Aloeride® aloe vera

Whilst changing fads and quirky diets can be very confusing, the consistent champions in any healthy diet are fresh fruit and raw vegetables. For anyone who wants to become or stay healthy, juicing is the way to go! A common finding in my and many of my colleagues' clinics is that people are deficient in vitamins and minerals. This can be so because they have:

• a lower-than-necessary intake (choice of foods & preparation thereof)
• a poor uptake (a gut issue)
• an excess usage of nutrients by pathways of detoxification and buffering of connective tissue acidity (total toxic load)
• a loss of minerals via sweating in endurance sports people

If you haven't seen the diagram in the article Feeling Well, Staying Well, then perhaps you should read that first. It explains why getting enough nutrients is sooo important. But if you want to dive right in, here are three really wonderful juicing recipes:

Chlorophyll & Potassium cocktail: 3 beet (Beta vulgaris) tops, handful of parsley, handful of spinach, 4 carrots (greens removed), 1 kale leaf, half an apple seeded, 3 celery stalks.

Digestive ulcer cocktail: 2 pints, 1.14 litre, 1quart /day of fresh raw green cabbage in 4 - 5 individual servings but never on an empty stomach, add 2 stalks of celery, half an apple seeded.

Stress relief cocktail: 1 kale leaf, 1 collard leaf, handful of parsley, 2 celery stalk, 1 carrot (greens removed), half red pepper, 1 clove of garlic, 1 tomato, 4 broccoli florets, lots of blueberries.

Vitamins and minerals are co-factors for both hormones and enzymes and other vital body substances (see Feeling Well, Staying Well graph). If your body has these building blocks, it can manufacture enough of them but if it hasn't, then it can't (of course the glands, being the factories of hormones, must function so production can take place). It is obvious why improving your nutritional 'bank balance' has a vital, long-term impact on your wellbeing. My professional interest in juicing grew thanks to Dr. Max Gerson MD who uses multiple juices daily as part of his treatment protocol.

If your doctor does routine blood mineral analysis, he/she measures serum minerals. Problem is that serum doesn't feed your cells, red blood cells do that. So, if one would use Sweat Mineral Analysis, Head Hair Mineral Analysis or best of all Red Blood Cell Mineral Analysis then often a very different picture emerges, that of nutritional deficiency.

Your nutrient intake may seem alright (income) but, if your nutrient usage is higher (expenditure), you will end up with a shrinking nutritional 'bank balance'. Then, instead of picking nutrients from an abundant nutritional bank balance, your body must prioritise which are the most important functions to service with the nutrients available to it. Inevitably some things will work less well, and for as long as 'less' happens in the background, you think you're doing just fine.

Put a day's vegetables and fruit on a plate and many of us will realise that our nutritional income is actually pretty modest. Quantity aside, bear in mind that nutritional quality is affected by cooking, how produce was grown, ripened, harvested and how long it was kept in cold storage.* Many of us do not get enough nutrients out of fruit and vegetables, certainly not every day. So, next to a reduction in nutritional expenditure (e.g. mostly detoxification pathways), the way forward for most of us, is via improving our nutrition for anabolic functions. Raw vegetable and fruit juicing provides an abundance of nutrients in easily absorbable form: naturally balanced vitamins, minerals, broad antioxidant spectrum, phytochemicals (phyto means plant in Greek) and enzymes (e.g. amylase that cleaves carbohydrates, the free radical protective peroxidase and catalase, and protease that cleaves protein). As any gardener knows, the quantity of nutrients in food reflects its growing conditions, so it is very preferably to use organic produce.
Drink your daily, raw vegetable and fruit juice immediately after making it. By leaving it (even in the fridge) it loses much of its antioxidant potential. If you have a weak digestive capacity, you should start with just half a tumbler sized glass at breakfast. Gradually, as your co-enzyme status improves and pH levels normalise (in part due to the alkalising minerals in vegetable and fruit juice), the digestive capacity tends to gain strength and bigger juice quantities can be enjoyed. Nutrient uptake problems can be helped by taking Aloeride® aloe vera capsules daily. Aloeride® is used very successfully by many people with digestive complaints, often bowel disorders come with impaired nutrient absorption, so nutrient-dense and highly absorbable raw vegetable and fruit juice is a great help.

* Tests have shown that an orange can contain from 0 to 180 milligrams of vitamin C. A lettuce stored at room temperature loses 50% of its vitamin C in 24 hours. The vitamin A content of raw carrots may vary from 70 IU to 18500 IU for a normal serving. Vitamin E in wheat germ varies from 3.2 IU to 21 IU per 100 grams. The selenium content of some foods varies by a factor of 200.

A very common mistake is to make juices too sweet (e.g. just carrot & apple) which challenges your pancreas more than it does you good. So, keep your juices at the bitter end of sweet. The other day a patient phoned and mentioned that she was juicing but was not improving clinically. Leaving aside the 'perhaps you are barking up the wrong tree' possibility, she only did the sweet 'nice' combinations and predictably made no nutritional progress.
Dark green leafy vegetables are the real hard hitters with their abundant chlorophyll and phytonutrients, but juicing solely with greens is for the seasoned juice aficionado only. Mostly I advise compromising healthy greens with a little sweet fruit. As you go along you can ease your way into more greens, for that is the stuff of miracles. For those with IgG mediated food sensitivity there may be mileage in rotating the ingredients, what you use on day 1 is not used again until day 3. Obviously those with properly tested, specific food sensitivities should avoid what they are sensitive to.
One of the great delights of freshly made vegetable and fruit juice is that you chose what goes in it. Just how much of a difference your choice can make is highlighted by a paper by Professor Gerry Potter. It shows that Resveratrol, a natural phytoestrogen or polyphenol found in grapes and red wine, is converted into the anticancer agent Piceatannol by the Cytochrome P450 1B1 Enzyme (CYP1B1). The cytochrome P450 isoenzymes is a superfamily of haemoprotein enzymes that catalyse oxidation, generally making toxins more water-soluble and thus more readily excreted by the kidneys. CYP1B1 was jointly discovered by Professors Bill Greenlee, Graeme Murray, Danny Burke and Dr. Bill Melvin. (British Journal of Cancer, 86, 774-778).

So, by increasing your intake of Resveratrol containing foods, your body has more to convert into the anticancer agent Piceatannol. Resveratol abundant vegetables are: broccoli, the entire cabbage family, greens, globe artichokes, red/yellow peppers, bean sprouts, celery, rocket salad, avocado and water cress. Ditto herbs: basil, parsley, sage, rosemary, thyme and mint. Ditto fruit: all red fruits e.g. grapes, blackcurrants, redcurrants, blackberries, mulberries, cranberries but also apples and pears.
A study led by oncologist Dr. Eliot M. Rosen, MD, PhD at the American Georgetown University Medical Center was published in the British Journal of Cancer 94, 407-426. It shows that in laboratory tests, a compound called Indole-3-carinol (I3C), found in broccoli, cauliflower and cabbage, and a chemical called Genistein, found in soy beans, can increase the levels of BRCA1 and BRCA2 proteins that repair damaged DNA. This study is one of the first to provide a molecular explanation as to how eating vegetables could cut a person's risk of developing cancer. By increasing the right nutritional intake, you improve host resistance, that is, your ability to fight back.
Both your kitchen and garden have so much to offer. To help digestion for instance, Nature's pharmacy can augment your raw vegetable and fruit juice with (only properties related to digestion are listed):
 

• Mint (Mentha piperita or pulegium) digestive aid, some antiseptic properties
• Ginger (Zingiber officinale) digestive aid, antinauseant, prevents intestinal gas, is a cholagogue i.e. increases bile secretion thus people with significant liver/gallbladder disease should use it with caution, can be a mild laxative
• Chamomile (Matricaria chamomilla) anti-inflammatory, antispasmodic, sedative
• Rhubarb stalks (Rheum officinale / palmatum / rhabarbarum) the first two contain laxative anthraquinones (we deliberately remove these from Aloeride®) the latter is the common eating variety, best not to juice in diarrhoea-predominant IBS
• Black radish (raphanus sativus niger) high content of fibre increases peristaltic movement, another cholagogue hence can be mildly laxative
• Dandelion (Taraxacum officinale) another cholagogue and laxative, also diuretic without potassium loss
• Yarrow (Achillea millefolicium ) astringent - stops bleeding
• Fennel (Foeniculum vulgare) reduces intestinal spasms and flatulence, antimicrobial, has mild oestrogenic effect and may aggravate skin problems (such as pruritus or eczema)
• Silverweed cinquefoil (Potentilla anserine L.) antispasmodic, astringent, anti-inflammatory
• Nettles (urtica dioica et urens) detox par excellence, astringent and a tonic, diuretic
• Artichoke (Cynara scolymus) another cholagogue and liver tonic

Flatulence is a topic that must be breached, abnormal stomach noises or discomfort indicate that you've juiced something your digestive system cannot handle easily. Find out by elimination what it is and be realistic about this. Most people eating cabbages break wind several hours later so juicing cabbages therefore does exactly the same so this should not be considered an 'adverse reaction'. Bowel movement also may alter when starting with juicing but, as long as you take it a step at the time, your body will ease into the new routine. Cabbage by the way is fantastic for healing digestive ulcers, as of course is Sauerkraut (approx. 80% L-lactic acid) which is made from Brassica oleracea var. capita. Adding Echinacea purpurea, Echinacea augustifolia and a modest amount garlic (Allium sativum) - with one group of working ingredient its multiple sulphur compounds - to your juice may enhance your immune system no end. The possibilities are endless.
Just remember this: apple seeds contain some cyanide so it is wise to remove them before juicing. Carrot greens and rhubarb greens shouldn't be juiced either because of their toxicity. The skins of oranges and grapefruits also contain toxic substances so do not include these in your blend; the white pithy part just below the skin however contains extremely valuable bioflavonoids and vitamin C, so make sure you do not peel that away! Celery leaves are bitter, so go easy on those or you may wish to remove them. The skins of fruits such as kiwi and papaya should also be removed prior to juicing, however the skins from lemons and limes may be left on. Be sure to wash them thoroughly to remove any waxes and pesticides. All pits, such as plum pits and peach pits should be removed. Seeds from lemons, limes, grapes and melons etcetera may be put into your juicer.
The cost of a juicer isn't prohibitive, we use a very affordable centrifugal Braun MP80 (vegetable and fruit contain water that automatically functions as a coolant i.e. truly significant damage to heat-sensitive molecules seems unlikely). With more expensive, masticating juicers you can add lots of alternatives like seeds (sesame, sunflower beware of IgG reaction and do rotate), nuts or even coconut and it will extract some 10% more juice. Finally, add a spoonful of pulp to your juice for the necessary natural fibre.

Despite all its advantages many people, who started supplementing their diet with fresh vegetable and fruit juicing (and benefited from this) abandon it because of lack of time within a working day and the lamentable cleaning. Consequently many of my patients swap to dehydrated vegetable and fruit juice in capsule form. If you too are too busy to juice for real then use dehydrated raw vegetable, ripe fruit, berries and grapes powder (sugar removed) as a much more workable daily alternative. 'All you need is in your food' as long as you use the right foods for you, in the right way and enough of it. Whether you juice for real or in capsule form… I strongly advise you to give yourself a daily nutritional pay rise!