Juicing is a healthy practice that has allowed millions of people to boost their nutrition. Juicing fruits and vegetables provides you important antioxidants, which scavenge for oxygen free radicals that can damage cellular structures, including DNA. When DNA is damaged, it can result in mutations that lead to cancer.
Well-balanced nutrition from a variety of healthy whole foods helps support and maintain on going good health, and experts agree that nutrition plays a key role in preventing chronic and terminal illness.
Juicing is practiced by millions around the world and it is an easy and convenient way to get plant nutrition into the body to do its magic.
When juicing is done right, that is when the majority of your juice blends is comprised of vegetables and very low sugar fruit you can easily boost your nutritional intake thereby improving your health and lower your risks for cancer.
Best Juicing Vegetables
There are several raw vegetables that are especially recommended for reducing risks for various types of cancer. Many also utilize these vegetables as a support in fighting cancer once a diagnosis has been made.
Of course, no scientific evidence exists that juicing or eating these vegetables can cure cancer, or guarantee that you will never get it, but it is true that healthy nutrient rich juices can boost immunity, promote energy, which is often drained during cancer treatments and boost your overall health.
Furthermore, scientific research has found promising results in certain vegetables playing a key role in cancer prevention.
Cruciferous Vegetables
Cruciferous vegetables are part of the Brassica genus plant family. These vegetables are rich in key nutrients, including carotenoids, such as lutein, beta-carotene, and zeaxanthin. They are also rich sources of key vitamins, including vitamins C, E, and K along with folate and minerals.
Moreover, these gems of nature provide a group of substances known as glucosinolates, which are chemicals that contain sulfur. It is the sulfur that gives some of these vegetables their bitter flavor, like that in greens.
According to the National Cancer Institute, animal studies and lab grown cell experiments have identified numerous potential ways in which glucosinolates can help in preventing cancer:
Protect cells from DNA damage
Ability to inactivate carcinogens
Hold antiviral, anti-inflammatory and antibacterial properties
Induce apoptosis or cell death
Hinder tumor blood vessel formation and migration, which is required for metastasis
The following section details some of the cruciferous vegetables that are best for juicing.
Broccoli
Broccoli contains high levels of sulforaphane, a very potent compound that increases the body's protective enzymes and flushes out cancer-causing chemicals. Juice the whole vegetable, including the stems, leaves, and florets as they hold key nutrients.
Cabbage
Another member of the cruciferous family of vegetables that provides powerful antioxidants including, vitamins A and C and the phytonutrients, zeaxanthin, isothiocyanates, thiocyanates, lutein, and sulforaphane that stimulate detoxifying enzymes, fight oxidative stress and may offer protection from prostate, colon, and even breast cancers.
In addition, sulforaphane selectively targets cancer stem cells that may prevent cancer from spreading or even recurring.
Cabbage juice is probably not the tastiest on its own, but can be added to delicious cancer fighting blends that include, kale, green apples, berries, and beets.
Kale
According to the National Cancer Institute, kale is yet another valuable cruciferous vegetable that has promise in helping humans will the battle against cancer.
Kale is rich in important nutrients, such as lutein, zeaxanthin, vitamins C, E, and K; folate; and minerals. Kale also contains glucosinolates, or sulfur-containing chemicals. While the folate found in kale does not have a direct impact on cancer treatment, it does help to reduce the risk of complications from cancer and its treatment by lowering risks for heart disease.
Kale and beets are rich sources of potassium, which is an electrolyte that helps regulate fluid in the body, move nutrients into the cells, and remove waste from cells, and supports the communication between nerves and muscles.
While potassium does not have a direct effect on preventing cancer, it may be beneficial depending upon medications that are prescribed during cancer treatment and side effects that result from treatment, ask your doctor.
While human studies have shown mixed results, it is 100% safe to say that kale is a nutrient rich plant food that is 100% recommended as part of a daily balanced diet and should the cancer fighting promise materialize that is just icing on the cake.
Kale juices great, and blends wonderfully with many different nutritious fruits and vegetables. It may be an acquired taste for some, but adding lemon or lime juice, and a green apple to kale makes it very tasty.
Other Cruciferous Vegetables:
Arugula
Bok Choy
Brussels Sprouts
Collard Greens
Radishes
Rutabaga
Turnips
Watercress
Carrots
Carrots contain natural compounds, polyacetylenes that are only found in carrots and ginseng and that protect the plant from pests and disease.
Various tests have shown poly-acetylenes to fight inflammation and cancer and reduce cancer growth in rats. Carrots also contain beta-carotene, alpha carotene, vitamin E, and other cancer fighting nutrients.
Carrots are higher in sugar than green vegetables, so watch your juicing intake. Carrot juice blends great with kale, cabbage, and green apples.
Beets
These colorful purple gems of nature contain betacyanin that researchers believe could protect against the development of cancer cells, and may possibly reduce risks for inflammation, which promotes malignancy.
Beets are wonderful for juicing and a great blend is 3 small beets, 1 cucumber, 1 handful of spinach and an orange.
Turmeric
Turmeric is not technically a vegetable, but a spice that is often used in Asian and Indian cooking and belongs to the ginger family. It is grown in Asian countries and has been used for centuries in herbal medicine.
Turmeric contains curcumin that is believed by experts to have exceptional anti-inflammatory abilities, which makes it effective for fighting cancer because most diseases are caused by and thrive under a state of chronic and long-term inflammation, according to a biochemist at The University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center, Bharat B. Aggarwal, PhD. Recent studies found curcumin to interfere with cell-signaling pathways that suppress the transformation, proliferation, and invasion of cancer cells.
According to Cancer Research UK, curcumin was found to stop pre-cancerous changes to becoming cancer when given to 25 patients with pre-cancerous changes in different organs in a phase 1 clinical trial.
Analytical research has found that certain type of cancer rates are lowest in countries where curcumin is consumed at levels of about 100 to 200 mg a day regularly.
Numerous lab studies on cancer cells have found curcumin to have anticancer effects, as it not only killed cancer cells but also prevented their growth. These studies found these effects to be most profound on skin, bowel, breast, and stomach cancer cells.
A 2007 study done in the United States, found that a combination of curcumin and chemotherapy killed more bowel cancer cells than chemotherapy alone. Another 2007 US study of mice found that curcumin helped to stop the spread of breast cancer cells to other parts of the body.
How To Use In Juicing
Fresh turmeric can be juiced along with other fruits and vegetables. Another option is to add 1 or 2 teaspoons of the ground spice into your juices and enjoy the health boost!
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