mercola’s web site (see stuff).  So below I’ve listed mom's easy green blender shake.  Of course regarding gadgets there is only one king of blender hill and that’s called a Vita mix.       

Glass Bottles.  I’m done with plastic.  As done as I can be.  I forgive myself a bit here and there but on the whole don’t trust the plastic we consume and ingest.  Ever look up the ingredients of a standard plastic bottle?  I’m not going to over-downer it.  Suffice it to say you don't want any of it in your body.  Especially if you're fighting something.  So store your juice in individual glass jars. Its more fun that way.  Point made maybe.  There are cheap mason jars or more fancy ones to be found in the stuff link.  Just takes a little planning.  Your choice.   

A Guide.  In addition to the below you can grab a book.  Thanks to another special correspondent I was given Denise Mari’s book Organic Avenue: Recipes for life.  Yes Gwentheth has it, so does Jennifer, so does Juliet.  Yes its in the stuff section.  I could be the first male to openly hock this thing.  Anyway, it has easy to follow instructions and lists recipes of how to detox and combine foods that taste yummy.  Some not so yummy but you work up to it.  Another guide for those of us more in the thick of it is Patric Quillin's Beating Cancer with Nutrition.  A thick read but lots of interesting information.  

As I started chemo land I found that simple was best.  Watered down carrot juice has been the easiest to handle, but I’m slowly branching into my future.  The future of green.   Note: Its important for the beginner to mix filtered water in with your juice at first.  Your body needs time to adjust to a new routine. I'm lucky, like I said I've had special correspondents advising me on the way: the aforementioned Juliet, “mom” and guru/beta tester David K.  The below are recipes and products that each have used and consumed, therefore I am using, consuming and passing along. 

Preparation.  It is great to be able to make a juice and drink it right away, but I don’t like cleaning up three times a day.  Yes, for those trying to get on the health train, three times (12 oz./ 1.5 cups each at least) per day is what you are working towards.  Some natural cancer survivors drink 13 juices per day (see http://gerson.org/gerpress/the-gerson-therapy/).  Three is easy peasy. Point is, in one juicing you can make enough for the day and store in three separate containers.  Pack them in a cooler bag and take with you.  Its just planning.  Again, your choice.

So finally, here’s two loose recipes that you can adopt and play with.  One for the juicer and one for the blender.  The important thing is to get live plant life into your body any way any how.  That’s what boosts the immune system, does the healing and continues to maintain your energy.  Lastly remember to drink purified water along the way.  The idea is to rid yourself of toxins that the juice eliminates so flush them out!   

David K’s juicing juice aka 'the bendy':

·      1 big leaf red kale...red because it's higher in anthocyanins,

·      1 leaf Lacinato kale...super deep green, rich in phytonutrients,

·      1 carrot,

·      1 small beet,

·      1 large leaf collard greens...superfood (the new kale)

·      1 small bunch of flat leaf parsley...great anti-oxidant, blood builder,

·      1 inch long  plug of ginger...allays nausea, plus anti inflammatory,

·      2 inch slab of cucumber,

·      1 stalk of celery,

·      1 small bunch of wheat grass... great anti cancer properties and really helps body cope with processing chemo, start slow.                 

NOW. For flavor, to make it less turfy add…

·      1/2 a green apple, low glycemic index,

·      blackberries  (or black raspberry freeze dry powder).

·      Add a few drops of stevia or organic honey if the tartness or the ginger intensity are too much. This makes approximately one large glass.                

Test and see how it goes down, modify flavor as needed but try to keep the main players included even in small amounts. The superstars are the kale sisters, collard, parsley, wheatgrass.  If you need to water down the intensity, add leaves of Romaine...seems innocuous, but is surprisingly nutrient dense and has no intrusive strong green flavor.  Another substitute/addition is rhubarb, another in the anthocyanin  brotherhood (see: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1082894/).  The taste improves.  And make it organic! You get almost double the nutrients from organic.  Therefore you’d have to buy twice as much regular fruits and veggies to make up the amount of nutrients and enzymes from organic.  Think about it.

Mom’s green smoothie:

Mom doesn’t likes a lot of cleaning or measuring.   She’s got a horse, two dogs and a parrot that require more cleaning and measuring than anyone could imagine.  So the recipe is easy and loose.  Most important?  You got it, organic.  So here it is. Take an industrial blender and fill with the following:

·      a generous handful of watercress (or baby kale) 

·      a bunch of parsley

·      three carrots

·      one ripe mango cut up. 

·      Half a papaya without seeds

·      1 apple

·      hunk of ginger

·      one whole fennel cut up

The above is the staple ingredients. The below are optional for substitutes if you cant find any of the above or if you want to make taste a bit more sweeter in the beginning.

·      a banana (especially if you can’t get ripe mangos or papayas)

·      melon

·      1 orange (without peel)

·      Baby greens (when you cant get good super greens)

·      Green tea powder (for extra energy)

The idea is to eventually fill the blender, then get a big jar that you drink throughout the day.  Play with amounts until you get it the way you like.  Remember your body will crave less and less sweeteners as you go so don't worry about adding enough yummy to get you going.  Remember to still drink lots of water throughout the day to clear the waste and whatnot.   

My morning shake: 

For me it's become a religion, not just the juicing but the shaking.  Specifically: Dr. Schulze's Super Meal Shake (listed in Stuff).  It is the perfect get up an go shake.  1/4 cup mix with half banana, black raspberry powder, and other fruit or veg as desired.  A little almond milk and blend. There's enough absorbable vitamin C and B12, etc that I don't need to down extra supplements.   

NOTE ON CLEANING PRODUCE: Most knew this except for me.  Get a little spray bottle and fill with organic apple cider vinegar/ water mixture (50/50).  Spray over new bought veggies and fruits.  Let sit for five minutes and then rise thoroughly.  Pretty simple and destroys the nasty lurking beneath the leaves and pores.   

So that’s that's my juice pitch.  Please comment if you have other combos and ideas. 

Note on comparing juicers:  For people who want to know about the six enzymes in carrot juice and which juicer really works best go to Chris Wark’s wonderful site on his natural steps to beating cancer.  Inside are wonderful tips and products that have helped me.  Donate if you can.  His is an informative journey. He also has Dr. Michael Donaldson’s comparison report on juicers.   http://www.chrisbeatcancer.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/other-juice-extractor-comparison-20

JUICE ON SMOOTHIE