Yoga, Health & Surf in Santa Teresa, Costa Rica

Nearly every health condition responds well to appropriate fruit and vegetable juices.  A fresh juice is a great way to start the day and optimize your health. Fruit juices taste good, are nutritious and can be beneficial for your health because they are rich in vitamins, minerals and phytonutrients – natural bioactive compounds that work with other plant nutrients and dietary fiber.

The Top 5 healthiest juices overall are considered to be:

• pomegranate
• blueberry
• Acai
• Noni (doesn’t taste too good if 100%)
• Cherry

If you are looking to boost your immune system, help reduce your blood pressure, lower your cholesterol and improve your heart, I recommend beet, carrot, celery, currant, spinach, grape, cherry and watermelon juices, with garlic and ginger added.

Other immune system-boosting juices include:

• Kiwi
• Cucumber
• Wheatgrass
• Orange
• Lemon
• Parsley

You can combine any of the above juices with soy or rice milk, plain yogurt, banana, blueberries and walnuts to create your own immune system-boosting smoothie.  Adding a tablespoon of lemon juice to any juice or water will also help boost your immune system.

If you are taking medication and are deficient in potassium, magnesium, or calcium, add these juices:  honeydew melon, cantaloupe, apricot, peach and broccoli.

If you have high blood pressure, I recommend three juice cocktails:

• Carrot, parsley and celery juice
• Lime juice and whey powders
• Grape and carrot juice

To help reduce your cholesterol levels, I recommend these two juice cocktails:

• Beet, blackberry, parsley and pineapple juice.
• Carrot, apple and ginger

If you are only focusing on a healthy heart, I would recommend threes juice combos:

• Carrot, pineapple and ginger
• Parsley, alfalfa and pineapple
• Watercress, parsley and grape

Whey can have a lot of sodium; buy the whey with the least amount of sodium.  If you want a zesty juice cocktail, mix a cup of water, two ripe tomatoes, one tablespoon of tarragon, paprika, turmeric and cayenne.  Add some basil leaves and the juice of a half-lemon, and mix well.

Like many fruit juices, pomegranate juice contains antioxidants, especiallypolyphenols. Pomegranate juice contains antioxidants at much higher levels than other fruit juices. Antioxidants are thought to provide several heart-protecting benefits, including reducing low-density lipoprotein (LDL, or “bad”) cholesterol.  Most studies have used a daily dose of 1.5 ounces of pomegranate juice to ensure maximum benefits.

If you want to create your own juice cocktail, here’s a list of other complementary juices to provide vitality and help lower your blood pressure:

• Juice from green leafy veggies (think kale and spinach) are excellent sources of B-complex vitamins
• Carrot, apple, ginger, orange and strawberry juices have been known to lower bad cholesterol
• For natural zinc, drink ginger, turnip, parsley (even though it’s bitter tasting), garlic, or carrot juice
• If you want to increase your potassium, drink parsley, garlic, spinach, cantaloupe and banana juice together
• For more bioflavanoids, drink grape, parsley, lemon, or lime juices
• For more vitamin C,  drink kale, green pepper, or parsley juice
• The best vitamin E juices for you are spinach, carrot, and asparagus
• More magnesium could possibly raise your good cholesterol.  Those juices are beet, garlic, parsley and spinach
• Low on copper?  Drink carrot, garlic, or ginger juice

Juices are high in calories and should be consumed in moderation.  Fresh juices should be a part of a healthy diet, and avoid juices with added sugar.  Make sure to read all labels for ingredients and choose 100% fruit juices not made from concentrate.  Extra sugar means extra calories, and it is always better to eat your calories than to drink them.

Thoughts:

• The cloudier the juice, the more nutritious it is
• Always buy pasteurized juice because it can significantly reduce bacteria
• Freshly squeezed juice contains more vitamin C than concentrate, canned, or frozen juices
• Juices that have a high fructose-to-glucose ratio and that contain sorbital can aggravate the intestines, cause diarrhea or abdominal pain
• Prune juice delivers more iron, zinc, fiber and niacin than any other juice
• Raw juice is always healthier than pasteurized, but we are not sure it is worth the risk of ingesting bad bacteria
• Organic juices have higher concentrations of phytonutrients, vitamins and minerals
• Juices from concentrate usually come from other countries, including China
• To get the most benefits from drinking juice, seek out a wide variety of berries and other superfruits
• Don’t trust brands, trust labels
• Non-organic juices are likely to have trace amounts of pesticides
• Don’t judge the quality of juice by how good it tastes because some of the healthiest juices taste bitter or not sweet
• Eight ounces of pomegranate juice may have more than 30 grams of sugar, almost double two servings of cereal, but   these sugars do not increase blood sugar levels. as other natural fruit sugar
• Eat a salad or high-fiber foods before consuming juice from concentrate, because it can help your diet’s glycemic rating