Thrive: Juice

For many a year I have shied away from caloric beverages preferring to save my drinkable calories for wine. I drink a ton of water as  believe that is one of the top 4 things we can do for our health (sleep, drink water, eat whole foods mostly veggies, and exercise). Other than that it was green tea, occasional coffee, and the aforementioned wine. That is until my fancy new Breville juicer arrived in the mail 2 weeks ago. A bit of background: last fall I did a blueprint juice cleanse and really enjoyed it. Only problem was it set me back a few hundred dollars and I couldn’t eat for 3 days. I loved the juices themselves but my personal experience did not yield results worthy of the cost and deprivation. This spring in Boston another great juice delivery service has popped up on the scene. So I ordered single bottles from them a few times and quickly started to crave the stuff in a major way. This led to a bit of research. The benefits of juice include: detoxification, stabilized blood sugar, increased energy, stronger hair and nails, reduce bad breath and BO, weight-loss and alkalization of the body (it is very difficult for disease to flourish in an alkaline system). It is important to note that these benefits are mainly for vegetable juices . While fruits juices are packed with vitamins, minerals and antioxidants, they are also loaded with sugar. Without the fiber in a whole fruit to slow the digestion of the sugar, fruit juices lead to weight gain quickly. After a few weeks with my juicer at home I am totally hooked. My current favorite combo is beet, kale, lemon, celery, cucumber, carrots and ginger. If you want to give it a try, here are a few options:

1. Blue Print Cleanse– Expensive but delicious, delivers to your home

2. Joos – Same as above, Boston area only

3. Colombia Gorge Juice – Great discovery I made at whole foods this morning. Very reasonably priced, all organic. The greens only type has 100 calories, 2 grams of sugar, 10 grams of fiber and 6 grams of protein per bottle. SUPER Juice.

---