The pH has it!

It's cold wet and dreary here in the Northeast today.  I'm not feeling all that great either.   I can't figure out if it's a healing crisis or a hormonal issue.  It's probably a combination of both.

Anyway, I was reading one of my juicing books earlier and it was talking about how our bodies, all of our organs down to the cellular level, function best when their internal pH is alkaline.  Check the research.

So what is an alkaline environment?  Well, if you ever took a science class you probably had to learn about acids and bases. Acids are obviously acidic and bases are alkaline. The scale for acids and bases is measured on the pH scale.

I won't get into the whole science behind it, but the human body functions best when around the neutral pH of 7-8.  When we eat a mostly plant based diet, our body becomes more alkaline which in turn gives our organs and cells the optimal environment to live in.  When we eat meat and diary, the opposite occurs.

As you can see from the chart (courtesy of kangensui.us), it's processed food, meat and dairy that will cause the body to be more acidic and prone to a variety of diseases like cancer and heart failure.

So that's what I got for ya today. Keep it fresh, keep it raw, keep it juicy!

Juices of the Day

Cucumber Squash

1 Cucumber

1 Yellow Squash

1 Small Apple

1 Lime

5 Bok Choi stalks

Handful of Chickory

Orange Radish

1 Orange

2 Small Apples

1 Dongchimi Radish

4 Carrots

1 2 inch piece of Ginger

Call Me Crazy

Go ahead and call me crazy, but there really is magic in fresh juice.

For the past few days here in New England, the weather has been getting warm and then cooling off.  Whenever this happens, my body reacts and I usually catch a cold or some other nasty virus. I get watery eyes, a stuffed up nose, a sore throat and all the other lovely things that come with contracting a virus.

Well, this time has been different. I started getting a  sore throat the other day. I knew what was going on so I decided to make up a hot lemon and drink that before bed. Within a few minutes of drinking the hot lemon (recipe to follow), my throat felt better.  Sounds crazy, but it's true. My sore throat has been coming and going so this morning I made a lemony-apple juice and drank that (recipe to follow)

Now it's noon and my sore throat is nearly gone.

I really love the healing power that fruits and veggies have and yes, you can call me crazy!

Hot Lemon

Fresh Juice from one lemon

1 to 1 1/2 tsp honey

8-12 ounces hot water

Mix together and consume.  This is great for  sore throats and colds.  The best part is that it's natural and does not contain nasty drugs or chemicals.

Lemony Apple

3 Granny Smith Apples

1 Lemon

1 inch piece of ginger

Run this through your juicer and drink.  This is a pretty tart juice so if you don't like tart, feel free to add or replace one or two of the apples with another variety.