5 Reasons Green Juice Should Be Part Of Your Daily Life
Green juice is a garden in a glass. In a single glass of green juice, you get all the "good stuff" out of fruits, vegetables, and superfoods. It's a nutrient-dense food that's easy to consume and provides a variety of health benefits. Here are some of the benefits of drinking green juice every day.
1. Energy Boost
What do you reach for when you're feeling drained? Do you drink coffee? It may be a healthy choice in moderation, but it isn't the best option for the real energy that your body needs.
90% of all people don't eat enough fruits and vegetables to get all the nutrients the human body needs to function at its best1. When your body doesn't have those nutrients, it doesn't work properly and you can feel fatigued.
A green juice can help remedy that situation by giving you a healthy dose of plant-based nutrients. The energy lift you get is almost instantaneous. And unlike the boost you get from caffeine or other stimulant drinks, it won't leave you crashing in the afternoon.
2. PH Balance
Your body can't be too alkaline or acidic: it requires a specific pH balance between 7.35 and 7.45. There are systems in place within the body to help it maintain that range. But when you eat processed foods or drink alcohol, it can cause your body to go too acidic.
As a result of this imbalance, your body will pull minerals from elsewhere in your physical structure to help neutralize the acid. This can cause issues with your bones, joints, and your digestive system.
Eating plenty of green vegetables helps your body to maintain alkalinity. The easiest way to get those vegetables is in green juice.
3. Healthy Aging
If you don't eat the variety of fruits and vegetables your body really needs, you're missing out on something very important for your health: antioxidants.
Oxidative stress contributes to the physical aging of the human body and has been linked with a range of serious health concerns2. But antioxidants can help protect against oxidative damage. The best resource for antioxidants is found in fruits and vegetables.
A review of 95 studies performed by Imperial College London showed something very interesting: when 10 servings of fruits and vegetables were consumed every day, it protected the human body from a variety of diseases3.
That protective benefit came from plant food. Drinking green juice every day helps you to get multiple servings of superfoods and can really add to your antioxidant intake.
4. Support Gut Health
The foundation of your health is found in the gut. A healthy gut helps you get more nutritional value from your food, supports your immune function, and even influences your mood4. That's why it's so important to keep your gut healthy, and green juice helps to support it.
Green juices are full of fiber and digestive enzymes that your gut needs to stay healthy. Prebiotic fiber helps feed the good bacteria in your gut, which you need for healthy digestion, to help absorb nutrients and produce vitamins, and to help regulate your immune function and support your nervous system.
5. Detox Your Liver
We are constantly exposed to toxins from the world around us. They are found in everything from our food and drinking water to the air that we breathe and even the furniture in our home. These toxins strain the liver, but a green juice can help to support a healthy liver and assist with the removal of toxins.
Studies have shown that cruciferous vegetables, including broccoli, can improve phase II detoxification in the liver5. In other words, it makes your liver more efficient at removing toxins from the body. When you consume a daily green juice, you help your liver to fight against the toxins that it is exposed to every day.
6. Boost Your Immune Health
We all recognize the benefit of having a healthy immune system, and the nutrition-packed punch provided by a green juice supports it nicely. Like an automobile that needs gas, oil, and lubricants, your immune system needs certain nutrients in order to operate properly.
When you run low on key nutrients, your immune function is weakened. For example, you are much more likely to catch a cold or the flu if you have a zinc deficiency6. Drinking daily green juice can help to replenish the nutrients that are needed by the immune system.
Fresh juice is best if you want to get the most nutritional value from your green drink. But if you're not quite ready to invest in a juicer, you can also try a green drink powder, such as our Raw Greens superfood drink mix. It's packed full of alkalizing greens, fruits, and herbal extracts for an easy dose of whole food nutrition, and it's easy to store in the cupboard, so you can have your daily green drink even when you don't have fresh produce on hand.
References:
1. https://epi.grants.cancer.gov/diet/usualintakes/pop/2007-10/, Usual Dietary Intakes: Food Intakes, U.S. Population, 2007-10
2. http://bsherman.net/freeradicals.htm, An excerpt from the medical textbook Contemporary Ayurveda
3. http://www.imperial.ac.uk/news/177778/eating-more-fruits-vegetables-prevent-millions/, Eating more fruits and vegetables may prevent millions of premature deaths, 23 February 2017
4. https://journals.lww.com/psychosomaticmedicine/Citation/2017/10000/Brain_Structure_and_Response_to_Emotional_Stimuli.10.aspx, Brain Structure and Response to Emotional Stimuli as Related to Gut Microbial Profiles in Healthy Women, October 2017
5. https://nutritionfacts.org/2013/07/18/broccoli-boosts-liver-detox-enzymes/, Broccoli Boosts Liver Detox Enzymes, July 18th, 2013
6. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/9701160, Zinc and immune function: the biological basis of altered resistance to infection, 1998 Aug;68(2 Suppl):447S-463S. doi: 10.1093/ajcn/68.2.447S