15 Health Benefits of Juicing, What You Need, +8 Delicious Recipes

Anyone interested in achieving and maintaining optimal health and wellness has no doubt heard some of the benefits that you can gain from incorporating fresh juice into your diet. Juicing is the process of extracting the liquid from fresh vegetables and fruit – leaving behind most of the fiber so you can consume the majority of the vitamins, minerals, and phytonutrients found in these foods.

When done properly, juicing can be a fantastic way to supplement your diet and ensure you’re giving your body everything it needs to work efficiently and stay healthy. Remember, drinking fruit and vegetable juice isn’t a replacement for these foods – you should still try to eat at least two fruits and four servings of vegetables each day.

A brief history of juicing

While the modern philosophy of juicing wasn’t introduced until the 1930s, people have been taking advantage of the health benefits of juicing for thousands of years. Early juicers used grinders and linens to crush and strain produce or herbs for ceremonial practices or medical applications. With the invention of the first hydraulic press-style juicer, Dr. Norman Walker developed the technology to bring this traditional health supplement to the contemporary masses.

When the first masticating juicer was invented in the 1950s, it introduced the possibility of juicing nearly all kinds of vegetables – including leafy greens, which had been virtually impossible to juice with the hydraulic press. However, due to the friction caused by the high speed at which this juicer functioned, the heat generated can compromise the quality of the resulting liquid. As live enzymes are destroyed by heat, many of the nutrients contained within the produce were destroyed during this juicing process.

However, by the 1990s, technology had evolved to allow juicers to operate efficiently and effectively – extracting a maximum of juices from fruits and vegetables without the loss of nutrients caused by these previous juicing methods. Thanks to this important evolution, people around the world can enjoy the benefits of juicing in their own homes.