Eat Shrink And Be Merry

I have a good friend, Gaye Bennett, whom everyone is always complimenting for her youthful, glowing, gorgeous skin and striking, clear sky-blue eyes. If it weren’t for her full head of equally gorgeous, equally striking shoulder-length gray hair, you’d swear that she was 46 or 47 instead of her real age: 59. In fact, she sometimes seems even younger because she’s a bit of a free-spirited hippie type with a naughty, child-like giggle that makes her blue eyes twinkle like stars dancing in the night. I’ve begged her many times for her secret “Fountain of Youth” formula, but she can’t seem to fess up with a firm answer. Is it healthy lifestyle? Attitude? Lack of stress? A special diet? Is it the fact that she’s been faithfully practicing homeopathy, practicing it even before anyone knew homeopathy was cool? Maybe it’s a combination of the above. What the heck is her secret? Enquiring minds want to know? I want to know!

Well, I finally think I’m onto her. What I’ve noticed about Gaye is that every time I go over to her house, she’s juicing fresh, organic vegetables like kale, beets, carrots, cilantro, parsley and cucumbers. In fact, she often talks about her juicer—not a regular, run-of-the-mill blender or basic citrus juicer that you’d use to squeeze fresh orange juice. Nosiree, it’s a “juice extractor.” Hers is an ancient beast, a “Green Power” juice extractor/contraption/thing-a-majingy that she’s had for 15-20 years and I reckon it’s about the same size as a compact car, taking up most of her kitchen counter space and encroaching on her dining room when she uses it. But man, it works miracles, as Gaye’s beautiful skin demonstrates!

Envious of my friend’s vitality, I decided to do some detective work into juice extractors and the benefits of this type of juicing to health in general. I was really impressed by what I found. Here are the juicy details:

When it comes to juicing, there are really two types of juicers: centrifugal and masticating juicers. A centrifugal juicer is the most common type you see in stores and on groovy TV infomercials. They spin at high speeds and during the spinning process, the vegetables that you’ve shoved down the chute are ground to a pulp. The spinning motion then forces the juice away from the pulp.

The definition of “mastication,” (not to be confused with a similar-sounding, “forbidden” topic here), is “to chew, to grind or knead into a pulp.” Your teeth are an excellent example of mastication in action. (Cows are experts at mastication, too! Go Elsa!) A masticating juicer grinds vegetables and literally squishes out the juice, leaving behind pulp that’s almost powdery. Since they spin at low speeds, they tend to juice many vegetables more efficiently, especially the most important ones for our health: the leafy greens like kale, cilantro, parsley, etc. You get more juice out of your vegetables with a masticating juicer, so you get more nutritional bang for your buck. Plus, a masticating juicer is so good at getting the juice out, you need fewer vegetables to create more juice.

But here’s the real reason a masticating juice extractor is all the rage for improving your health. We all know that colourful and dark green veggies are loaded with vitamins, minerals, and most importantly, antioxidants that are critical to good health and anti-aging. Well, when a juicer’s blades spin at very fast speeds, like they do with centrifugal juicers or even in a blender that you’d typically make a smoothie in, that produces too much heat, which then damages a portion of the vitamins and destroys almost all of the live enzymes in the vegetable. That’s not good. You’re wasting all those nutrients. And remember, they say that the moment a vegetable is plucked from the vine or from the ground, it quickly loses up to 50% of its vitamin/mineral content. So you’re already working with an inferior product. You need to get the most out of what you have.

Masticating juicers, however, spin at a low speed and that prevents oxidation and damage to those precious, health-promoting nutrients and enzymes. You’re getting the very, very best part of the vegetable—the part that will infuse your body’s cells with life and vitality and health.

“But what about the pulp? Don’t I want all that fibre, too?” you ask. Sure, you definately want fibre, but not necessarily in your juice. Here’s the deal: a lot of the beneficial stuff that’s stored in fruits and veggies are stored in the fibre, but the problem is that fibre’s not broken down so well in the body. It acts as bulk and is whooshed out via your colon, and along with it goes some of the nutrients that are bound up in there. However, when fruit and vegetables are juiced, all the good stuff is released from the fibres and the nutrients are made available to your body and are very easy to digest and most importantly, to absorb. That’s why so many people juice for health reasons—the phtyochemicals in plants help remove carcinogens, detoxify the liver, protect our cell’s DNA, help repair and regenerate cells, give us energy, and make us feel and look great. So treat your juice as a supplement or an addition, and get your all-important fibre elsewhere in your regular diet.

I personally ended up buying an “Omega 8005 Juicer” and experimented by making juice every day for 40 days straight to see if I would end up looking all radiant and glowy like my friend. My favourite concoction consisted of carrot, beet, celery (one of the best vegetables to juice to promote healthy skin), kale, cilantro, and parsley along with one apple. (I used only organic vegetables.) Beets are one of the best livers detoxifiers, and those leafy greens, well, they’re just loaded with so much goodness, it’s radicchio! (My sister, Greta, uses the word “radicchio” in place of the word “ridiculous,” in case you thought that came out of nowhere!)

Anyway, to make this long story longer, all I can say is I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE my Omega Juice Extractor! Did I mention that I LOVE it? Within five days or so, I noticed a huge improvement in my energy level. My sleep improved dramatically and I looked very well-rested. After a week or so, I noticed that the skin on my hands, feet and legs, which had been dry and a little scaly, was looking and feeling moist and nourished. People have commented on how good my skin looks lately. Heck, just lately I’ve even had lots of guys in their twenties tell me I’m hot! How cool! My digestion is much, much better, which means I’m getting more out of the food I eat. I also noticed that my cravings for sugar were dramatically reduced, probably because I was giving my body the nutrients that it really needed and wanted. In fact, my hunger in general was reduced. As a result, I’ve dropped unnecessary weight, mostly in the form of bloating. When your liver is getting so much help in its detoxifying job because you’re infusing it with so many antioxidants and nutrients, you tend to lose retained water. Plus, your lymphatic system drains toxins from your body for elimination, too. The result: Bloat be gone! Goodbye, wrinkles and cellulite! Hello, healthy glow and boundless energy!

In general, I feel that purchasing this juicer and using it regularly is one of the best things I’ve ever done for my health. EVER! I’m planning on having a glass of fresh juice every single day. It seems to me that the Fountain of Youth may very well spew forth freshly extracted, masticated vegetable juice! (Don’t worry, Gaye. Your secret’s safe with me! Well…sorta.)

(I bought my Omega 8005 Juicer at Rainbow Foods in Ottawa for $350 including tax. Don’t fret—it’s a great investment in your health (what could be more important?) and a sturdy appliance that you’ll have for 20 years. It’s very easy to use and to clean. You can also order masticating juicers like Omega, Champion or Green Power online. Simply Google “juicers” and you’ll find all kinds of helpful information.)