There are a few things that are worth remembering as you create delicious fruit juices at home. Juicy fruits contain tons of water so you don’t really need all that much to make a big drink. For one person, 2 big apples or 3-4 oranges is plenty. If you are going to be adding other ingredients then you won’t even need that much.

When you see the recipes below, you might not think they are all that original. To be honest, they aren’t but don’t confuse uniqueness with quality. Some of the best tasting juices are popular precisely because they taste so good.

Plain Orange Juice

I cannot talk about fruit juices without mentioning this one. Everyone knows it and if you don’t love freshly squeezed orange juice then what’s up with your taste buds? This is a great fruit juice!

• Orange (3)

It is best to juice oranges with either a citrus juicer or a masticating juicer. The former are the fastest. Although if you use a masticating juicer, you should be able to extract a bit more of the nutritional content from the oranges. This is because a large percentage of the vitamins and minerals are contained in the pith. This is the white part just underneath the peel. Just to be clear, you do not want want to juice the orange peel. It would make your juice taste bitter and may add some unwanted chemicals to your drink.

In the summer time, you might want to add some still or sparkling water and some ice to your freshly squeezed orange juice.

Plain Apple Juice

Apple juice is really sweet so try and ensure that you have some tart apples to use. Granny Smith apples are perfect. If you use tart and sweet apples, you can create your own blends. Just experiment until you find the taste that is right for you. Juice the whole apple except the stalk.

• apple (2-3)

Fruit Juice based Smoothies

Both oranges and apples make a good base for fruit juice smoothies. You would start off by juicing your fruits and then using a blender you can mix the fruit juice with some berries or a banana. Below are just a couple of examples.

Orange and Banana Smoothie

• orange (2-3)
• banana (1)

It depends just how big your banana is. First of all, juice 2 or 3 oranges. Then pour half of this juice into a blender. Add the banana, blend, then pour in the rest of the orange juice and stir. Doing it this way prevents the smoothie from becoming too frothy. Pour into a glass and enjoy.

Apple and Strawberry Smoothie

• apple (1)
• strawberry (6-8)

Use the same technique as the recipe above. Juice your apple. Then pour a little of this into your blender and add your strawberries. Mix and then pour in the remainder of your apple juice and stir.

Personally I do not pay too much attention to the sugar content of the fruit I eat. I consider fruits to be health foods and eating more of them, a good thing. But if you are concerned about juice recipes for weight loss then you may feel that drinking more vegetable juices is a good idea. As far as I’m concerned though, both fruit juices and vegetable juices are good for me.

Juicing in the Morning

Aiming to have a fresh fruit and vegetable drink soon after you get up in the morning is literally one of the best nutritional choices that you can make. In many respects, it does not really matter what juice recipe you choose to make. What is important is that you are making something. Regardless of the ingredients that you choose, you are giving your body a great vitamin and mineral boost.

Something that you might want to consider is drinking a glass of water as soon as you get up in the morning. Then have your juice with your breakfast. This will in effect give you a double dose of hydration early in the day. Drinking too much fluids at once can leave us feeling bloated. This is not what I’m suggesting. I have a small cup of water (150ml – 300ml) as soon as I wake up. Then about 30 minutes later, once I have washed and made breakfast, I drink a juice of between 300ml – 500ml. This helps to flush out my body after a good night’s sleep. See below for some specific juice recipes for skin.

Vitamins for Healthy Skin

Let’s face it, vitamins and minerals that we get from live foods are really good for our bodies. As far as our skin is concerned, vitamins A, C, E and B complex are all vital if we want to look our best. Getting enough of vitamins A, B and C through our foods is simple. Spinach and asparagus are both reasonable sources of vitamin E however, some people choose to take a supplement. I personally take a multi-vitamin once a day.

Just in case you are not too sure, carrots are often regarded as the best source of vitamin A and oranges are perfect for getting vitamin C. Vitamin B is found in a wide range of foods. Try adding some bananas to your juice recipes for vitamin B from fruit. They are also a rich source of potassium which has numerous health benefits.

Some of the juices that I drink regularly are some of the easiest ones to make and they’re full of the vitamins discussed above.

Plain Carrot Juice

• carrot (3)

With a centrifugal juicer, you can make this juice in no time. Just wash and top the carrots. Chop if need be and run through your juicer.

Fresh Orange Juice

• orange (3)

One of the simplest and best. Using citrus juicer is the fastest and simplest way to juice oranges. However, if you use a masticating juicer you may be able to extract more vitamins. This is because the pith (the white stuff between the skin and fruit) is in fact the area with the highest nutrient concentration.

Orange and Banana Smoothie

• orange (2-3)
• banana (1)

Depending upon the size of your banana, first of all, juice 2 or 3 oranges. Then pour half of this juice into a blender. Add the banana, blend, then pour in the rest of the orange juice and stir. Doing it this way prevents the smoothie from becoming too frothy. Pour into a glass and enjoy. This is a really good juice recipe for energy, especially good in the morning.

However, I’m not suggesting that the alkaline diet is bogus. Not at all. It is good to consume high alkaline foods. The reason for this is that without them, instead of the acidity of the foods that we eat being balanced by the alkaline foods that we have, our bodies have to use up alkaline deposits from within our bodies. I will introduce some alkaline juice recipes below. Did you know that in some cases, these come from our bones? You may have heard that if you put a tooth in a glass of soda, that it would dissolve. This is due to the acidity of the soft drink.

The USDA Nutrient Data Laboratory has all the data that you need to work out if a food that you eat is either acidic or alkaline. It comes down to a few different factors. The first thing that you have to realize is that the acidity of the foodstuff is not in fact the determinant of its effect on the human body. For example, carbonated soft drinks and freshly squeezed orange juice are both acidic. But it is the soft drink which is an acid drink and the orange juice is in fact alkalizing. The difference is to do with their chemical make up.

Carbonated soft drinks contain phosphoric acid, which gives them their tangy taste. This is also what makes them acidic. Not the acid per se but the phosphorus. Oranges on the other hand contain ascorbic acid but it is their potassium, magnesium and calcium content that gives them their alkaline properties. You can find out more about acid/alkaline values using a PRAL calculator.

The aim then is really to consume a decent amount of alkaline foods in our diet. Realistically this means that if we can consume at least 10 servings of fruit and vegetables, in solid or liquid form, each day, we are doing fairly well. As you know, juicing removes the fiber but we still get almost all of the vitamins and minerals that the produce contains. It is becoming more popular to “juice” with a Vitamix blender since these appliances are so powerful that they simply liquefy everything. Since we are consuming everything, no nutrition is lost. The other good thing is that the fiber provides bulk so we can juice less produce for the same amount of juice.

The most alkalizing vegetables are greens such as spinach and kale. So a “green juice” is an excellent option. These drinks help to make us feel more energetic, our mental focus is improved and we have a sunnier disposition, simply because we give our body some quality nutrition. Remember, all fruit and vegetable juices are alkalizing. For that extra boost, simply try to add some greens. Here are some of my favorite alkaline juice recipes.

Spinach and Spice Juice

This tastes great and is super healthy. What is more, it is real easy to make.

• apple (1)
• spinach (handful)
• ginger (small chunk)

The apple provides the sweetness and liquid volume. Spinach has an earthy flavor and helps to neutralize the sweetness of the apple. What makes this drink though is the addition of some ginger. It gives is a great spicy kick. Even if you are just starting out juicing, you will have no trouble drinking this juice, even though it is full of alkaline greens.

Carrot, Spinach and Ginger

• carrot (3-5)
• spinach (handful)
• ginger (small chunk)

Once you have been juicing for a while, you might decide that apples are just a bit too sweet to have every day. If you ever start to feel this way then simply swap them out for carrots. These vegetables are surprisingly sweet themselves, nowhere near as sweet as apples though. However, when you get used to a juicing lifestyle, you are sure to fall in love with them.

As always, don’t think too hard about what produce to use for your juices. The most important point is to try your hardest to make at least one fruit and vegetable juice a day. Go for it!

It is important to realize that it is not just carbohydrates that we need for energy. The minerals contained in fruit and vegetables also have a big part to play. The juice recipes for energy below are some of my personal favorites.

Banana Fruit Smoothie

This first drink has lots of options. I’ll present a few of them and you can decide for yourself how you want to make your fruit smoothie.

Base:

• Apples (1-2 depending upon size)
• Oranges (2-3)

Pick a base for your smoothie, either apples or oranges. Then once you have used your juicer to extract the juice, it is time to get your blender ready for action.

Ingredients:

• Banana (1)
• Strawberries (a few)

The banana is the main event. It is packed with carbohydrates but is still a fairly low glycemic load food. It has abundant potassium which plays an important role in energy metabolism. Oranges also have a high potassium content so choosing to use them as your base turns this into a mega-potassium booster. If you want to add another flavor to your smoothie, strawberries area  great choice.

Vegetable Alkaline Boost

I wrote about the V4 juice on the page, Juice Recipes for Health. This is a good drink that provides a rich supply of Potassium, Magnesium, Manganese and Calcium. These minerals result in the alkaline effect of this juice. This promotes pH balance in our body. The better our pH balance, the more energetic we feel. This is something you will notice for yourself once you have been juicing constantly for  a few weeks. Not only do you feel more alive, you’ll have more get up and go along with a brighter disposition.

The alkaline boost comes primarily from greens, e.g. kale and spinach. Give this a go

• Carrot (2)
• Celery (1/2 stalk)
• Kale (5 leaves + stalks)

The thing I like most about drinking fresh fruit and vegetable juices is that they taste great (usually) and make me feel great (always). You can literally juice up any fruit and/or vegetable that you want. Once you have your own juicing machine, you become the master of your own juicing domain.

You will quickly learn that some fruits do not really lend themselves to being juiced successfully. Specifically, this includes bananas and berries. They contain so much fiber that it is almost wasteful to feed them into a juicer. But don’t worry, if you like bananas and strawberries, these can easily be incorporated into great tasting juice smoothies.

So let’s get started with a discussion of some of the best juice recipes.

Straight Up Orange Juice

I know, I know. Not exactly original, is it? That said, a juice doesn’t have to be original to be good. It just has to be…good. With so many different types of oranges on sale, you can enjoy a range of flavors. A citrus juicer or unit that comes with a citrus juicing attachment is the easiest way to juice oranges. In this case you just have to cut each orange in half. But with a centrifugal, masticating or twin gear juicer, it is harder since you have to chop all the outer skin off then put it through the juicer. If ever there was an arguement for getting a dedicated citrus juicer. This is it.

Alkaline Green Juice

Now this might not sound too appetizing but don’t worry. It is not all greens. Just adding some green vegetables to your juice really does give the nutritional content a boost. It is real easy to make up your own recipes. One that I often have is based around apples and spinach. The sweetness in the apples and earthy taste of the spinach go well together. For a bit more taste you can add any or all of the following: ginger, celery, parsley, cucumber or carrots. This list is not exhaustive so you can easily have fun for weeks adding and subtracting various ingredients until you find the taste that is right for you. Fruits and vegetables that are high in potassium, magnesium and calcium help us alkalize. This is good as it helps us to feel more energetic and better able to concentrate.

The two fresh juice recipes above should be enough to get you started. Below are links to some other types of drinks, including:

• juice recipes for weight loss
• juice recipes for detox
• juice recipes for health
• juice recipes for energy
• juice recipes for skin
• juice recipes for fasting
• juice recipes with kale
• alkaline juice recipes
• fruit juice recipes
• vegetable juice recipes
• fruit and vegetable juice recipes
• Juicer Reviews (external site)

By varying the drinks that you create and using a range of juice recipes for health, you give your body the most varied nutrient profile possible. You should aim to juice a wide variety of fruits and vegetables over the course of a week. As well as juice extracting,  you might want to try blending as well. The premium blending product on sale today is the Vitamix CIA Professional blender but you can get by with much cheaper brands. It really just depends how far along the juicing for health road you want to go. The attraction of using a blender is that we do not remove the fiber from the juice, it becomes a part of it. So “juices” made in a blender have a thicker, richer quality to them. As you will see below, there are some great recipes that employ both a juicer and a blender. The only down side to this is that it means you have more washing up to do.

V4 Juice

Everyone knows the popular V8 Juice that is sold in supermarkets. At home, I like to keep my juice recipes simple so that I can make them quickly. So instead of an eight vegetable juice, I find it easier to make V4. Can you guess how many vegetables I use?

• Tomato (1-3)
• Carrot (1-2)
• Celery (1/2 stalk)
• Spinach (1 handful)

I would recommend trying out your own ratios of tomatoes and carrots. Some days I go with a tomato base in which case I use 2 tomatoes and 1 carrot. Other days, I use 1 tomato and 2 carrots. It just depends upon my mood and what I have in the fridge!

For added flavor, you can squeeze in some lemon juice or run some lemon through your juicer. A dash of Worcestershire sauce is another tasty addition.

Orange and Banana Smoothie

This is a recipe that uses both a juicer and a blender. If you have a citrus juicer, this is the perfect time to get it out.

• Orange (2-3)
• Banana (1)

The first thing to do is juice your oranges, for a thicker smoothie, just use two oranges. Then add half the freshly squeezed orange juice and banana to your blender and blend until smooth. Finally stir in the remaining orange juice and serve. The reason that I don’t add all my orange juice to the blender is because it froths up too much. I think the final drink is better when you follow the recipe above.

Berry Juice

For me, this is a seasonal juice and great to have when the berries are in season. I use store bought cranberry juice in this recipe. You could use water or make your own apple juice. For me, water makes it too watery and apple juice makes it too sweet. Your experience may vary.

• Strawberries
• Raspberries
• Blueberries
• Blackberries
• Cranberry juice (Ocean Spray, etc.)

Depending on what is in season just add some berries and cranberry juice to your blender, blend and serve. You can substitute fresh ingredients for frozen berries. I did not include quantities of each berry as I want to encourage you to experiment.

Creating your own recipes is fun and there are no particular rules that we have to follow. If you come up with a great recipe, I’d love to hear about it!

A medically supervised treatment program for alcohol or drug addiction designed to purge the body of intoxicating or addictive substances and used as a first step in overcoming physiological or psychological addiction.

treatment designed to rid the body of poisonous substances, esp alcohol and drugs

As far as the dictionary is concerned, there is much more emphasis placed on drugs and alcohol than anything else. However, many health conscious people as well as armchair pundits advocate detox diets and detox juice recipes. But is this an evidenced based approach or is it simply jumping on the detox bandwagon? From my own research into the topic, there is much more fluff surrounding this topic than substance. It is my contention that juice recipes for detox are simply juice recipes for health. I believe the word detox has been hijacked by a combination of marketing, ignorance and follow the crowd mentality. So instead of being another advocate of this misty notion, I want to present a new way of thinking about detox juice recipes. My own ideas are closely aligned with a Voice of Young Science (VoYS) report titled Debunking Detox.

The report opens with the following claim:

The multi million pound detox industry sells products with little evidence to support their use. These products trade on claims about the body which are often wrong and can be dangerous.

Due to the lack of available scientific evidence to support claims of detox diets, I have always been sceptical of the marketing claims. The VoYS report goes a long way to debunking the myths surrounding detox. Below are my favorite quotes from this report. They give us a clearer understanding of the issues.

For maximum effectiveness after a period of indulgence, just follow three simple steps:

1. Have a glass of water to help you rehydrate.
2. Eat a balanced diet.
3. Get a good night’s sleep

Juicing can certainly be involved here. But are there specific detox recipes? Not really. If you have a hangover for instance, it would be wise to drink a mixed juice to get as wide a vitamin and mineral profile as possible. This will help you recover sooner rather than later. A large juice gives us more hydrating fluids too.

So rather than a juice recipe for detox, here is a juice recipe for a hangover.

Carrot, Orange and Ginger Juice

Carrots and oranges both contain a high water content so 2 or 3 carrots with 3 oranges and a chunk of ginger should be enough for about 500ml of juice. Beneficial for digestion, and full of vitamin A and C as well as providing potassium and magnesium. This is a great juice to start the day for good health, never mind “detox”.

Common claim made by the detox industry:

Toxins have built up in the body and need to be flushed/cleansed from it.

VoYS respond by saying:

Most chemicals do not accumulate in the body – they are removed by the liver and kidneys.

In some ways, I see detoxing as giving people false hope. If you live a Charlie Sheen lifestyle and “bang 7 gram rocks”, then you need a lot more than organic detox products and detox juice recipes. A complete change in lifestyle is required. Even if your excess is of a different order, for instance, a poor diet, going on a two or three day detox plan every month is not the right thing to do either. Again, it would be much more beneficial to your health to be drinking fruit and vegetable juices regularly, ideally every day, eating good food, exercising and getting sufficient sleep. Rather than seeing detox as the cure, perhaps it is better to just to live a healthy lifestyle.

Another choice quote (my emphasis):

Detox diets are often recommended after periods of excess. The best diet you can have at anytime is a normal, balanced diet.

Many people who believe in a detox diet and detox juices are not necessarily wrong. A lot of the so called detox foods are simply healthy foods. So it is no wonder that you can start to feel better when you go on a detox (diet). In many cases, it is simply an issue of terminology. Rather than thinking of detox, think of health. Instead of going on a detox diet, make changes to your eating habits, exercise and sleeping routine. This will make you feel healthier all the time. You will simply no longer have any need to detoxify your body because you’ll be in great condition!

The VoYS report concludes:

Detox products claim to help you counteract a busy lifestyle by removing ‘toxins’ that have built up in your body. The human body has evolved to get rid of unnecessary substances through your liver, kidneys, and colon. It isn’t possible to improve their function without medical assistance.

If you feel you need to detox, unless you are a drug addict or alcoholic, I suggest that what you really need is to get healthy. The first thing that you should do is to start eating more fruit and vegetables. Ideally you will have access to a juicer. Then you can create juices that will help to move you towards a healthier place. In some ways, if you are just beginning your juicing journey, getting healthy may feel a bit like detoxification.

Apple, Carrot and Ginger Juice

Try substituting oranges, from the recipe above, with apples. This makes the juice even sweeter. You may well find this too sweet once you have gotten used to drinking more vegetable juices. But as a juice to start off with, this is really good. The sweetness of the apples and carrots makes it easy to add some other vegetables to the mix which helps you to adjust your palette to the more earthy flavors.

I am interested to hear where you stand on the detox debate. Fact or fiction?

Our bodies run on sugar. Healthy sugars, which we get from fruits are not the enemy. Who ever got fat from eating an apple? I mean, if we go out and eat a Super Sized Big Mac meal we shouldn’t avoid eating a banana later in the day because we’d be eating too many calories. We need to get a grip of ourselves and realize that a lifetime of poor dietary choices is responsible for many of the health problems we see in the States today, for instance, type 2 diabetes, obesity and heart disease. We could cure ourselves, without drugs, if we just pay attention to what we’re putting into our mouths every day.

This is where juicing for health really can help. Fruits and vegetables are packed full of all kinds of vitamins and minerals. Not only that, fresh produce contains an abundance of phyto-nutrients and enzymes. Living plant foods are so much better for us than the dead processed junk we are used to. If you want to get healthy, you first need a decent juicing machine. Take your time, read through some reliable juicer reviews and then pick a machine that you feel comfortable with, then you’ll be much more likely to juice on a regular basis.

Rather than focussing too heavily on juice recpies for weight loss I think that it is a better idea to concern yourself with juice recipes for health. Indeed, any fruit and vegetable drink that you make yourself is going to be good for you.

That said, for those of you who are focussed on the weight loss side of things, here are a couple of serving suggestions that you might want to try.

Plain Carrot Juice

Pure simplicity. All you have to do is cut the tops off your carrots and then feed them into your juicer. Carrots are surprisingly sweet and make a great juice on their own. They also form a good base for all kinds of vegetable drinks. It is a good idea to add some carrots to your green drinks to sweeten them up a little. Carrot juice is good for our eyes and skin too. They are full of vitamin A and beta carotene. Drinking carrot juice regularly, gives our skin a healthy glow similar to a sun tan but better for us.

Grapefruit Juice

Another simple drink to make is straight up grapefruit juice. The grapefruit diet is recognized as being beneficial for weight loss. These citrus fruits are packed with vitamin C. This is a great drink to have in the morning. If you juice up 5 or 6 grapefruits, you’ll be so full from the juice that you won’t need to eat anything. This is the juicing double whammy! First of all, you get a ton of quality nutrition. On top of that, you’re not going to have any space left to cram in any junk calories.

Juice Fasting

This is an option that you might want to consider for weight loss or detoxing. It really is possible to lose tons of weight, the healthy way doing a juice fast. The thing is, you definitely want to consult your physician before embarking on this sort of health program. A really eye opening movie that has become quite famous recently is titled Fat, Sick and Nearly Dead. It follows the story of the film maker, Joe Cross as he completes a 60 Day juice fast. Then the movie gets even more interesting as truck driver Phil Staples embarks on a 60 Day juice fast and turns his whole life around. Check this out.

Joe Cross suggests that the best juicer is a Breville. But perhaps that is because both he and the Breville company are from Australia. By comparing centrifugal models with some masticating juicer reviews, you may well come to a different conclusion. All in all, it really just boils down to what sort of health drinks you’d like to make.