Healthy Eating, the Natural Way!
Stephania Munson-Bishop

In the past few weeks, Gram has been weeding through, throwing out, organizing – probably the most hateful task of all, the
chore for which there never seemed to “be enough time.” Well,
the truth is, time is always of the essence. But limited energy
should probably have taken top billing. Admiring the neat
appearance of her closet, Gram wondered, “What gives with me?
Why the sea change?”

Then, with one glance at the gleaming new juicer sitting at the ready on the kitchen counter, it became Obvious. All the claims
about the benefits of juicing must be true!

You might have heard about Juicing, and the trendy juice bars in New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, and other major cities.
But for some, juicing has become a way of life. And now Gram
understands why. Energy, weight control, restful sleep, no
indigestion (not even one bout of acid reflux) – the overt
bonanza of juicing, even in the early stages. And this, during a
stressful period on the Day Job! “My, my,” thought Gram;
“Like a natural tranquilizer in a glass.”

And is it tasty! Never mind all the health benefits – terms like
natural enzymes and phytochemicals purported to fight disease/
dis-ease in the human body. Well, those, too. Who among us wouldn’t like to be healthier and feel better, less lethargic
and out of sorts?

But having a background in human services, Gram has long known that a client’s mood swings and even a teen’s unruly behavior
can be improved with a sound, nutritious diet. More people have
various food allergies than one might suspect. So it stands to
reason that what we eat or don’t eat can affect the way we feel.
If we think of our bodies as efficient machines, then we are
more likely to think of food as fuel.

Since the juicer arrived, Gram has assembled a variety of fresh fruits and vegetables at least once a day. Scrubbing produce
with a stiff vegetable brush, lining up the items to go into the
juicer, we’ve aimed for a quart of juice at each session.
Some super vegetable combinations:
cucumber, celery, spinach, green pepper, a small apple (nothing peeled, mind you – just core the apple and seed the pepper);
carrots, apples, yellow squash, celery, lemon (again, nothing peeled except for removing the lemon rind);
tomato, carrot, celery, kale. Fruit juices that are very good:
cantaloupe, apple, carrot; watermelon, lemon, celery;
blueberry, honeydew; pineapple, orange, lemon. Each juicing
experiment has resulted in another “favorite.” In the vegetable
combinations, we’ve added a tablespoon or two of wheat germ or brewer’s yeast, to add protein. Also, an assortment of sprouts – but keep reading for more about sprouting.

In the meantime, we’ll be juicing. Is there really a Fountain of
Youth? Our juicer just may be the closest thing.

All you need for a kitchen powerhouse of fresh foods and unparalleled nutrition during the winter months: a few Mason or mayonnaise jars, several 4″ x 4″ squares from old pantyhose (the top part is best), and some rubber bands. You also need a safe source of seeds and dried beans, most likely your local health or natural foods store — because whatever you use must be organic, e.g., not treated with chemicals.

It’s all about enzymes — and how freshly sprouted foods are loaded with them. It’s about vitamins and fiber, too. Here are some choices: adzuki beans, alfalfa, barley, beans of almost any kind, buckwheat, broccoli, clover, kale, chive, chickpeas (or garbanzos), chia, cress, mung beans, fenugreek, lentil (must be whole to sprout, not halves), radish, soybean, triticale, wheat.

Then you place a 1 to 2″ layer of seed or bean in a Mason jar, cover the jar with the nylon square, and secure the square over the mouth of the jar with a rubber band. Fill with water a few inches above your layer, and let soak for 2 to 8 hours or overnight (the larger beans need a lot longer than small seed such as alfalfa or clover). Drain the jar and invert at a 45 degree angle in your dish drainer (or in a large plastic margarine tub in your kitchen sink). Rinse with water and drain several times a day. When sprouted in the next few days (again, depending on the size of the bean or seed), rinse and drain, put a lid on the jar, and refrigerate. Use within 3 to 5 days.

What can you do with these dietary nuggets? Use mung beans in eggs foo yung, and certainly in stir-fries. You can toss into soup during the last few minutes, put alfalfa sprouts into an omlet, even make bread. Incorporate in meatloaf or burgers. Throw the sprouts into your juicer with either fruit or veggie blends, for a beverage so loaded with nutrients it might even add spring to your step! But the quickest, easiest way is to include them in a big green salad.

With fast food and packaged frozen dinners which comprise so much of the American diet, people simply aren’t getting enough fiber. Our foods are mostly processed. When was the last time, other than salad or an apple, you enjoyed anything raw?

There are many websites on raw food diets. Researchers say that the best course is a combination of foods, both raw and cooked. There are even some who advocate a completely raw diet, including raw fish and meat. http://www.rawpaleodiet.org/
“Say It with Sprouts” is an article devoted to mung bean sprouts:
http://chinesefood.about.com/library/weekly/aa092101a.htm
“Types of Raw Food Diets” discusses the variety of diets, at
http://www.living-foods.com/articles ypesofraw.html
The Raw Food Directory has a wealth of resources to guide you:
http://www.buildfreedom.com/rawmain.htm And don’t miss a colorful, whimsical site with over 400 pages of sprout information: http://www.sproutpeople.com

The other detail we’d like to include: sprouts are probably the all-time best nutritional value you can obtain for the negligible price. True, you can forage for wild foods, but you have to be able to identify what you’re bringing home to eat. I priced alfalfa sprouts at my local grocery: $1.99 for 4 ounces. You can sprout your own at home for a few cents, and know they are fresh and wholesome.

Dr. Ann Wigmore was one of the first raw foods proponents. She recommended Energy Soup, the base of which is sprouts. Even your children can develop a taste for sprouts. Mix a half cup of alfalfa sprouts with peanut butter for sandwiches. “Mmm! What’s this crunchy stuff?” they’ll say, as the natural vitamins are helping their bodies to grow strong. Toss sprouted garbanzo beans (chickpeas) into your next taco filling. Sprinkle clover sprouts into breakfast cereal, omlet, or pancake batter.

Up for a new/nutritious eating adventure? Try sprouts!

About the Author

Stephania is a human services professional with nearly 40 years in the field. She publishes a monthly, content-rich ezine, “Tidbits from the Pantry,” to over 10,000 subscribers.

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There are a lot of juice recipes for weiight loss available today. It’s mostly just a matter of finding one that you find easy to make and you like the taste of it. This is a tried and true method for weight loss and if you go about it in the right way, you can have success too.

It’s really easy, when you are desperate to lose weight, to get caught up in one fad diet after another. Some of these fad diets may actually help you lose some weight, but you do have to ask yourself two very important questions before you decide to give it a try:

1. Is the weight loss solely the result of water weight loss? If so, you will most likely just gain back any weight you lose. What you really want to do is find diets that will help you lose unwanted body fat and not just lose pounds of water weight.

2. Is the diet something that you can reasonably expect to stay on for a lifetime? Now, this can be a little tricky because sometimes a short term diet can still be a good thing if you use it as a springboard to healthier habits and don’t expect it to be the answer to your weight loss prayers.

Juice recipes for weiight loss can actually be good for you for your lifetime. Alone, it won’t be enough to lose hundreds of pounds, for most people, but it can be a great addition to a healthy eating plan and a strong workout regimen.

Combining the benefits of a juicing diet with these other two components can really help you achieve all your weight loss goals.

Here is just one of many juice diet recipes. If you are really interested you can find many other recipes. To get the most out of your diet you may want to consider investing in a juicer so you can get the freshest juice possible:

This recipe makes 4 servings:

1 cup strawberries, sliced
1 1/2 orange juice
1 whole mango, peeled and cut
2 kiwi peeled and cut
1 to tablespoons of honey
1/2 seltzer

Mix the ingredients together (except the seltzer) on puree until smooth. Pour into a glass and stir in seltzer. Serve over ice if desired.

There are a few “tools” that will make this a little easier to accomplish. Of course one of the most important things is a good quality blender.

Next, having a juicer so you can have fresh juice to use in all your recipes would be nice. And don’t just get stuck on the idea of fruit juices, vegetable juice can work great too and it will also give you that much more variety.

This is just one of many recipes you can find, or create, that will help your weight loss goals along. Since many people don’t get enough fresh fruits and vegetables in their daily diet, this is an excellent way to introduce more healthy foods into your diet on a daily basis.

Look online, in your local library or book store, or even get creative and come up with your own recipes. There are almost unlimited options when looking for juice recipes for weiight loss. You can lose weight, eat more healthy and never get bored, how neat is that?

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If you want to achieve fast weight loss, one of the best methods is to go on a detox. It is best to pick a time when you are not busy with work or a home situation as you are unlikely to feel great in the early couple of days. Your body will be releasing the build up of toxins and headaches with nausea are not unique.

So how does a detox diet work? The principle is that we consume a lot of toxins daily either via our food or our environment. Our liver has to work very hard to eliminate these toxins and failure to do so will front to weight gain.

When you are on a detox diet you are severely limited in what you can eat. Your main diet will consist of fruit and vegetables. You will also be allowed to eat brown rice, lentils, unsalted nuts and other grains such as quinoa. You should drink only water or lemon juice but are allowed limited quantities of unsweetened fruit juices.

People who go on a detox diet usually report that in addition to losing weight, they get clearer skin and have more energy. Detox diets are not suitable for those with a medical condition unless advised by a doctor and pregnant woman should avoid them. Some people experience quite unpleasant side effect at first. Supporters of the detox plan will mention this is because their bodies were really toxic.

If you cannot stomach a detox plot you can also try a juice diet for fast weight loss. As the name suggests, you do not eat any whole foods but rely solely on vegetable and fruit juices. You should purchase a juicer as otherwise the cost of obtaining these freshly prepared drinks can equal prohibitive. A juice diet is a not big term solution but over the long term could cause tooth decay and other health problems.

You can lose weight by following a sage eating plan. Keep a food diary and notice where the extra calories are treacherous into your diet. Then eliminate these foods. You will be surprised at how much progress you can make once you start.

Enterprise should be part of meed weight loss plan. Not only will it help you tone up but you will feel much better. Exercising helps to increase your energy levels and is a great stress reducer. But most people overlook to put a new exercise program in place as they aim unduly high. Try a little exercise every day rather than confident to become a gym fanatic.

Try eliminating particular foods from your diet to see if they are causing bloating. Stomach bloating can cause you to look much fatter than you actually are. Foods that often cause problems include wheat and dairy. If you do plan on eliminating dairy from your diet, make sure that you accretion your intake of calcium from incommensurable sources.

Fast weight loss can be achieved but it shouldnt be at the expense of your overall health.

24 Hour Fitness
http://www.www.24-hr-fitness.com

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Can you use juice recipes for weight loss? Yes in the short term but you would not want to rely on juices for the rest of your life.

If you need to lose a few pounds in a hurry going on a juice fast may serve the answer. You can lose as much as three or four pounds in the first couple of days. Be aware though that a lot of the weight you are losing is excess water and therefore it is not sustainable. Weight loss gradually drops off to about one pound a day.

Going on a juice diet is very similar to going on a detox plan. Instead of eating lots of crude fruit and vegetables, you are going to be drinking their juices. The idea is that you still get lots of vitamins and minerals whilst losing weight. But budding studies have shown that as caress is concentrated in fruit and to a lesser extent vegetable juices, you would actually be better eating the whole fruit or vegetable.

Different juice recipes for weight loss include cucumber juice, tomato juice, carrot juice, and apple and celery juice. Some people add protein powder to the juice in standardization to make it more filling.

Over the long term you do not want to rely solely on juices. Your teeth will suffer due to the acid and embrace in the juices not to mention your intake of the vitamins and nutrients you need for good health will steward compromised.

You should aim to improve your overall eating habits. By organic means try a juice diet for a couple of days to kick – start your weight loss. But developing a healthy lifestyle involves more than buying a juicer. You need to become more active to get those pounds shifted. Start with an exercise you enjoy and then vary the routine to deter boredom settling in. Some exercises are better at fat burning than others so it makes sense to try different activities.

Instead of juices, you could choose to have soup several times a week. You cant have packet or tinned soup though as these can comprise surreptitious fats and sugars not to mention salt. By soups we beggarly the homemade variety. Soups are made with vegetables and pulses, both key ingredients in a healthy lifestyle. Dont be tempted to add flavour to your soup. Use herbs to flavour it instead. If the recipe calls for milk or boon, use skimmed milk or low fat yogurt instead. And needless to say, you need to forget about eating bread with this soup!

Drink plenty of water to keep your system hydrated. This is especially important when you suddenly increase the amount of fiber in your diet as otherwise you can end up constipated. You should be aiming for at least 8 glasses a day. Drinking lots of water will also help you to eat less thus reducing calorie intake.

Juice Recipes for weight loss do work but are not a long term solution.

24 Hour Fitness
http://www.www.24-hr-fitness.com

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