Juicing Book

I started juicing on August 29th, 2009 and instantly fell in love with carrots, cucumber, parsley, cilantro, beets, sweet potato, green apple and papaya.

I did not use all ingredients first day, but I used a large glass, than I found your site. Half pint you say? Wow your site is an eye opener, love your story about deer and beer, I now get it.

Would you please tell me if a half a pint is all I should drink a day, or can I drink more throughout the day?

Sometimes I forget what I write and so I had to re–read my part about the deer (which can be found in my article about responsible juicing. But yes, the way in which deer work underscores the power of what juicing can be.

Really, for general health and well–being, you don't need more than 1/2 pint (1 cup) per day. In fact, more than this amount and you might begin to feel awful (not right away, but with time).

For the most part, all of the fruits and vegetables you are juicing above (apple, carrots, cucumber, beets, sweet potato, papaya) have a cooling effect on the body. So if you were to continue juicing these vegetables in larger amounts and for a continued period of time, then you might find yourself getting a cold more easily especially as winter nears in the northern hemisphere especially since papaya brings dampness to the body also.

People get so excited about juicing, and that's great. But we must keep that excitement under control. People think that because it's fruits and vegetables that it must be good, regardless of the amount. But people fail to remember that juicing is a concentrated food source along with being a processed food. While juice may be made from whole food ingredients, juice is still processed. Having the food concentrated and processed magnifies the action of the juice in the body.

First, having the juice more concentrated means you are getting more nutrition now in 1 cup of juice than if you ate 1 cup of vegetables.

Second, since juice is processed, it means the nutrients are more readily and more quickly available to the body.

Of course, some people may argue that in years past, our fruits and vegetables contained more nutrients than they do now. This is undoubtedly true. Realizing this, many may think that since foods used to contain more nutrients, it's okay to drink more juice to get the extra nutrition our body needs. But the problem is that although vegetables and fruits may have contained more nutrients in the past, we as humans used to eat rather than juice our fruits and vegetables. As a result, eating the fruits and vegetables provided a slow release of nutrition into the body. Juicing releases the nutrients into the body really fast. Many will tell you that the body actually prefers the slow release of nutrients into the body.

Most people are aware of herbal medicine but few know how herbal medicine works. Essentially, it's the nutrients of the herbal ingredients that are extracted and it's those nutrients that stimulate the healing.

So if, as an example you boil herbs, the boiling process extracts the nutrients in the herbs. When you drink the tea, you drink the nutrients. When you make a herbal tincture (herbs soaked in alcohol), the soaking process extracts the nutrients of the herbs and stores the nutrients in the alcohol.

Various nutrients stimulate the healing of certain parts within the body. Some nutrients benefit the liver, some benefit the kidneys and so on.

Usually, herbal remedies are made from herbal ingredients that you wouldn't normally eat, such as a root of a tree found high in the mountains. But vegetables and fruits (along with all wholesome foods) essentially provide the body with nutrients that can and do stimulate healing within the body. Thus, really, drinking vegetable (or fruit) juice is like drinking a herbal remedy. When you eat a carrot, your body extracts the herbal benefits (nutrition) of the carrot. But since the food we eat is not as concentrated as a herbal remedy or juice, we often fail to realize or notice the herbal benefits of a carrot or any other food that we commonly eat.

But here's where understanding that the difference between poison and medicine is all in the dose becomes important. Arsenic, as an example, in small amounts can help improve digestion and even help in some cases of vomiting. Large amounts of arsenic are toxic and can lead to death. The difference between poison and medicine is all in the dose.

So when we juice, we are increasing the nutrients in our body. If we have too much we can put our body out of balance and begin to create a health problem.

It's even said, in Chinese herbal medicine, that too much happiness can cause a heat attack. That's why, many people have heart attacks on their birthday because all of their friends and family are around, the person gets excited and overly happy leading to a heart attack.

All things must be in balance.

So personally, I would not suggest more than 1/2 pint (1 cup) per day for general health and well being purposes. It's more important to make juicing part of a healthy lifestyle rather than make juicing the lifestyle itself.

In other words, drink your 1/2 pint (1 cup) and enjoy it, but also focus on eating a wholesome and healthy diet, get some exercise, etc. Make juicing a small, but significant, part of your lifestyle. This creates balance.

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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