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When I was going through my worst version of Hell, I was about 24 or 25 years old, and I had accidentally poisoned myself a few years back, resulting in chronic over-toxicity of the nervous system and body. I felt as though I had been brain damaged and I was unable to function properly. I had no energy, and my personality seemed a shadow of my former self. I was working two jobs that I hated (probably because I was sick), one as a sandwich maker and delivery driver, and after my first shift there I would leave that restaurant to go work as a valet driver, where I would run several blocks through downtown to go fetch people’s parked cars.
I recall now that, during this time when I was feeling my worst, in between shifts, my innate intelligence would kick in, without me even realizing it. In reality, my body was completely quenched for nutrition and electrical energy. I would stop over at the smoothie place or juicery and order the biggest drink they had of fresh, tropical fruits. For a few minutes, I would feel happy and as though I was re-charging myself after feeling totally depleted of my life force energy.
This feeling never really lasted too long because not long after that I would be making myself a deli sandwich at the sandwich shop, going through the drive-through of some fast food establishment or eating some gas station snacks. But, looking back, I realize that my own internal compass was pointing me in the direction I needed to go to get me well.
Years later, I was now thrust into the midst of solving my health problems once and for all. I was in a death-grip with the issues which had plagued my body from being in a state of over-acidity, and I was drenching myself in alkalinity, constantly waging war against the problem using high PH, alkaline foods. The tide was turning and I was feeling suddenly amazingly confident again, like I really did have a chance to save myself from the Hell I had been living in for years.
At this time, I started making frequent stops at my local juicery. Sometimes I would get smoothies but most of all it was juices that I craved. There was something about this which was so nourishing and rejuvenating to me at that time. With every 16 ounces of juice that I consumed, I felt that I was 1 pound closer to regenerating my cells and intercellular areas of the body to make them clean, healthy and vibrant. I could feel the raw, electrical liquid power being absorbed and I was ingratiated by the magic of nature, and also the intrigue of technology which allows us to extract this pure liquid goodness.
Don’t underestimate the power of your own innate intelligence, intuition and instinct. This is what I believe was trying to inspire me to refuel my tank when I was at my lowest point back in 2011, as well as encouraging me to double down on the liquid nourishment as I was just about to turn the corner in 2016 and revolutionize my own well-being and figure out how to heal myself.
There are logical points of course that I could present to represent the power of juicing. I could talk about how it is beneficial to give your digestive systems a break from having to break down solid food materials. Consuming only liquids provides the fuel needed for the body while the digestive system can work on repair and restoration.
Also, many people have poor absorption and therefore still miss out on a lot of nutritional benefits even when they eat great healthy raw foods. This can result from years of bad dietary choices causing a reactionary buildup of mucus and protective slime to coat the walls of the intestines, covering up the pores which would otherwise be absorbing nutrition. The juice can be more easily absorbed in its liquid form.
Beyond macro-nutrition, the abundance of phytonutrients (probiotics) is key to your internal landscape of wellness. As long as the juicing process is low-heat and gentle, then the probiotics and beneficial bacteria remain in the liquid, which are extremely good for supporting the lymphatic and immune systems. These are absorbed as you drink the juices, not just in the stomach but directly to your tissues, your mouth, throat, chest, etc. Also, the electrical composition of fresh juice, especially fruit juice, is very high and this stimulates the electrical function of the body as the liquid gets absorbed and energizes the surrounding cells.
You can also benefit from the nutrition and health-enhancing qualities of certain foods which you might not otherwise necessarily eat. Things like leafy vegetables, celery, roots like beets or carrots, or let’s say the tops of plants like beet leaves, carrot leaves or strawberry leaves, or something like a lemon or pomegranate where eating them is impractical because there are so many seeds involved. If you’re like me, sometimes eating certain raw vegetables is just a bit too much — it’s a lot of chewing and not always very satisfactory. By juicing some of these foods, you pack all of the punch nutrition-wise without all the chewing, as well as avoiding a lot of extra work for your digestive system from having to break down a lot of excess cellulose.
These are the logical points behind the power of juicing. But ultimately, our attraction to the sweet nectar of plants goes beyond logic — it is a natural gravity whereby these things magnetize us towards them. This is really a luxurious treat that 300 years ago only kings and queens would have been able to enjoy. The technology that exists today which allows us to extract the liquid goodness out of plants is amazing.
With all of the great things listed out about juices, you may be wondering what is the catch, or downside, to consuming your nutrients and energy in this way. Well, there are a few. First of all, intuition is supreme and that’s the dial which I use most of all to figure out what to do, how to transition, and how to fuel the next leg on my journey. Right now, and for the last few years, I haven’t really been into juicing. I’m much more into smoothies. I’m now at the point where I like the fiber and the pulp and all the matrices of the fruit to be going through my system in addition to the raw liquid power.
This also brings up a good point about nutrient absorption especially with regard to sugars. We cover in another section (Simple Sugars vs. Complex Sugars) how simple sugars (fructose from fruit and glucose from vegetables) are the best fuel for nutrition, energy, and sustaining optimal health for a human as compared with complex sugars. However, even simple sugars can be overloading and can be absorbed too much too fast. This can occur if an excessive amount of juice is consumed, especially fruit juice, and most especially fruit juices with fruits that are most concentrated in terms of having the most sugar per ounce. This can result in blood sugar spiking and crashing, as well as create other issues such as energy absorption via the cells. From a weight management standpoint, you could also be over-consuming an excess of calories with the excess carbs being stored as fat reserves and this could work against your ideal weight goals.
By consuming pulp or fiber at the same times as the simple sugars, it slows the absorption of the sugars, which results in a more steady fluctuation of blood sugar and therefore you may see a more consistent flow in terms of energy levels by consuming your sugars in this manner. This is how I intuitively consume foods nowadays, for the most part, although I still do love a good juice.
So while I don’t juice like I used to, that is simply a function of the chapter I am in now versus then. There was a time when juicing was the tip of the machete for me in terms of foraging ahead into the unknown wilderness of getting better and healthier. It was something that was keeping me excited about putting things into my body which would cleanse me and take me to the next level. It created that bliss and a spiritual experience for me to transcend my health problems and self-limiting concepts. So, maybe it could do that for you, too. It doesn’t mean that you’re going to be doing it all the time forever.
As for the potential downsides of juicing, just be aware and you may want to consider not overdoing it. You may not want to drink a gallon of pineapple juice in one setting. Like many things, this modality contains great power and gravity, but can be used in excess.
This would be a good time to mention something you and everybody should do in their lifetime — buy a juicer. This brings up another downside to juices, which is that they are quite expensive to buy, over and over, from the juicery. A large juice can easily cost in excess of $10 and won’t even keep you full for more than a couple of hours. If you’re getting a juice twice a day, you would be spending $610 per month or $7,320 per year — not including tips!
Good quality juicers are more costly but do pay for themselves after a certain amount of uses and so could be considered a good investment for that reason. Also, you could consider buying a used juicer. That’s what I did, when I was first getting heavily into juicing in early 2016. I bought a one-horsepower fully-masticating Champion juicer, used, from a nice couple I found on Craigslist, for about $40. I of course washed it extensively, and it worked like a charm.
I will point out that there are (at least) three main kinds of juicers: circular / centrifugal, cold-pressed, and fully-masticating / slow-masticating / cylindrical. Basically what you want to consider is the element of heat when the ingredients are being juiced. The more heat that is created, the more it will destroy the phytonutrients / probiotics, as well as destroy the electron-rich molecular structures of the foods, in other words lowering the nutrition and overall electrical energy of these foods. So the ideal way of juicing is to do so in a low-heat manner.
A circular / centrifugal juicer is therefore not ideal because it creates a high amount of heat during the process. I recommend skipping this rookie mistake and going ahead and investing in what you really deserve, which is either a cold-pressed juicer (being the best but quite expensive) or fully-masticating juicer (producing juice still at a low temperature but a lot more affordable). The challenge is that the centrifugal juicer is actually the lowest-cost option (naturally). This is not to say that it is an absolutely terrible or shameful option, but just that the alternatives are clearly the superior choice and can give you quantum levels of increased benefit.
For a recommendation of the best juicer, just check out:
RapidRegeneration.com/Juicer
Once you have your own juicer, you will see that juicing is actually a relatively low-cost activity. You can select the produce items which are more cost-effective and let that be your guide, or just have fun and juice whatever you are into. There are no strict rules and this is supposed to be fun anyways.
The other challenge is that juicing can be time-consuming. I see this over and over again with raw food enthusiasts, which is that some individuals can spend two hours per day on meal prep and cleanup, or even more with juicing. I don’t know about you, but time is one of my most valuable assets, and that can simply be too much for me to do and still handle my other obligations.
You will find that there are certain items that when juiced will provide very little juice for the amount of work required, like leafy greens for example, carrots, or strawberries. On the other hand, there are fruits and vegetables which create a great deal of juice, like cucumber, apples, and oranges, just to name a few. You’ll get the hang of it and figure out which foods are easy to peel, clean, chop, juice, and clean up after. Because much of the time in juicing is in the food prep and cleanup, it can be more efficient if you juice a large batch of juice to drink over a few days, rather than juice before every meal, although it’s not as fresh. Another helpful tip is that adding the juice of a lemon to any large batch of juice can help preserve it so it stays more fresh for you in your refrigerator.
If you really are feeling extreme and ready to walk on the wild side, try juicing things like lemon, lime and ginger. You can experiment in adventurous ways with juicing. Although I don’t eat this pungent root much anymore, there was a time years ago that I made a juice tonic of lemon and garlic. I drank about 12 ounces of it and it literally floored me. I laid on my bed for about 45 minutes at least because it was so powerful. I felt that it was going deep in my tissues and cleaning me out hardcore. Another time, I made a ‘liver tonic’ of Brussel sprouts, cabbage and broccoli which also was very dramatically received in my liver and other areas. To be clear, I am not recommending these specifically for any individual. I just wanted to highlight the raw power of juicing and how you can experiment, have fun, and get more dramatic results in your self-healing journey than you necessarily could eating whole foods.
Whatever can get you excited about consuming raw foods, and utilizing the power of fresh fruits and vegetables, I am for it. Juices are a way for raw foods to get their foot in the door of your life, simply because they are so fun to consume. So invite that in and see how you like it. Get the whole family involved in the kitchen and make up a fresh batch for everybody. A delicious, fresh, refreshing beverage of your favorite fruit or vegetable juice is one of the finest ways to enjoy all the gifts of nature and all that it can do for you. Try it for yourself, and see how you enjoy it!