In the seven years since the first edition of
The Joy of Juicing was published, America's consciousness about the importance of altering the diet to maintain health has been substantially expanded. People have become increasingly aware of the importance of live (organic, unprocessed, whole) foods, and many Americans have become vegetarians. They now understand that these foods, with their available enzymes, antioxidants, and phytochemicals, can be the key to slowing down, and in many cases reversing, premature aging and a host of diseases such as heart disease, cancer, and arthritis. What's more, many people now go beyond taking a simple one-a-day vitamin; they're now taking additional supplements with an eye to specific concerns, such as vitamin E for the heart or vitamin C for immune function.
During these same seven years, I have conducted more than fifty health support groups reaching nearly 10,000 individuals. After an initial blood chemistry workup and medical evaluation, these people adopted lifestyle and dietary changes for a period of a year to a year and a half. At the end of that period, they were evaluated again, with dramatically improved results. (These success stories have been published in peer-reviewed journals, presented on PBS, and summarized in some of my books, such as Gary Null's Ultimate Anti-Aging Program and my Ultimate Lifetime Diet.)
These documented transformations provide a new model for wellness. In the past, if you had questions about what to eat, which vitamins to take, or how to exercise or handle stress, you went to your physician. Regrettably, physicians worked with a disease model, and thus were completely unprepared to provide information specific to optimizing health. Instead, patients walked away with a prescription for a drug or were told to go on doing everything they'd been doing, but in moderation. This allowed people to continue with the same habits that made them sick in the first place--consuming animal products and overprocessed foods, containing harmful additives, such as excitotoxins; putting up with environmental pollution; and maintaining overly stressful lifestyles. It's no surprise then that this do-nothing approach actually did nothing to lessen the incidence of chronic disease. There are no "magic bullet" cures, and fad diets don't work for long either.
But we're in a new millennium now, and I have reason to be optimistic that America's attitude toward health is changing. The results from my health support groups are certainly encouraging. For the first time, a large number of people following a very specific protocol proved that individuals could slow down, and in some cases reverse disease by using a wellness model. In other words, these health support groups did not diagnose, treat, or address specific illness. Instead, we asked them to focus on what was needed to enhance their well-being. By changing their eating habits, increasing exercise, and managing stress better, the participants were able to affect tremendous improvement in their health and also set the stage for a whole new consciousness. I have been presenting this information across the country for the past three years. I've been gratified to help millions of other Americans expand their consciousness as well.
Here, in a nutshell, is my message: The cornerstone of the dietary approach to change is cleansing and detoxifying. The next step is healthier cells--actually repairing damaged DNA. While people are hoping for a miracle to repair disease, my research shows that you can repair cellular damage simply by using nature--if you access natural substances in the right quantities. Juicing and a live food diet are the heart of the program. Live food (note that this does not necessarily mean raw food) includes grains, legumes, vegetables, fruits, nuts, and seeds. And juicing is absolutely essential. Even if you improve your diet radically and take all the right supplements, while you'll be getting some measure of preventive benefit, you still won't be doing enough to reverse existing damage. Add juicing to the mix, though, and you can actually begin to repair damage. Juicing is the key to reversing the progress of disease.
The juicing component of my program is introduced gradually. Participants begin with one 12-ounce glass of fresh, organic juice a day, and stay at this level for the first month of the program. The second month they consume two glasses a day, and the amount is increased incrementally until at six months they consume six glasses a day. After one year, or a year and a half, the results, across the board, were impressive. All the individuals who sought weight loss achieved this goal--and this was without dieting in the traditional sense, and without counting calories. Some people lost over 150 pounds, and one individual lost 350. Secondly, long-term chronic illnesses, such as diabetes and arthritis, were dramatically improved or even eradicated. The same was true for people with fibromyalgia, fibrocystic breast disease, migraine headaches, constipation, and fatigue. These conditions often simply disappeared. And people's energy levels increased markedly, a welcome change for everyone.
Even more remarkable are the women who regained their youthful hormone levels and saw dramatic reversals of thinning or graying hair, skin wrinkling, muscular deterioration, and osteoporosis. In fact, many women stated that they had regained their premenopausal youth. Likewise, many men experienced hormonal turnarounds and found that they were no longer impotent or depressed. All of these people were under their own physicians' supervision, so we were able to have a quantified before-and-after analysis of readings including hormone and cholesterol levels, low-density lipoproteins, and triglycerides. We also evaluated blood pressure and measured body fat percentages. All of this record-keeping proved that the benefits of the program were not psychological, or merely anecdotal or placebo-effect improvements. These were real, hard, objective results.
How exactly does juicing help produce these changes? The green juices cleanse and detoxify the body, while the reds facilitate the repair of DNA. In cases where participants are diabetic, we replace the red juices with concentrated fruit and vegetables powders that are sugar-free. The ultimate healing ingredients are the chlorophyll, the myriad phytochemicals, the antioxidants, and the trace elements that are part of all the fresh organic juices.
The bottom line is that we now have the power to prevent most of the illnesses that were once thought to be inevitable as we age. This book is a tool to help you do just that. The recipes included in this book were created with variety, taste, and potency of therapeutic benefit in mind. But you should also understand that the recipes are intended as a starting point only. Feel free to experiment to meet your own needs and your own perception of what your body can accept. You can be as creative as you choose--and as healthy and happy as you want!
--Gary Null
The Basics of Juicing
You need just two basic tools for juice and shake preparation--a quality centrifugal juicer and a workhorse blender. With an average investment of about $350, you will be set for all your juicing joys. There are a number of good juicers on the market, but make sure to pick one that has a stable motor and low heat generation. If the juicer overheats, it can kill vital enzymes and decrease the digestive value of the preparations. The stability of the mechanism is more important than the number of r.p.m.s (revolutions per minute) the juicer boasts. The more efficiently pulp can be shredded and ejected from the unit, the less possibility there is of clogging and overheating. Also, choose a juicer that you can confidently clean with ease on a daily basis. If the thought of cleaning each time prevents you from using it, you'll never juice!
A workhorse blender can be any name brand that has a good warrantee policy because, if you take my advice, which I hope you will, you'll use this unit often enough to take advantage of it. Always have a back-up blender or at least a back-up pitcher in case of breakage. Despite the fact that they can break if dropped, I still prefer the glass blender pitchers because they are stronger and easier to clean than the plastic models.
I recommend you try to purchase produce in four-day intervals to allow adequate time for ripening. Always choose organic fruits and vegetables. Because I believe in using the whole food, most of the recipes in this book allow for the peel and skin to remain on the fruits and vegetables when pushing them through the juicer, unless noted otherwise. Much of the nutritional value from most fruits and vegetables exists in the outer layer. A few exceptions are pineapples, watermelon, cantaloupe, papayas, bananas, and mangoes. In most cases, unless specified otherwise, even the seeds should be juiced.
Fruits and vegetables can all be pushed through in one session. Run the drier fruits and vegetables through first and the juicier ones last. This process will allow the juice to flush away pulp that may have accumulated on the centrifugal screen.
If you have a high-quality juicer that ejects the pulp efficiently, you can even juice wheatgrass. You can purchase trays or blocks of wheatgrass, which can be harvested by cutting the blades down to the root. Take the harvested blades and squeeze them into a ball with your hands. When the grass is concentrated in this way, the juicer can easily grab on to the material and process the wheatgrass into juice. You will actually get a more nutritious juice by this method in comparison to a wheatgrass press because with the centrifugal method more of the cellulose and chlorophyll are removed, leaving you with a concentrated liquid. This liquid can then be watered down to taste. Remember, in order to juice wheatgrass with the centrifugal method, you must have a very stable high-pulp ejection unit. These units currently average $350.
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