I can’t say enough about this juice.  This is something James and I drink at least three times a week.  We start our day with a glass of juice or a green smoothie almost every day.  We prefer the juice because of the energy boost it gives us to start our day.  I heard from several health sites that it is best to drink it on an empty stomach because of the immediate absorption of micro-nutrients.  I’m not sure if this is accurate, but I can tell you from experience that this juice will immediately make a body feel energized and healthy.  It’s much better than a cup of coffee.

I’m not one of those juicing fanatics, but I find that juicing in moderation helps guarantee that I get a good variety of vegetables on a daily basis.  When I feel sluggish, I may increase my juice intake for two or three days; but on normal weeks, I drink a morning glass only.  I’ve read all sorts of diet plans that praise a “juicing-only” regimen, but that doesn’t go along with my philosophy.  I think we need the fiber, and I worry that too much juice will give us a overload of sugar.  But, remember, I’m not a dietician or a doctor so you’ll need to do what works for you.  However, I must say that James and I have a super-sized immune system with our current diet plan.  We pay close attention to how our body feels.  We can tell when we are lacking in nutrients, and we adjust our diet accordingly.  We hardly ever catch a cold or contagious illness.

According to Dr. Joseph Mercolo, raw juice is like a “living-broth” because it’s teeming with micro-nutrients that so many of us are lacking.  Drinking fresh-made juice is like receiving an intravenous infusion of vitamins, minerals, and enzymes that go straight into your system without having to be broken down.  This gives you an immediate energy boost within twenty minutes.  One cannot reap the same benefits from store bought juice.  Bottled juice has been heated and pasteurized so all the vitamins and minerals are completely depleted. Store bought juice is loaded with fructose and most of the antioxidants are lost.

James and I do not have an expensive juicer.  We bought a Jack Lalanne for less than $90 at Cosco.  Some juicers can cost from $300 to $600 dollars.  I guess if you have a serious medical condition and your physician recommends juicing, this might be necessary.  Our juicer doesn’t do well juicing certain dark leafy greens that are necessary for a healthy diet.  We usually just blend those into our smoothies, but our juicer works well for romaine and vegetables with a higher water content.  I see no need for investing that much money in a machine when ours works fine for our needs.

Now, let’s talk about the ingredients and why I chose this combination for my “main-miracle-juice”.  There are all sorts of good juice combinations, and I recommend trying different recipes to include a variety of delicious vegetables in your diet.  Sometimes I create a beet concoction and sometimes I create a dark green leafy juice, but I always try to have a least three glasses of this recipe because it includes what James and I need for heart health.  Both of us have family histories of heart disease and before we started eating our current diet, we had high cholesterol and were on our way to having the same problems as our fathers.  We always include romaine.  We add carrots because together with romaine, they become super foods.  Then we add a little celery and cucumber, also great for heart health, lowering blood pressure and preventing cancer.  The fruit gives us an extra boost of vitamin C and helps with the taste.  We all can agree that an apple a day keeps the doctor away.

Let’s start with the benefits of romaine lettuce.  It’s the healthiest of all the lettuce varieties.  Romaine lettuce is 17% protein and almost 8 grams per head.  It contains all 9 essential amino acids.  Forget the milk, a head of romaine lettuce has 21% of the recommended daily allowance of calcium, without the high levels of oxalic acid that can cause kidney stones. When it’s blended with orange juice, as it is in this recipe, it has more calcium that a glass of milk. It’s rich in omega-3s, 44% of the recommended daily allowance. It’s a great source of iron, vitamin C, vitamin A, vitamin K, and it’s rich in B.

The benefits of carrots are all of the above, plus carrots are great disease fighters, from acne to cancer.  Then there’s the celery that’s great for lowering blood pressure, and combine this with cucumber to get the maximum benefits of blood pressure regulation. The orange juice and the lemon provide the extra vitamin C that will help prevent cholesterol from becoming sticky and sticking to the wall of blood vessels.  I could go on and on about the benefits of these ingredients and the extra benefits of combining them to create our little “miracle juice”, but I think I’ve given you enough information to persuade you to at least try it. You’ll be pleasantly surprised.

Resources for the nutritional information in this post was found on healwithfood.org and preventdisease.com.