The Chapdelaines

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Juicing

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Juicing is something that I was curious about for a while and started researching last year. I didn’t want it to replace eating a balanced diet, but wanted it to add to our improved nutrition overall. While I believe supplements are helpful (and use many that I trust), I truly understand that the foods in their natural form are best for our bodies. They were thoughtfully created for us, and we were designed to process and utilize them. We make it a priority to get most of our nutrients from real whole, unprocessed foods first. But we, like most people, also have a hard time eating vegetables at every single meal (cooked or raw). We love juicing for the benefit of packing extra produce into one serving, and for “hiding” those things I would rather not eat for breakfast (beets, celery, carrots, etc).

After time and research, we settled on the omega J8006. The reviews were great, I had a few friends who loved theirs, and it seemed easy to use and clean. We absolutely love ours! I am so glad that we chose this one. The clean up is so simple, and even when I re juice the pulp, hardly any liquid comes out. It does such a wonderful job on the first pass, getting the most juice from the produce possible.

Juicing, and the cleanup are very fast, it only takes a few minutes. The prepping (cutting the produce into pieces that will fit in the juicer) is really the only time consuming part. We don’t do this daily so it doesn’t seem tedious. We just work it into our life when we have extra fruits and veggies, more during cold and flu season, and when we have something that we prefer to juice vs eat because of the taste. Adding apples and lemons is the best way to make the overall flavor better! These juices are so much better than anything made form concentrate, or watered down artificial juices that I used to drink for breakfast. Many of those have added refined sugar as well which may harm the body while we think we are doing good by it. Fruits and vegetables have plenty of natural sugars in them, no need to add more.

Overall we love adding fresh juice to our diets, to increase our vegetable intake, and to give our bodies an extra serving of the food/fuel that they were designed to run on.

FAQ: How long do you store the juice? in an airtight container, refrigerated, for up to 72 hours is the general recommendation. However, we actually choose to drink ours right away. The enzymes (which are also created in our bodies but we can easily deplete our stores on an American diet) begin to be released and break down after mastication and oxidation. We drink ours immediately after juicing to gain the maximum amount of benefits for digestion and absorption of nutrients. I will order juice occasionally when out, but only if it is freshly juiced for that reason.

FAQ: What about the pulp, Isn’t that wasteful? You’re missing out on the fiber when you juice? The pulp is full of fiber, and there are many ways it can be used and not wasted. Veggie burgers, animal feed, homemade crackers, veggie broth etc. I just search for recipes online, a friend shared this one with me for crackers and we make them often. Add the kite hill cream cheese on them with “everything but the bagel” seasoning and they are so delicious! I would absolutely be concerned with a lack of fiber in the diet if juicing was the only form of fruit & vegetable intake. We add this to a balanced diet, and use the pulp, therefore we know we are getting an adequate amount of fiber.

Favorite recipes:

For 2: 2 apples, 2 beets, 1 lemon, and 4 carrots (this one was recommended by a friend and we have really enjoyed it since starting juicing).

For 2: 4 large carrots, 2 apples. This one is such a treat!

For 2: One bunch of kale, 4 celery stalks, 2 green apples, 1 orange (delicious in the morning!)