Homemade Juice

I'm terrible at drinking water. I'm bad. I know. I love juice and so do my kids. Unfortanatley, many of the juices in the supermarket are quite misleading and full of sugar.

Most commercially made juice has been pasteurized, meaning it's been cooked at low temperatures to kill bacteria. Unfortunately, it also kills important nutrients and enzymes. And who knows what condition the fruit was in that was used? Or how long the juice was sitting on the shelf at the store before you bought it?

Fresh juices are a tremendous source of enzymes. In fact, the "freshness" of juice is one of their key features, because as mentioned earlier, enzymes are destroyed by heat. When you eat cooked foods, whether its grains, fruits, or vegetables, if the food is cooked at temperatures above 114 degrees, the enzymes have been destroyed by the heat. Since fruits and vegetables are juiced raw, the enzymes are still viable when you drink the juice.

Plus, since juicing removes the indigestible fiber, these nutrients are available to the body in much larger quantities than if the piece of fruit or vegetable was eaten whole. For example, because many of the nutrients are trapped in the fiber, when you eat a raw carrot, you are only able to assimilate about 1% of the available beta carotene. When a carrot is juiced, removing the fiber, nearly 100% of the beta carotene can be assimilated.

Sure, as busy parents we use store bought juice, but if you really want the health benefits of drinking juice, you really need to make it at home! Investing in a juicer was one of the best things I've ever done for my family. My girls think it's the coolest thing ever to make fresh juice! What a great way to get your kids involved in their own health! You can even let them experiment and make their own concoctions.

Here are a few of our very favorite juicing recipes!! You can bottle them and store them for up to a week :)

**Should be done in a blender!

**Pineapple Mint

2 cups fresh pineapple 10-15

10-15 leaves fresh mint

1 ½ cups ice

Blend until smooth

Watermelon Cucumber Lime

1 small watermelon cubed

1 small cucumber sliced

Juice of one lime

Apple Carrot Ginger Beet

2 Granny Smith Apples

2 cups shredded carrots

1 large beet

1-inch piece of ginger

**My Favorite!  Spinach Celery Cucumber Lemon

3 cups spinach

1 English cucumber

2 stalks celery

squeeze of lime or lemon

1 cup ice