What I Know About Green Juice

It always amuses me that the most “hits” on my blog are from the spring that I did a little green-juice cleanse. I am not an expert on green juice, or on juicing. (That’s my huge green goblet, with some of our home-grown rhubarb as a swizzle stick..pretty!).

And I typically don’t endorse specific ways of eating or labelled ways of eating. They feel trendy to me, and often like “hip” forms of disordered eating. I eat intuitively although with some structure, and around what my body tolerates given some food sensitivites.

I go in and out of drinking my green juice. I still drink my original recipe although I did add one new vegetable to it (Fennel- amazing if you like that clean, licorice-y taste, and I do!) My blend is always the same- and is made of things that yield a lot of liquids. And I still use a Breville juicer although replaced my original sturdy little model about a year ago.

I use celery, cucumbers, a green apple, hearts of romaine, and fennel. Occasionally a few broccoli stems if I have them. It’s beautiful.. very pale green and mild, slightly sweet. I love it first thing in the morning. It’s quenching even when you don’t realize you’re thirsty and there’s just something about it.

I can drink it every morning without missing a day. And then not again for months. Like now. It can be a seasonal thing, as in it’s just too damn cold and rainy and bleak out right now. Or once it was because Trader Joe’s was out of organic cucumbers for a very long time, and I believe they still are.

I started juicing pretty much the way I start everything. In an intuitive flash. I already had the juicer and had used it once, long before. But then I just wanted to make juice, wanted to drink it and my body liked it a lot.

Prior to juicing (this was a few years ago) I had believed I needed bigger breakfasts to accomodate my mid-morning workouts. And found I didn’t. The juice was enough to take me to lunchtime. It was so interesting to me to be wrong about that. I loved that my body could change, or that my beliefs could change.. still not sure which.

I never got into variety, which isn’t surprising with me. I can go into the love of one thing for a fair amount of time. I like simplicity and I like what agrees with my body. I am very sensitive to gluten and dairy and some other things so when something makes me feel well, it’s a good thing.

And then I move onto something else that I fall in love with for a bit. Blueberry smoothies. A yam. Sometimes eggs. Whatever feels right on that day, or during that season.

What I know about green juice is that like everything else, sometimes I love it and it’s a really good match for me. And other times I don’t want it even a little bit. I have learned not to question any of it, simply to trust that my body, my tastebuds, my nutritive needs, and emotional preferences around food have cycles.

I trust that. For me, that’s a little miracle. The freedom of that with food. Juice. Whatever.

There is no magic in green juice. Or in any given food. Lots of things have value, including eating for the pleasure of it. Which is a whole other kind of nourishment, just as essential.

I want all of that for you.

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