Juicer or Blender? You Decide

Author: Robert

Well two great tools for today's healthy kitchen, let's start by telling you what each machine does. A blender is a standard piece of kitchen mixing equipment, for the raw foodist this is what you use to make delicious meal-in-a-glass smoothies!

A blender is simply a mixing jug with a rotary blade at the bottom; whatever you put in the top gets liquidized and turned into a drink! So for example you may throw in a banana, some soy milk, some strawberries and a few ice cubes and you'll have a delicious and easy to digest fruit smoothie, no waste, and no fuss and just swill out the blender jug when you are done. Simple!

The beauty of smoothie making is that there is no waste product, everything is used up in the drink, your ingredients are liquidized and made very easy to digest, just think of those lazy summer days with a tall banana smoothie in your hand and the sun's rays on your face perfect!!

Blenders also make short work of adding super foods and other drink enhancers to your smoothie; you could whip in barley grass powder, protein powder, ginseng, or any other healthy liquid or powdered supplement!
Buy a decent blender and you can make super easy to digest nutritious smoothies every day!
Ingredients suitable for blending:

1) Banana, Mango, Strawberry, Raspberry soft pulpy fruits!
2) Juice from your juicer
3) Nuts
4) Seeds
5) Kiwi fruit (peeled), Berries, Star fruit, passion fruit, avocado, grapes,
6) Orange and other citrus (peeled of course)
7) Super food
8) Greens complexes, powdered barley grass etc.
9) Protein powder! Go beefcake!
10) Seed oil, essential fats etc
11) Ice, ice baby, lets face it you want your smoothie cool, after all anything less than the best is a felony!
12) Leafy greens I often make a point of chucking in a handful of spinach

Now your juicer is like a key!! It's a key for taking all of Mother Natures natural fare and unlocking the raw liquid goodness from within!! Grab a carrot! Now look at that carrot and imagine inside it is charged with all the stuff you need, vitamins, minerals, enzymes and live nutrients for life!!!

Now your juicer allows you to take a handful of natures finest foods and separate the rough, tough, and hard to break down body of the fruit or veg from the pure liquid gold nutrient content within! If you were to take that carrot now and run it through a juicer now you would have two things, one, a small mound of bland dry pulp, and two, a glass of nutritional LIQUID GOLD!!! This is what the juicer does! It unlocks the natural raw power of fruits and veggies and gives them to you in a way that your body can fully and easily absorb!

Your juicer can give you a lifetime of service providing you with the best dietary supplement of all natural living juice!

Now there are obviously different types of juicer with differing capabilities so this gives you a good idea of which type of machine does what! Look out for more articles covering health topics in more detail.

About the Author:

For more ideas on juicers and blenders have a look at our information archive.



Mark makes a lot of juicer

recipes and tries to be as healthy as he can be. Visit Juicer or Blender? You Decide.

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Growing Your Own Herbs

1 I do quite a bit of cooking, not only because home cooked meals are cheaper than eating out every day, but also for the health benefits and because in a lot of cases what I make simply tastes better.

It's only been in the past few months or so that I've started using fresh herbs in my cooking, and I have to say, it's made a real difference to the taste of my cooking, and all in a good way!

I've also become more generous in my use of spices and I started to wonder what exactly is the difference between herbs and spices? Generally speaking, herbs are the leaves of low growing plants such as rosemary, thyme or basil. Spices come from the roots, bark, fruit or berries of plants, such as cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg and pepper.

Now I've always had an issue with the way herbs are sold in supermarkets. Most recipes call for maybe a tablespoon at most, yet I was paying up to two dollars for a bunch of basil, more than half of which would end up in the composting pile. So I decided to grow my own.


There are a couple of different ways that you can go about this. You can use soil, or you can go hydroponic.

The soil based method is really pretty basic. You buy soil, pots and seeds. Put the soil in the pots, plant the seeds, place in a warm sunny spot, keep moist and in about eight to ten weeks you should be harvesting your own home grown fresh herbs.

It can be a bit time intensive because you need to ensure that your herb plants get enough water and nutrients, so if you're not home all that much, this might not be the way to go. You also need sufficient light, so a south facing window is best.

I have two indoor cats who simply will not stay out of planters, no matter how much I chastise them, so growing herbs in pots was simply not an option for me.

An alternative is hydroponics, or a variation thereof. When I first started researching this, I was overwhelmed with the amount of material I found, and quite frankly, the expense in purchasing all the stuff I'd need simply wasn't worth it.

Fortunately, there are household units available through a variety of retailers and online stores that are specifically created so you can grow your own herbs, salad greens, and even tomatoes and peppers at home.

Most units come in a variety of sizes, so buy one that makes sense for you and your family. I've found mine super easy to use and it's been great fun watching my herbs sprout to harvesting size in just four weeks.

The only downside is that most of the units use proprietary materials, so that you have to buy seed kits from them again and again and that cost can add up.

The advantages are that most include a light source, so you can place them anywhere in your house that has a electrical outlet handy, and the nutrients come prepackaged so you don't have to worry about getting the concentrations right.

I've even joined an online forum specifically catering to people who use these gadgets, and I have to tell you, they're addictive!


What are you waiting for? Get growing!

Fight The Flu With Superfoods

Breakouts of the flu are responsible for millions of lost hours at both work and home each year, not to mention many miserable days trying to recover. If you're wondering what you can do to naturally boost your immunity and prepare your body's defenses, study the foods you're eating, look at your family's meals, and make the changes needed to ensure everyone is eating a well-balanced diet abundant in nutrient-dense fruits and vegetables, low-fat proteins, and complex carbohydrates.
Black currants are even richer in vitamin C than oranges, containing approximately three times the recommended daily intake for adults. It's imperative that you get plenty of vitamin C since it helps prevent infections and helps keep the immune system healthy.

Pork has high levels of zinc and selenium, both of which help keep your immune system strong. It's also one of the best sources of B vitamins and contains only a little more total fat than beef. So be sure to include lots of pork entrees in your menu planning.

Mix up your morning breakfast with a glass of grapefruit juice instead of orange juice for a vitamin C-rich drink that's both sweet and tart. However, you should check with your doctor if you're on certain medications for blood pressure, AIDS, anxiety, or hay fever, as mixing grapefruit juice with certain drugs can lead to dangerous toxicity.


Brussel sprouts are a great vegetable source of vitamin C, are high in fiber and contain lots of folate as well. They improve anticarcinogenic glucosinolates, which have important cancer-fighting properties. They're a great addition in a stew to provide lots of fl-busting nutrients.


Yogurt that includes live cultures has a positive effect on your GI tract, and as a result, helps the body purge the germs from the body more quickly and effectively and fight the flu. You want your yogurt to contain the active culture L. acidophilus, which is also helpful in fighting off yeast infections.


Potatoes are one of the most affordable sources of vitamin C, and nicely complement any entrée with their high levels of potassium and fiber. The skin contains the most fiber and the flesh just under the skin contains the most vitamin C. Fresh potatoes are the best source of vitamin C. Be careful of how you choose to prepare them, as soaking them in water robs them of their germ-busting vitamin C.


Whole wheat pasta is also rich in niacin, fiber, and iron. Its complex carbohydrates are an essential part of a healthy diet that will keep your immune system strong. Simply substitute recipes calling for traditional pasta with the whole wheat variety instead for a delicious and nutritious twist on your favorite pasta dishes.

Bulgar Wheat

Making the Change to Organic & Gluten Free

Historically, organic farms have been relatively small family-run farms[1] – which is why organic food was once only available in small stores or farmers' markets. Now, organic foods are becoming much more widely available – organic food sales within the United States have enjoyed 17 to 20 percent growth for the past few years[2] while sales of conventional food have grown at only about 2 to 3 percent a year. Organic baby food is popular too, sales of which increased 21.6 percent in 2006, while baby food overall has only grown 3.1 percent in the same year.[3] This large growth is predicted to continue, and many companies are jumping into the market.


Fresh Organic Foods
Fresh, "unprocessed" organic food, such as vegetables and fruits are purchased directly from growers, at farmers' markets, from on-farm stands, supermarkets, through speciality food stores, and through community-supported agriculture (CSA) projects. Unprocessed animal products like organic meat, eggs, dairy, are less commonly available in "fresh" form.

In Australia[7] and elsewhere[citation needed], organic eggs must be from free-range hens, rather than from battery chickens. Animals for the organic market may not be fed growth hormones or drugs such as steroids or antibiotics.

Identifying organic food
At first, organic food comprised mainly fresh vegetables. Early consumers interested in organic food would look for chemical-free, fresh or minimally processed food. They mostly had to buy directly from growers: "Know your farmer, know your food" was the motto. Personal definitions of what constituted "organic" were developed through firsthand experience: by talking to farmers, seeing farm conditions, and farming activities. Small farms grew vegetables (and raised livestock) using organic farming practices, with or without certification, and the individual consumer monitored.


Consumer demand for organic foods continues to increase, and high volume sales through mass outlets, like supermarkets, is rapidly replacing the direct farmer connection. For supermarket consumers, food production is not easily observable, and product labelling, like "certified organic", is relied on. Government regulations and third-party inspectors are looked to for assurance.


A "certified organic" label is usually the only way for consumers to know that a processed product is "organic".