The American Cancer Institute says that consuming more beta-carotene is your best defense against cancer. Beta-carotene is seen as an excellent protection against the many detrimental elements of modern living. They also help mop up free radicals. However, you have to eat something like 3 pounds (yes! 3 pounds!) of raw carrot just to get the cancer fighting benefits of just one glass of raw carrot juice. That is, I think, a pretty powerful argument for juicing.

We discussed the many benefits of consuming raw fruit juice last week Let us look at how we can incorporate juicing in our fast paced modern lives.

Body Rhythms
Before we go into the 'how', let us quickly look at the 'why'. We have discussed this before. Our body undergoes clearly defined stages in the utilization of food. As a refresher and for the benefit of readers who just joined us, let's do a quick summary. These stages are:

appropriation (eating and digestion)

assimilation (taking in of nutrients)

elimination (expulsion of unabsorbed foods and metabolic waste products)

These stages also have specific time frames. These are as follows :

appropriation cycle : 12:00 noon to 8:00 pm

assimilation cycle : 8:00 pm to 4:00 am

elimination cycle : 4:00 pm to 12:00 noon

All these stages occur together to some extent. However, the function of each is heightened during specific periods. During that time period, one specific stage predominates.

Digestive Overload
If you ever had a heavy meal and slumped on drowsy to a sofa, you could appreciate exactly how much energy is needed to digest food. If you really stuff yourself with food, your body is forced to close down some less important physiological functions in order to get to grips with the task of digestion.

Because it takes so much energy, you body has cleverly decided to do most of the job of assimilation at night while you sleep. When you awake in the morning, your body would have moved to the elimination phase. This is more than the act of merely emptying your bladder or bowels. It is deep cleansing at the cellular level. If your blood was examined, it will clearly be burdened with metabolic wastes. This elimination phase lasts through the whole morning. This is the best time to take raw juices, particularly those extracted from fruit. 

Fruit Or Vegetable?
Before we go further, let us make a distinction between fruit and vegetable juice. Fruit juice is brain fuel and particularly useful in detoxifying your body. Vegetable juices on the other hand are nutritional building blocks in building your metabolic machinery. Some juice enthusiasts tend to warn against mixing of vegetable juices as they may cause 'wind' and embarrassing flatulence. This does not always happen. You can combine both juice types satisfactorily. However, they do not taste good together. The exceptions are carrots and apples, which can be mixed with anything.

Fruit juices are great starters for the day. They contain fructose that you body could conveniently convert to energy. They are also very cleansing, as they are rich in organic water. As they do not have much fiber, they move through the system fairly quickly, cleansing as they move along. They also come with the full complement of enzymes and are thus pre-digested. Hence, they interfere little with the body's energy ration for the day. More importantly, fruit juices do not upset the body's effort in trying to rid itself of the metabolic products of the day before.

I would like to sound a warning here : Drinking fruit juice is likely to cause a spike in your blood sugar. Thus, diabetics or those prone to yeast infections, are advised to be cautious. That does not mean that you should not take it but rather monitor the process.

Ready To Rock
Start the day by drinking a glass of freshly extracted fruit juice and within 15 minutes you will be wide awake and ready to rock! Take fruit juices on an empty stomach. They cannot be effective if they are impeded by undigested food. Consuming only raw fruit juice from the moment you get up right, until lunch is the about the wisest health decision you will ever make.

When it comes to juicing, carrot is king. It is very acceptable to the taste buds and has a sweet sublime taste. It is a very versatile vegetable - easily obtained and relatively cheap. An important word of caution: make sure it is organic. Otherwise, you make be take a whole load of unearthly chemical that could actually do you more harm than good.

A great fruit for juicing is apple. As the old saying goes, "An apple a day, keeps the doctor away". There is certainly some truth to it. It is great for your immunity. It also does wonders to your hair, skin and nails. It is rich in a soluble fiber called pectin, which gives it the cloudy color and creamy texture. Apples are also loaded with beta-carotene, vitamin C, the whole complement of the B vitamins including B6 and potassium.

Apple is also a great fruit to start your juicing habit. As you start becoming accustomed to the raw and wild taste of it, you may decrease the apple component and increase the use of other fruits in your juice diet. Pear, which is closely related, is a good substitute for apple.

When juicing citrus fruit, remove the peel but take as much of the white pith as you can. By doing this you will get a good load of bioflavinoids which are great in helping your body absorb and assimilate vitamin C. The bioflavinoids also help neutralize the citric acid making it easy for the stomach. Bioflavinoids are also powerful plant based anti-oxidants. They also help build capillaries and blood vessels. This means good circulation. Citrus fruits are jam-packed with fruit sugar and bursting with vitamins. They are ideal to crank up your immune system and jump-start your physiology for the day.

The Whole Juice
The seeds of all fruits are concentrated source of nutrients. A seed has all that is necessary to spring into a huge tree. If you leave a seed over time, it has the capacity to sprout ad grow. Even the most expensive vitamin pill will simply rot. That is the power of seeds!

The orange seed has 9 times more calcium, 7 times more magnesium and more potassium that the equal amount of orange juice. Apple seeds have 5 times more potassium than extracted apple juice.
This is another advantage of juicing. You can also include the seeds. Most juice proponent's recommend that you do not peel the fruit as is has nutritional value. I disagree. With highly commercial farming, most fruits have been distorted with somewhat quite toxic load. Apples, for example, have been waxed to make them look shiny, new and thus attractive to the eyes. You cannot remove this wax by washing. Thus, you are better off peeling it away.

Experiment
The best way to benefit from the wonders of juicing is to try it. It is easy to juice. Fruits and vegetables are easy to obtain. You never run any risk, as there is nothing in raw juice that your body cannot use. One of the best ways to get into juicing is to initiate a 12 hour juice fast. After a few times, increase it to 24 and then 36 hours. By going 36 hours on a juice only diet, you will be giving your body a break. Without having to carry out digestion, the body will automatically initiate a house cleaning. A small minority of people will find this process uncomfortable. This is an indication that your body is cleansing itself.

One pleasant and surprising outcome of a juice fast is the clarity of mind that it offers. You will experience an amazing mental uplift as your body rids itself of clogged up junk impacted over time. As you lighten your body's load, your mind is freed. Fasting on raw juice is probably the most potent anti stress maneuver that you could initiate.

Juice Detox
This should be done over a weekend. It is especially good because it gives you a chance to rest as well. From say, Friday evening until Sunday at lunchtime, you should be feeding you body with nothing but raw fruit juices and pure water - distilled or reverse osmosis. It might sound rather traumatic but believe me, you will not go hungry. Fruit juice is not heavy but it should satisfy your hunger. Most people find themselves to be perfectly happy with 4 - 8 glasses of fresh and extracted juice a day. Once again, take caution - if you are diabetic, a hypertensive or have an ulcer, talk to your doctor first. Take it in a fun way. Plan to enjoy yourself. Best of health!