Thursday, January 10, 2013

More about juice, with some stuff about beets thrown in

I promised my sister I wouldn't put daily updates on Facebook about what I'm juicing.  But I made no such promises for my blog---bwahahahahaha!

The juicer came this week, and it has been a huge amount of fun.  I went out and bought $50 worth of fruit--strawberries, kiwi, grapefruit, oranges, clementines, blackberries, blueberries.  The first day, I kind of went nuts, but now we're settling into a nice routine where the kids ask for juice in the morning, and then maybe I'll juice some grapefruit in the evening or something.

But, did you catch that?  My kids are *asking* for juice.  It's awesome.  This morning, I made them a kiwi, clementine, blackberry, blueberry, strawberry  blend.  It was delicious.  The kids liked it, and it makes me happy to think of them sloshing down all that good Vitamin C during flu season.  The fruits, we are good with them.

The veggies, well, not so much.  Carrot juice is edible, and carrot mixed with apple is wonderful.  But I tried a recipe with tomatoes mixed with cucumbers.  Yuck. Maybe I need to use different tomatoes, but wow it was disgusting.  My husband gagged it down, mixing it with tabasco sauce and salt and pepper, but yeesh it was gross.  It makes me hesitant to try the other veggie recipes, the ones that involve kale and beets.  I have yet to taste beets prepared in any way that doesn't taste like dirt.  That includes the time I gagged down a beet salad in Haiti. I normally love Haitian food, and everything that was prepared for us in Haiti was amazing, except for this beet salad.  But as I am an adult, and somebody else was cooking for me, and I was living in a place where food was not readily available for everybody, I wasn't about to turn my nose up at it.

It was the hardest meal I've ever eaten.  Blech.  I'm not sure I'll be juicing any beets any time soon.

My husband asked me why I am on this juicing kick.  I didn't have a lot of good answers for him, other than I think it's fun and I hope it will help my overall health.  And it *is* fun, and I do think I have more energy.  I've done a lot of reading, or I've tried to, about juicing.  There are websites that claim that juicing will cure everything under the sun, and that a juice fast will cleanse your body, and that all good things come from juice.  But I read another website about medical red flags, and there was a great line in there about how "detoxing" is sort of a bogus term, because your body is always detoxing, via your kidneys and liver, and if your body needs any help detoxing, you wouldn't be able to stand and/or you'd be yellow.

Fair point.

Also, the idea that juicing strips the fiber out of the fruit is concerning to me, although my juicer leaves a fair amount of pulp, so maybe I'm still getting some of it.

But then I also read that the Recommended Daily Allowance for fruits and veggies is NINE per day.  NINE?  Whatever happened to 5?  And who the heck actually eats NINE servings of fruits and vegetables? It was mind blowing to read, and even more mind blowing to think of trying to stuff that much raw food into my diet, and so I'm happy with the thought that juicing in the morning takes care of some of that.

I have no idea how the juice made from 2 honey crisp apples translates into as far as servings, but, whatever.  It's a boatload of juice, it's yummy, I have more energy and I'm pooping like a rock star, so I'm calling it good.


3 comments:

cran said...

101cookbooks.com had apost on juicing on Jan 13th. Lots of ideas there.
Also, "pooping like a rock star" sounds like a mixed blessing...

Unknown said...

Funny, I am on a juicing kick too, for the same reasons! I am trying a new juicing method: the Nutribullet. Sorry to sound like an infomercial, but it is easier to use than a juicer and it leaves all the pulp in and blends it up very smoothly. My husband and I are learning to enjoy a juice made with kale, apple, cucumber, berries, a little bit of wheatgrass and agave for sweetener. It's not too bad. Enjoy your blog! Just got diagnosed with PKD last fall. Lisa

Trixie said...

Sean roasts beets and they are AWESOME!! Roasting them brings out the sugar. Stick them in the oven for about an hour and you're good. If you want the specifics, email or facebook me :) He used to think the same things about beets and their dirt flavor. He has since changed his mind. I think your juicing has increased your fruit intake which makes you feel better, even if the amount of fiber in juice is less. Wish I had a juicer :)