Vegetable this and vegetable that. Aren’t you getting bored of eating your vegetables or at least HEARING how many more you need to consume? For years, the threat of no dessert unless all that broccoli or those peas and carrots were cleared off your plate haunted you from ever wanting to stick your fork in one again. But what if we told you that you didn’t have to chew those veggies to reap the benefits?

Juicing for health, energy, revitalization has become one of the most popular trends, having even foodies taking a second look at what they’re putting into their mouths! And even the die-hard veggie haters should give this a try. Why??

The process of juicing can be traced back to the nineteenth century where it was done with chopped fruits and veggies squeezed through muslin. Today, juice enthusiasts buy juicers that resemble food processors and before you can say “cucumber” your chunky fruits and veggies are turned into an afternoon delight! And it’s way better than you can image! Chuck a little apple in, even with broccoli and SHAZAM, it’s actually good.

Those who opt to give their chompers a break and commit to a juice fast enter a 1-3 day cleanse where they can only slurp down various nutritious drinks that quickly remove toxins from their body, reverting it back to a state where a healthy eating plan can slowly reincorporate solid foods in again. The detox allows your digestive system, including your stomach, intestines, pancreas, gallbladder and liver, to rest so it can focus on recovery and healing. But instead of committing to a multi-day juice fast, many people are discovering the benefits of a liquid breakfast, lunch or mid-day snack for a healthy boost to their system.

• Benefits of Juicing: A few cups a day of these fruit and veggie concoctions can work wonders on your body, help increase your energy level, strengthen your immune system and don’t forget THE most important: flush your body of toxins! Build-up of toxins is where many feel degenerative disease starts. Drinking your side dish of vegetables allows you to extract the important nutrients and vitamins that your body needs and deliver them to your system in a concentrated dose and remove the gunk you don’t need or can’t fully digest.

• Long Term Benefits of Juicing: Proponents say that juicing can do more for your body than just help you shed some of those holiday pounds! Drinking juice regularly is going to give you a wide variety and more than adequate amounts of antioxidants that are essential for a healthy immune system. There are countless juices from fruits and vegetables, many of which when combined together (like a mad scientist) can and WILL create a custom prescription for your personal health and healing! Creating a concoction with veggies such as carrots, beetroot and cucumber can be great for relieving symptoms of problems such as indigestion, arthritis and even the common cold. The plant chemicals, called phytochemicals, have amazing and varied health benefits, most notably anti-cancer. Juicing is also linked to increased levels of energy. With a higher dose of vitamins and minerals being absorbed by your body through the liquid juice, it can help with the chemical reactions that happen in the body and jump starts health, vitality and providing a lot more energy! For those of us who do stick to eating our daily does of vegetables in a side salad thinking it’s enough, juicing allows blows the lone salad to smitherins! Allowing you to consume a wider variety of vegetables and fruits that you may not enjoy eating whole or so much of.

And for those concerned about health, juicing is so powerful in study after study, juicing has been proven to improve your cardiovascular system and the overall health of your heart. Fruits and vegetables are known to provide your body with antioxidants which help to protect arteries, lower blood pressure and lower cholesterol, better than some drugs! Juicing allows you to consume an abundance of these antioxidants in an easily digestible form literally drenching your body in what it needs to thrive and heal.

• Juice Vs. Juicing: If you think drinking a bottle of Mott’s Apple Juice or a V8 Splash will do the trick you’re dead wrong! (No pun intended) Commercial juices are loaded with sugar and chemicals in order to enhance the flavor, longevity and color of a very diluted juice that rarely has the proper nutritional value to water a plant. Juicing condenses the vitamins and minerals and like a power-shot shoots them into your body in the most absorbable form.

• Before Juicing: Before you put down the fork and pick up the glass, consult a professional or speak to a doctor because a long-term juice cleanse is not for everyone—especially the meat and potato types! But if you just want to make the healthiest, easiest change for your good health in 2012, replace a meal a day or add a glass of your own fruit/veggie concoction to your regular diet, and juice away! You’ll feel and see the benefits within a week, and that should be encouraging enough to set you on your way to a healthier new year.

Need some fun and creative ideas to get YOUR juices flowing? Here’s a few recipes to try to incorporate a variety of different fruits and vegetables into your diet. But just Google “juicing,” and stand back!

Simply Green Juice
1 cup of spinach
2 cups of kale
2 cups of parsley
1 cucumber
3 celery stalks
Add a little garlic and/or ginger if you like. Wash thoroughly and juice.

Apple and Cucumber Zipper
2 1/2 apples
1/2 cucumber
1 inch of ginger (great for anti-inflammatory relief and to settle stomach issues) Remove apple stems and juice everything together.

Liver Cleanse
2 apples 1/4 grapefruit (without peel)
1 small bunch of grapes
1/4 lemon (without peel)
1/2 beet
Wash thoroughly and juice.

Tropical Envy
1/2 beet
2 carrots
1 stalk celery
1/2 cucumber
1 inch ginger
1 handful parsley
2 rounds pineapple
Wash thoroughly and juice.

Juicing Superfoods:
Berries: cranberries, blueberries, blackberries, acai berries, goji berries.
Greens: chorella, spirulina, spinach, turnip, collards, beets, lettuce, broccoli, kale alfalfa, barley.
Sea Borne Veggies: Kelp, Wakame, kombu, dulce.
Honey: raw honey is sold in most organic stores) great equalizer that makes most disagreeable vegetables tasty.