Breakfast of Champions...green juice

I started my day off with a green juice to get my own juices flowing. I've had a nasty sinus/chest infection since Saturday and I am not a happy camper!

Today's recipe:

Kale (of course!)
Dandelion
Cucumber
Green apples
Celery
Lemon
Beets
(I ran out of parsley, which I've been adding to this one!)

According to juicing/wellness warrior guru Kris Carr of Crazy Sexy Life, juicing is freaking awesome!! See what she has to say below:

Hands down the best way to increase our alkalinity and detox our purdy bodies is to consume a diet full of sunlight aka liquid chlorophyll.

Chlorophyll contains a powerful blood builder that’s said to increase red blood cells, improve circulation, ease inflammation, oxygenate the body, and counteract harmful free radicals. By eating (and drinking) a diet high in chlorophyll (raw fruits and veggies, especially leafy greens), we dine on liquid oxygen, the very substance we need to stay alive and thrive.

To read more about Juicing vs. Blending...go here!

May the juice be with you my fertile readers!
xoxo

The (wheat) grass is always greener...

The grass is getting high and I am chopping it down. My cats are also eating it and I am juicing it!

So get your green on and check out the benefits of the grass...and I am not talking about the kind you smoke :)

Wheatgrass Juice is one of the best sources of living chlorophyll available and it is safe for gluten-free diets. I was doing a bit a research and there are some message boards that say that wheatgrass can help lower FSH levels....but aside from that, check out the other benefits below:



•A physical and mental sense of well-being


•More energy and better sleep

•Stronger immune system

•Detoxification on a cellular level

•Reduced inflammation in the entire body

•Lessened appetite cravings

•Increased mental clarity

•Steadier nerves

•Improved eyesight and night vision

•You suddenly start accomplishing more every day

•Actively engaging in and enjoying activities you had been dreading in the past

•Visually seeing results via live blood cell analysis such as the unclumping of oxygen-carrying red blood cells

Wheatgrass helps to alkaline your body....most of us have an acidic-ridden body and disease breeds on acid...so how about you harvest some at home. All you needs is a shot.

Benefits of Chlorophyll

There are several reasons why green foods are considered as blood-building foods because of the similarity in structures of the two colored pigments, the red heme and the green chlorophyll. Here are the lists of health benefits we can get from chlorophyll.

1. Chlorophyll is the best aid in gastrointestinal problems.
Refined, low fiber and and animal fats contribute to major diseases start in the colon. Gastrointestinal problems can be best treated by improving the digestion and assimilation. Among those natural nutrients that heal the intestinal track, green vegetables high in chlorophyll content aid in loosening and cleansing the colon.

2. Chlorophyll Promote formation of hemoglobin and red blood cells.
Hemoglobin is the iron-containing substance that provides red blood cells their red pigment and transports oxygen to the body tissues. In fact, we may not realize that our blood is composed of 75% of hemoglobin. If the central atom of blood is iron, how chlorophyll helps in the formation of red blood cells? As we digested green food, the magnesium helps in rebuilding and replenishing the red blood cells which is responsible for boosting our energy.

3. Chlorophyll treats bad breath.
Bad breath is caused by oral bacteria that reside in a person’s mouth and it excretes odiferous waste products. The sulfur compounds of waste products usually lie at the root of breath odor problems. With the double action of chlorophyll, it acts as deodorizer that eliminates bad odor and reduces the stringent smell of urine, infected wounds and feces.

4. Detoxify toxins that cause cancer.
Researches found that the damaged genes caused by carcinogen substances can be prevented by chlorophyllin, a derivative of chlorophyll wherein the magnesium is removed and replaced with copper. It reduces the binding of carcinogen from foods like cooked meat products that damage the DNA and other organs of the body particularly the liver.

5. Beneficial in assimilating calcium and other heavy minerals.
Chlorophyll is very easy to absorb and assimilate. It is so amazing how it gets into the bloodstream so fast with the least amount of digestion that saves more vital energy. Not only that, cataract cases which is same as an arthritic formation, the hard calcium has come out of solution and becomes milky so that patients cannot see clearly with their cataract condition. Again, chlorophyll can assimilate calcium and balance other trace minerals to rebuild, replace, and exchange with the new tissue.

6. Chlorophyll fights infections.
It is the antioxidant and anti-inflammatory compounds contain Vitamin A, C and E that are responsible to reduce inflammation. In connection to this, the healing aspects of chlorophyll were reported in 1940 by Dr. Benjamin Gruskin. With this vitro experiments, it showed that chlorophyll possess bacteriostic property that kill harmful bacteria.Moreover, the antiseptic properties of chlorophyll have the ability to kill germs by strengthening the tissues.

I bought my kit here. You also need a hand-crank juicer for wheatgrass which you can also get at the same place!

So cheers to some green-goodness and to your health!

Get the Juices Flowing...

So when I turned 30 one of my best friends, Lena, got me one of the best presents for my birthday! I had recently stopped eating meat and she signed us up for a raw food cooking class at the  Natural Gourmet Institute in NYC. We had such a great time and learned all about the benefits of eating raw. I know that to some this sounds strange and so not tasty but surprisingly it is yummy and quite easy to make.

A raw food diet is based on eating whole, live, nutritionally-dense organic uncooked and un-processed foods as a large percentage of your diet. When 75-100% of your total food consumption is raw food, you are a raw foodist. At that rate it is believed that your body's own elimination system can eliminate all or most of the toxins in the cooked portion of your diet.

When you eat more cooked food you are eating toxins faster than your body can get rid of them so they back up causing disease. Heating food above 118 degrees F. is believed to destroy valuable enzymes in food that can assist in digestion and health.

Ok so you now understand the principles of raw food and why you would eat it. I've done some reading and research on it and I've found that many women who are diagnosed with breast cancer (many of them at a young age - before 40) turn to a raw diet and that along with other treatments have eliminated their cancer or slowed the growth. Check out Crazy Sexy Life

For me it's a way to get more protein, etc that I would normally get from eating meat but without the digestion issues. You can start slowly and the best way to ease into this and help detox on some level is to Juice!

Juicing is easy and quick and you can get full servings of fresh veggies, etc in one glass. My two favorite books for raw food are Raw Food Made Easy by Jennifer Cornbleet (she taught the class that we took) and Raw Food Detox Diet by Natalia Rose.

I've taken their recipes for "green lemonade" and "green juice" and just made up my own recipe. One item you do need to continue to this juicing journey is a juicer. I have this one

It's an investment but if you commit to juicing and see the health benefits then it's worth it!

Alison's Juice (I drink a glass in the morning. This is the first thing in my stomach)
-2-4 stalks of Kale
-One peeled lemon
-2-4 apples
-4-6 carrots
-1-2 TBSP ginger
You can also add a handful of fresh parsley or cilantro as well. Sometimes I also throw in a whole peeled cucumber.

I know, kale is not sexy. But it is one of the best veggies you can eat! It has a powerful taste so add a little and go from there.

Here is a fun way to use fruit and veggies...you can make this for your kiddies and they won't be able to tell a thing and all you need is your blender. In Jennifer Cornbleet's book she has a smoothie recipe. I make this one quite often.

Berry Smoothie

1/4 cup water (you may need to add more as you blend)
1 ripe banana
1 cup fresh or frozen blueberries, strawberries or blackberries
Handful of fresh spinach (you won't even taste it)
Alternatively you can add some green powder like Green Super Food which you can get at any health food store...don't add too much or it will be too much green for your smoothie. I usually add about 1/2 scoop.

My niece loves it!