Juicing Book

That clears it up more. Eat fruit most of the time, juice vegetables (and still eat them). I guess you should only use as much fruit or carrot to make the vegetable juice palatable. Recently I tried juicing straight apple juice — I have 3 giant, prolific apple trees in my backyard — and I do find it too sweet. I get a sugar rush very similar to sodas or other high fructose drinks.

That brings up another question I've had as I've been reading about juicing, raw foods, and fruitarianism. We all know we are not supposed to eat too much sugar, but is whole fruit ok, even though it has sugar, because it includes the fiber, nutrients, water?

And, in your opinion, is eating lots of fruit, or only fruit (as in fruitarianism), healthy despite being high in sugar?

(By the way, I am not fruitarian or raw, I try to eat a balanced, varied whole foods diet, but I do see benefits in those diets).

This is a follow up to the question about mixing apples with vegetable juice.

Being a fruitarian is not a good idea. Really, this is a fanatical approach to diet and what we want is a balanced approach. Of course, those that are fruitarians won't agree with this answer but the reality is, we all see things from our perspective and so what is balanced to one, is not necessarily balanced to another.

Personally, I am not a vegetarian either. However, vegetables are important and at the same time, I do not eat a lot of meat. I eat just enough to get the nutrients my body needs.

I have been a vegetarian before but what I found personally is that not everyone is meant to live this way. Certain people just cannot do this while others, due to generations of eating like this can.

There are some religious groups especially in India, such as the Jaynes, who are quite strict vegetarians and will not use utensils that have also touched meat. Some Jaynes also walk around with masks on so they don't inhale bugs. But they are not doing this so much for diet purposes, but more so because they do not want to kill. Saying that, even when you eat a vegetable or a fruit, you are also killing that fruit or vegetable and also not allowing it to seed, thus not allowing it fulfill its purpose in life, so to speak.

So no matter how you look at things, you can always find a reason for this or that. Ultimately, you need to go with what makes the most sense to you.

In China, as an example, for the longest time the people only ate a small amount of meat each day. Usually, about the size of their palm.This is because meat was not always available. So traditionally, the Chinese ate less meat, more rice, vegetables, noodles, etc. But now in China, people are eating more meat due to higher incomes (for some), the introduction of things like fast food restaurants, etc. Hence now their once balanced approach to diet and eating is unbalanced.

Now, when it comes to eating raw foods, if you ever go to a traditional Chinese restaurant, the one thing you will never see on the menu is a salad. The Chinese do not eat raw vegetables. Always cooked. The Chinese say that raw vegetables weaken the digestive system. Although this can happen, small amounts of raw vegetables are still fine and one reason why I do not suggest people juice a lot of vegetables in one serving. There are other reasons why I do not suggest having large servings of juice too including too much sugar, too much juice can be overwhelming to the body and juicing is not a replacement for eating your vegetables, but rather is complimentary to a healthy diet.

If you ask me, the benefits you see in other diets are correct. The benefits of being a fruitarian... the benefits of being a vegetarian...even the benefits of following the Atkins diet. However, what we must do is think not in a fanatical way, but a balanced way. So eating some fruit is a good idea. Eating vegetables is a good idea... and in terms of Atkins, while most people see it as a high meat diet, myself, what I takeaway from the Atkins diet is to avoid overly processed foods that spike the sugar levels (not everyone will see this because most think Atkins is all about high protein / meat diets). But as mentioned, what I see from the Atkins approach is to limit those processed foods, limit those foods that spike the sugar levels. While I don't drink milk personally,if one reads or understands the Atkins approach then they will see why skimmed milk actually can spike your blood sugar since it is no longer a whole food.

When it comes to eating fruit, I don't suggest a lot of fruit. But I do suggest enough. However, I also eat based on the seasons. I am a seasonal eater. I take this influence from traditional Chinese cooking /diet methods which believe it or not, all started with Confucius (he was more than just a philosopher but well trained in health and diet too —the cuisine he influenced is known as Shandong cuisine... a more strict form of cooking in China).

Anyway, my point is that some fruits are best eaten only in the summer,some in the winter. Apples, as an example, are best eaten in the summer when they are naturally harvested. Sure, you can still eat an apple in the winter but its best health effects are in the summer.

I personally look at the yin and yang effect of the foods. So in the winter, I limit or reduce the yin foods (cooling foods) and increase the yang (warming foods). In the summer, I increase the yin foods (cooling foods) and lower the yang foods (warming foods). You can still eat yin foods in the winter and yang foods in the summer. You do so by balancing them so they do not overwhelm the body. It's a fascinating approach if you ask me and one that I follow, not in a strict sense, but with definite awareness.

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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