Today is not about digging in to the nutritional benefits of juicing; there are many people and places on the internet that can give you the scoop. I didn’t actually believe it all, and while there are definitely some trivial benefits of juicing, especially if replacing store bought juice, there were some cons in my books that made juicing an occasional treat, rather than something I do daily. Let me explain.

I was always well aware of the fact that I could juice vegetables, but aside from carrots and beets, fruit was always dominating my juice. The problems with fruit juice are that it seems super wasteful, has a ton of sugar, and it was expensive to make juice at home. So my philosophy was that eating whole fruit is better. Juicing was rare and our juicer got a little lonely. I experimented with different veggie juices, but they always turned out kind of gross. It also took too long, made too much of a mess, and always made me think that I should just have a salad.

As I continued to experiment with nasty veggie juices, I was slowly also starting to enjoy them a little bit. My palette was adjusting, and I was discovering combinations that actually worked! I started juicing stems from broccoli, cauliflower, and kale. Those gigantic bunches of parsley that I end up buying when I want just a little bit of parsley, those were being juiced too. Carrot greens that have no flavour and just wouldn’t taste good in food no matter what I tried? Yep, you got it – juice time! Wasteful? Not anymore – those things sometimes ended up in the garbage anyway if I was too lazy to make kale and parsley stem pesto. No longer wasteful, and no longer expensive! Veggies are so much cheaper than fruit in my part of the world. Being strategic and juicing seasonal and local produce helps a lot as well. Now what about the sugar? Obviously juicing greens and other veggies takes it down a few notches when it comes to the sugar content. I know that fruit has natural sugar and plenty of goodness to help justify the intake, but I still wasn’t comfortable drinking several fruit worth of juice within a couple of minutes. No matter how healthy juice is, it still has a lot of sugar, and it goes down fast! A little bit of fruit mixed in with all the veggies, however? Now we’re talking.

Juicing still takes a while, and it still makes a mess, but having learned to love veggie juice now makes it so much more worth it. I’m still all about eating whole fruit and veggies, I’m still all about having that salad, but lets be real…I don’t often have salad for breakfast but I’m totally loving morning juice.



A few notes about juicers: I use the Hurom Slow Juicer and like anything, it has advantages and limitations. Overall, I’m happy with it and it serves almost all of my juicing needs. Email me if you’re thinking about buying it and would like a more detailed review. The most important thing in making the most out of any juicer is getting to know its strengths and weaknesses. I need to follow some special steps to juice fibrous veggies and soft fruit. It took a little experimentation to figure them out, but now there’s less waste and a lot more juice.

What you see in the picture above is a collard green, parsley, carrot, pineapple, and lime juice. One little trick to make your veggie juice fruitier without too much sugar – lemon and lime – they go a long way! If you haven’t juiced veggies, start slow to let your palette adjust. Go easy on the cabbage, cruciferous greens, and radishes – they’re spicy! This combination is a pretty good start, and I’ll be sharing more adventurous juices later on. Happy juicing!