Who Benefits from Juicing?

If you aren’t sure that the juicing lifestyle is for you, ask yourself if any of these statements are true for where you are in life right now:

1. I need to lose weight to avoid or reverse serious health issues.I want to lose weight to feel and look better.
2. I want to live a more eco-friendly lifestyle.
3. I am concerned about the chemicals in food I feed my family.
4. I am trying to stick to a vegetarian or raw foods diet.

If any of these statements could be applied to your life at this time, then juicing will help you get where you want to be. If you want to lose weight, drinking fresh juice will help in many ways. You will have more energy to get through your workouts.

You will feel fuller due to the high level of nutrients in the juice, which helps stop cravings and sensations of hunger. You will also be able to control the calories in your juice by leaving out the sugar that is often included in bottled juice.

If you are concerned with your impact on the environment, there is nothing better you could do then start juicing! You can use fresh vegetables and fruits to create completely natural juices and you won’t be littering the earth with all of those empty plastic bottles.

If you are trying to switch to a raw foods diet, vegetarian, or vegan diet, juicing will make it much easier to stick to this new way of life. Eating a ton of fresh vegetables may be difficult to do every day, but when you juice them up and consume them in delicious combination’s it is much easier.

Even parents are starting to turn to juicing as a way to combat the growing rate of childhood obesity. Store bought juices are part of the problem because children drink too much of them and the sugar content leads to weight gain and problems with blood sugar.

Fresh homemade juice without any extra sugar or preservatives is very healthy for children and ensures they get the nutrients they need to grow even if they hate vegetables!

Juice can be something that you buy at the store and think little about, or it can become something that you enjoy and benefit from every day. The choice is yours, but with all the benefits to juicing vegetables it is worth learning more about.

Healthy Smoothie to Start The Day Strawberry, Banana, And Hemp Nut …

Going More Raw for Beginners – Realistic, Proven Strategies for a Healthier Lifestyle Part 1

There is a stigma against the raw food lifestyle in our society today. Many people believe it is synonymous for a super restrictive vegan lifestyle which forces you to give up all the foods you love. Very few people can follow that type of diet for long so it is considered extreme. The good news is living a raw food lifestyle doesn’t have to be overly restrictive and you don’t have to shun everything tasty and enjoyable.

Changing from an unhealthy diet full of high fat, processed foods can be very practical and enjoyable. When done in slow, calculated steps from someone who has done their research and educated themselves on what a raw food lifestyle really is, the change from unhealthy to raw food is very realistic and easy to follow long term.

You can live a full life and thoroughly enjoy yourself while following your own version of a raw food diet!

Understanding the Raw Food Lifestyle

The common misconception about a raw food lifestyle is that you can only eat raw fruits and vegetables. Cooking is not allowed and everything is incredibly bland, dry and tasteless. This is the extreme raw food lifestyle that some people are able to maintain, especially those who live this way for religious reasons. Fortunately, this isn’t the raw food lifestyle that the majority of people settle into today.
This isn’t the way it has to be for you!

A raw food diet simply means you eat foods that are completely natural and which have not been processed or treated with pesticides, chemical fertilizers, hormones, and other unnatural and often extremely unhealthy substances. You fill up on nutrient-dense foods that give you life and energy rather than taking your life slowly over time.

There is a spectrum with a very unhealthy diet on one end and the extremely restrictive raw food or vegan lifestyle on the other end. Where you end up on this spectrum is up to you. Most people settle somewhere in the middle where they enjoy tons of raw foods on a regular basis along with whole grains and other foods that are lightly processed. They also enjoy their favorite unhealthy foods in small portions from time to time.

What a healthy lifestyle actually means will be different for everyone. It’s about finding what you are comfortable with and what makes you feel healthy, vivacious and alive.

What Healthy Really Means

The raw food lifestyle does center on your food choices, but there are many other aspects of a healthy life:

* Consistent Exercise
* Pure Water
* Detoxification
* Rest
* Spirituality

Those who are the most successful with a healthier way of eating tend to be those who are also striving to get healthy in some or all of these other areas.

Again, it’s not about making drastic changes overnight. In the part ll of Going More Raw we will look at some ways you can get moving towards a healthy lifestyle, what this will look like and how it can work for you.

We have many small appliances and kitchen gadgets in our store that are perfect for anyone considering the raw food diet. From Excalibur dehydrators, sprouters & growing kits, to a wide variety of twin gear juicers.

Raw Foods Diet, Whole Foods Diet, Veganism, Vegetarianism: What’s the Difference?

You hear all of these terms on a routine basis and perhaps have a general idea of what they all mean, but many people don’t really understand what the differences are between these categories of eating patterns.

If you are thinking about cutting meat out of your diet or following one of these plans for improved health, consider what makes them stand apart before you pick one and get started.

Raw Foods Diet

Raw food diets get a bad rap because many people see them as radical and highly dangerous. There are some plans that are too restrictive and can become dangerous to your health, but there are also hundreds of thousands of people who follow a more healthful version of the raw foods diet.

Most people refer to this as a “diet” but for true raw foodism followers this is a way of life. A genuine raw foodist will consume only natural grown foods in their natural state. There is some minor cooking that is allowed, where temperatures around 118 and below are maintained, but nothing heavy enough to remove the vitamins, minerals, and enzymes out of the foods.

Many people who prescribe to the raw foods diet will eat something processed or cooked once in awhile, but many others completely cut those foods out.

Since meat is not a raw, natural grown food source the raw foods diet is a vegetarian plan. It is just a bit more extreme than the lifestyle most vegetarians lead.

Whole Foods Diet

This term is used interchangeably by people who don’t understand what this diet is all about. This plan is actually not vegetarian for many people, though it is lumped in with vegetarianism out of ignorance.

On a whole foods diet the focus is on eating foods that have not been processed or chemically altered. The focus is on eating organic produce, whole grains and organic or free range meats. Chicken, dairy, and seafood are also allowed on the plan. Refined white pasta would naturally be replaced with 100% whole grain pasta, and so on.

When done right, a whole foods diet is incredibly healthy. It is perhaps the healthiest diet you will ever find because it keeps your body nourished while cutting out your risk of deadly diseases. It is also the best thing you could do for your weight loss goals. It’s a shame so many people mistake it as an extreme diet like the raw food diet!

Veganism

A vegan will cut all animal products and byproducts out of their diet. They do not believe in using animals as a source of sustenance and in most cases this is a lifestyle taken on out of personal beliefs.

In order to follow a vegan plan you have to learn how to combine foods in specific ways to ensure you get all the nutrients you need. While veganism is often lumped with the raw food diet because they can be equally extreme, you are free to cook and season your food all you want on a vegan diet as long as everything you eat is plant sourced.

Vegetarianism

There are a lot of different types of vegetarians out there and veganism is one of them. Those who take it to a lesser extreme may cut out meat but still eat eggs and dairy products better known as  a lacto-ovo vegetarian. Some claim this isn’t quite as healthy, but it is a lot safer since more foods are included.