Healing with Food Article

Juice

Accompanying recipes: Better than Jell-O and Juice Tonics

Juicing fruits and vegetables extracts their water, sugar and nutrients. The result—especially with a fresh or raw juice—is an ambrosial nectar that almost sparkles with vitality.

This potent type of beverage has impressive medicinal value and is one to respect and use with care. The dregs include most of the food's fiber and pulp and some nutrients and flavor, making juice a refined rather than a whole food. Consider, for example, carrot juice.

It takes three huge carrots to make one glass of juice. In a few gulps, the juice is gone. Imagine cramming three big carrots into your stomach in the same amount of time it takes to drink their juice.

Whole carrots do not cause a fast jump in blood sugar because their fiber slows digestion. However, carrot juice is a liquid form of simple sugars and so it raises blood sugar as quickly as does candy.

Try drinking carrot or fruit juice on an empty stomach and notice the rush of energy it gives. The downside of that buzz is an energy crash. Avoiding crashes is one way of taking good care of ourselves.

Ideally, our daily diet stabilizes blood sugar (and thus helps prevent hypoglycemia and diabetes). These daily staples include whole vegetables, beans, animal products and unrefined grains.

Where do juices fit into a wholesome diet? Rather than as a water substitute, enjoy juices for a special treat. Or use them medicinally as a specific healing tonic (see Juice Tonics.) Fruit juices, incidentally, are more cooling and cleansing than vegetable juices.

Today consumers spend over 9 billion dollars annually on prepared fruit juices and fruit drinks. Juice consumption is a new phenomenon; for eons people quenched their thirst with water. Prior to the 1950s in temperate regions, apple cider was a seasonal treat, not a daily given.

When people minimize consumption of refined carbohydrates and concentrated sweets—juice included—diabetes, hypoglycemia and obesity are rare. Today, unfortunately, these avoidable illnesses are commonplace.

Notice how toddlers and children who frequently drink juice or snack on sugary foods lack a good appetite at meal time and are often irritable or hyperactive. When my children were young, they would have diluted juices at birthday parties and special events. And I would use juice in desserts.

Current health recommendations to drink fresh juices daily lack historical precedence. Given today's epidemic of obesity and blood sugar problems, this new experiment of guzzling juice daily is a dangerous one.

But juice as a special treat or a kitchen remedy? Go for it. Pour the juice into a beautiful tumbler, and slowly savor the concentrated essence of carrots or apples. Juice is a treat.

The featured recipe, Better than Jell-O, is sweetened with fruit juice. Visit Juice Tonics for specific juice remedies for various conditions.

May you be well nourished,

Rebecca Wood