Why we should all be plant-based vampires…

Is the medicine of the UK green juice?

I wanted to sit down and have a conversation with you about green juice because I love it and want you to love it to. Now, I hear you ask…why do you love green juice, Salena?

Well, for a start, each glass is brimming with nutrients that are instantly available and easy to digest. You can get in loads of greens and spice them up with some apple, ginger and lemon and not even know they are there! And most of all, if you are in a rush, you can quickly make a juice and have your meal in a glass. It makes me feel radiant, energised and happy.

I often get asked how a plant-based diet can be sustainable and allow you to get all the nutrients you need. Well, the good news is that the ingredients are readily available in local shops and supermarkets (organic wherever possible) and if you have an allotment or the tiniest of gardens (even a window box!), green juice can be grown and consumed all year around – even here in Wales, in the UK, which is not known for its blazing sunshine. Because my partner and I live and work on our own land, we can still collect fresh kale and greens from the garden during the winter and use our stored apples to add a touch of sweetness and bring balance to the taste.

Let’s take a closer look at why this green stuff is so good for us. Personally, I think of it as a glass of plant blood, because that is what it is. So, why should everyone be a plant vampire? It’s simple…chlorophyll. Chlorophyll is your new best friend. Inside of us we have internal rivers, known as our circulatory system, that keep us flowing. In simple terms, our blood. Now, chlorophyll is almost identical to human blood apart from the centre atom. While our blood has iron at the centre, chlorophyll has magnesium. This is another reason why green juice is so great for us, as it is brimming with magnesium which is great for our circulatory system, it helps us relax…goodbye headaches, tension, anxiety, aches and pains…

Back to chlorophyll. This bad boy is the gummy bear juice of the twenty-first century. It has the ability to help regenerate our cells, protect our cells, pull heavy metals out of our body and help with bad breath. It’s anti-inflammatory and full of antioxidants…who doesn’t want all of that!

It’s the chlorophyll that gives greens their green. So it’s simple to add more zing to your life – just drink greens, eat greens and use green superfoods. My favourite way to get greens inside me is in a juice, as this enables me to get loads (and I mean LOADS) of greens inside of me, quickly and easily.

My favourite juicer is my Hurom juicer. It’s a big investment, but I use it constantly so has been worth every penny. But you can use any juicer for these recipes. If you haven’t got a juicer, you can also use a high-speed blender (such as a Nutri Ninja) and then sieve out the fibre. The reason you sieve out the fibre is to make it easy on the digestive system and deliver the goodies inside the juice as easy and quick as possible.

To make the juices below, simply place all the ingredients in your juicer, greens first, then ginger or lemon if the recipe calls for it. Add the apple or pear last to give the juicer a good wash out to make sure you leave no greens behind!

A few of my favourite green juice recipes:

Cool and Citrusy

• Handful of spinach
• Handful of kale
• 1 apple
• 1 cucumber
• ¼ lemon
• small chunk of ginger

Kaletastic

• 2 handfuls of kale
• 1 apple
• small chunk of ginger

De-Stressant

• Handful of seasonal greens
• 1 pear
• 1 teaspoon of moringa powder stirred in

So now I invite you to try adding a green juice into your life. How does it make you feel? If you would like to share your experiences, please let me know in the comments below.

Remember, if this post tickles your taste-buds please like and share and I’ll see you next week

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