Juices that help heal inflammation

Which are the healing juices that help to beat inflammation, and what do they heal? If you are not able to eat as many vegetables as you should, try the healing touch of vegetable juicing, but leave some of the pulp in the juice for fiber. You need fiber, sometimes up to 35 grams of fiber a day, according to The Fiber 35 Diet.

Also watch the approximately 42 minute-in-length Google video, the 2008 Global Juice Feast. It's about juice feasting, not juice fasting.

I heard mentioned on the video a gallon juice feast...but think how this high amount of juice will impact your kidneys, pancreas, and other organs. Be careful, but watch the video. Make up your own mind based on how you react to trying small amounts of juice first. Your kidneys may not be able to handle all that potassium in the juice or other ingredients.

Folkloric traditions of the northwest Caucasus and many other places have a penchant for healing juices, in medieval times made by pounding and grating of vegetables and fruits, sometimes mixed. And so these healing tools suggest apple and cherry for arthritis. It has been said that eating 45 cherries helps arthritis.

To clear the skin, you juice parsley and spinach. To lower blood pressure, four celery stalks juiced with a handful of clean raw spinach and a pinch of barley greens, or mixed berries and banana. For stomach upset, pear, and, from the Silk Road trade route, ginger and watermelon with some pear.

Don’t drink lots of fruit or vegetable juices at one time because it will overload your kidneys, pancreas, liver, and all of your organs of digestion. Sip it slowly in small amounts. Here are some juices made easier to make in modern times because you can use a blender or juicing machine.

Juice spinach and carrots with apples and parsley. It may help or boost your body’s ability to clear your complexion. Juice celery, parsley, and spinach to maintain your blood pressure or help get rid of too much salt if you have salt-sensitivity or other genetic variations in your kidneys.

Apples and pitted plums juiced with cherries and lemon or lime juice help ease your arthritis. When you juice fruits or vegetables, use one handful of vegetables or fruits in equal amounts. In a blender, mix with some water or cherry juice. You can add almonds if you want a milky-looking smoothie or shake.

For hypertension as well as for colds and bronchitis, juice four carrots with four stalks of celery, a handful of parsley, a little watercress or romaine lettuce, a clove of garlic, and a cup of low-sodium tomato juice. Or juice your own tomatoes separately and add a cup of juice to the vegetable mix. Put the plants in your blender and liquefy. You could put the same ingredients in a food processor and dice to put into a broth or soup.

For bladder issues, juice strawberries and raspberries with cranberry juice adding a cup of watermelon. Add a hand full of raw almonds or raw, shelled sunflower seeds. Blend in blender. If you need more sweetness, add a cup of pomegranate juice. To help a stuffy nose, juice a handful of broccoli tops with two carrots, two stalks of celery, a red or green bell pepper, a clove of garlic with the skin removed, and blend with a cup of low sodium tomato juice or juice your own tomatoes.

For some prostate problems, put two mashed, peeled, seeded avocadoes in a blender and blend with barley greens or barley green powder, a handful of spinach, a quarter cup of sunflower seeds, two stalks of celery, a clove of garlic, and a small slice of ginger. Blend with a cup of low sodium tomato juice (for the lycopene power). It’s the plant sterols in avocados that help some prostate problems. You want to juice vegetables that contain enough zinc, boron, selenium, and lycopene.

In the northwest Caucasus Mountains, wise food traditions existed for centuries since ginger has been available via the Silk Road that connects the Caucasus with Eastern Europe to the north and the Middle East and Asia to the south. A traditional juice for vitality has been a mixture of apples, pears, lemon juice and ginger.

In the days before blenders and juicers, the apples and pears were pounded with ginger and lemons from Asia. The juicy pulp mixture was eaten with a spoon, served on a bed of chewy steamed and sprouted whole grains, legumes, sunflower seeds, and almonds. Walnuts served with protein-dominant meals have been a favorite in Alania and around the rest of the northwest Caucasus.

One of the many non-alcoholic drinks included cherry juice for children mixed with fermented raw milk products, like kefir. Interestingly, the older folk drank what we know today to be most of the anti-inflammatory juices, pulps, and toppings.

In modern days, cranberries, native to North America, are juiced with strawberries, carrots, apples, a pinch of cinammon, and/or cloves, and a small slice of ginger. Spices such as a pinch of cumin often are added to the juices. Instead of sugar, washed, unpeeled apples and pitted prunes or raisins are put in to sweeten the juice for individual tastes. But be aware that a teaspoon of raisins adds 400 calories. Stick with the apples instead. My favorite juice is green apple and celery blended in my Vita-Mix.

For more info: refer for many healing juices recipes to Healing Juices, by L.A. Justice. Globe Communications, 1999. Or for escape, and not juicing, read my adventure, time-travel novel with high-school-age family adventure-type characters set in the 10th-century NW Caucaus Mountains, titled: Adventures in my Beloved, Medieval Alania and Beyond. For juicing, search titles of more than 300 books as well as DVDs at the Raw Food World's site. Photo credits for the green juice in a glass is Flickr.com.

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