For a few weeks now I have felt compelled to write this article, because I feel so strongly about this healthy way of living. It has taken me 10 years to incorporate “Juicing” into my overall health plan, and I’m very happy did it.

I know everyone has heard something about “Juicing” either from infomercials or in an article about health. You can say that this article is a piggy back article from two other articles I wrote for you recently: 1) Have you heard about the China Study and, 2) A Realty Check and the Next 60 years. Both of these articles are focused around the basic concept of health and longevity. I will assume that all of us have a desire to live a long, fulfilling, quality life and have good health along the way. In order to accomplish this task we need to seriously take a look at what we are doing on a daily basis.

You’ve heard this over and over again, that each one of us need four to five servings of vegetables and fruits each day to stay healthy. Question: Do most of you get four to five servings of vegetables and fruits each day? My guess would be probably not, and I must say as much as I think about it, I don’t either. I believe that all of us have good intentions but with busy schedules we simply don’t have the time or forget to.

I think that more & more we are hearing of people younger & younger suffering from diseases that used to occur in older people: heart problems, clogged arteries, high cholesterol and many different types of cancer. It’s not only my strong belief…many studies correlate these diseases to a lifestyle of not eating the right things, little exercise and simply not taking care of ourselves. It is usually only after those types of diagnoses that people decide to start taking care of themselves. That’s why I am on a crusade to at least educate my friends and family members to act now to prevent much of this happening to you.

One night while I was watching TV in College Station, Texas, I saw Jack LaLanne promoting his “Super Juicer”. I immediately called to order it, because it occurred to me that this would be a great way to get the recommended amounts of fruits & Veggies I needed with little time. A few problems my wife & I discovered; the amount of time it took to cut up the veggies and fruits to fit in the juicer, the “spitting” of the juice as it came out and the disassembling of the juicer to clean and reassemble. Because of the lengthy process we had to go through each time we juiced, we slowly stopped juicing. So my famous Jack La Lanne’s juicing machine sits in the cupboard doing nothing.

Another year passed until Kathy came home one day and told me she saw this fantastic juicing machine, called the Vita-Mix at Costco. This juicing machine is amazing as it not only juices veggies & fruits but also pulverizes nuts & grains, and has a recipe book for soups, sauces & mixes that don’t require the cooking of your veggies. The preparation & clean up with the Vita-Mix takes little time & is ever so simple! The difference between the Vita-Mix & a Juicer is that the Vita-Mix uses the whole vegetable & fruit (skin & seeds), whereas the Juicer discards that. Many of the significant nutriments are actually in the skin, and now we are getting everything. Kathy has come up with delicious concoctions that contain berries, melon, bananas, peaches, grapefruit juice, cabbage & spinach. Amazing, but true, it tastes fabulous! It is comforting to know that we are now both are getting the required amount of veggies and fruits we need to be healthy. Check it out; I think you will be happy you did! (…And healthy!)