For people on the go, it’s a real struggle to eat a balanced diet. Most often we don’t consume enough of a variety of nutrients, vitamins, and minerals. The veggie juice is a quick and easy was to get your RDA (Recommended Dietary Allowance) of nutrients as well as a great way to detox the body. To simplify things, I normally categorize my veggie juice into two: green and red. Green juices are amazing at alkalizing the body and aiding in detox. However, green veggies lack some nutrients that veggies of other colors can give us, such as beta carotene in carrots. So it’s important to get a wide variety of veggies in your juice, rotating between different kinds for a wider range of nutrients consumed during your week. I find it helpful to think of eating all the colors of the rainbow across the week to make sure I’m hitting my RDA.
I try to use fruits sparingly, as many of them are high in sugar. I do use green apples and some citrus such as calamansi, lemon, and pomelo to create better flavor in my veggie juices.
A slow press juicer is also best to use to ensure the enzymes in the juice don’t perish. Juicers that heat up may likely cause these powerful enzymes to die and make your juice drinking less effective. It’s also best to drink the juice freshly made, within 10 minutes of juicing, for maximum potency.
Green Juice
To make 1 8-oz. glass
- 1 handful spinach
- 1 handful lettuce
- 1 cucumber
- 3-4 segments of broccoli
- ½ green apple
Red Juice
To make 1 8-oz. glass
- 1 large carrot
- 1 beet
- ½ yellow bell pepper
- ½ red bell pepper
- ½ red cabbage
- ½ lemon
- 3-4 segments pomelo or ½ orange
If the veggie juices taste too potent for you, cucumber, calamansi, and ginger are excellent additives to mask the taste.
