Juice bars are everywhere, and this health trend seems to be here for the long haul. Maybe you’ve been intrigued by doing a juice detox, but don’t know where to start. Or maybe you’d like to, but are scared off by the high price tags on the cold pressed, store bought bottles. Let me help you by sharing why you should do a juice cleanse, how to do a detox juice cleanse, and then by giving you my favorite 3 juice recipes for detoxing!

Why You Should Detox

With pesticides in our air, food, and water, it’s impossible to avoid them 100%. You can use a whole house water filtration system, like this whole house water filtration system here, or if that’s not an option for you right now, then this is the stand water filter we use for drinking and cooking. You can buy organic or local veggies that haven’t been sprayed with toxic chemicals. Even by eating and living as clean as possible though, we’re still exposed to certain toxins.

Glyphosate, the poison used in RoundUp®, is now found in human breastmilk. Aluminum from chemtrails left behind by certain aircraft gets in our ground water, oceans, and on organic crops every time it rains. Every time you pass someone at the store who decided to douse themselves in conventional perfume and hairspray, and wear clothes washed in fragranced laundry detergent, you’re inhaling brain killing neurotoxins.

With all of these crazy chemicals everywhere, it puts a heavy load on our bodies. Our liver and kidneys were designed to remove toxins from our systems, but they can’t keep up with the modern bombardment of synthetic chemicals. A detox can help our bodies do their job.

When You Shouldn’t Detox

As crazy as it may sound, there are times when you really shouldn’t detox. During pregnancy your body is using the materials you give it to create a new life. If you’re releasing tons of toxins into your system, this can affect the healthy development of your baby. …the same thing goes for nursing mamas. Toxins (like glyphosate) can be released into the breastmilk, but especially if your body is searching for an avenue to eliminate toxins you’ve stirred up in a detox protocol.

The best thing to do when nursing or pregnant is to just eat lots of clean, real whole foods. You need fruits and veggies to cleanse the body, and nourishing fats to support both you and baby’s brain and bone health and development. These healthy fats are found in foods like raw milk, grass-fed meats and butter, and coconut oil.

You also shouldn’t do a juice detox if you’re malnourished. A close friend of ours was away at college for a year, and had adopted a vegan diet during that time. Every day he had green smoothies, salad, and only ate raw foods. By the time he came back, he had dark circles under his eyes from anemia, his hair was falling out, and you could see his ribs through his shirt.

The first thing I said to his mom when she mentioned her concerns over his health was, “Give that boy some chicken broth!” There’s a time to detox, and then there’s a time to nourish with healthy fats.

How Detoxing Can Help You

So now that we’ve covered when you shouldn’t detox, how can a detox help the rest of us? Anytime your body is overloaded with toxins, you have excess weight to get rid of, or sometimes if you’re struggling with an illness like cancer or diabetes, a juice detox can help.

I’m trying to do a full body cleanse because we’d like to have more kids. I want to start with the healthiest body possible before creating a new life, to help give my baby the best start to life. My husband is detoxing right now to cleanse his gallbladder, liver, and pancreas after he almost died from acute pancreatitis a few months ago.

Even if your reasons aren’t as extreme, it’s still a good idea to clean house at least once a year. This will help your body function optimally, so it’s less susceptible to disease. Prevention is always better than damage control!

Why Juice?

There are lots of ways to detox. You can get pills, powders, wraps, or hop in a sauna and sweat the toxins out. Doing a juice detox offers several unique benefits though.

Juicing is an easy way to get a high volume of produce into your body. Ever tried eating 10 carrots at once? By removing the fiber, the nutrients from the juice are pre-digested and are more easily absorbed by the body. This is especially helpful if you have an autoimmune disorder or leaky gut that prevents your body from properly digesting food. Juicing also allows you to hide stronger flavored, but still nutritious veggies in with tastier flavors.

Best Foods To Juice

While juicing some apples and carrots will make for some sweet and yummy juice, it’s not the best way to go. Since we’re removing the fiber that slows down digestion, fruit and high sugar veggies like beets and carrots will spike the blood sugar. This can lead to all sorts of health issues as your body rushes to eliminate the excess sugar, eventually storing the excess in fat cells.

Dark leafy greens, citrus fruits, berries, green apples, and other low sugar fruits and veggies are the best options for juicing. Beets are really high in sugar, but they’re also one of the best liver detoxers, so I like to include a little bit when juicing. Lemons and limes are also excellent at hiding stronger flavors from veggies, like kale.

High water veggies like cucumber and celery will yield a lot of juice. You can also throw in some fresh herbs like parsley and cilantro for a fresh flavor. Cilantro is also great for helping the body detox heavy metals, like mercury and aluminum.

How To Juice Safely

Since juice doesn’t have any fiber, fat, or many carbs to it, it shouldn’t be used as a meal replacement. If you’re trying to do a juice fast, then that’s a little different and can safely be done short term. Little ones however are still growing and need lots of nourishing foods, so please don’t put your toddler on a 2 week juice fast.

Don’t do a juice fast though if you’re pregnant or nursing. You’ll literally starve your baby and deplete your body of vital minerals and nutrition as it tries to support both you and your baby (not to mention what we already covered about detoxing while pregnant or nursing). However, you can safely include small amounts of fresh juice as part of your normal healthy diet, for an extra dose of veggie goodness.

Keep It Clean

Try to only use organic produce, or those from your local farmer’s market. Just be sure that your farmer isn’t using pesticides, since they may be toxin free, just not organically certified. If neither of those is an option, then at least avoid the conventional produce that’s been shown to contain the most pesticide residue from the dirty dozen list. I can’t afford to buy everything organic, but I do buy anything that’s on that dirty dozen list organic.

Keep It Simple

Don’t drink a ton of juice at once. Start small and work your way up, so you don’t overload your body and have a lot of negative effects from fast toxin removal. You may want to start with ½ cup of fresh pressed juice at breakfast, then increase by ¼ cup at a time until you’re at the right spot for you. And lastly, since fresh juice goes bad very quickly, make sure you drink it right away.

Picking A Great Juicer

I’ve had a juicer for several years, but it’s been collecting dust on the shelf. It was a hand-me-down from my grandma, and is a pain in the you know what to clean. Plus, it’s so loud that it sounds like you’re running 5 blenders at once. I’ve wanted to juice, but didn’t want to deal with that juicer.

I recently got a Big Boss 800-Watt Professional Series Juicer to try, and I love how easy it is to use. It’s not overly loud, it’s easy to clean, and most importantly, I actually use it! …and, it’s totally affordable (see the Big Boss I have here).

Detox Juice Cleanse Recipes

These recipes all feature produce that’s great for cleansing and detoxing the body, and all 3 recipes taste incredible.

Juice Recipe #1

• 3 cups Kale
• 1 Cucumber
• 3 Celery Stalks
• 1 Lemon

Juice Recipe #2

• 1 Beet (potent detoxifier, so do NOT juice a bunch of beets!)
• 2 Green Apples
• 1 head of Romaine Lettuce

Juice Recipe #3

• 5 Carrots
• 2 inch chunk Ginger
• 2 Limes
• 3 cups Spinach

Make It

Throw all of the ingredients into your juicer except the citrus. You can either peel the citrus and put it in the juicer along with everything else, or just cut it in half and squeeze the juice into your juiced veggies. I find it easier to just juice the citrus separately. Drink immediately. If you need multiple serving these recipes can easily be doubled or tripled.