How To Make Healthy Drinks At Home
Learn how to make
your own fruit juices, smoothies & shakes!
A FUN and EASY way to get more vitamins
& minerals into your diet is by drinking freshly made
fruit juices, vegetable juices, and by blending thick
and frothy smoothies and shakes from frozen fruit.
Freshly made juices are a tremendous source of
bio-available vitamins and minerals which are the
partners of enzymes and co-enzymes. Vitamins activate
enzymes and without vitamins, enzymes could not carry
out their work, and we could not live.
Enzymes act as catalysts in hundreds of thousands of
chemical reactions that take place throughout your body,
and are essential for digesting, absorbing and
converting food into body tissue. Enzymes produce energy
at the cellular level and are critical for most of the
metabolic activities taking place in your body every
second of every day.
Another benefit of drinking fresh juices and smoothies
is that your body can absorb MORE of the vitamins and
minerals then if you were to eat the fruits and
vegetables whole! Many of the nutrients are TRAPPED in
the fiber and by blending fruits and vegetables, you
break down the fiber and release the vital nutrients.
Example:
When you eat a raw carrot, you are only able to
assimilate a small percentage of the available beta
carotene. When a carrot is juiced, removing the fiber, a
LARGE percentage of the beta carotene can be assimilated
by your body.
Of course, you still need to eat whole produce because
fiber is also an important part of your daily diet.
Meeting you or your children's need for energy and
nutrients is essential for good health. Children who do
not meet their needs for energy may stop growing and
gaining weight. In severe situations, they can develop a
condition which is life threatening called protein
energy malnutrition. Vitamins and minerals are only
required in very small amounts, but a diet insufficient
in these can cause SEVERE deficiency diseases.
You may be showing signs of malnutrition if you ...
* feel tired and weak.
* feel like you never have the energy to clean your
home, make meals or even do the dishes.
* have difficulty losing or gaining weight.
* can't easily get to sleep.
* feel stressed and/or nervous.
* feel drowsy during the day.
* sometimes can't concentrate, you're mind feels numb,
or you get confused easily.
* have problems with your digestion.
* have constipation and/or hard dry stools.
* have mood swings, or get easily upset.
* don't have patience for anything.
* sometimes feel depressed.
* have overly dry or oily skin.
* sometimes have nausea and/or abdominal pain.
* have annoying eye twitches.
* bruise easily.
* have muscle cramps and/or low back pain.
* sometimes get cracks and sores in the corners of your
mouth.
* notice that your nails have become thin and/or
brittle.
* are losing your hair.
* have water retention.
* have uncontrollable temper outbursts.
* don't eat a well-balanced nutritious diet EVERY DAY
Natural vitamins are found only in
living things, that is, plants and animals. Your body,
with a few exceptions, can't manufacture vitamins. They
must be supplied in your food or in dietary supplements
but supplements can't replace food, especially fruits
and vegetables which provide thousands of substances,
some of which have well-known functions, and some whose
roles in the human body are not yet understood or
recognized.
Vitamins and minerals ...
* reduce your risk of getting a stroke or heart attack!
* strengthen your nails!
* improve your hair condition, strength and growth by
providing certain essential nutrients to the hair
follicle!
* beautify your skin by keeping it smooth, soft and
disease-free!
* provide essential compounds that are necessary for
growth, health, normal metabolism and physical
well-being! Without them, you would die!
* promote normal growth and development!
* maintain bone density and strength!
* regulate blood clotting!
* help in the function of nerves and muscles, including
regulating a normal heart beat!
When it comes to choosing a healthy diet for their
children, many parents don't realize the important role
that beverages play. For example, fruit flavored drinks
and soft drinks are not a substitute for real fruit.
Many of these drinks only contain 10% real fruit juice.
The very best drinks are made from whole fruit and you
can make great fruity healthy drinks at home.
How to make homemade fruit and vegetable juices:
1. You'll need an inexpensive juice machine.
2. All fruits and vegetables should be juiced raw.
3. Small seeded fruit, such as watermelon and pears, may
be juiced with their seeds, with the exception of papaya
and apple seeds. Orange and grapefruit seeds might
impart a bitter taste to your juice. Remove the large
pits from fruits like peaches and nectarines, etc.
4. Peel all fruits and vegetables that are not
organically grown because the peel is where most of the
chemical residues can be found. While most skins of
organically grown fruits and vegetables may be left on,
with the exception of waxed produce, the skins of
pineapples, kiwis, oranges, grapefruits and papaya
should be removed.
5. Choose fresh ripe produce. Rubbery vegetables,
bruised fruit, wilted greens and over or under-ripe
fruits will produce juices that are neither tasty nor
healthful.
6. Cut the fruits or vegetables into pieces that will
fit into the mouth of your juice machine. Turn the juice
machine on and push the pieces through the mouth of the
juicer. As you juice, pulp will collect in a large
receptacle. If you don't clean the pulp out right away,
it will develop a sour odor and tiny gnats and fruit
flies may appear after 8 to 10 hours.
7. It is best to drink freshly made juices within one
day.
How to make perfect homemade smoothies and shakes:
1. Put the fruit in the blender first.
Make sure that the items are smaller than a golf ball so
they will blend completely. Add the liquid ingredients
next.
2. Fasten the lid and press the start button. Use high
speed for about 20-30 seconds.
3. Stop the blender and check to see if the ingredients
are well blended. Sometimes the frozen fruit will jam
under the blade. If there is jammed fruit, use a spatula
to unjam the fruit, and blend again.
4. Once the mixture is evenly blended, slowly add two
ice cubes through the opening of the blender lid. Keep
adding one or two ice cubes at a time until the blender
sounds smooth. If your blender is not strong enough to
blend ice cubes, omit the ice and substitute just enough
ice cold water or fruit juice so that the shake will
have a milkshake consistency.
5. If the shake/smoothie is too thin, add more fruit or
ice. If it’s too thick, add more liquid.
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Fruit juice recipes
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