Very Vert Juice

Very Vert Juice

Green juice is just the best! Once you get into juicing, if you're anything like me, any other juice recipes will all be 'in addition' to the life giving, zippy feeling of a green juice rather than instead of. I like my green juice strong, whenever I get green juice out it seems a little watery. You may find you have to work up to the full Very Vert Juice hit slowly, it's jam packed full of vegetables and if you're new to juicing this flavour may switch you off.........which would be a great loss to your health. But there are ways to walk you into the full mega hit of a Very Vert Juice.

There is a lot of debate about the sugar hit you get from juicing fruit in comparison to vegetables. With juicing you're taking away all the insoluble fibre and are left with purely the liquid (this will contain soluble fibre, nutrients and fructose)  So if you're using high sugar fruits you end up with a high sugar drink which will peak your blood sugar, mess with your insulin levels and leave you feeling pretty wretched. If you want to get deeper into it high insulin is connected to a raft of diseases, plus there is the detrimental effect on your adrenals.

I think there is a strong argument for using a higher fruit proportion in your juices to help you get used to the taste and get you into the process; as a stepping stone. As long as you reduce the fruit percentage in your juice over time as you get used to the flavour I don't see a problem with this short term. If you want dilute some of the flavours of the stronger vegetables without being dependent on the high sugar fruits: cucumber, carrot or adding coconut water always works well. The ratio to aim for is 80/20 (the 80 bit being vegetables.) Once you start looking deeper into the nutrition content of fruit and vegetables, vegetables are often the highest for nutrient density. 

I have used lots of stepping stone foods when trying to wean myself from conventional foods. For example when I gave up dairy I used store bought dairy free milks. I think as long as you don't view them as a long term solution they can help you get to where you want to be with your diet. Try to use organic if you can afford it, organic fruit and vegetables have higher levels of nutrients and much much lower amounts of pesticides etc. I get mine from Abel and Cole (click here to go their site), they do a great green juicing box too!

I would strongly recommend you watch Fat, Sick and Nearly Dead if you're not convinced on the health properties of juicing. You can watch it on Netflix or You Tube (click here for the link) 

I make my juice in batches. It's better to drink it fresh, but I'm always time short and I use a slow juicer which which doesn't oxidise the juice at quite the rate a centrifugal juicer will. I then bottle it, put it straight in the fridge and drink within a few days. After necking a pint of it first! 

Very Vert Juice

• 1 lemon
• 1 inch ginger
• 1 inch fresh turmeric
• 4 apples
• 3-4 sticks of celery
• 1 cucumber
•  Bag of kale or spinach
• large handful of parsley
• large handful of mint

If I have them in I might also add fennel, kiwi or extra lemons and limes as I love a juice which is face twisty!  

Method

• Chop the fruit and veg to the sizes required by your juicer. 
• Juice.  
• Drink.
• Bottle remainder.  

It really is that simple and it soon becomes a habit you can't give up!