The Hemp Connection:
carrot juice

I've been getting a lot of questions about juicing lately, so it's clearly a popular trend right now. I love the fact that juicing gets more vegetables into people who normally wouldn't get them. However, there are some important things to know about juicing if your intent is to use it for a healthier diet.

1. Juice contains calories! Ounce for ounce, juice and soda are similar calorie-wise. 8 ounces of either is about 120 calories. Some of the sweeter juices are even more calorically dense. Don't get caught up in the false assumption that because it's juice, it's lower in calories, or that unlimited quantities are permissible.

2. When you juice your vegetables, you remove the fiber. In researching this blog post, I learned that many juicer companies actually sell this point, claiming that without the fiber, the nutrients that are left are more easily absorbed. The fiber itself is an important nutrient! Especially if you're someone who has trouble regulating energy or blood glucose levels. If you're counting on your juice as your source of all of your vegetables, you could be cutting yourself short on fiber.

3. If carrots are what you're juicing, be aware that you can overdose on vitamin A. I've seen this actually happen, it's not just a myth. If the pads of your hands and feet start to get an orange-ish tinge, and you've recently fallen in love with juicing carrots, you might want to think about the connection. Be sure to vary your juice ingredients.

4. Spinach, another common vegetable to juice, eaten in high quantities, is high in oxalates. This compound can prevent the absorption of iron, calcium, and magnesium. It can also promote the development of kidney stones. Oxalates leach out of spinach when it is cooked, but if you're using the juicer for convenience, this extra step may not be useful. Other foods high in oxalates, in case you're using them in your juicer, include rhubarb, beets and sorrel.

5. Juice contains little to no protein. You may find that when you switch to a juice-heavy diet, your craving for sweets increases. What I recommend to people who ask about juicing, is to make a smaller amount of juice and blend it in with milk, yogurt, or protein powder. I actually like to use 1 cup of plain yogurt, a ripe banana, one other piece of a different fruit, plus a handful of veggies and some ground flaxseed. I always vary the fruit and the vegetable to be sure I don't overload on any one food. And I keep the fiber and protein in my breakfast.

If you make those simple adjustments, the possibilities and combinations are endless. Enjoy!

You know you're a little obsessed with omega-3's when the manager of your local TJ's recognizes you walking in the door and takes you to see a new product. That's ok, it's an obsession that seems to be helping others and it's fun to learn about new and fun ways to get back into nutritional balance!

This time, the product is Omega Orange Carrot Juice from Trader Joe's. It's actually a blend of several juices with the predominant flavor being carrot. One serving has 50 mg DHA. And, unbelievably, it comes from sardines!

I had to try it, so I brought some home. It was tasty! I asked a friend to try it, one whose tastes differ from mine, and it received a second thumbs up. We also tried it blended with 50% with orange juice and that was good as well. It looked kind of like a tequila sunrise as the two colors swirled around each other while we poured our drinks.

The manager who introduced me to this product told me he had a moment of panic when there was a shipping error and he had 100 cases of this juice on his hands. He was concerned people wouldn't want it. So he put his demo people to work concocting ways to serve it. He learned that no matter what they did, plain juice, or blended into a smoothie, it flew off the shelves. I am thinking for anyone doing any baking it would be a great thing to add to muffins or banana bread.

Of course, it's juice, which means it does have calories and carbohydrates, so you still have to watch the portions. But it's such a simple way to add more omega-3's to your diet, simply by switching out calories that were already there, with calories that add even more nutrition.

Give it a try, you might be surprised at how fishless this product actually tastes!