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Is Lemon Juice Good for You?

The short simple answer to the question “is lemon juice is good for you?”, is YES! Lemons are power houses of nutrients and health benefits, many of these benefits come from the abundance of antioxidants found in this citrus fruit and also from the beneficial acids it contains. Not just great to drink, lemon juice also has some benefits when applied topically. So let’s take a closer look at what is lemon juice good for.

Defends Against Rheumatoid Arthritis
Lemon juice is a wonderful source of vitamin C and one extensive study shows that vitamin C rich diets help to protect us against rheumatoid arthritis. In this study, which was published in the “Annals of Rheumatism”, over 20,000 people who were not suffering with rheumatoid arthritis at the beginning of the study took note of their eating habits in diary. In follow ups to the study, scientists discovered that the people with the most vitamin C in their diet were 3 times less likely to have developed inflammatory polyarthritis than those with the least vitamin C.

Additional Benefits of Vitamin C
The impressive levels of vitamin C in lemon juice helps provide optimal health in many different ways. Vitamin C provides many important functions in the body:

• It has anti-inflammatory effects that help to reduce inflammation in joints, in muscles following exercise, and also in artery walls. Less inflammation of the arteries promotes heart health since this inflammation contributes to plaque formations.
• Vitamin C is needed to create collagen. If we consume to little of this vitamin then the body cannot create enough collagen to keep skin supple and youthful, therefore resulting in premature aging of the skin.
• Vitamin C is an integral part of the immune system that is responsible for creating over half of the antibodies on our bloodstream that protect us against viruses and infections. Low vitamin C intake results in an impaired immunity.

Anti-Cancer Benefits
Lemons are an excellent source of limonin, a type of antioxidant that has been shown in studies to possess potent cancer fighting properties. In laboratory studies with human cells and animal studies, limonin displayed abilities to fight cancers of the mouth, breast, colon, stomach and skin. Since lemon juice contains a whole host of different antioxidants and that high antioxidant intake is strongly associated with reduced cancer risk, then lemon juice can be considered a great drink for helping to protect us from the onset of many cancers.

Acne and Oily Skin
Lemon juice may help with acne problems and with oily skin if applied topically to the skin. Lemon juice is a natural astringent and cleansing agent. It helps to remove excess oil, has anti-bacterial effects and provides nutrition to the skin and antioxidant protection, these things all help to produce a better complexion. Used topically lemon juice should be dabbed onto the skin using a cotton ball. Lemon juice can sting so take it easy and don’t wash your face in it directly.

So if anyone should ask you in the future if lemon juice is good for you? You know what to say – YES!

To you health
Darren Haynes

Is Cranberry Juice Good for You?

To answer the question is “cranberry juice good for you?”, the answer is a resounding yes! Cranberries are one of the best foods in terms of proven benefits as outlined by Amy Howell, a scientist at Rutgers University. So what is cranberry juice good for?

Urinary Tract Infections
One of the classic benefits of drinking unsweetened cranberry juice is its benefits for clearing out urinary tract infections. Not just an old wives tale or an anecdotal home remedy, specific compounds in cranberry juice called condensed tannins are shown to inhibit the bacteria E.Coli from adhering to the walls of the urinary tract. Since E.Coli is a prime cause of urinary tract infections, cranberry juice really can help.

Ulcers and Stomach Cancer
Cranberry juice is shown to kill off the the H.Pylori bacteria if taken regularly for months. This helps to heal stomach ulcers and prevent stomach cancers since this bacteria is a major cause of both.

Digestive Tract Benefits
Reserach has shown that cranberry might be able to help with optimizing the balance of bacterium in our digestive tract. Volunteers in a recent study using cranberry juice (in doses of about 2 ounces a day and throughout the course of around 12 weeks) were able to improve the amount of Bifidobacteria (a healthy gut flora) in their digestive tract while maintaining levels of other healthy bacterial types. Consequently, the relative number of Bifidobacteria was improved, and the overall bacteria environment of the digestive tract was therefore improved.

Vitamin C Benefits
Cranberry juice is an excellent source of vitamin C and therefore carries the health benefits of this important vitamin. While vitamin C is now well known for its ability to fight off colds and flu because of its immune system bolstering abilities this vitamin carried other important benefits, such as keeping skin healthy and young and promoting cardiovascular health. Vitamin C is needed for creating collagen, the vital skin substance that delays the aging of the skin by providing elasticity and youthfulness. Likewise, collagen is needed for keeping blood vessels elasticated and supple to. The anti-inflammatory properties of vitamin C helps blood vessels and cardiovascular health further by reducing oxidative damage to arteries and reducing plaque build ups.

To your health
Darren Haynes

Is juicing good for you?

As with all things it is always smart to question how healthy something really is, and when it comes to healthy eating and drinking there can often be a lot of controversy. Even though juicing is generally seen as a good thing, there has also been some bad press that may make people question it. So, let’s explore this fundamental question “is juicing good for you?” a little more closely.

The Good
The upsides of juicing are excellent. One thing that all studies conclusively show us is that lots of fruits and vegetables in our diet is vital to good health and those that eat the most fruits and veggies are the least likely to suffer with heart disease, cancer and other types of degenerative diseases. This is because fruits and veggies are loaded with nutrients that we need for optimum health such as vitamins, minerals, enzymes and antioxidants. It is antioxidants in particular that defend us greatly from disease because they reduce oxidative damage to our cells that can lead to premature aging and degenerative diseases.

When we drink fresh made juice we are increasing our intake of antioxidants dramatically for two good reasons. First, we are consuming more fruits and vegetables in one serving of juice than we would most likely eat in a day. We can expect to use 5 to 10 servings of fruits and veggies on average for a single serving of juice. Second, and this is an important point, a juice extractor “frees” considerably more antioxidants from fruits and veggies for us to digest than we could be chewing them. Antioxidants are bound to the fiber in produce and some of them are released by chewing, but the rest just pass straight through us with the fiber. However it is important to state that eating whole fruits and veggies still provide us with LOTS of antioxidants, juicing increases this number extensively.

To cut a long story short, fresh juice is essentially concentrated liquid nutrition.

The Downside
If you have heard that juicing is not so good for you, this is for two reasons – the sugar content of fruit juice and the lack of fiber. These are fair criticisms of juicing and can be remedied if we juice responsibly. While a juice extractor does pour forth an abundance of vitamins, minerals and antioxidant, it discards fiber – but not all. There are two types of fiber, soluble and insoluble fiber. Juicing completely discards insoluble fibers which are important for moving food through our intestines and keeping us regular. Soluble fibers, such as pectin, are not completely eliminated, a small amount of it does make it through. These soluble fibers help to lower our LDL “bad” cholesterol levels by absorbing cholesterol in the small intestine before it gets a chance to move into the bloodstream so that we just, well, poop the cholesterol out! This is why studies show that giving apple juice to patients that was made with the whole apple is more effective at reducing total cholesterol levels than apple juice made with peeled apples. The peel contains more fiber than the pulp.

So, it is vitally important that we don’t swap out eating whole fruits and veggies for drinking juice, but that we do both – drink and eat them. This way we got an abundance of nutrients and plenty of fiber too.

When juicing it is recommend to stick with vegetable juice most of the time because vegetables contain way less sugar than fruits do. Vegetable juice will not adversely effect your blood sugar like fruit juice can. A glass of fruit juice will spike your blood sugar. For this reason it is better to have a fruit juice just before a solid meal so that blood sugar levels can get evened out with a healthy meal. Used as a snack by itself you may find that fruit juice may leave you feeling hungry as soon as the blood sugar spike drops. The other thing is that whole fruits do not affect blood sugar in the way that fruit juice does because fiber slows down the rate at which sugar moves into the blood stream.

So, while fruit juice is very nutritious we have to take into account that it is sugary and use it wisely.

Conclusion
To conclude the question “is juicing really good for you”? The answer is – juicing is great for you, especially as part of a healthy diet and if you stick with mostly vegetable juice.

To your health
Darren Haynes

Juicing Recipes for Energy

Need a little extra zip, and you want to do it naturally, healthily and without the aid of stimulants. If so you’re in the right place. Here are some great juicer recipes for energy that you can make at home with your juice extractor. Green juices and citrus fruit juices are especially good for providing energy because of their detoxification abilities and their natural electrolytes respectively. Enjoy!

Energy Juice Recipe #1 – Get-up-and-go Greens
1 apples
3 celery stalks
handful of spinach
handful of kale
1″ slice of ginger

This get-up-and-go juice is a fantastic energy enhancer. It’s packed with blood-purifying greens, minerals and vitamins. Spinach and kale are abundant with beta-carotene and vitamin C. It helps with liver cleansing and supports blood flow. Celery is an extremely alkaline vegetable and helps with digestion. It gives you a good amount of magnesium, calcium and natural sodium, which together helps transmit signals from our brains to our muscles so that they function properly, clearly a benefit for energy levels. Ginger is excellent at helping to reduce inflammation in the body, especially in the joints, therefore helping to support maneuverability.

Juicing Recipes for Energy #2 – Citrus Electrolyte Blast
2 oranges
1/2 a large pink grapefruit
1 tangerine
1/2 of a lemon

Oranges, tangerines, grapefruit, limes and lemons–try to have these fruits always on hand because they are excellent natural sources of electrolytes. Oranges are an especially great choice. That’s why you might have seen athletes knocking back some juicy slices or downing an orange juice. Citrus juice really does make for great juicer recipes for energy. Don’t juice the peels they make for a very unpleasant taste and contain oils that can upset digestion. The white pith, however, is very healthy and loaded with antioxidants, more so than the flesh in fact!

Juice Recipes for Energy #3 – Veggie Vroom
4 Carrots
1 apple
3 Stalks of celery
1 Handful of spinach
1/4 cup of fresh parsley

Parsley is quite powerful and must always be combined with other juices. Use only tiny amounts at any given time. Parsley is rich in vitamin C and is known as a general stimulant for the body. Celery juice is a great neural tonic and overall body builder. It can help with muscle exhaustion. This juice is good for healthy hair and skin too.

Best wishes
Darren Haynes

A combination of honey and vinegar helps bring about alkalinity in the blood. Both honey and vinegar (typically apple cider vinegar because it’s believed to be the most health promoting of vinegar) should be based on un-pasteurized and organic sources so that they are most helpful. Used twice a day, it could alleviate disease and illness. Here are some honey and vinegar benefits:

Healthy bones
Bone health is affected greatly by an acidic PH levels in the blood because the body ‘steals’ minerals from the bones, like calcium, to recover PH stability. Honey and Vinegar has alkaline promoting qualities that reduce the amount of minerals taken from bone.

Arthritis Relief
Arthritis is a debilitating disease that affects millions of individuals annually. When apple cider vinegar is ingested calcium is discharged back into the blood and recirculated back into bones, therefore helping to relieve arthritic pain.

Reducing high blood pressure levels
High blood pressure levels are the result of a broad host of contributing aspects that include poor diet and physical inactivity. The purifying qualities of a honey and vinegar benefits promotes the plaque removal from major arteries.

Immune system benefits
Honey and vinegar benefits include enhancing the immune system. They’ve got antibacterial and antiviral qualities that act as natural antibiotics without the side effects. They work topically as well as internally.

Obesity help
One reason for obesity is indulging in foods high in calories that then become stashed away on the body as fat tissue. Vinegar activates enzymes in the body that are in charge of oxidizing fatty acids.

Combating free radicals
The body start to degrade under the impact of free radicals just like rusting metal. Premature aging can be slowed down greatly because honey and vinegar soaks up free radicals and slows the aging process.

Sore throat remedy
Vinegar helps with treating sinus infections in addition to clearing sore throats. Honey is able to eliminate sore throat problems because of its powerful antibacterial effects. It relaxes the throat and kills off certain bacterium that cause these infections. Actually, expert vocalists usually use a combination of vinegar, honey and lemon juice for soothing their throats just before performing.