Embarking On A Juice Fast:
What Juices And How Much
Should You Drink
During A Juice Fast?
When you juice fast, you have to make a conscious effort to drink enough beverages throughout the day. How much is enough? For meal times (breakfast, lunch and dinner), it is very normal to drink about 17-27 oz (approx. 500ml to 800ml) each time in place of a solid food meal. If you can drink more, the better but don't force yourself. Drink only as much as your body can take at any one time. Listen to your body, it will even tell you when it's got enough, or if it doesn't want anymore. In between meals, continue to drink juices alternating with pure drinking water. It is fine if you keep going to the toilet (bathroom) as this allows your body to flush out the unwanted wastes from your body. Vary the types of juices you drink throughout the day so that you receive a wide range of nutrients your body needs. But tend to take more vegetable juices than fruit juices.
Water: Always drink pure drinking water at room temperature or warm. Never drink cold water when juice fasting, to avoid troubling your digestive system. It is important while juice fasting, to drink plenty of water on top of the juices. Distilled water is best, we don't need the chlorine from the tap water! However, do not overdo it. When your urine has turned very lightly yellow, you know you're on the right track. If it becomes clear then you know you can reduce the water a little.
Fruit juices: Avoid drinking fruit juices if you're juice fasting/feasting for the purpose of losing weight. Some green apples and lemons/limes are fine, to be included in your green juices for taste. Drink only fresh fruit juices. Avoid canned juices that are sold on the shelves -- those are loaded with harmful sugar, additives and preservatives. You want to drink as much moisture-rich fruits as possible for proper hydration of vitamins/minerals and phytonutrients. Some common fruits that you can use during a juice fast: green apples, cantaloupe, carrot, cranberries, grapefruit, grapes, guava, orange, pear, strawberries, watermelon and whatever else is available from your farm market or are in season. Even though citrus fruits tastes acidic, when consumed they do not make the stomach acidic. Remember to rinse your mouth after drinking juice to avoid teeth decay.
Vegetable/green juices: Fresh vegetable juices are the best foods for melting away fats and they are very healing/detoxifying for cleansing the blood/organs. No juice fast/feast is complete without drinking green juices. It may be difficult to extract green leafy vegetables if you're using a centrifugal juicer, but a gear juicer will give you a very high juice yield. If you don't have a gear juicer, choose what's suitable for your type of juicer: asparagus, beansprouts, beetroot, bittermelon, broccoli, celery, cucumber, garlic, ginger root, kale, onion, parsley, romaine lettuce, spinach, watercress, wheatgrass. Any vegetables that you can eat raw are good for making green juices. See more healing foods here.
 Vegetable broth: Boil a simple vegetable broth with any green vegetables. Watercress juice is bitter but it's suitable for making a broth for its many health benefits. Other vegetables that are suitable for making broth are amaranth leaves, broccoli, cabbage, celery, kale, bok choy, any squashes, and any other vegetable you fancy. When making vegetable broth, the minerals and phytonutrients from the vegetables do not get destroyed but will leach into the soup. That's what we want, discard the fiber when juice fasting. Do not put seasoning or oil when juice fasting so that you do not awaken the digestive system. Here's a nice vegetable broth that I like to make when juice fasting.
 Herbal teas: Store up on caffeine-free herbal teas to be sipped between "meals". Peppermint and chamomile teas are excellent in reducing the feeling of bloatedness. Oolong tea is good for those who want to lose weight. Rooibos and green tea are excellent sources of anti-oxidant.
Others: You can get creative and add other liquids to your juice fasting. Some examples are liquid chlorophyll, or mix spirulina/chlorella powder into your juice/water and drink. If available, you may also boil Chinese or Korean ginseng that helps filter toxins from your system. Not to be taken every day as these are highly potent. The reason that you should not add any pulp into your beverages is to prevent your digestive system working. This will keep your body burning the low-grade stored fat, so that you will not feel hungry. Any protein or fat or pulp taken when you're juice fasting will cause your digestion to restart, causing you to feel hunger pangs and a little discomfort. To top
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