I don’t know a parent yet who doesn’t think their kids need to consume more vegetables. The good news is there is a ‘way’ to get the veggies easily into them. It is simple, quick and best of all you can teach them to do it for themselves over time – it is vegetable juicing.
No Complaints with Juicing
Juicing is a fundamental part of my family’s day, so much so that I couldn’t imagine not doing it. If we juice later in the day than normal, my son (soon to be seven) questions why we haven’t had our juice yet – on the veggie consumption front, juicing leaves me with no complaints.
Flick the hidden veggie recipes
Our daily juicing ritual means I have never had to worry about disguising vegetables into a variety of recipes either, or dealing with dinner time tantrums or a battle of wills. If my son doesn’t want his dinner it isn’t the end of the world, because by dinnertime he’s already consumed a number of serves of vegetables in his juice.
Drinking in Future Health
But lack of dinner-time battles are only the tip of the juicing benefits iceberg. It offers essential long-term gains for the health of adults and children alike which are beyond what eating the same amount of fruit and vegetables can give. However, the real benefit is in building a strong foundation to your child’s future health.
Essential Benefits of Juicing to Your Child’s Future Health
- More nutrients from more serves of vegetables and fruit
Juicing separates the minerals and distilled water of fruits and vegetables from their fibres. This fibre is discarded, being of little nutritional value, leaving the majority of nutrients in the juice. Without the bulk of the fibre in the drink, far more serves of vegetables and fruit ( and therefore nutrients) can be consumed. (And yes fibre is important, just not in juice which should be seen as a supplement , not a replacement to meals).
- ‘Predigested’ food gives more nutrition and rapid absorption of nutrients
Food requires energy to be digested – ironically the energy to digest food is supplied by food itself. So our food is a source of fuel and nourishment for our bodies. When a juicer separates the nutrients and water from the fibres of fruits and vegetables, it is in essence, ‘predigesting’ the food. This means more of the nutrients are freed up to nourish your body, rather than being used for digestion fuel. Also being in a predigested state the nutrients are rapidly absorbed into the body’s system in a matter of minutes, compared to hours for eaten food.
- Better digestion due to plentiful nutritional enzymes
Enzymes are the hidden substances in ‘live’ food which enables the nutrients to be unlocked from the fibres and absorbed into our bodies. Without enzymes our bodies suffer and this is the reason for so much illness and malnourishment in the overly processed western diet. Enzymes only exist where there is life. Raw food is abundant with enzymes, while cooking with heat ( over 118F or 47C ) kills off enzymes. Fresh, raw vegetable juice is a great source of nutritional enzymes and an easy way to consume a large amount of raw food.
- Better hydration
The water content in many fruits and vegetables has superior hydrating qualities for the human body compared to regular water. Similar to sports drinks (but without the chemicals), the water in vegetables and fruits contains hydrating salts, minerals and natural sugars and it is this composition that makes absorption into the body so efficient. The human body require lost fluid to be replaced with a fluid of similar composition, which is why fruit and vegetable juice can hydrate us up to twice the rate of regular water.
Keep Juicing Until it Becomes a Habit
Juicing is an easy thing to do, but like every lifestyle choice it just has to have enough time to become a habit. Taking the first step is the hardest. Take your time, make it simple and keep in touch. You’re not on your own. Contact me any time for support on your family’s juicing journey [email protected].
Happy Juicing
RESOURCES
http://www.dailymail.co.uk health /article-1200531/The-vegetables-hydrate-glass-water.html
http://www.livestrong.com/article/531812-list-of-foods-that-hydrate-the-body/
‘Fresh Vegetable and Fruit Juice – what’s missing in your body’ by N. W Walker D. Sc.
Juicingkids.com helps parents and carers create life-long juicers out of their children.
As a child I stood at the juicer with my mother and now my son does the same with me. Experience has taught me how to start a child drinking fresh, raw nutrient dense vegetable juice and then keep them doing it as a daily habit.
In our home now we make a daily vegetable juices with a little low sugar fruit added for taste. Kids need parents and carers to to guide them lovingly through this over processed and hyper marketed world of foods to teach them how to love and nourish their bodies.
www.juicingkids.com
