Juicing to Heal Yourself Naturally

by Roopa Chari, M.D.

The nutritional and therapeutic value of juicing has been proven. The greatest natural healers around the world have said that nothing more therapeutic than juicing exists on earth. Juices increase your energy, promote healing and can prevent disease. Juicing is one of the most important additions to a busy lifestyle as we cannot eat enough raw fruits and vegetables in a day to nourish our body properly.

Research has shown that juicing is a highly efficient way to provide our body with live enzymes, vitamins, minerals and other nutrients to help overcome our deficiencies. Especially today, we need extra nutrients to assist our body in detoxifying the environmental toxins. The addition of juicing is essential to maintain or regain an excellent state of health.

Your body is made up of cells and the quality of your health is determined by the quality of the health of your cells. Cells take in nutrients and eliminate wastes just as you and I do. The important question to ask is, what nutrients are we giving to our cells? Cells in the body are always renewing themselves. For example you have a new heart every thirty days!

By giving yourself high quality nutrients, you restore healthy cells to replace the toxic ones. For this process of cell regeneration, we must eat "live foods" in the form of fresh fruits and vegetables. An easy way to increase your intake of fresh fruits and vegetables is through juicing!

Another benefit to juicing in addition to absorbing and assimilating the nutrients of the raw vegetables is the quick and easy digestion of the juices made possible due to the live enzymes and the removal of fiber. Enzymes increase the rate at which foods are broken down and absorbed by the body.

Solid food requires many hours of digestion before the nutrients are available to the cells and tissues of the body. With the process of juicing, the removal of fibers in the extraction allows the juices to be very quickly digested and assimilated. This can take place within minutes. Therefore there is a minimum of effort exerted on the digestive system.

This is very crucial if someone is ill, because in that condition, it is much more difficult to assimilate nutrients from foods. Juicing requires the least amount of digestion with the greatest amount of assimilation of nutrients. This is why juicing is an essential part of any natural healing program.

Store bought shelf juices are generally not recommended as they do not retain all of the vital elements that fresh-made juice has. After you freshly juice vegetables, enzymes begin to fade after approximately 20-30 minutes. In addition shelf juices have to be heated at high temperatures as a part of pasteurization to prevent spoilage and prolong shelf life. However this kills all of the enzymes.

There are many juicers on the market. The Champion Juicer is an excellent juicer for a reasonable price. We recommend drinking at least 1-2 glasses of freshly made juice a day. Preferably drink this at least 20 minutes after making it.

You can start juicing something as simple as carrots and apples! (Note: Do not juice the apple seeds as they contain some cyanide). Carrot juice is one of the richest sources of vitamin A (as beta-carotene), along with vitamins B, C, D, G and K. Carrot juice is also a very good source of calcium, magnesium and iron.

A healthy, simple and delicious starting recipe is to juice:
a.) 3-4 carrots
b.) ½ apple.

In the next issue I will discuss more about juicing along with other powerful healing juice recipes for different medical conditions!

Dr. Roopa Chari is a Board Certified Physician in Internal Medicine. Along with her family she has opened an Alternative Medical Health Center in San Diego called, "The Chari Center of Health, Inc. She treats patients using herbal remedies, detoxification programs, healthy food programs, and a variety of proven, remarkable mind-body techniques to treat a wide range of medical and psychological conditions. Dr. Chari can be reached at (619) 275-8073 for appointments or please visit their website at www.charicenter.com