Best Vegetable Juice Recipes

You have to eat your veggies.  Moms recite this immortal phrase all across the country every day to their kids.  Some of us could use a friend looking over our shoulder to motivate (or threaten) us to do the same.  Of course, we’re all grown up now and we know that vegetables are important to stay healthy – yet, it’s still hard to commit.

But that’s why you got a vegetable juicer and a juicer recipes guide, right?  It sure does save the effort of munching on raw vegetables and coping with the bland taste.  It also saves the time of having to prepare your vegetables to counteract that tough bland taste so you can [somewhat] enjoy them.  In the end, you get around the hassle by switching to the next best thing – fruit juicer recipes.  Not that big of a problem, so long as you be careful before crossing over to fruit juicing.

There are reasons you should be juicing vegetables more than fruits.  The biggest reason is the high amount of sugar in fruits.  Most fruit juicer recipes may call for a wide variety of fruits, and the amount of sugar packed into them can deceitfully add up in one glass.  Couple that with other fruits you may snack on throughout the day, in addition to any other sugary junk foods you may consume, and you are asking for trouble.  You will definitely be getting a lot of nutrients, but you will also be getting a lot of sugar, which is especially bad if you are vegetable juicing for weight loss.

Another reason is that you most likely eat fruits in their raw state anyway.  In fact, it is recommended that you eat fruits whole as to get the roughage that will help maintain healthy digestion.  How often do you eat raw vegetables though?  Some may eat carrots or celery, but what about broccoli or brussel sprouts?  Usually, you would cook those, but heat from cooking will start to kill the vital nutrients inside.

This isn’t to say that you should never use fruit in juicer recipes or never cook your food.  But be sure to mix it up a little.  Eat some fruits as snacks and drink a glass of vegetable juice for dinner.  Make a hearty salad comprised of both raw vegetables and fruits.  When juicing, make a glass of vegetable juice one day, fruit juice the next, then a hybrid the following day.  Be creative.

It can be hard to strictly drink vegetable juice all the time.  Here are some of the best vegetable juice recipes:

V8 Vegetable Juice Recipe

In my previous post, I compared vegetable juicer recipes to store-bought juice.  V8 is a popular brand and while not as good as juicing your own produce, it’s still one of the better options available at your grocery store.  This recipe is a good way to duplicate it yourself.

  • 2 tomatoes
  • 1 carrot
  • 1 celery stalk
  • 2 leaves of lettuce
  • 1 handful of spinach
  • 1/2 handful of parsley

Veggie Kick Juicer Recipe

  • 3 carrots
  • 1 beet
  • 1/2 inch fresh ginger
  • 1/2 lemon
  • 1 clove of garlic

Super Simple V8 Juice

  • 3 carrots
  • 1 tomato
  • handful of spinach

Body Cleansing Juicer Recipe

  • 2 celery stalks
  • handful of kale
  • handful of spinach
  • handful of parsley
  • 1 oz. wheatgrass juice

Green Hydrator

  • 1 celery stalk
  • 1 cucumber
  • 1 green pepper
  • 2 handfuls of spinach

Sweet Vegetable Juice Recipe

A little on the sweeter side, but not that bad in sugar content

  • 3 carrots
  • 2 red peppers
  • 1 beet

September 16, 2009  Tags: , , , , , ,   Posted in: Juicing Recipes, Vegetable Juicing Basics  4 Comments

Free Vegetable Juicer Recipes or Store-Bought Vegetable Juice

Instead of actually juicing vegetables of their own, there are many people that opt to drink store bought vegetable juice.  In general, compared to the many other beverage choices, such as soda, flavored drinks, or even fruit juice, vegetable juice does stand out as being better than those choices.  But when comparing to your own vegetable juicer recipes, it turns out that there is no comparison.

People may have been intrigued by the idea of juicing vegetables (as they should!)  But there are several things that come in the way.  Space can be an issue.  You must have adequate counter space to keep a vegetable juicer out all the time, or have enough storage space.  Price is another issue, as the best vegetable juicers will cost hundreds of dollars (you could settle for less expensive centrifugal juicers, but for juicing vegetables, it is recommended to stick with the high end models.)  Finally, the amount of work needed for juicing recipes can be a problem – it is much simpler to buy a container of juice than it is to prepare your produce and cleaning your juicer every time for your own juicer recipes.

V8 Vegetable Juice Recipe

The most common alternative to juicing vegetables is to drink V8 juice.  You must have heard the commercials by now – “*Doink* You could have had a V8.”  While it does contain a wide variety of juices, it undergoes several processes that significantly reduce the nutritional content in it.  Some of those nutrients are very sensitive and will be denatured simply by being exposed to the air for too long, while more will be diminished from the types of processes that are used to constitute and package the V8 vegetable juice. This is true with any packaged juice that you can buy at the grocery store though.

The ingredients are as follows:

  • Tomato Juice from Concentrate (Water, Tomato Concentrate)
  • Reconstituted Vegetable Juice Blend (Water and Concentrated Juices of Carrots, Celery, Beets, Parsley, Lettuce, Watercress, Spinach)
  • Salt
  • Vitamin C (Ascorbic Acid)
  • Flavoring
  • Citric Acid

Overall, not too bad though.  The only major problem is from the amount of salt added.  The nutritional facts show that there is a total of 630mg of sodium per serving!  Fortunately, there are reduced sodium versions out there as well.  Of course, it is still no comparison to your own vegetable juicer recipes.

This is not to knock V8 fruit or vegetable juices, as they certainly have their place in today’s culture.  If you can’t make your own vegetable juice recipes and have the choice to either buy a bottle of soda or V8, then the V8 is definitely the better choice for your health.  But for those that think that V8 juice can replace juicing vegetables, I’m sorry but you are sorely mistaken.  Drinking vegetable juice in its raw state is always the healthiest option.

Besides V8, there are many other juices to choose from.  However, a lot of them are not even close to the power of fruit and vegetable juicing, with most of them considered to be on the same level as sugary soda drinks.  Not all juice is created equal, so don’t think that drinking any kind of juice is beneficial to your health.  Here is an actual ingredient list from a typical store-bought juice:

  • Filtered Water
  • Sweeteners
  • High Fructose Corn Syrup
  • Sugar
  • Grape Juice from Concentrate (Less than 15%)
  • Pear and Strawberry Juices from Concentrate
  • Natural Flavors
  • Citric Acid (Provides Tartness)

It’s amazing how people will buy this stuff.  Judging from these ingredients, I’d say that a soda is probably better for you.  These are the worst types of drinks if your plan is to stay healthy or lose weight with juicing.

In the end, there is a lot of junk out there, so take the time to evaluate whether or not it’s wise to purchase for you and your family.  But no matter what there is on sale at the supermarket, the healthiest option is always to stick with your own free vegetable juicer recipes.

September 1, 2009  Tags: , , , , , ,   Posted in: Vegetable Juicing Basics  One Comment

Vegetable Juicing Recipes for Weight Loss

This is definitely in the top 2 reasons why people even consider vegetable juicing recipes in the first place.  It is no wonder why though – people have very horrible dieting habits.  The most direct way to resolve our dieting problem is to: (1) stop eating bad foods, and (2) eat healthier foods.  However, all people have an inherent trait that wants them to always follow the easiest course of action.  This is where vegetable juicing recipes comes in, as it is a wonderful and very simple action.

First of all, assuming you don’t have one yet, you will need to purchase a vegetable juicer.  There are several types, including a centrifugal juicer and an auger juicer.  Both have their advantages and disadvantages.  Centrifugal juicers are more affordable and more mainstream, though they are noisy and are not the most efficient juicers.  An auger juicer is very powerful and great for vegetable juicing because they can get the highest yield of vegetable juice, yet you will have to spend quite a bit more.  There are many brands out there, and prices greatly vary.  One thing you must understand though is that when it comes to juicers, you get what you pay for.  The type of juicer that I use is the Omega 8005 auger juicer.  It is an amazing machine, and I have never been unhappy with this juicer.

So what produce to use to make vegetable juicing recipes for weight loss? Try focusing on vegetables with a deep color, such as spinach, peppers, and broccoli.  Their deep color is attributed to the high presence of nutrients in it.  Also, though it is not a vegetable, use grapefruit, as it creates a chemical reaction that helps with digestion and weight loss (I’m sure you’ve heard of the grapefruit diet.)  Another fruit to add is kiwi, which contains a mineral called chromium that aids in weight loss too.  Here is just one of many vegetable juicing recipes for weight loss:

Weight Loss Juicing Recipe

  • 1 kiwi
  • 1 grapefruit
  • 1 yellow pepper
  • Juice ingredients in this order

For the fastest way to lose weight, use juicing as a complement to a solid exercise routine and good eating habits!

August 28, 2009  Tags: , , , , , , , ,   Posted in: Ailments, Vegetable Juicing Basics, Weight Loss  One Comment