The Benefits of Juicing for Health for Seniors

Juicing for health is a terrific way to get all of your nutritional needs from your diet. Fresh fruit and vegetable juices give you a concentrated super-boost of antioxidants, enzymes and nutrients. These benefit your immune systems, aid digestion and help remove toxins from your body. Many of us, seniors especially, don’t get anywhere near the recommended intake of 5-9 servings of fresh produce a day. Which is exactly why juicing for health is especially important for the senior population.

Environment and Nutritional Intake

The nutrient levels in the foods that we eat are lower than they used to be. And here’s why:

• Much of today’s soil that is over-farmed.
• There is a long time gap between when produce is harvested and when it gets to your table.
• The environment is increasingly polluted.
• Many of us are living with extremely high stress levels.
• And to top it all…we often don’t make wide food choices. Remember when you chose fries over a baked potato?

Why Seniors Should Juice for Health

Here are four reasons why seniors can benefit from juicing:

• As you get older and become less physically active, you start to eat less. That means it’s vital to make sure that what you are eating is beneficial.
• Many seniors eat less because it’s hard to get around with conditions like arthritis. It’s physically challenging to buy and prepare the foods that you are used to.
• As you get older, you can no longer tolerate the types of food you used to eat.
• You might have a hard time chewing, especially if you have dentures.

The Benefits of Juicing for Health

Juicing is a fun way to add to your diet fruits and vegetables that you normally wouldn’t eat. Fresh juices can give you a vitalizing lift. Preparing them can as easy as pressing a button. You can cold-press juice from fruits and vegetables to get a combo that contains most of the vitamins, minerals and plant chemicals (phytonutrients) found in the whole fruit. For those in the know — cold pressing is favored over blending because the heat generated from the fast-spinning blades of a blender could destroy the enzymes and nutrients of the fruits and veggies.

But don’t think that all juices are created equal. A carton of fruit juice purchased at your local grocery just doesn’t cut the rank. “A liter of concentrated, pasteurized juice that has been depleted of nutrients and enzymes is almost comparable to drinking sugared water. In contrast, freshly pressed juice containing raw, cold, pressed vegetables and low sugar fruits (think: kale, celery, spinach, pear, lemon, and ginger) provide a host of antioxidants,” says health coach Netanel, aka Nati, Shalom at the Organic Circle in Brooklyn.