Juicing Book

We don't use sugar in tea, coffee, etc. I did not realize that beets / pears together would be high in sugar — they are what I have in the house and I was anxious to try out my new Breville juicer.

This is a follow up question and answer to the original question about a pear and beet juice recipe.

As a general rule of thumb, any vegetable that is grown below ground (a root crop) is high in sugar.

Of course, the pear juice and beet juice would taste very delicious, but we must juice with the awareness that juice is actually a processed food. While fresh juice might be made from whole foods, juice itself, is a processed food.

All processed foods (including fresh juice) release nutrients (especially sugar) into the bloodstream really quick. Too much sugar, of any kind, is not beneficial to the body and what many do not realize (or want to accept) is that a sugar is a sugar is a sugar — regardless of the source. A sugar of any kind, even fruit and/or vegetables sugars, still spikes the blood sugar levels.

Ironically, in Chinese cuisine, brown sugar is used for health and well being purposes. The reason why is because Chinese cuisine is actually an extension of traditional Chinese herbal medicine. Chinese cuisine, while to the average person, just appears to be nice recipes are in fact carefully planned recipes to help balance the yin and yang throughout the year (seasonal eating and seasonal recipes).

Now brown sugar is used in Chinese cuisine because the Chinese say that brown sugar promotes the circulation of qi and blood. In China, brown sugar is often used to help lubricate (bring moisture to the body) and as an important ingredient in many cures. It is also said that brown sugar soothes the stomach and spleen.

Saying all of this, there are two important things to take note of.

First, in many diets now, white sugar is added to everything from bread to the can of corn you buy at your local grocery store. As a result, people are getting far more sugar today than what is needed thus creating an imbalance. As an example, while sugar can help bring moisture to the body, too much sugar makes the body damp. An example of this would be a child who, after Trick or Treating, ate too many candies too fast and got a stomach ache. This is because the excessive amount of sugar brought too much dampness to the stomach. So traditionally, brown sugar was used in smaller amounts for medicinal purposes but now white sugar is used in extremely excessive amounts.

Second, traditionally, brown sugar was used rather than white sugar. It's worth noting that some brown sugars are actually white sugar with some molasses added to the sugar to make it look brown! Anyway, the point is that traditionally brown sugar was used which is less damaging than white sugar. The reason why brown sugar is less damaging is because some of the minerals from the sugar cane remain.

Arguably, the best sugar is blackstrap molasses. However, if one buys blackstrap molasses then you would want to buy unsulphured blackstrap molasses from your local health food store.

The ultimate problem with white sugar is that it requires vitamin B in order to be metabolized. As a result, when you have white sugar, it actually begins to rob your body of the B vitamins. Furthermore, calcium is needed for proper digestion of white sugar. Thus white sugar also begins to rob the body of calcium.

So what most people don't know or realize is that white sugar destroys your teeth because it robs your body of calcium. Other foods can also cause a calcium imbalance in the body, but either way, when the body needs calcium, the first place the body gets the calcium from is your bones including the teeth. Depending on who you talk to, you might hear or learn that dental problems actually begin due to calcium imbalances within the body more so than plaque, bacteria, etc.

Too much sugar, as you already know, stresses the pancreas which can lead to diabetes. When white sugar is combined with salty foods, it said that the blood pressure begins to go up. It also said that white sugar can increase cholesterol and triglycerides which can lead to heart problems. Then there is gout. White sugar increases uric acid in the bloodstream. Too much uric acid leads to gout. White sugar is, ultimately a dead food too containing no nutrition. Since white sugar is a nutritionally dead food, the body must get nutrients from bones or other sources within the body in order to metabolize it.

There are just so many reasons why to not use white sugar and to use brown sugar in small, responsible amounts.

But what does all of this have to do with juicing?

We must be vitally aware that we are already getting excessive amounts of sugar in our diet from so many sources. Therefore, the reason why I am talking about sugar and its dangers is because when we juice, we must be conscious of the fact that the juice we are making can further impact the amount of sugar we are getting in our diet. Some people juice in a very reckless manner and make juices that are incredibly high in sugars.

It's for this reason that I really promote responsible juicing.

One of the premises of responsible juicing is that the difference between poison and medicine is all in the dose. That's why, although I focussed mostly on the negatives of white sugar, I also highlighted how brown sugar can be beneficial too — it's all in the dose. Unfortunately, the dose of sugar most people get right now leans towards poison than to medicine.

Have you been wanting to do hatha yoga (stretching) but have found it either too difficult or you are not that flexible? If yes, and even if no, watch Jesse do some pure hatha yoga routines.

Unlike flow yoga, each pose in pure or traditional hatha yoga is held for a few minutes. While holding the pose, you focus the mind on the stretch. When you focus the mind, that's when you find silence.

Jesse is not flexible — never has been and probably never will be flexible like others. But it doesn't matter. In pure hatha yoga, how flexible you are makes no difference. It's all about loving the pose and focussing the mind on the stretch.

If you want to learn pure hatha yoga, now you can by following Jesse on a series of hatha yoga routines.

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