A Great Way to Get Your Fruits and Vegies!

by CathyK

Fruits and vegies are major health players when transitioning to a new eating plan. Whether you eat them raw, steamed, or blended in soups and salads, you benefit from their nutrients.

Two other great ways to get mega nutritional power are from juicing and blending them. Either of these can take just a bit getting use to – from both a flavor and habit standpoint. Both juicing and blending are a bit more time consuming, but the payoff is huge!

Many people start with blending before juicing, and typically with more fruits than green or other vegetables. As long as you don’t make a habit of using a lot of high glycemic fruits on a daily basis, this is fine. Typically people start with bananas for both their flavor and texture, but apples and pears are fast becoming favorites as replacements for them.

Breakfast is usually the first meal people experiment with to make this a daily habit. Get creative – add a bit of almond nut butter or powdered protein mix (depending on which phase of the HCG program you’re in) to your fruits. Then start adding a big handful of spinach or kale to the blend – it’s a great way to get those greens and not taste them!

For those who are more drawn to juicing, the key here is to use as many vegetables as possible and accent the more  bitter flavor with a fruit or two such as a handful of berries or an apple, or both.

No matter which method you choose, knowing that doing so will get you into healthier eating habits. You don’t need to invest in expensive equipment right off the start either. Many have started with lesser expensive juicers and blenders and do just fine. Some critics will argue that the lesser expensive equipment doesn’t extract enough nutrients, or the pulp is wasteful – but does this really matter for the short term? The goal is to get more fruits and vegies into your diet, and blending and juicing are the best way to do so. And one last thing – use organic produce as much as possible.