Organic vs. Conventional Produce

Although eating conventional produce is better than not getting enough fruits and vegetables in your diet, there are many items that you really should strive to ONLY buy organic. If you're juicing daily, you're consuming a lot more produce than you probably had previously. That's great, but if you're consuming non-organic produce that also means you're ingesting more pesticides, fertilizers and fungicides. That's not good.

The Environmental Working Group has two lists that they publish, known as the "Dirty Dozen" and the "Clean 15." You guessed it, items on the "dozen" list should only be purchased when organic is available, as they contained the highest levels of pesticides. The "clean" items you don't need to worry about as much. EWG's web site has updates these lists here.

The current "Dirty Dozen" (and the top three are the worst offenders):

1. Apples
2. Celery
3. Strawberries
4. Peaches
5. Spinach
6. Nectarines (imported)
7. Grapes (imported)
8. Sweet bell peppers
9. Potatoes
10. Blueberries (domestic)
11. Lettuce
12. Kale and collard greens

(Although not on this list, I still only buy organic carrots as well.)

The current "Clean 15":

1. Onions
2. Sweet corn
3. Pineapple
4. Avocado
5. Asparagus
6. Sweet peas
7. Mangoes
8. Eggplant
9. Cantaloupe (domestic)
10. Kiwi
11. Cabbage
12. Watermelon
13. Sweet potatoes
14. Grapefruit
15. Mushrooms

Grapefruit goodness and making the time for juicing

Every now and then I like to try new combinations, even though I have my tried-and-true favorites. This morning's juice featured grapefruit, red bell pepper, granny smith apple, lemon, carrot, ginger, golden beet and tomato. I used one large and one smaller grapefruit. You could really taste the grapefruit over the other ingredients, which was the goal. As you can see below I also used a rather large chunk of ginger root.

The approximate nutritional analysis of this combination (which yielded over a quart of juice, enough for two people) per-person:

Percent Daily Values

Vitamin A: >600%
Vitamin C: >230%
Vitamin E: 14%
Vitamin K1: 40%
Thiamin: 15%
Riboflavin: 14%
Niacin: 15%
Vitamin B6: 27%
Folate: 30%
Calcium: 8%
Iron: 8%
Magnesium: 12%
Potassium: 30%
Sodium: 12% (mostly from the carrots)
Zinc: 5%
Copper: 7%
Manganese: 24%  

Making the time for juicing
I hear people complain that it takes a long time to prep for juicing. I don't think it takes long at all. I don't peel organic carrots or cucumbers. In this morning's juice I peeled the beet and ginger root, and cut the rind off the grapefruits and lemon. Everything else required a minimal amount of rinsing and prep. If I know I will be pressed for time or have to leave earlier than usual in the morning, I'll prep my juice ingredients the night before and store them in a bag in the fridge overnight. To keep apples from turning brown, rub the flesh with the rind-less lemon before putting them in the bag. In the morning, just pull the bag out and you're ready to go.

Martha Stewart does a green juice every day

Martha Stewart Starts Every Day With Green Juice, Seriously Digs Asparagus Season
from Grubstreet New York

"Every morning I drink a green juice made from fresh spinach, parsley, pear, ginger, orange, and cucumber from my farm."

Feeling Good

I'm feeling good. Physically because I've been working out, still juicing every morning and also In the past couple of months I've eaten almost no meat (more on that later*). I'm also feeling good about the happy fact that since I started adding fresh vegetable juice to my diet last summer, I've directly or indirectly inspired more than 6 people to start doing it themselves. Whether because I talked their ears off about all the nutrition they could be getting, or because they can see a big difference in how I look compared to last year, or maybe because they'd thought about doing it and just needed someone they know to evangelize just enough to be the push required to get a juicer and start doing it themselves — whatever the reason, I'm glad they did and I think they are too!

If you're one of those people who started juicing because of me blabbing about it, or because you stumbled across this blog or whatever, how has your experience been? Have you seen or felt a noticeable change in yourself or your partner/spouse? Do you see this as something you'll permanently add to your life? Please, share your thoughts!


* I've all but stopped including meat (beef, pork, chicken, lamb, etc.) in my diet; instead I'm consuming more fish/seafood than I did before.

My heart skipped a beet

Alas, my "rubylicious" recipe isn't the same (especially color-wise) without a beet. I ran out of beets so this morning I have to make up for it in volume with other items, like celery and carrot. A bunch of people around me at work have been sick and I do NOT want whatever they've been having, so I'm using ginger and lemon and as much natural vitamin C as I can pack in to each serving.

Oh my (green) goodness

Even when my juicer was inconveniently located in my kitchen, I never stopped juicing — but I was doing it less at home and buying more freshly made-to-order at a place nearby, and that was getting expensive.

Am renewing my commitment to myself to juice at least twice a day and try to eat mostly raw vegetable foods and less meat. Although I did not intend or care to lose weight by juicing (it's all about the blood pressure for me, as anyone following this blog may recall), I actually have lost about 10–15 pounds. I'm at 135 now, but as I begin doing more workouts with weights that number will go back up due to muscle gain.

This morning's breakfast:





And my nutritional analysis of it (only including items with greater than 10% Daily Value):

190% DV Vitamin A
172% DV Vitamin C
1146% DV Vitamin K1
15% DV Thiamin
21% DV Riboflavin
25% DV Vitamin B6
36% DV Folate
25% DV Calcium
21% DV Iron
39% DV Magnesium
43% DV Potassium
21% DV Copper
45% DV Manganese

And that was just 16 ounces of juice. You can see how easy it is to get enough of your vitamins this way.

Location, Location, Location

Putting your juicer in a place that is easy to get to, especially close to your kitchen sink, is important. I've had to move my juicer temporarily to an inconvenient location in my kitchen, and have actually been juicing less because it's not as easy and quick as having everything in the perfect spot. I'm really busy, so having the cutting board and prep on one side of the sink, with the juicer on the other, and easy clean-up right there, is essential.

One could argue that being really serious about juicing means making it work regardless of environmental circumstances, but the reality is that it's just easier and more likely to happen when all of the variables are ideal.