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I’m really not a fan of juice, but I’m especially down on packaged boxed, jarred and canned juices. You will never see a carton of OJ in my fridge.

In fact, even when my son was very little and all the kids had juice boxes we were a distinctly different no-juice box household. Why? First of all, many products marketed as “juice” are not 100% juice; they’re often nothing more than sugar water. But, even if the juice was 100% juice with no added sugar it’s still nowhere near comparable to eating fresh, live whole fruit.

Pasteurized Juices are Heated & Treated Processed Foods

Unless you squeeze the juice yourself, you’ll most likely be drinking pasteurized juice (upward of 98% of all juice is pasteurized.) Juices are pasteurized to kill bacteria, molds and other “bad stuff”, but pasteurization also kills “good stuff”, including raw enzymes that are very beneficial for overall health, metabolic processes, digestion and detoxification. For pasteurization to be effective temperatures must reach 145 degrees F but since the enzymes in living raw foods (including fruits and vegetables) are killed at temperatures over 118 degrees F the bad stuff gets destroyed right along with the good.

I’m not a raw foodie so many of the otherwise healthy “whole” foods I eat are cooked and therefore enzyme-depleted. But, I try to get as many fresh raw fruits and vegetables into my diet as possible. While it’s true your body can make enzymes naturally, if you get the enzymes straight from your food it will do wonders for supporting a healthy metabolism, digestion and elimination. You’ll not only feel better (and lighter!), you’ll look better too.

The bottom line is, you are much better off eating the whole fruit (something that is living, fresh and enzyme-rich) as opposed to processed packaged pasteurized juice. If you are thirsty instead of sipping juice you (and the kids!) should just drink water.

Juicing: What if You Squeeze Your Own Juice?

Even if you squeeze your own juice it’s still not as good as eating the whole fruit. Anyway you pour it juice provides a much more concentrated source of calories in comparison to eating the whole fruit. It’s also very easy to over consume juice because it’s fiber-free and therefore considerably less filling than whole fruit. And besides, juicing is not only messy and time-consuming, it takes an enormous amount of fruit (or vegetables) to end up with a just a teeny tiny bit of juice. You end up tossing tons of fiber-rich pulp right down the drain (which is totally ridiculous considering the vast majority of people don’t get anywhere near the fiber they should in the first place!)

But, there is a better way to make fresh juice. Let’s say you want to make fresh orange juice. Instead of squeezing the juice out of the orange and tossing the fiber-rich pulp in the trash it would be far better to simply peel the orange and throw the whole orange segments (pulp and all) right into a blender and just make your juice like that. This way you end up getting the “whole” orange…just in liquid form. By the way, you don’t want to let that “whole” orange juice sit around too long or vital nutrients (such as antioxidant vitamin C) will be destroyed by oxidation. It’s best to drink ALL juice immediately after it’s been made.

Raw Food Recipes: Fruit & Veggie Smoothies are Easy To Make, Good to Eat & SO Healthy!

Instead of juicing I prefer to make raw food smoothie recipes from whole fruits (and vegetables!) using a high speed blender. I have a Luvele Vibe that I absolutely LOVE but as long as you get a good quality high speed blender you should be good to go.

I’m big into greens these days so I try to add fresh leafy greens to my whole fruit based smoothies for an added nutrient-punch. If you are new to making “green” smoothie recipes you’ll probably want to mix some fruit in with your greens. Even though the blueberry smoothie below has a lot of kale in it I think it’s more kid-friendly because it doesn’t look green.

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Blueberry + Kale SuperGreen Smoothie

• Prep Time: 5 mins
• Total Time: 5 mins
• Yield: 2 1x

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Ingredients

• 1 ¼ cup ice cold water
• 1/3 cup organic coconut milk
• 1 cup frozen organic strawberries
• 1 cup frozen wild blueberries
• 2 frozen bananas, cut into bite-sized pieces
• Handful of chopped kale
• 1 tablespoon ground flaxseeds

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Instructions

Toss all ingredients in a high speed blender, such as the Luvele Vibe and process until smooth and creamy. Drink at once.

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