Taste the rainbow!

Taste the Rainbow: 7 juice recipes to ensure you're "drinking your colors"

By: Abigail Larson

 Hippocrates has been credited with saying, “Let food be thy medicine and medicine be thy food.” Simply, there are healing properties found in real foods, and when you cleanse your body of processed foods and replace them with natural ingredients, you super-charge your body and create lasting and life-altering change. 

One way to ingest a mass amount of these vital nutrients is by making fresh juice. “Fresh-made juices are made in a juicer, which extracts the juice from the fibrous pulp, providing massive amounts of hydrating and highly absorbable organic water and a concentrated form of naturally occurring vitamins, minerals, chlorophyll, phytochemicals, and enzymes. This delivers more nutrition that you could ever eat in the form of solid food in one sitting.” While it isn’t encouraged to replace your whole diet with juice, adding these power-packed drinks to your diet can help detoxify your body, help your skin, give you more energy, aid digestion, and balance your body’s pH levels. How awesome are those benefits!?

While juice bars are prevalent all over the country, it is important to understand that not all juices are created equal. Those made with mostly fruit are not g near as helpful to your body as those which are veggie based. Fruit is full of fructose, which is another way of saying sugar and sugar has few, if any, redeeming qualities. Because fiber, one of the few healthy perks of fruit, is removed in the juicing process, the remaining fructose will do more harm than good. For example, it can spike your insulin, which leads you to feel unsatisfied and hungry. Moral of the story: juice your veggies, eat your fruits. 

Maybe, like me, you heard the phrase “eat your colors,” at the dinner table when your parents were encouraging you to eat what was on your plate. Believe it or not there is truth in those words! The vibrant color of real foods illustrate how rich they are in all sorts of phytonutrients (plant chemicals that contain all the good stuff). By choosing ingredients for your juice that have the same color palate, you can load up on particular benefits at one time. For example, by making an “orange juice,” with pumpkin, turmeric, ginger, sweet potatoes, and carrots, you can supercharge your body with alpha-carotene, and beta-cryptoxanthin. Some of the benefits of these vitamins include eye health, and healthy immune function.

Try adding “one color” juices to your daily diet and measure their effects. My guess is that you’ll feel more energetic, have a more regular digestive tract, start sleeping better, and just feel happier in general. Go ahead… taste the rainbow, what do you have to lose? 

A week’s worth of juices: Use these recipes as a guide to start your own juicing journey!

Red: 4 tomatoes, 2 red bell peppers (without the seeds), 1 stalk of celery, ½ handful of basil, ½ handful of oregano, ¼ small onion, 2 garlic cloves

Red  juice is supports the urinary tract, prostate, and DNA health. IT also protect against heart disease!

Orange: 2 orange bell peppers (without seeds), 1 sweet potato, ½ yellow squash, 1 cup pumpkin pulp (juiced), ½ teaspoon cinnamon, 

Orange juice supports eye health, a healthy immune system, and overall growth.

Yellow: ½ head of cauliflower (chunked), 2 yellow peppers, 2 inch ginger root, a lemon (rind on)

Yellow Juice supports retinal and overall eye health as well. 

Lime: 3 stalks of celery, 1 ½ cucumbers, ½ head of broccoli, 1 lime, 1inch ginger root

Deep Green: ½ cucumber, 6 large kale leaves, 3 romaine lettuce leaves, 1 inch ginger root, 1 lemon, ½ green apple

Green juices support your arteries, liver, and cell health, and also help keep bones and teeth strong.

Blue: 1 cup blueberries, ½ gala apple, 2 beets (cubed), 4 large kale leaves, 3 large Swiss chard leaves

Purple: 1 head purple cauliflower (chunked), 4 purple kale leaves, 1 cucumber, ½ lemon 

Blue and purple juices both support brain, heart, and bone health. It helps boost memory and counters aging!

*all quotes come from “The Rainbow Juice Cleanse,” by Dr. Ginger Southhall (2015)