Table of Contents
Introduction – How we Came to Juicing
Juicing – What It Is, What It’s Not, and Why That Matters
Book 1: Juicing To Lose Weight
Book 3: 21 Amazing Weight Loss Smoothie Recipes
How To Find The Best Juicer For The Home
Juicing with the Omega Juicer – Nourish and Detox Your Body for Vitality and Energy
By Annie Deeter
Introduction – How we Came to Juicing
Like many people, we thought we were pretty smart about food for a good while – but the truth was, we had lost track of what was really happening with our food. We didn’t know how it was produced; we knew a few things… But for the most part we were ignorant of the truth of the modern food industry. We were not suffering from any sort of critical illnesses, or grossly overweight, but we were also not bursting with energy and vitality.
We were your average couple, eating well, as far as we were concerned, but certainly not on any big health food kick, juice kick or other extreme food kick.
On my side of the equation, I’d grown up in a household where whole grains and whole foods were the norm. My mother eschewed all junk food including chips, cookies, or anything made by Hostess or any of the other name brands. We ate fruit as snack food and if we wanted cookies, we baked them. We did make a killer tollhouse chocolate chip cookie around our place – and everyone in the family could pull it off – so we were not without the experience of cookies; just not as a common daily event.
Instead, mom read Adele Davis and bought no junk food, period. Well, except for the very occasional box of Nabisco Ginger Snaps, which she indulged in for herself, and kept hidden up in a high cupboard, so we really didn’t even know she did this until we were old enough (and tall enough!) to discover them. She was always completely crazy for ginger.
My husband had a similar upbringing in Europe and was unaccustomed to American junk food, so we really thought we were ‘on top of it’ in the food department. Oh, we let the kids have frozen pizza now and again, and we kept frozen pot pies and burritos on hand for them when they were in high-school and college and working, as a fast bite to eat – but basically, we were clueless.
We had always been a family that sat down to dinner together and had plenty to talk about as we did so. I guess we figured that this was pretty good for a culture where so many were eating fast food, not even seeing each other at meal-times and hardly ever sitting down to eat together. And we certainly kept the kitchen stocked with plenty of fresh fruits and vegetables.
But things were changing in the world, and we were just beginning to get an inkling that all was not well in the world of food.
Then our youngest son spent a year in the Culinary Arts School at his college and began to re-invent our old whole foods approach, preferring nothing so much as a whole peeled cucumber for a snack.
Our world began to change. We began shopping at the local farmers markets again, and making a lot more fresh salads.
Around this same time, we came across the work of Dr. Max Gerson, and began to read about his amazing juicing and healing protocols. We were impressed by the stories of his healing such luminaries as Albert Schweitzer; and began reading about his work and the work of his daughter Charlotte Gerson. We discovered the Gerson Institute.
Another important event radically shifted our thinking shortly thereafter. Our culinary arts student son insisted we needed to watch a new film that had just come out called “Food, Inc.”; and we did.
From then on, our world began to change very rapidly in the world of food, and we have never looked back.
One of the best, most long standing and useful changes we have made to our food and eating regimen is the addition of regular juicing of fresh organic vegetables, herbs and fruits to our diet. In many ways, this one change has been more profound than any other.
First, there is absolutely no doubt that it has given us a whole new level of energy and well-being. Second, it has taught us that we have a solution when life gets hectic and high stress. Whenever we are pressed by deadlines or even just have a heavy physical schedule (moving house, for example) juicing can give us the stamina to get the job done. Not just get it done, but do so without exhausting ourselves. Juicing gives us the energy we need to stay cheerful and in control of the situation, avoiding overwhelm and the emotional strain that can occur when stress is high.
It is remarkable to think that we did without this incredible energy and health boosting opportunity for so long, actually. But no more!
No question we are enthusiastic when it comes to juicing. However, we note that many people seem to have a resistance to the idea. Perhaps it is seen as a ‘fad’ or some kind of ‘trick’ or simply ‘too good to be true’ and therefore not worth trying out.
It is our hope that anyone who encounters this book will at least give it a try. Adding juicing to your diet can provide you with increased energy and stamina right away, even if you don’t manage to juice every day.
In the years since our adventure with juicing began, our lives have changed dramatically. We no longer shop in the chain grocery stores. We buy local and organic. We fish, and we grow a big garden. We buy local fruits and grass fed pasture raised meats raised in our own community. We are, at this point, complete foodies, totally committed to our local food shed and the importance of local food security and sustainability. We’ve more or less revolutionized our eating and food buying and procuring ways.
Now this doesn’t mean everyone who drinks fresh home-made vegetable and fruit juices will follow in our foot-steps, and we are not suggesting that – we just look back sometimes and marvel at how much our lives and our eating habits have changed in those few short years since Brad went to culinary arts class!
We consider ourselves very fortunate. Were it not for our kids and their influence and our willingness to pay attention, we might be victims of the modern food industry, which seems set on poisoning us all. But not us. We are healthy, happy, full of energy and having a great time of life. For the most part, we don’t get sick, we don’t get depressed and we don’t have allergies or other ailments which seem to plague so many in our modern culture.
We know we are blessed and we are grateful. And in large part, we owe our biggest gratitude to Max Gerson and his daughter Charlotte, who, by their example and the Max Gerson Therapy, set us on our way to becoming avid juicers.
We are, by nature, investigators on many levels, a researcher and an engineer, we are the kind of people who love nothing more than a good detective story of the real kind. Excited by understanding how and why and what makes things work. We both get great satisfaction from discovering how to make things better. So perhaps it was only a matter of time and we would have ended up here anyway. But thanks to our