It seems almost everyone is juicing these days so I thought I’d share with you my personal do’s and dont’s of juicing:

1. Re-juice: Did you know you can re-juice the pulp from your juiced fruits and veggies?  Put the collected juice pulp back through the juicer, as many times as you like or until no more juice comes out.  This makes your fruits and veggies go much further, saving you money and getting more of the goodness out of each item.  The photo below shows you how much more juice I collected today from my carrots after re-juicing. There was juice over 500ml before and 750ml afterwards – now that’s a big difference!

2. Ginger it up: If you have a lot of veggies that need using up but that won’t necessarily taste nice together in a juice then add ginger (assuming you like it of course), it’ll make the whole juice taste yummy, plus you’ll have the added benefits of consuming this superfood.  Beetroot, celery or herbs like parsley or basil will work the same way also.

3. Meal enhancer: Juices shouldn’t be used as a meal replacement, only as a meal enhancer or snack.  They do not contain all the required food groups for optimum health to be a stand alone meal replacement.  If you want one instead of a meal then make sure you have some carbs, fibre and good fats and protein alongside or even in it.

4. Blood sugars: Remember that most juices have a lot of natural sugars in them from fruits or sugary vegetables like carrots and beetroot. These sorts of juices will make your blood sugars levels go up and down quite quickly if not taken with something that slows the process down and helps to maintain a slow release of energy, like flax seed oil, coconut oil, or anything with some fibre in it.

5. Pulp: You may have noticed there’s a lot of left over pulp when juicing, which seems rather wasteful, well you can use this pulp! You can dry it out in a dehydrator or an oven on a low heat and use it as a flour in cake, biscuit and dessert recipes. I like to make raw crackers out of the pulp, here’s one of my favourite recipes:

2 1/2 c juice pulp, squeezed by hand to remove excess fluid

1/2 c flax or sunflower seed, freshly ground

1 tsp curry powder

1/4 tsp rock salt

1 tsp olive oil

¼ garlic powder

1 tsp lemon juice

In a food processor, combine all ingredients and process until it’s mushy with no large vegetable pieces.  Spread onto the tray liner about 1/4 inch thick or desired thickness.  Dehydrate at 105 degrees for 3-4 hours.  Score for breaking apart later and flip the crackers and dehydrate until they are crispy (around another 3-4 hours). 

6. Smoothies: Another much easier way to use your juice pulp is to add it to smoothies, this makes your smoothies super charged with added fibre!

7. Super charge those juices: After (not before) consider adding some kefir or kombucha fermented/cultured probiotics to your juice. These are extremely high in beneficial yeasts and healthy bacteria so will help with gut health, absorption and healing.

8. Veggies first: You should be aiming for more veggies than fruit in your juices for optimum nutrition and less disturbance of our blood sugar levels. Lemons, limes, apples and celery help to sweeten juices.

9. Fresh is best: I know it’s a pain to get the juicer out every day and make a fresh juice, but this really is best. Making up enough juice for a few days at a time only depletes the goodness in the juice. As soon as you cut into the fruits and veggies they start to lose their nutritional content, so after a day or two of being in the fridge they are not only starting to go off but they have lost a huge amount of vitamins, minerals and enzymes. Make it fresh everyday for maximum health benefits and flavour.

10. The Juicer: I recommend a juicer that says it’s easy to clean (read reviews about it and see if this is the case), otherwise you’ll soon get fed-up of cleaning it after each us.  I also recommend a juicer you can fit a whole apple, etc into, so there’s no need for cutting up fruits and veggies first (apart from peeling citrus fruits and beetroot).

Here’s an extra tip for you:

Pretty much any juice works with beetroot and/or ginger in… well it works for me anyway! =0)

Happy juicing!