The holidays are quickly approaching! This is a great time to treat your mind and body with a simple 3 day juice fast. This is especially great to do if you’re feeling overwhelmed, tired, sluggish or even have allergies. Juicing fresh vegetables and fruits is one of the most beneficial things you can do for your body. Many people complain about how juicing is hard or cleaning the juicer is time consuming. What they don’t understand is that it may take a few scrubs to wash the juicer and but the benefits of juicing fresh vegetables and fruits out weigh the complaints. Combining the right vegetables and fruits to juice can be confusing and it’s a trial and error process. I recommend the Alive Smoothie List to all my clients. The Alive Smoothie List is a great juice fast protocol that specifies exactly what you need to juice and includes amazing recipes for your entire juice fast.
1. Cucumbers
Cucumbers are one of my favorite vegetables to juice. Cucumbers are great as a base to use for your juices. Cucumbers contain 95% water so it helps hydrate the body while also eliminating toxins from the body. Cucumbers are packed with B vitamins, so if you’re feeling low on energy than get to juicing cucumbers.
Cucumbers are one of those magical vegetables that help your skin and hair. Cucumbers contains anti-inflammatory properties that help reduce puffiness and redness in the face. The silicon and sulfur that is present in cucumber also helps stimulate hair growth.
Just like parsley, cucumbers also aide in reducing bad breath. The phytochemicals in cucumber help kill bacteria that causes bad breath. Another reason that cucumbers are great for juicing is that they help you loss weight and speeds up metabolism. Cucumbers are low calorie and high water content vegetables.
Cucumbers are also great for diabetics. Sterols present in cucumbers have shown to hep decrease LDL cholesterol. Besides all these amazing benefits, cucumbers are also beneficial in relieving inflammatory symptoms like joint pain. Cucumbers contain silica which helps promote joint health by acting as a lubricant and strengths the connective tissues.
2. Parsley
Another favorite of mine. Parsley is a great detoxifier. It’s a herb that is rich in many vital vitamins ranging from vitamin C, B, K and A. Parsley is packed with chlorophyll. Chlorophyll has the ability to detoxify the liver, eliminates body odor and bad breath, cleans the digestive tract, and helps with anemia. (1)
Parsley should be added to every juice. It helps flush out toxins from the body and also helps flush out excess fluid from the body. Like cucumbers, parsley also has anti-inflammatory properties.
3. Lemons
Lemons are my absolute favorite. I add lemons to every juice! Start your day off with one cup of warm water and lemon juice.
Like cucumbers and parsley, lemon helps flush toxins out of the body, especially out of the liver. Lemons are also packed with vitamin C. Vitamin C helps boost the immune system thus helping the body fight off infections.
Lemons contain flavonoid with help improve blood flow and helps reduce inflammation. Many people think that since lemons are sour that they are acidic for the body but in actuality lemons help balance out your body’s pH level.
4. Ginger
There are many benefits to juicing ginger. The biggest (in my opinion) is ginger’s anti-inflammatory properties. Ginger contains anti-inflammatory compounds called gingerols which can help relieve symptoms of arthritis.
Ginger can also boost your immune system. If you have a cold juice some ginger and add it to warm water. This will help you sweat which is beneficial for releasing toxins from the body.
