My feature for 'What Doctors Don't Tell You' Magazine this month focuses on the foundation of The Body Toolkit Retreats: juicing. Juicing really is an incredibly powerful way to nourish the body, and with the threat of modern lifestyle diseases and mental health epidemics, we cannot underestimate the healing power of Mother Nature's raw fruits and vegetables to restore balance in the body.
The Healing Power of Juice
My first experience of juicing was a personal one, I’d been dealing with a lot of health issues as a teenager – IBS, acne, depression, PCOS, anxiety – the list was pretty endless to be honest, and I found myself on a desperate search to find something that would make me feel better.
As I began researching health, I started making small changes to my diet and mindset, but the change that completely turbo-charged things for me was: juicing.
It sounds simplistic, but I don’t think we can afford to underestimate the healing power of Mother Nature’s raw fruits and vegetables. Of course, we all know that for optimal health, we ought to be consuming plenty of vegetables, but sometimes it can be a real challenge for us to even meet the modest five-a-day target.
This is where juicing can become a game changer. By using a juice-extractor, we can nourish ourselves with a large quantity of raw vegetables, harnessing the phytonutrients, minerals and enzymes that alkalise our cells and have an anti-inflammatory effect on the body.
By aiming to include 80% vegetables, with 20% fruit to make the vegetable juices more palatable, the results people get from including even just one juice a day, on top of a normal diet can be staggering, never mind the powerful results people experience on a juice cleanse or fast over a few days.
5 key benefits of adding vegetable juices to your diet
1. Juicing gets you more compliments Weight-loss is one of the most talked about side effects of juicing, but it’s not the only one. As we drink fresh vegetable juices and our cells become cleansed, it starts to show on the outside too, typically: youthful, glowing skin, happy hair and nails, brighter mood and more energy.
2. An easy way to eat more vegetables Most of us struggle to chew our way through enough vegetables each day or we get stuck in the ‘same salad’ rut. To combat the trends of ill-health, we need to be aiming for 10 servings of fruit and vegetables everyday and juicing gives you an easy head start towards that goal.
3. Juicing is a lifeline when you’re sick It’s incredibly fast acting and there are thousands of testimonials where juicing has been used to u-turn chronic conditions, from allergies to diseases. By using a juicer to ‘pre-digest’ raw fruit and vegetables, the body can use its conserved digestive energy to heal, repair and regenerate.
4. Juicing is a safe way to try fasting The benefits of fasting from time to time and resting our overworked digestive systems are well known. The beauty of juicing is that it supplies the body with a blood-transfusion-like dose of nutrition – keeping the blood sugar stable and hunger at bay - allowing the body to easily soak up and absorb the nutrients with minimal effort.
5. It Boosts All Aspects of Health Even by adding one vegetable-based juice in the morning, on top of a regular diet, people begin to report: more energy, less pain, reduced inflammation, better sleep, improved digestion, healthier looking skin and even feeling mentally brighter and calmer. It’s a powerful way to transform your health.
The Body Toolkit award-winning retreat programmes share simple, yet powerful things we can all do to nourish the body, reduce stress and help ourselves to thrive. For dates, availability and prices for upcoming retreats: www.thebodytoolkit.com/book-a-retreat
