Food as Medicine: Juicing

Jack LaLanne swears by juicing so much that he's got his own juicer on the market. There's also Jay Kordich aka the Juiceman, who has spent his lifetime promoting juicing of raw fruits and vegetables as a health necessity.

Of course, there are skeptics. They argue things like you get too much sugar, too rapidly, from juicing. They argue that there's a reason to chew, it's healthy to do so. Things like that.

However, juicing proponents are not arguing that juicing should substitute for eating foods (as opposed to drinking them). They are encouraging juicing as an addition to the diet, usually to increase intake of foods otherwise avoided or eaten rarely, or to combat specific maladies. Juicing gets more fruits and vegetables into the daily diet, as well as optimizing certain nutrients that fight against certain maladies (e.g., cabbage helps heal ulcers in part due to its high percentage of vitamin U).

At HPS Health, there are lists of recipes for juices (combinations of raw fruits and vegetables with some fresh herbs) to address specific ailments such as headache, anemia, fatigue, and gastric ulcers. Other recipe sites include ones promoting delicious taste (this one has a V8 recipe) and those that have, well, interesting combos.

And, for the skeptics, there's a site that gives recipes as well as advice on choosing a juicer. The site? The Stanford Cancer Center, part of the Stanford University Medical System.

According to Stanford, "The best selection of juices comes in nature’s own containers: fresh fruits & vegetables. Fresh juice is loaded with cancer-fighting phytochemicals and vitamins, in a state easily absorbed by the body."

Choosing a juicer is the next step. Short answer: get the highest powered motor you can afford, and make sure the components are easy to clean. Juicing is a messy job.

Shown: Jack LaLanne at age 84.

Going Organic - Step One

Eating organic may be more expensive to your pocketbook, but it's scary how much your family's health may be paying for eating all those pesticides, especially the kiddos under 12. It's also overwhelming to think about how to alter menues, recipes, and the family budget to accommodate a change-over to organic foods.

Well, here's a first step. According to the Environmental Working Group, pesticide exposure can be lowered by almost 90% if you cut out the Top Twelve (see below) and substitute the Bottom Twelve instead.

So, if you can't shop organic just yet, at least change the grocery list.

Eating the Top Twelve exposes your family to an average of 15 pesticides per day. Switch to the Bottom Twelve, and that number goes down to less than 2 pesticides each day.

That's before consideration even begins on antibiotic and growth hormones fed to animals, and found in the beef, chicken, pork, and fish that's for sale at the market. All that stuff is another topic, for another post on a different day.

For more info, check out EWG's pesticide discussion, a New York Times article on pesticides, and this helpful list giving vitamin info. For those who argue against organics, check out this article as well as this one.

The Top Twelve - Don't Buy These Unless They're Organic

1 Peaches
2 Apples
3 Sweet Bell Peppers
4 Celery
5 Nectarines
6 Strawberries
7 Cherries
8 Pears
9 Grapes - Imported
10 Spinach
11 Lettuce
12 Potatoes

Bottom Twelve -- Buy These, Remember to Peel and Wash Well

1 Onions (Least Contaminated of the entire list)
2 Avocado
3 Sweet Corn - Frozen
4 Pinapples
5 Mango
6 Asparagus
7 Sweet Peas - Frozen
8 Kiwi
9 Bananas
10 Cabbage
11 Broccoli
12 Papaya

Online Calculator: Early Mortgage PIF

There's wisdom in the saying "in consistency is power," and if you're willing to add a couple of hundred bucks to your mortgage payment every month, you can pay off the house a lot faster than you think.

To figure out how much -- and how fast -- check out this online PIF calculator. Just $100/month can literally cut years off your payment schedule -- and save you $1000s in interest.