Juicing for Better Health

A few years back, I was binge watching my way through Netflix, killing time as I used to do when I came across a documentary called Fat, Sick and Nearly Dead. It struck a chord with me as it was practically how I felt at that time.

It was the story of an Aussie called Joe Cross, who was overweight and suffering from various health-related conditions of his own. Joe had had enough of being fat and sick so decided to do something about it, something big. He undertook a 60 day trip across the US eating and drinking nothing but green vegetable juice and made this movie to chronicle that trip. I still use his recipe for “Mean Green” today and it is a tweaked version of this that I am making today in the video below.

Joe’s health improved dramatically, he lost an unreal amount of weight and he ended up starting a new business based on juicing for health. I follow him on Instagram and he is a cool guy, very ordinary, far from perfection and I guess that’s why people can relate to him. This is what kick-started me into the world of juicing. Soon after, I went out to Power City and bought a basic juicer for less than €100, went to Lidl and got a heap of celery, cucumber, kale, apples and lemons and started juicing. The first thing I would say about juicing is you need a good recipe – start with Mean Green – as experimenting with juicing and different fruit and vegetables can come later. Start well and experiment later.

There is a ton of vitamins, minerals, enzymes and antioxidants in freshly juiced fruits and veggies so the sooner you drink it after you make it the better. As there is no fibre, the vitamins and minerals are easily absorbed into the bloodstream in about 15 minutes. There is no way that I would be able to eat this amount of produce in the morning but when juiced I can take advantage of all the goodness inside these fruits and veggies in a very quick and effective way.

I try to make a big batch of juice on the weekends that might see me through to Tuesday or Wednesday. That way there is one clean up with lots of output. Here’s one I made recently with my little 2-year son, growling in the background…