With Spring comes lovely weather and more fresh fruits and vegetables. At this time of year, I love to visit my local farmers market to get fruits and vegetables straight from the farm. Buying from a local farmers market is a great way to talk to the farmer who grew your food. You also know that it comes from the farm, so it is fresh and ripens on time, and there is no long-distance shipping. If there is not one near you, try to buy fruits and vegetables that are in season.
There are many fabulous fruits in season right now. Here are a couple of my favorites:
Strawberries-These beauties help improve eye care, proper brain function, relief from high blood pressure, arthritis, and cardiovascular disease. They also help improve the immune system and help prevent types of cancers.
Lemons-The health benefits of lemon include treatment of indigestion, constipation, dental problems, throat infections, fever, internal bleeding, rheumatism, burns, obesity, respiratory disorders, cholera, and high blood pressure, while also benefiting your hair and skin. Known for its therapeutic property since generations, lemon helps strengthen your immune system, cleanse your stomach, and is considered a blood purifier. (Organicfacts.net)
Limes- The health benefits of lime include weight loss, improved digestion, reduced respiratory and urinary disorders, relief from constipation, and, gout. It also aids in skin care and eye care. (Organicfacts.net)
Pineapple- This delicious fruit is rich in vitamins, enzymes, and antioxidants. They may help boost the immune system, build strong bones and aid in digestion. It also helps immensely with coughs and colds. It is said, that pineapples have more vitamin C than oranges. When I am sick or start to feel sick, I like to juice a pineapple to get a quick fix of Vitamin C.
Oranges- These are of course loaded with Vitamin C, but also do so much more. Eating oranges can help prevent strokes, helps reduce blood pressure, helps prevent cancer, supports heart health, and helps with skin damage caused by the sun. Make sure when you peel your orange, leave as much as the white pith as possible. This is where the important nutrients are.
Here are some of my favorite vegetables to juice during this season:
Beets- My favorite thing about juicing beets is, you can use the whole thing, beet, and stalk. Juicing beets should be done only a couple times a week due to them being high in sugar. Yes, you read that correctly, beets have the highest sugar content of all vegetables. Beets are also known to help lower blood pressure. Beets have nitrates in them which help give people stamina for working out. They have a number of anti-inflammatory effects as well.
Carrots- Carrots are great for juicing, snacking and putting them with just about any meal. Their leaves are edible as well so they too can be juiced. Eating carrots on a regular basis helps to lower your cholesterol as well as lowers blood pressure. Carrots are rich in Vitamin C, so this is another great juicing food that can help boost immunity. Eating carrots will help with your fiber intake, which will help with digestion. This is why carrots help prevent colon cancer. We’ve always been told to eat your carrots to help your eyesight. This is true. Carrots are loaded with Vitamin A, which help improve eyesight and helps with night blindness. I was just talking this last weekend about wearing sunglasses while I drive at night. I will eat more carrots instead. Carotenoids are found in carrots which help regulate your blood sugar.
Spinach- Spinach is a rich source of beta-carotene, lutein, and xanthene, all of which means this is another good vegetable for improving eyesight. Spinach also helps to maintain blood pressure with its high content of potassium and low sodium. Factor C0-Q10, which is an antioxidant present in spinach, plays an important role in strengthening muscles, especially heart muscles which continuously pump blood to all parts of the body. (You know Pop-Eye!)
Kale- Kale is awesome because it is available year round. Its stays hardy in cold weather and is able to survive in hot weather. Kale is filled with anticancer benefits with its sulfur-containing compounds. It also helps prevent plaque develop inside our blood vessels. Yikes!
These are just a couple of my favorites. All juiced together, these fruits and vegetables have such an amazing taste. The health benefits that they all bring to you is incredible.
If you are just trying out juicing, start out with baby steps. Begin with more fruits than vegetables, then as you keep going, have more veggies than fruit. See some helpful juicing hints in my other juicing post:
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