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For many people, a bowl of hearty pumpkin soup is best known as comfort food. But did you know that pumpkin soup also definitely qualifies as a superfood? After all, the big, orange fruit is rich in vitamins, minerals and antioxidants.

The pumpkin already has a long history as a popular food for people. For thousands of years, this large fruit has been grown and eaten with relish. Initially the pumpkin was eaten mainly in Central and South America, but since the sixteenth century it has also been part of the European diet.

It is possible that people have long known that in addition to being delicious, the pumpkin is also very healthy. In recent decades, more and more scientific evidence has come to light. In this article we list a number of proven health benefits of pumpkin (soup) for you and explain to which nutrients these benefits are due.

After reading this article about the health benefits of pumpkin soup, can’t wait to enjoy a fresh bowl of this orange wonder food yourself? Then you can get started right away with the delicious pumpkin soup recipe below. You can also easily order a soup cure from Sapje.

Read on to discover 7 impressive health benefits of pumpkin soup. For example, we tell you:

• how pumpkin soup supports your resistance
• why pumpkin soup is good for your skin
• how pumpkin soup is good for your iron balance
• Why pumpkin soup contributes to good eyesight
• why pumpkin soup supports your brain
• how pumpkin soup is good for your heart
• Why pumpkin soup boosts your energy metabolism

What nutrients make pumpkin soup so healthy?

Pumpkin (botanical name: cucurbita) belongs to the family Cucurbitaceae, which also includes cucumbers, zucchini and watermelon, among others. The pumpkin comes in several varieties, some of which are edible and others (such as gourds) are not. The round, orange pumpkin that you can often easily find in supermarkets in the Netherlands is very suitable for making pumpkin soup. The same goes for the bottle pumpkin, by the way.

An average pumpkin consists of about 94 percent water. As a result, pumpkin is not a huge calorie bomb. A 250-milliliter bowl of pure pumpkin soup contains only 78 calories. A nice amount of fiber does make pumpkin soup nice and hearty and satiating. Moreover, pumpkin is rich in several healthy nutrients. Some of these, such as several types of carotenoids found in pumpkin, become more absorbable when cooked(1).

Our pumpkin soup contains per serving:

• Vitamin A: 781 μg, 98% of daily value
• Vitamin C: 27 mg, 34% of daily value
• Copper: 0.3 mg, 30% of daily value
• Vitamin K: 20 μg, 27% of daily value
• Vitamin B1: 0.28 mg, 25% of daily value
• Manganese: 0.5 mg, 25% of daily value
• Potassium: 467 mg, 23% of daily value
• Iodine: 34 μg, 23% of daily value
• Folic acid: 39 μg, 20% of daily value
• Vitamin E: 2.2 μg, 18% of daily value
• Vitamin B5: 0.9 mg, 15% of daily value
• Magnesium: 51 mg, 14% of daily value
• Vitamin B6: 0.15 mg, 11% of daily value
• Calcium: 81 mg, 10% of daily value
• Phosphorus: 73 mg, 10% of daily value
• Vitamin B3: 1.5 mg, 9% of daily value
• Iron: 1.2 mg, 9% of daily value
• Vitamin B2: 0.04 mg, 3% of daily value

And smaller amounts of various other vitamins and minerals.

1. Pumpkin soup supports your immune system

Carotenoids in pumpkin soup

If you take a look at the impressive list of vitamins and minerals found in pumpkin, the amount of vitamin A probably stands out the most. You read that right: with 245 grams of cooked pumpkin, you get more than twice the recommended daily amount of vitamin A! This is due to the large amounts of carotenoids found in pumpkin, such as beta-carotene, alpha-carotene, cis-beta-carotene, lutein, lycopene and zeaxanthin. Beta-carotene is found in the greatest amounts in pumpkins, compared to the other carotenoids. Our bodies convert this little substance into vitamin A(2).

Vitamin A and your immune system

Many of the health benefits of pumpkin for various processes in the body are due to these carotenoids, but let’s start with beta-carotene/vitamin A. Vitamin A helps the immune system. In addition, this vitamin is good for the mucous membranes in your body, for example in your skin, lungs and intestines. Your mucous membranes form an important protective layer against unwanted substances in your body. Vitamin A is also good for your eyes and promotes the availability of iron from your body’s stores. As if that were not enough, pumpkin soup also contains nice amounts of vitamin C, a nutrient that also helps maintain a good resistance.

2. Pumpkin soup is healthy for your skin

Beta-carotene as internal skin care

In addition to your resistance, vitamin A (in the form of beta-carotene, among others) in pumpkin soup also supports your skin. For example, research shows that vitamin A contributes to the skin’s ability to repair itself and thus helps maintain the normal structure and function of your skin. So eating pumpkin soup regularly helps to take care of your skin from the inside out….

Vitamin C as sun protection

Another vitamin well represented in a bowl of pumpkin soup is vitamin C. Vitamin C also has more functions than just supporting your resistance. For example, another important job of vitamin C is to help your body trap free radicals. These are unstable substances that can damage healthy cells and tissues, also known as oxidative damage. Outside influences such as air pollution and UV radiation from sunlight can promote the formation of such free radicals, causing damage in your skin, among other things. So by getting enough antioxidants, such as vitamin C, through your diet, you can help protect your skin from the sun from the inside out.

As if that weren’t enough, you’ll also find quite a bit of vitamin E in pumpkin soup. This antioxidant is also known to protect against sunlight. So together, vitamin A, C, and E make for an ideal combination to keep your skin healthy. Because of this, you can almost call pumpkin soup a beauty food!

Vitamin C for the production of collagen

Vitamin C is also important for the production of collagen in your body(3). Collagen is an important structural protein in the connective tissues of your skin that, among other things, supports the firmness of your skin. Because of this, vitamin C helps strengthen your skin from the inside out. Collagen is also an important protein in your bones and cartilage.

3. Pumpkin soup increases iron absorption

The generous amounts of vitamins A and C found in pumpkin soup affect iron levels in your blood. Vitamin A is beneficial for iron metabolism, and vitamin C promotes the absorption of iron into the blood. Iron is involved in the formation of red blood cells and hemoglobin in your body, thus contributing to normal oxygen transport in your body. Because vitamins A and C promote the absorption of iron from your diet, they help increase iron levels in your blood.

4. Pumpkin soup is good for your eyesight

You’ve probably heard someone (your grandmother or mother perhaps?) say that eating carrots is good for your eyes. That’s right; and the same goes for eating pumpkin soup! Both carrots and pumpkin have a bright orange color. This is caused by the carotenoids found in both. Some of these, especially beta-carotene, are converted in the body to vitamin A. Vitamin A is known for its supporting function for your eyesight. For example, this vitamin helps you stay sharp in the dark and supports normal moisture balance in your eyes.

5. Pumpkin soup supports your brain

Did you know that the vitamin C in pumpkin soup also contributes to various brain functions? Among other things, this vitamin is good for your concentration, memory function and learning performance. So be sure to have a nice bowl of pumpkin soup when you are studying for an important exam or during a busy (home) work day!

6. Pumpkin soup for your heart and blood vessels

Our organic pumpkin soup is also a very good source of vitamin B1. This comes in handy, as this vitamin can actually support the function of your heart. In addition, the generous amount of potassium from pumpkin soup can help keep your blood pressure good and vitamin C contributes to maintaining strong and supple blood vessels. So together, these 3 nutrients form a pleasant combination to give your heart and blood vessels extra support.

7. Pumpkin soup supports your energy metabolism

Do you have experience making pumpkin soup? Then you’ve probably noticed that this soup is often nice and thick and fibrous. Thanks in part to that fiber, pumpkin soup is quite nutritious. Plus, the vitamins B1 and C from pumpkin soup boost your energy metabolism, supporting your energy levels. Below is a delicious recipe for a tasty and naturally healthy pumpkin soup!

Make your own: Antioxidant-rich pumpkin soup recipe with spice

Would you like to make your own fresh pumpkin soup? That is an excellent way to take advantage of the many health benefits of pumpkin soup. Butchering a pumpkin like this is a bit of a chore, but fresh pumpkin soup is generally much richer in healthy nutrients than pumpkin soup you can buy at the store. Plus, it tastes better, too! Below is an easy recipe for pumpkin soup with extra antioxidant-rich additions, such as sweet potato, tomato, bell bell pepper and various spices.

Here’s how to make your pumpkin soup recipe even healthier

This recipe contains other healthy ingredients besides pumpkin. By doing so, you significantly increase the already impressive amount of antioxidants in pumpkin soup. First, the sweet potato provides extra beta-carotene and a creamier whole. Thanks to the tomatoes, for example, you get a nice dose of lycopene. The antioxidants vitamins C and E are also abundant in cooked tomatoes. By the way, you can read more about the health benefits of tomato soup here.

Peppers are also particularly rich in vitamin C, so this soup is an excellent supporter of your immune system. The ingredients onion, garlic, cinnamon, cayenne pepper, chili powder and turmeric also provide a lot of additional nutrients. Among other things, black pepper helps your body absorb beta-carotene and curcumin from the turmeric. Ideally, also add a dash of olive oil to the soup. That, too, promotes beta-carotene absorption, according to research(4). Cooking and mashing your pumpkin for this soup also improves the absorbability of this nutrient. If that doesn’t make a healthy soup!

This easy recipe makes about 4 servings of fresh pumpkin soup. So you can enjoy it several times, or with several people. If necessary, freeze some for later. This is an excellent way to preserve freshness and nutrients naturally.

Supplies for your pumpkin soup (4 servings)

• 500 grams of organic pumpkin
• 400 grams of tomatoes (e.g. roma)
• 1 sweet potato
• 1 red bell bell pepper
• 2 onions
• 2 cloves of garlic
• ¼ teaspoon chili powder
• ¼ teaspoon cayenne pepper
• ½ teaspoon cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon organic paprika
• 1 liter of water
• sea salt/himalayan salt or herbal salt to taste

Preparation:

• Peel and chop the onions
• Peel and chop the garlic
• Wash the pumpkin briefly. Cut the pumpkin in half and remove the seeds (save them for roasting and serving with the soup if necessary, see additional tip below). Then cut the pumpkin into smaller cubes
• Wash the tomatoes and cut into wedges
• Wash the bell bell pepper, remove seeds and stalks and cut into small pieces
• Bring 1 liter of water to a boil
• Fry the onions and garlic in some oil.
• Add the onions, garlic, squash and bell bell pepper to the boiling water
• When the squash is almost soft enough to mash, add the tomatoes
• Puree until you have a nice, thick soup, without bits
• Now do not let the soup boil, but do keep it hot on a low heat
• Add the turmeric, cayenne pepper, chili powder, paprika and cinnamon
• Season to taste with pepper and sea salt/himalayan salt or herbal salt
• Add another dash of olive oil
• Enjoy!

Extra tip: roast pumpkin seeds!

Did you know that pumpkin is officially counted among fruits because pumpkins have seeds? You can also eat these pumpkin seeds. They are very tasty and nutritious, just like the fruit itself. You can buy them at the store, of course, but keep them especially if you are going to make your own pumpkin soup. If you boil them briefly and then roast them, they become delicious and healthy snacks! Pumpkin seeds, for example, are rich in healthy fatty acids and minerals such as magnesium and zinc. If you leave the white husks on, you also get a nice portion of healthy fiber.

This is how you roast the pumpkin seeds:

• Remove the leftover pulp.
• First boil the kernels for 15-20 minutes in a pan of water with some salt.
• Heat your oven to 200 degrees
• Place the pumpkin seeds on a baking sheet, without baking paper. Be sure to leave enough space between the kernels.
• Roast the pumpkin seeds in the oven for another 15-20 minutes, adding some salt if necessary.

No time to make your own pumpkin soup?

Is making your own pumpkin soup too time-consuming for you? Then, of course, you can order pumpkin soup. Our own organic pumpkin soup contains nothing but the best from healthy, local ingredients, including, of course, pumpkin, sweet potato, carrot, ginger, coriander and cumin.

Order it easily online and specify when we can deliver the pumpkin soup to your home. At checkout, choose the time that suits you best. We will then come by with the freezer truck and deliver the pumpkin soup to you frozen.

By freezing our products, we can preserve their freshness and valuable nutrients in a completely natural way. We then do not need any other preservatives! All you have to do after receiving it is to let the soup defrost briefly and then heat it up in a pan. It can be that easy to enjoy delicious, fresh and above all healthy pumpkin soup!

Below are the most frequently asked questions about pumpkin soup

Is pumpkin soup good for losing weight?
Yes, pumpkin soup is a responsible choice if you want to lose weight. Our organic pumpkin soup is low in calories, rich in fiber and packed with natural nutrients such as vitamins A, C and potassium. The soup provides a long-lasting satiated feeling and fits well within a healthy and balanced diet. Ideal as a light meal or snack!

Give yourself a healthy treat with a nice cup of fresh, organic tomato soup! It’s easy to make and perfect against a dip. In winter, drink it warm to beat the cold. As a gazpacho, tomato soup is a light and refreshing dish with a Mediterranean touch; perfect for hot summer days. Moreover, behind the deep red color and savory taste of this classic are impressive health benefits. Below, we list 7 proven benefits of tomato soup for your health.

Read on and discover:

• How tomato soup supports your immune system;
• How tomato soup helps protect you from cell damage;
• What tomato soup does for your bones and muscles;
• How tomato soup is good for your blood pressure and blood vessels;
• How tomato soup can contribute to healthy skin;
• What tomato soup can do for your ability to concentrate;
• Why tomato soup gives energy and strength.

1. Tomato soup supports the immune system

Tomato soup supports your resistance:

• It is a rich source of vitamin C and thus supports your immune system(1).
• In addition, our tomato soup also contains vitamins A, B6, B11 and copper, which also help ensure a good resistance.

Thanks to these resistance-supporting vitamins and minerals, you’ll be good to go after a bowl of tomato soup. Vitamin C and copper are also antioxidants, which help protect cells from outside influences by capturing free radicals. Read on quickly!

2. Tomato soup helps prevent cell damage

Tomato soup is a source of antioxidants, including vitamins C and E, as well as various minerals such as copper and manganese. Although pure organic tomato soup by itself is rich in antioxidants, for our own tomato soup we chose to increase the antioxidant value even further. By adding paprika, for example, the vitamin C content of this tomato soup is even higher. With one serving you already get more than your daily amount. To our own organic tomato soup we also added various herbs, such as oregano and basil. These add flavor and are rich in antioxidants. So together with the garlic that is also in our soup, they make for a healthy soup.

3. Tomato soup supports your bones and muscles

When you drink fresh tomato soup, you are usually immediately struck by its powerful taste. But tomato soup is not only powerful in terms of taste. It also contains various healthy nutrients that, among other things, support your body:

• The dose of potassium is important for muscle function and the nervous system and is good for blood pressure.
• The vitamin K in tomato soup is important for bones and supports blood clotting.
• The minerals calcium and phosphorus in tomato soup play a role in bone formation and help keep your bones strong.

So do you want to work on a healthy and strong body? Then definitely put tomato soup on the menu. This is also deliciously satiating due to the savory umami flavor of tomatoes.

4. Tomato soup offers support for blood pressure and blood vessels

Because tomato soup is high in potassium, it helps maintain good blood pressure. Your blood pressure is the force with which your blood pushes against your vessel walls. You don’t want this pressure to be too high or too low. So tomato soup can be beneficial for this. Moreover, a delicious bowl of tomato soup also contains an ample amount of vitamin C, which in turn is beneficial for supple veins.

5. Tomato soup supports your skin

Who would have thought that drinking tomato soup regularly could contribute to more beautiful locks and healthy skin? Yet it does. Among other things, the vitamin C in tomato soup helps your body produce collagen, a substance that helps maintain strong and healthy skin. Vitamin C also helps protect your cells and tissues from oxidative damage caused by UV radiation from sunlight. The vitamin A in tomato soup supports your skin from the inside out.

6. Tomato soup supports brain function

It doesn’t stop with the benefits of vitamin C. In fact, another, but by no means less important, benefit of vitamin C is that it can contribute to several important brain functions. Among other things, it is good for your memory and concentration and contributes to your ability to learn. Tomato soup is therefore a real brain food!

7. Tomato soup gives strength and energy

Do you also suffer from a late afternoon dip? Then this time, instead of reaching for a cup of coffee and a sweet snack, try a cup of our own organic tomato soup. In addition to organic tomatoes, it contains several other ingredients that further enhance the above mentioned health benefits of tomato soup. Vitamin C supports your energy levels and contributes to extra energy when tired. Our tomato soup also contains a dose of vitamin B6 and other B vitamins, which further support your energy levels.

Does tomato soup have any drawbacks for your health?

Basically, fresh tomato soup is bursting with healthy nutrients. However, are you sensitive to vegetables belonging to the nightshade family(Solanacaea)? Then you better be a little careful about eating (a lot of) tomatoes. This is because tomatoes also belong to this group, as do potatoes, eggplants and peppers. These can cause an allergic or hypersensitivity reaction in some people.

No time to make your own tomato soup?

Did you get excited after reading about the health benefits of tomato soup, but have a busy life and little time to make your own tomato soup? Then order Sapje’s fresh, organic tomato soup. For this, we use the best local, seasonal ingredients with high nutritional value and rich flavor. Because we freeze our soups immediately after cooking, they are optimally preserved in an all-natural way. So our tomato soup is all-natural.

Ordering tomato soup online

Are you a real tomato fan? Then also try our tomato juice POWER. That too has several health benefits. Read more about the health benefits of tomato juice. Order your favorite soups, soup cures and juices through the website and choose when you want them delivered. We will come by with the freezer truck at a time that suits you. Then all you have to do is defrost the tomato soup and heat it up in a pan. It can be that easy to enjoy healthy tomato soup!

Raw food has been trendy for several decades. Who does not know the images of sixty-year-old women who look like thirty and declare with bright blue eyes and a radiant white smile that they have been eating only raw for twenty-five years? Or the magical stories of people who followed a months-long cleanse at a Raw Food Clinic?

Yet there are other voices. Herbalist Susun Weed, for example, swears by cooking leafy greens for at least an hour.[1] According to her, our bodies are barely able to break down the cell walls of raw vegetables and we only get a minimal amount of nutrients if we don’t cook them.

The British Dietetic Association has declared the Raw Food diet a fake diet and, according to Wikipedia, it is pseudoscientific and potentially dangerous.[2]

What is the path of wisdom amid all these conflicting views? Read on as we take you through various scholarly sources to help you make an informed choice.

We start with what we believe are ten key benefits of including raw food in your diet, but then look deeper into the research that has been done on raw food and the main pros and cons.

In this blog, you will get answers to the following questions:

• 10 health benefits of raw food
• Is raw food healthy?
• What happens to fruits and vegetables when we cook them?
• Can the human body break down cell walls?
• What is the best way to eat raw?

10 health benefits of raw food

In short, there are all sorts of reasons why raw is a good addition to your diet. We list them for you here:

1. Raw foods almost always consist of vegetables, fruits, nuts and seeds: all important cornerstones that should form an important foundation of your diet.
2. Raw food is easier to prepare (even at the campsite!). Children can also cook along, without fire risk.
3. Frying foods in a pan or roasting them in the oven sometimes adds unhealthy fats and carcinogens to our diet.
4. Raw ingredients have more flavor than cooked ones, so you will tend to eat less and enjoy more.
5. Raw food does not make you feel heavy.
6. Eating raw food is good for the environment. Think of the huge amounts of greenhouse gases from the dairy and meat industries. But also all the plastic and paper used for packaging processed food. Raw vegetables and fruits are often easily available locally, or you can grow them yourself in a vegetable garden.
7. Raw foods are high in fiber. Heating breaks down many fibers. Fiber is an important nutritional component.
8. Raw foods contain all vitamins and antioxidants. Although minerals survive the cooking process, some vitamins and bioactive compounds are lost through heating. When you eat raw, you are guaranteed your full serving of vitamin C.
9. Raw food requires creativity in the kitchen. It will give you new inspiration to look for raw recipes and cooking methods.
10. Raw foods add color and cheer to your kitchen. Think beautiful salads with pansies and marigolds or spring rolls with three colors of sprouts in them!

Is raw food healthy?

While boiling or baking vegetables, some of the vitamins are lost. There is no escaping this. In particular, vitamin C and folic acid (vitamin B11) are very sensitive to heating. The loss of these vitamins while cooking vegetables can be as high as 50%.[3] Thus, raw vegetables will always contain more vitamins than boiled or baked vegetables. Minerals are more resistant to heat and thus are largely retained during boiling or baking vegetables.

So have fun with those raw broccoli, red cabbage and pak choi! Raw cabbages can be difficult to digest if you eat them, so we heartily recommend incorporating them into a juice so that nutrients can be absorbed quickly and easily.

What about a diet of only raw food? An extensive study in the U.S. found that a large proportion of participants who ate almost exclusively raw for long periods were underweight. Of the women, 30% had stopped menstruating.[5] So, miracle stories notwithstanding, it seems to be the case that a diet consisting only of uncooked plants leads to reduced health. However, a partially raw diet could be very healthy.

What happens to vegetables when you cook them?

Are nutrients lost during cooking? Or do certain nutrients actually become more available to the body through the cooking process? The most important thing about food, of course, is that our bodies can actually absorb the nutrients. This is called “bioavailability”: to what extent the nutrients in our food and drink are actually available to our cells.

Under this heading you can read about scientific studies that examined differences in bioavailability between raw and cooked vegetables. We mainly looked at the studies that examined blood levels after eating: this is the best way to measure whether the body actually absorbs the substances. The result: raw often wins, but not always!

A small Dutch study on broccoli found that absorption of the substance sulforaphane was much higher when consuming raw than cooked broccoli.[5] Another study also found that another compound (isothiocyanates) was absorbed three times better after eating raw broccoli, than cooked.[6]

A fairly extensive study of the plant substances in 15 different species from the cabbage family(Brassica), did not have such very clear results. The availability of some bioactive compounds went down with cooking, but that of others went up. Also by the process of freezing there were substances that actually became more available.[7]

It could well be that the difference between raw and cooking is slightly different for each type of vegetable and for each nutrient. There are vitamins, such as vitamin C, that are by definition lost at high temperatures. Other vitamins, however, such as beta-carotene (vitamin A), can withstand heat just fine and may even become more available through cooking.

Conclusion: unless you have a slight obsession with nutrients and enjoy long hours of incisive Internet sleuthing, you are probably best off with lots of variety. Try to eat as many different vegetables as possible both raw and cooked. Then you’ll definitely be on the safe side!

Can the human body break down plant cell walls?

Another common criticism of the raw food movement is that the human body is unable to break down vegetable cell walls and thus has limited ability to absorb nutrients from raw foods. Thus, according to these critics, we should give the body a helping hand by cooking, freezing or fermenting vegetables. The following comparison is sometimes given: imagine you are standing in a room with a million marbles and you are going to strike ferociously around yourself with a sharp sword. How many of the marbles will you cut in half?

The answer, of course, is: none. In this equation, the marbles equal plant cells with cell walls and the sword is your teeth, knife or blender. Conclusion: you won’t get through with just cutting, chewing or blending.

The cell wall of plants consists of cellulose, a very strong substance that allows plants to have the strength (think wood or stems) that the cells of mushrooms and animals lack. The human body cannot digest cellulose. It is done only by intestinal bacteria, but that is so low in the gut that most nutrients are already not absorbed there.

So the question is: Can we get enough nutrients from plants if we can’t digest cellulose? Some anti-raw-fooders say that the cell wall of plants is so strong that we can barely absorb nutrients if we don’t cook or ferment vegetables.

Yet the aforementioned research seems to indicate that certain substances from uncooked broccoli, for example, could be absorbed into the blood despite its indigestible cell walls. Another study showed that blood levels of several essential vitamins and nutrients were significantly higher after eating raw salad.[8] Surely this seems to indicate that we can absorb nutrients from raw vegetables as well.

Of course, it is always more complicated than we would like!
Because humans and human bodies are also flexible and changeable. Research was done on the changes in the bacterial composition in our intestines under a raw or cooked diet. This showed that the bacteria in our gut adapted to the diet and also partially compensated for that diet. For example, under a raw diet, microbes were found to digest starch better. Cool!

What is the best way to eat raw?

Science seems to indicate that we are best off with a varied diet that includes both raw and cooked fruits and vegetables. How can you best prepare the raw part of your diet?

As described above, salads are an excellent way to indulge your body with raw. Of course, we at Sap.je have a penchant for juicing. Our slow juicer slowly grinds vegetables, fruits, herbs and seaweed with screw motions that mimic the chewing motion in your mouth. Because the process is slow, no heat is involved and the ingredients are exposed to as little oxygen as possible. Because the fibers remain in the juicer (you can later incorporate them into cookies or soup), your body can absorb the nutrients quickly and effectively.

Conclusion

Why do you also need to eat raw? Some nutrients seem to be significantly better absorbed by the body if you don’t cook vegetables. Does that mean you should eat only raw? Probably not.

Of course, what we find difficult to capture with all this science is that every person and every body is different. We could imagine that a diet with a lot of raw is very suitable for one person and doesn’t work as well for another. So experiment, and listen to yourself and what works for your body. And above all: don’t take it all too hard, don’t let yourself be pinned down by imaginary rules and Have Fun!

Today we want to take a look with you at the roadside, the ditch edge and the abandoned construction site. Because there, unsuspectingly, grow a number of wild plants that offer their superfood qualities to everyone for free and for nothing. There are many such plants, but in this blog we look at two of the best known: the dandelion and the nettle. Both are strong weeds that no one can ignore: on the most poor and cultivated plots of land, they often come to pioneer, to the despair of many gardeners.

Dandelion and nettle have also been used for centuries by herbalists for their nutritious qualities. Recently, their nourishing potential has also been noticed by the health food world.

Both dandelion and nettle have healthy qualities. What do these plants have to offer you? In this blog, we will take you through the following topics:

• Facts
• Nutrients
• Health benefits of dandelion and nettle
• Are dandelion and nettle dangerous?
• Are they healthy?
• How are they used in naturopathy/shamanism?
• How do you harvest wild plants?
• How can they be used in juices?
  

Knowing Nettle

– Stinging nettles Latin name is Urtica Dioika. Uro is the Greek word for urine.
– Stinging nettle has probably been cultivated by humans for over 8,000 years.
– Stinging nettle fibers are strong and have been used for centuries for paper, strong rope, thread and durable fabrics.
– Stinging nettle is also a good natural dark green dye.
– Stinging nettle is a good soil enricher and is ideal for on compost (better without seeds) or in a “compost smoothie.”
– It is said that during the infamous Irish famine, there were people who survived for years with hardly any food other than nettles.
– The Tibetan saint Milarepa is said to have eaten nothing but nettles during his cave retreat. In the end, he was both enlightened and green.
– Stinging nettles may be annoying, but they were and are also used by a variety of folk traditions to cure arthritis, paralysis and cold feet, among other things.

Dandelion facts

– Dandelion Latin name isTaraxacum officinale. Taraxacum seems to come from the Arabic for bitter plant. Officinale is the Latin suffix for a medicine. The English word dandelion is a corruption of the French dent-de-lion (lion’s tooth). Another French name for the little plant is pissenlit (pee-in-bed).

Nutrients 100 grams of raw Nettle (in spring)

Source:[1]

Nutrients 100 grams of raw Dandelion (in spring)

What are health benefits of dandelion and nettle?

Dandelion and nettle have a number of healthy properties and nutritional support potential. Dandelion has been used in traditional ways for centuries in various countries such as Russia, Turkey, China, Mexico and India.

The antioxidant qualities of dandelion leaf, flower and root have also been extensively researched. The plant is said to help combat oxidative stress due to the presence of several nutrients, including vitamin C and manganese. These antioxidants help your body trap harmful free radicals. In addition, the dandelion provides an awful lot of vitamin K, so it supports your blood clotting and helps keep your bones strong. Due to its high vitamin A content, dandelion is good for your eyesight and supports your immune system. Dandelion also contains phytonutrients, such as luteolin, coumaric acid and flavonoids.

Nettle

Stinging nettle has traditionally been used for an almost unbelievable variety of functions. According to herbalist Susun Weed, nettle (strong tea, juice or soup) can contribute to your health in several ways.

Stinging nettle is a very good source of calcium, so it helps keep your digestion healthy and supports your energy levels. In Mexico, because of their high calcium content, both dandelion and nettle have been used for decades to support muscles. Nettle also has a high iron content, so it helps reduce fatigue and is good for your concentration and memory function. Due to its high vitamin A content, nettle also has a positive impact on your immune system.

Is dandelion and nettle dangerous?

According to Susun Weed, there is no possible overdose of dandelion. According to science, dandelion is non-toxic due to the absence of harmful alkaloids[10]. Stinging nettle causes external irritation that usually does not last more than a few hours. Internally, there is a very small chance of negative side effects such as irritation in the digestive system and nausea. However, most people can eat dried or fresh boiled, juiced and finely ground nettles without a problem. There is, however, a New Zealand species of nettle, urtica ferox, which is so toxic that just a few hairs are enough to kill a guinea pig.

Are dandelion and nettle healthy?

Dandelion and nettle are incredibly healthy. They both contain a wide range of vitamins and minerals. Both plants have been used traditionally for centuries in many parts of the world. Now they are becoming increasingly popular in the Western world as well.

Plus, dandelion and nettle are healthy because you have to get outside to gather them for your salad or juice: that saves another stressful visit to the supermarket. And they’re healthy for your wallet, too.

How do you harvest wild plants?

The healthiest plants are precisely the ones that are most common: these are the strong plants that can conjure up lots of minerals even from poor soil with their powerful roots.
For dandelion and nettle, you don’t have to look far. However, it is wise not to harvest plants growing on the edge of fields because of the use of chemical pesticides. It’s also best to avoid plants along busy roads, and if you’re picking in town, use your farmer’s sense and don’t pick from a dog’s poop bed. Always wash anything you pick at dog-height extra well.

Nettle can be harvested all year, but is most nutritious in early spring; February or March. Dandelion leaves and roots are ditto richest in early spring before flowering. When the field turns yellow you can harvest the flowers for juice or salad: they are also the main ingredient for the classic dandelion wine. Later in the fall, the root of the dandelion can again be harvested well, but now has different molecular qualities.

For nettle, you can use gloves. Take a large linen bag and collect your harvest in it. Nettle dries very well (for tea, for example); dandelion is better consumed directly or used in a tincture.

How can wild plants be used in juices?

Most edible wild plants can just go through the juicer. In the case of dandelion, you could juice the roots, leaves and flowers all together. With each wild plant, it varies which parts are edible and which are not, and different plant parts have different qualities. Therefore, do some good research.

We use dandelion leaf and nettle in our juice Wild. In it you will also find wild buckthorn, hemp leaf and other exciting ingredients such as turnip greens. While we heartily recommend our juice, it may not be so easy to make at home because it contains quite a few unusual ingredients. Therefore, we hereby give you a simplified version of a super-healthy green juice:

Ingredients:

• two stalks of celery
• half a cucumber
• half a squeezed lemon
• a good handful of dandelion leaves or nettles
• one or two green apples

Wash your fresh crop well and cut celery, cucumber and apples into smaller pieces. Feed all those greens to the juicer, squeeze in half your lemon and your super healthy juice is ready.

Conclusion

Nettle and dandelion are packed with nutrients and health benefits, and they have a rich tradition of use on European soil. So you’re not going to get any more “local” than that. Moreover, eating wild plants is adventurous and cannot be done without the primal feeling of going outside to find your own food. That gives a whole other dimension to your juice, promise!

Appelsap! Many Dutch people have grown up with it. As children, we might have asked for a glass of Appelsientje with dinner or received it in a packet to school. But apple juice has more to offer than just the taste, and has more health benefits than you might think. “An apple a day keeps the doctor away,” isn’t a well-known English proverb for nothing. But what exactly makes an apple so healthy? And what about the juice: is that cloudy fresh juice really that much better than apple juice from a pack or concentrate? Along these and a number of other questions, we take you through this article. You can read about it here:

• What are the benefits of apple juice for your health?
• How do you make the best cloudy apple juice yourself?
• Is fresh apple juice healthier than apple juice from a pack?
• Which apple varieties are the healthiest?
• Are organic apples better for your health than non-organic?
• Is apple juice a source of too much sugar?
• Nutritional value of apple
• Is apple juice healthy and why?
• Ordering apple juice

What are the benefits of apple juice for your health?

1. Apple juice for maintaining good blood pressure

Apples and apple juice are a good source of potassium. This mineral is involved in several important functions in your body. One of these functions is the regulation of your blood pressure. Getting enough potassium through your diet helps maintain normal blood pressure. Potassium works in your body together with the minerals sodium and chloride, which you get mainly from table salt (sodium chloride).

2. Apples are high in fiber

Apples contain pectin, a molecule that makes cells stick together and is also sometimes used as a gelling agent for jams, for example. This little substance is found mainly in the skin of the apple. Pectin is a soluble dietary fiber. Fiber is an important part of a healthy diet. The Health Council recommends getting about 30 to 40 grams of fiber per day. An apple with peel contains an average of 2 grams of fiber. Apples can therefore make a nice contribution to your fiber intake. When drinking apple juice, preferably choose a cloudy variety. This still contains the most fiber and healthy nutrients. Clear (filtered) apple juice contains almost no fiber and a lot less nutrients.

3. Apple juice for a well-functioning nervous system

The mineral potassium from apples and apple juice is not only beneficial for blood pressure, it also plays an important role in the functioning of your nervous system. This is because potassium contributes to nerve impulses being properly transmitted between nerve cells. This signal transmission between nerve cells ensures that the various organs in your body can exchange information and work together.

4. Apple juice for your muscles

Your muscles can also benefit from drinking apple juice. This is because the ample amount of potassium from apples is good for the functioning of your muscles. Moreover, it helps keep your muscles strong and flexible.

5. Convenient to combine with vegetable juices

Want to sweeten vegetable juices in a healthy way? Then apple juice is ideal for this purpose. You do add fruit sugars, but also a lot of vitamins and minerals. Our preference is a ratio of about 85% vegetable juice and 15% apple juice. This way you benefit from the delicious sweet taste of apple juice, but the sugar content of your vegetable juice remains low.

How do you make the best cloudy apple juice yourself?

As you read above, cloudy apple juice, which is made by juicing with the peel, is richest in nutrients such as potassium and the fiber pectin. Here we tell you how to make your own apple juice with a juicer or blender. Or you can taste these juices with apples in them.

Apple juice does not keep very long and starts to oxidize almost immediately after pressing. It then turns browner and loses nutrients. Therefore, we recommend making a small amount of juice at a time, such as from four apples. You could also experiment with adding antioxidants to preserve your apple juice longer. There has been research on the effect of green tea extract to prevent oxidation of apple juice[1], so adding a small amount of very strong green tea might help.

Choose organic apples or soak your non-organic apples in warm water with baking soda in it for a few minutes to remove some of the pesticides. You can do this with organic apples as well, since some natural pesticides may also be used in the growing process.

Cut the apples into pieces and remove the cores. The seeds contain a small amount of a toxic substance and although most juicers won’t squeeze them along, you might want to take them out just to be on the safe side.

Feed the apple pieces to the juicer or slow juicer or put everything in the blender with a small amount of water. If using a blender, strain your apple juice through a cheesecloth or fine-mesh sieve.

Ready is your fresh apple juice: drink it as soon as possible or make your kids happy. By the way, it is also delicious with a small piece of ginger and/or lemon juiced along.

Also, have you read about the benefits of ginger shots?

Is fresh apple juice healthier than juice from a pack?

Fresh apple juice does not keep easily, so it is often pasteurized or made from concentrate if you buy it in a pack at the store. Sugar is also often added to extend the expiration date. While this may be understandable for commercial purposes, the loss of nutrients through these processes is significant. According to research, apple juice lost 70% of all antioxidants through pasteurization. [2]

According to another study, preservation at a temperature of -1.5°C was optimal for retaining as many nutrients as possible and minimizing flavor loss.[3] At Sap.je, we choose to freeze our juice immediately after juicing.

Which apple varieties are the healthiest?

One should not compare apples with pears, it is said. Rather, compare apples with apples! After all, one apple is not the other. There are more than 7,500 different apple varieties, most of which are not suitable for mass production.

Green, sour apples such as the Granny Smith contain less sugar (and thus carbohydrates) than sweeter varieties. The differences in nutritional values are not otherwise very large, although the green apple has been found to contain twice as much vitamin A as well as more iron, potassium, dietary fiber and vitamin K than most red apples.

However, the sweeter apple varieties are said to contain the most antioxidants and the sweet, red jonagold apple has the highest pectin content[4].

Is organic apple juice better for your health than non-organic?

This, of course, is something of a no-brainer: Yes! However, we give some extra consideration to this question here because cultivated apples use particularly high levels of various pesticides. As such, apples are number five on the list of “Dirty Dozen” by the U.S. organization EWG, which researches and maps pesticides on food sources.

So organic apple juice is your healthiest option. Do you have your own garden? Then consider planting an apple tree! What could be a greater pleasure than being able to harvest from your own tree every August or September and enjoy a season or more of puree, juice and pie?

Is apple juice a source of too much sugar?

Apple juice contains a fair amount of sugar, consisting of fructose, glucose and dextrose, although the exact amount can vary greatly depending on what types of apples were used and where the apples came from. While apples contribute to a feeling of satiety, this is not necessarily the case with apple juice. Instead, the sweet and hydrating effects could cause you to drink a lot at once. That may not be such a good idea: preferably limit yourself to one glass of apple juice per day.

At Sap.je, we believe that the healthiest juice consists of at least 85% vegetable juice and about 15% fruit juice. You can drink fairly large quantities of our vegetable juices without any problems, whereas you might be better off not knocking back a liter of apple juice in one sitting.

Nutritional value of one medium apple (135 grams)

Is apple juice healthy and why?

Of course, the question of whether apple juice is healthy is not so easy to answer without being specific about what type of apple juice is involved. Fresh cloudy apple juice is healthier than juice from a pack, and juice from sour Granny Smith apples is probably healthier than juice from sweet apples because the sugar content is lower.

If you look at the nutritional value of apples, the content of vitamins and minerals relatively with other fruits and vegetables is not very high. Nevertheless, it seems that some of the dietary fiber such as pectin, especially from the skin of the apple, is very healthy. Pectin is found only in cloudy apple juice and not in clear juice. Apples also contain a number of flavonoids.

So we think apple juice is healthy, provided you choose cloudy juice with no added sugar, and preferably made from organic apples. It is also delicious to combine with other types of vegetable juices, where the apple can add just that touch of sweetness that lifts the taste of your juice from “green” to “divine.”

Ordering apple juice

Apple juice has all sorts of benefits. Apples do not have to travel thousands of miles to reach us, but are our own local superfruits, with roots dating back to our ancestors. Apple juice contains the fiber pectin and the mineral potassium, which is good for your muscles, nervous system and blood pressure. Apple juice is also an excellent way for the bigger sweet tooth or difficult-eating children to introduce a healthier element into the diet. And of course, kids also really enjoy making their own juice. So plant your sapling today and who knows, maybe in about four years you’ll be juicing your own homemade apple juice. Below you can see which juices all contain fresh raw apple and Granny Smith.

Source:

1. Klimczak, I., & Gliszczyńska-Świgło, A. (2017). Green tea extract as an anti-browning agent for cloudy apple juice. Journal of the Science of Food and Agriculture, 97(5), 1420-1426. https://doi.org/10.1002/jsfa.7880
2. Baboli, Z. M., Williams, L., & Chen, G. (2020). Rapid pasteurization of apple juice using a new ultrasonic reactor. Foods, 9(6), 801. https://doi.org/10.3390/foods9060801
3. Gou, X., Tian, Y., Yang, X., Sun, L., & Guo, Y. (2019). Freezing point temperature is in favor of not-from-concentrate apple juice storage. Food Science & Nutrition, 7(7), 2242-2251. 10.1002/fsn3.1028
4. Apple (raw) Benefits, Uses, Side Effects – Joyful Belly School of Ayurveda

In this blog, we take a look at ten of the most healthy vegetables you can add to your healthy lifestyle. Of course, such a list is never quite complete: all kinds of vegetables are healthy for very different reasons. The list below contains 10 toppers worth getting to know better, all of which lend themselves to contributing to your diet and health in many ways. We recommend eating these vegetables organically as much as possible. That way you avoid ingesting pesticides and other toxins into your body. And, of course, growing them yourself is absolutely beautiful!

How do I eat vegetables?

Most leafy greens such as salad and spinach as well as sprouts and celery are really best eaten raw or drunk in a juice to preserve the maximum amount of nutrients. Cabbages change in nutrient content when cooked and some you can digest better when cooked or steamed. The same can apply to red beets and celeriac. All of the vegetables below can also be juiced and most are also used in Sapje’s recipes. Juicing is a good way to make vegetables easier to digest and nutrients more available for absorption in the stomach and intestines.

How many vegetables should I eat a day?

The nutrition center recommends eating 250 grams of vegetables a day. That’s quite a lot and may require some planning; a small salad at lunch, for example, can help meet the target. However, according to new research, the more vegetables, the better. Juices and smoothies, in our opinion, are an ideal way to get a lot of vegetables in one sitting, contributing to a healthy daily intake of vitamins, minerals and other micronutrients.

1. Germs

Sprouts are baby plants of radishes, broccoli, lentils, beets and beans, for example. Since there are many different varieties, the nutritional value can vary quite a bit. Radish, broccoli and beet sprouts are the biggest health hits, leaving bean sprouts far behind in terms of mineral and vitamin content. Since each sprout is the young living beginning of an entire plant, you might imagine they are powerful foods. Broccoli sprouts, for example, are high in vitamin C, A, iron, calcium and dietary fiber. Moreover, they contain up to 60 times more sulforaphane than the adult broccoli. [1]

2. Kale

According to many health sites, in terms of leafy vegetables, kale is the number one choice. Still nice that some of our healthiest greens are the proud main ingredients of our Dutch stew. Kale has been a health trend for more than a decade and graces the juices, smoothies and salads of many a California yoga practitioner. So you can go all sorts of ways with it: classic next to the smoked sausage, Asian-style in miso soup or raw in a juice or smoothie.

Kale contains an impressive amount of nutrients: large amounts of vitamins A, B6, C, folate, potassium and calcium. Because of its high calcium content, kale supports your digestion and helps keep your bones strong, among other things. Moreover, there is a lot of fiber in these curly leaves and it is also packed with antioxidants.

3. Endive

Another Dutch golden oldie: endive. Endive and its close relative chicory are not everyone’s favorite because of their bitter taste. But it is precisely this bitter taste that contributes so much to the healthiness of endive. In addition, bitter vegetables such as endive and chicory typically contain a lot of folic acid (vitamin B11) and especially K. Folic acid contributes to the production of cells and tissues in your body, including the formation of red blood cells. Vitamin K supports the clotting of your blood and is good for your bones.

4. Spinach

Within one generation, spinach has emancipated from creamy frozen frozen cubes to an all-rounder and everyman’s friend. It is less bitter and tough than endive and kale, less spicy than arugula and many times more nutritious than many other lettuce varieties.

Although the famous amount of iron in spinach is not so bad, this leafy vegetable is high in vitamins K, A and B1 and the mineral potassium. Potassium plays a role in maintaining strong muscles. So perhaps Popeye was on the right track after all. In addition, spinach contains glycolipids and nitrates. At Sapje, we have also developed a spinach juice called Recharge that contains a total of 325 grams of vegetables!

5. Beets

Both the leaves and tubers of the beet are a good addition to your diet. Like other root vegetables, beet has a grounding effect. The leaf and tuber (the beet itself) are full of vitamins and minerals, including potassium, an important nutrient for the normal functioning of your muscles. Beets also contain nitrates and betalains. The latter give beets their distinctive red color. You can also get beets in in juice form, we made the drink Energy which has been one of our best-selling juices for years.

6. Cabbage

Cabbage is another vegetable with which you can vary so much that there is something for everyone. If you don’t like cabbage salad, you might like to eat it cooked in (miso) soup or borscht or as part of goulash. If that’s not for you, you can make the cabbage into a juice, or you can ferment it with some salt to make sauerkraut or further process it into kimchi. Raw cabbage is bursting with nutrients such as vitamin C, folic acid and vitamin K. Antioxidants such as vitamin C can help protect your cells and tissues. Cabbage is also very rich in dietary fiber.

7. Seaweed

Seaweed is a great source of all kinds of minerals that you don’t find so easily in “above-water” vegetables. Many types of seaweed contain a large amount of iodine, playing an important role in thyroid function. Alternative nutritionists therefore recommend eating seaweed. The undersea green also contains a variety of vitamins and minerals and is also a good source of antioxidants, dietary fiber and polysaccharides.

The only thing to watch out for with seaweed is that much of it is imported from Japan and thus could contain radioactive particles. That’s why we use seaweed that just grows in the North Sea when juicing dulse!

8. Celery

Celery has assumed an almost magical status thanks to the health trend started by “Medical Medium” Anthony Williams. The Internet overflows with pictures of celebrities with their daily celery juice in hand and with miracle cure stories of all sorts of chronic ailments. Juicing a stalk of celery a day is said to be so healthy because it is incredibly rich in vitamins and minerals. Moreover, celery is one of the most alkaline (i.e., non-acidic) foods and thus can be a good addition to the often highly acidified diets of people in the West.

Anthony Williams attributes many health benefits to celery. While not all of these have been scientifically proven, it is certain that many startling stories can be found about the benefits of celery juice. Also certain is that celery contains high amounts of vitamins C, A and K, as well as the mineral potassium. Read all the benefits of celery juice for your health here.

Celery in a (pure) juice tastes intense, but is super healthy. In a salad it combines well with apple and walnuts, and another tasty way to eat it is as a “dip stem” with (beet) humus or another dip.

9. Celeriac

Since celery and celeriac come from the same plant, it is not too much of a surprise that celeriac is also a very healthy vegetable. Like other roots and tubers, celeriac is a grounding, warming vegetable that does especially well in soups and casseroles. It is also very tasty when baked in slices like a steak or fried like fries.

The tuber contains a palette of nutrients such as vitamins C and B11 and the mineral potassium. Celeriac can also be eaten raw; grated or in a juice. Thanks to its high potassium content, celeriac is good for your blood pressure, among other things. In addition, vitamin B11 (folic acid) and vitamin C are good for your brain function and cognition.

10. Wild: Dandelion Leaf & Nettles

Wild plants usually contain a large number of very important nutrients. Here the rule applies: the more recalcitrant the weeds, the healthier! Therefore, don’t pull all the dandelions and nettles out of your garden, but give them their own field to harvest from. Without any effort, you can enjoy salad leaves (the dandelion), tea (the nettle) and soup or juice vegetables almost all year round. Nettle is bursting with calcium, so it supports your digestion. Among other things, dandelion is a good source of vitamins A and C.

Conclusion

We hope this article has inspired you to start eating more vegetables again. As you may have concluded, there are endless ways you can prepare and consume vegetables. They often have a deep flavor and bring variety and texture to your food. And, of course, after eating a meal with lots of vegetables, you just feel more delicious! And, if you don’t feel like all that cooking stuff, just throw them in the slow juicer, right?

Feed your body with 10 pounds of organic vegetables?

At Sapje, we love making delicious vegetable juices. Because everyone has different tastes, we have developed many different juice recipes. Because we also regularly collaborate with top chefs and health experts, you can now order as many as 16 different vegetable juices from us. This makes it easy to get the nutrients from as many as a hundred seasonal and local ingredients. This variety makes drinking our vegetable juices healthy. All the more reason, then, to order our colorful juice box containing all our slow juices.

Would you like to make your own blueberry juice? With these 2 tasty recipes you can take full advantage of the health benefits of blueberry juice. Want to read more about the health benefits of blueberry juice? Then read more information on this blog.

Did you already know that blueberries contain enormous amounts of healthy nutrients? They are rich in vitamins and minerals and are low in calories. In addition, blueberries are among the most antioxidant-rich foods in the world. The health benefits of antioxidants in blueberries are becoming increasingly clear through scientific research. Read this article if you want to learn more about the health benefits of blueberries. If you want to take advantage of all the goodness in blueberries right away, you can make blueberry juice from them. This way you can easily get a good amount of berries and it’s tasty too! Below are two delicious recipes to make blueberry juice a piece of cake.

Different kinds of blueberries to make juice from

In the Netherlands, you generally encounter two different types of blueberries: one mainly in stores, the other in the wild. Both blueberries are very healthy, but there are differences. The somewhat larger, rounder berries you can usually buy in stores under the name “blueberries” are the fruits of the Vaccinium corymbosum. This is found in the wild in the United States and elsewhere, but not here. However, they are widely cultivated because they grow in clusters and are easy to pick. They have light flesh and a mild, sweet flavor. You can buy them year-round, though sometimes in the frozen section. Even frozen, these blueberries are still healthy. The blueberry that you can also pick in the wild in our Netherlands is a different type of berry, from the Vaccinium myrtillus. This one does not grow in clusters, but with more distance between the berries, which are also somewhat smaller. They have dark purple flesh and taste a bit more acidic and tart. You can pick them in the wild between April and June and sometimes again later in the (late) summer. You can make the following blueberry juice recipes with both types of blueberries.

Blueberry juice recipe

This delicious dark purple juice combines (wild) blue (bilberry) berries with (wild) blackberries, purple bilberry and a little lemon. In spring and (late) summer you can pick the blueberries and blackberries yourself in the wild. This is a fun way to enjoy a beautiful day and free too! Choose berries and blackberries that are a dark blue or purple color, a little soft to the touch and easily detached from the branch. Wild fruits are often very rich in healthy nutrients. Out of season, you can also choose blueberries and blackberries from the store, possibly in frozen form. They hardly lose freshness and nutrients when frozen, if all goes well. Fruits from the freezer are also often a bit more economical. Of course, you should thaw them for a while before pressing them.

Supplies per person:

• 2 handfuls (wild) blackberries
• 1 purple beet with stems
• 1 handful of (wild) blackberry leaves
• 1 handful (wild) blueberries
• 1/4 lemon
• 1 wedge of lemon peel

Preparation:

1. Wash the blackberries well and squeeze them in the slow juicer.

2. Scrub and wash the beet thoroughly and cut into wedges. Squeeze these, including stems, into the slow juicer.

3. Wash the blackberry leaves and squeeze them in the slow juicer.

4. Wash the blueberries and squeeze them in the slow juicer.

5. Squeeze the lemon without peel, but with white rim, in the slow juicer.

6. Finally, squeeze the piece of lemon peel into the slow juicer as well.

Blueberry juice recipe

This blueberry juice with cabbage, plums, carrot and aloe vera supports your immune system, among other things, because it contains a lot of vitamin C. Be surprised by this exciting combination of ingredients! Pick the berries in the forest or buy them at the store. Use aloe vera from your own plant (do follow the instructions carefully).

Supplies per person:

• 2 handfuls of purple pointed cabbage
• 2 roots
• 1 handful of blueberries
• 1 blue plum
• 1/4 stalk of aloe vera

Preparation:

1. Remove and discard the outer leaves of the pointed cabbage. Cut the pointed cabbage small and squeeze it in the slow juicer.

2. Remove the ends of the carrots, cut them into small pieces and squeeze them in the slow juicer.

3. Wash the blueberries and squeeze them in the slow juicer.

4. Remove the stone from the plum and squeeze it in the slow juicer.

5. Cut away the green skin of the aloe vera completely, leaving only the white, slimy fruit, and squeeze it in the slow juicer. Note: remove the peel carefully, as aloe vera peel is toxic to consume!

After juicing, drink your juice as soon as possible. Do you make larger quantities at once for convenience? Then you can freeze what’s left over, if necessary.

Buying blueberry juice: here’s what to look out for

Would you like to make your own blueberry juice, but don’t have the time to do so? Then buying blueberry juice is a good alternative. Preferably choose pure, organic blueberry juice without additives. Blueberry juice without sugar is of course the best. Juice from concentrate often contains much less nutrients, so if you want to benefit from the health benefits of blueberry juice, it is best to leave it out. Want to benefit from the amount of antioxidants in berries? Then our Antioxidant shot is worth a try. In addition to blueberries, this contains other wild berries and fruits with high antioxidant value. You will also find the berries in our Recover juice, Wild juice and Ron’s juice. All our juices are pressed with the slow juicer, immediately frozen and poured into glass to preserve all the healthy nutrients naturally, without unnatural additives. We deliver them to your home with the freezer truck at your convenience. All you have to do is thaw them and enjoy all the good that berries have to offer!

You may have always thought that cucumber consists mainly of water and doesn’t have much else to offer in terms of nutrition. It turns out not! There is more to the cucumber than its use as a pickle or eye mask. To give you a hint: it is packed with healthy nutrients. Not for nothing is this plant a welcome guest within many traditional lifestyles: in Ayurveda, the classical Indian healing tradition, the cucumber is used in many different ways. In this article, we take a look at the richness of the cucumber. We’ll take you through some facts about the cucumber, some health benefits and, of course, a recipe for cucumber juice.

The Cucumber

The cucumber(Cucumis sativus) is officially a fruit (not a vegetable) in the Cucurbitaceae family. There it shares with the squash, zucchini and watermelon its curly tendrils, beautiful flowers and climbing character. If you plant a cucumber seed in fertile soil along your hedge, you’ll pull the cucumbers right out from between the beech leaves in the fall.

The cucumber has been cultivated in West Asia for over 3,000 years: in India, there are a large number of different varieties. In ancient Egypt and ancient Mesopotamia, people ate cucumbers. The Roman Emperor Tiberius was so fond of his daily portion of fresh cucumber that the plant was cultivated even in winter by means of greenhouses with mirrored stone to reflect the sunlight. The Romans also used the cucumber after scorpion bites. In the ^17th century, eating uncooked vegetables went very out of fashion for a long time: people thought it was dangerous and considered the cucumber “fit only for cows.” Some think the name “Cucumber” comes from “cowcumber.”

Cucumber as an Ayurvedic remedy

In Ayurveda, the cucumber has been revered for its cooling qualities for millennia. The ancient Indian tradition is all about balance, and the balance between heat and cold and between wet and dry is particularly important. In Sanskrit, the cucumber is also called sushitalam, or “particularly cooling,” and in English we also know the pronunciation “cool as a cucumber.” So all ailments related to too much “fire” or heat in the system benefit from cucumber, according to Ayurveda. So don’t underestimate the importance of a little coolness!

11 benefits of Cucumber juice for your health

Modern science is also beginning to see the value of the cucumber. The plant certainly contains more nutrients than a glass of water, as we see in this table, for 50 grams or half a cup of cucumber:

• 7.8 calories
• 1.9 grams of carbohydrates
• 0.3 grams of protein
• 0.1 grams of fat
• 0.3 grams of fiber
• 8.5 micrograms of vitamin K (11% RDA)
• 1.5 milligrams of vitamin C (2% RDA)
• 6.8 milligrams of magnesium (2% RDA)
• 76.4 milligrams of Potassium (2% RDA)
• Cucurbitacins

Yes, the cucumber is also a healthy addition to your diet. According to a recent study [1], the green hero contains tannins and flavonoids. Our cucumber juice also contains an awful lot of vitamins and minerals. For example, the large amount of vitamin C helps protect against free radicals. Free radicals, as most people know by now, are a major cause of damage to cells and tissues. Learn more about antioxidants here.

Cucurbitacins are substances found in cucumbers (see the link with the word cucumber?) and other gourd-like plants such as squash.

1. Internal skin care

This is a quality of cucumber that we already know a little from the well-known picture of the Spa gangster with a towel around her head and green slices on her eyes. Indeed, cucumber is a great remedy to combat puffy eyes and puffiness. The hydrating and cooling effect of cucumber is the key here [2]. Place a few slices of cucumber in the refrigerator for 15 minutes and then let them do their work on your eyes and face. You can also make a paste of cucumber, raw honey and chamomile or lavender. The vitamin C in cucumber is important for the formation of collagen, which helps to strengthen the skin from the inside out.

2. Supports your immune system

Our cucumber juice contains a combination of nutrients to provide your immune system support. As we know, a well-functioning immune system is indispensable. Cucumber juice can be a good friend in this regard. The amounts of vitamin A, vitamin C, folic acid and zinc in our cucumber juice help ensure a good resistance.

So a daily glass of cucumber juice provides you with nutrients that, among other things, have a positive impact on the immune system.

3. Contributes to brain function.

Drinking a glass of cucumber juice daily is also a good addition for your mental well-being. This is because the vitamins and minerals in this juice (including folic acid) are good for learning performance, concentration and memory. In addition, they contribute to your mental resilience and it is good for mood. So cucumber juice can come in handy during stressful periods.

4. Cooling effect

Cucumber is an ancient remedy to cool the skin, for example if your skin is slightly burned by the sun. You can use it on the skin, as slices, pulp (in the blender), or by making a paste of it for example with yogurt and aloe vera. Or use the Ayurvedic medicine of cucumber milk: blend a medium-sized cucumber with half a cup of organic milk and half a cup of water [3]. Western science now also recognizes the soothing effect of cucumber juice on the skin against irritation [2].

5. Supports digestion

You can also drink our fresh cucumber juice to support your metabolism and digestion. This is partly because this juice is high in calcium. This mineral plays a role in the activity of enzymes involved in metabolism. In addition, calcium supports the maintenance of healthy digestion. So a big glass of cucumber juice is ideal to drink alongside your meal.

Also consider making a juice for the stomach with cucumber and, for example, lemon juice, mint, celery and apple. Or check out our juice Hydrate, a refreshing juice with cucumber, watermelon and coconut water.

6. Good for the skeleton

Not only for your digestion, but also for your bones, calcium is an important mineral. In fact, calcium is important for the composition of your bones and helps keep your bones strong. Since your bones are the foundation of a strong and healthy body, it is important to give your skeleton the proper support on a daily basis.

7. Good for the heart

The dose of vitamin B1 in our cucumber juice has a beneficial effect on your heart. This is because thiamine (or vitamin B1) contributes to the normal functioning of the heart. Moreover, vitamin C in this juice helps keep your blood vessels strong and supple. A heart-healthycombination!

8. Good for muscles

In every movement you make, your muscles are important. Even your heart is a muscle. For people who do a lot of sports, muscles are of course extra important. But it is also important to keep your muscles strong and flexible in order to age fit and healthy. This is where our cucumber juice can make a nice contribution. This is because this fresh juice is rich in the mineral potassium. Potassium plays a role for muscle function and maintaining strong and supple muscles.

9. Hydration for after exercise

We’ve already mentioned it a bit; cucumber juice is a super hydrator. It has probably been used as a natural “electrolyte drink” for a long time. Nowadays you have the AAs and Mountaindews, but how much more fun are you doing your body with, say, a juice made from cucumber and watermelon?

On a hot day, during illness or after intense exercise and sweating, this is a nice way to provide your body with extra fluids while also taking in the pure, clean water that comes from these fruits and vegetables. Also wonderfully refreshing on a hot day is a blend of cucumber, mint, water and lemon and you will be surprised how nice it is to add a little sea salt in there.

10. Helps with fatigue

Finally, cucumber juice is also a good drink to help reduce lack of energy. Are you having a busy time feeling tired? Then cucumber juice can be an excellent addition. Several vitamins and minerals in this drink (including vitamin C and B vitamins) help reduce fatigue.

Does cucumber also have health risks?

You might not think it, but the cucumber is not the healthiest snack in all circumstances and in all quantities. As you can read above, the plant has many powerful activities and some of them are not always convenient! For example, the high moisture content of cucumber causes you to urinate often, which can be inconvenient, for example, during pregnancy or during a conference.

Furthermore, cucumber can cause flatulence in some people. If your stomach is sensitive to cabbage, broccoli and onion, it is also better to treat the cucumber with some caution.

Cucurbitacins come in many varieties, and some can actually be harmful to the body. You will never run that risk if you buy a cucumber in the store (or a cucumber juice), but you will if you grow them yourself: if a cucumber (or a squash or a zucchini) tastes bitter, it’s better not to eat it!

The final, rather strange “risk” is that people with milk allergies can sometimes have a reaction to cucumber. This has nothing to do with the cucumber itself, but rather with the wax coating applied to (also often organic) cucumbers: it contains a component derived from milk.

Is cucumber juice healthy?

All in all, we believe that cucumber juice is absolutely healthy. The various vitamins and minerals it provides and its high moisture content are all super important qualities that our bodies can put to good use. Not to mention those glowing, brighter eyes after a cucumber mask, of course.

But don’t overdo it: there’s no need to eat three cucumbers a day, and during a bout of the flu, maybe take it easy on this green friend.

Cucumber Juice Recipe

Medical Medium Anthony Williams recommends juicing two whole cucumbers without any other ingredients. To do this, take two organic cucumbers, chop them into smaller pieces (with skin!) and run them through the (slow) juicer. You can also use a blender, but according to Williams, it is important to strain out the fiber afterwards by running the juice through a fine sieve or cheesecloth.

If you still find the above juice a little too boring, here we give you a slightly tastier alternative.

Ingredients:
– 1/2 cucumber
– 3 stalks of celery
– 1 lemon
– 2 sprigs of mint
– 2 sprigs of parsley
– 1 green apple
– optional: half a yellow bell bell pepper

Wash all ingredients. Even organic cucumbers often contain a layer of wax, so you do well to scrub them a bit. Remove the zest from the lemon and the seeds from the bell bell pepper, if you are using them. If the mint has woody sticks, it’s best to remove the leaves. Cut all the ingredients into pieces about three inches long and feed them one by one to your juice press. And ready is this delicious fresh, hydrating and cooling juice. Super convenient for a deacidification and immune boost.

You can also juice the same ingredients in a blender; use a fine-mesh sieve or cheesecloth to strain the fibers from the juice.

Conclusion

There is more to the cucumber than we thought! Both ancient traditions and modern science recognize its healthy qualities: in juices, smoothies and salads, it brings many important nutrients and healthy properties. We like to see the cucumber frequently in our diet.

Have you ever imagined eating or drinking nothing but vegetable juice for a few days? Maybe you can’t wait to pamper your body with tasty vegetable juices for a few days. Or maybe you already get nightmares at the idea of a week without coffee and solid food. Whichever category you belong to, juice fasting is a health trend that captures the imagination and raises questions for many people.

In the world of health and lifestyle, juice fasting is mostly praised and embraced as an ideal way to unwind your body and mind and provide overall vitality* support. But what exactly are the ins and outs of juice fasting? What are the benefits and are there any drawbacks: perhaps even dangers? Is it really as healthy as claimed? And is it for everyone? In this article, we take a closer look at juice fasting. We will do our best to answer the above questions and others and to bring you the latest scientific insights.

What is juice fasting?

What is a detox?

The juice fast detox

Why is juice fasting good?

Experiences of juice fasting

Effects of juice fasting on the body

The benefits of juice fasting

The disadvantages of juice fasting

Juice fasting at home: How do you do it?

How long and how many days?

Juice fasting preparation

Order cleanses

Juice fasting: Healthy or unhealthy?

Frequently asked questions about juice fasting

What is Juice Fasting?

So, what exactly is such a juice fast or detox cleanse? How does it work?

There are all kinds of ways to juice fast. Juice fasting can be as simple as replacing your daily breakfast with a hefty glass of celery juice in the morning. In an intensive juice fast, you temporarily replace all of your food with juice. A juice fasting cleanse is a form of fasting in which you ingest nothing but squeezed juice from vegetables, fruits, spices and herbs for one or several days.

If you make the decision to go juice fasting with a cleanse, there are still many paths you can take. You could go for a ready-made juice fast cure in the form of a juice pack. For the do-it-yourselfer who owns a slow juicer, there is also the option of juicing yourself. However, it is important to research proper preparation (pretox) and winding down (aftertox). You can find more info on home juice fasting later in this article. If you are wondering how best to juice at home, or if you are looking for recipes or information on choosing the right (slow) juicer, read on!

A one-day juice fast can already provide your body with a lot of vitamins and minerals. Many people choose a juice fast of three, five or, for those with a little more experience, seven days.

What is detox?

Detoxification is a normal process within your body. On a daily basis, your body neutralizes and eliminates harmful toxins through the colon, liver, kidneys, lungs, lymph nodes and skin. When your body is in optimal health, it can continue to perform daily body processes properly.

According to this research, the large amounts of vitamins and minerals you ingest during juice fasting can help support your immune system¹ and your overall vitality. Our contemporary diet contains too much animal protein, carbohydrates, E numbers, pesticides, sugar, salt, saturated fats, caffeine and alcohol. This can disrupt our bodies.

The juice cure

At Sapje, we work with a juice fast. This juice fast cleanse includes 100% freshly squeezed, organically certified juices, soup, tea and complementary natural shots with ginger, turmeric, ginseng, coriander, parsley and wheatgrass. In the 1, 3, 5 or 7 day juice fast you get the nutrients from many pounds of organic fruits and vegetables. A juice detox is a short, liquid cleanse designed to unwind the mind and body. The juice detox provides the body with sufficient fuel, natural vitamins, vegetable fats, proteins, amino acids, minerals and lots of micronutrients. The main reason for following a juice detox is to give the digestive system a break by not offering it heavy proteins, fats and sugars for a few days. This gives the body the opportunity to unwind.

Why juice fasting? Surely my body cleanses and detoxifies itself?

Yes indeed, the body is a self-cleaning system and it does eliminate toxins and other harmful substances on its own. But to keep your body’s self-cleansing function as effective as possible, it is important to minimize delaying factors. The main goal of juice fasting is to ensure that your body can continue to perform its natural functions as well as possible. Juices are not miracle drugs. They can never take over a body’s immensely complicated functions. However, the healthy micronutrients contained in the vegetable juices do help support your body’s natural functions.

Even if you’ve been eating super healthy for years, it can’t hurt to give your body a break and extra support from time to time. We unfortunately live in a world where everyone ingests toxins, no matter how hard you try.

History

Fasting was a very normal process long ago. It seems that in prehistoric times all people “fasted” from time to time. Often by necessity people ate little or nothing during part of the day or part of the year, in some cultures this is still true today. Almost all religions around the world use fasting as part of annual rituals. Contemporary fasting cures such as a vegetable juice cleanse mimic those ancient diets. Temporarily reducing the intake of highly digestible nutrients such as sugars, fat, alcohol, and protein is said to have a positive effect on health and quality of life. The nutrients in a juice cleanse support overall vitality¹ and balance between body, mind, and spirit. You can think of a detox as a key to a healthy and balanced life.

There are several ways to fast. Stopping sugar, alcohol, medication, caffeine and smoking for a long(er), continuous period of time is also a way to give your body rest and support. Regular meditation or exercise also helps keep your body healthy, as these activities also provide more balance and contribute to normal organ function.

Customer experiences

Let’s see what juice fasting can do for your body. And most importantly, what does it feel like? What are the experiences of people doing a juice fast cleanse?

Overall, the 100 participants in Sapje’s test group felt very tired with a little headache after the first day and reborn on the third day.

Almost everyone experiences a feeling of (sometimes severe) fatigue during the first one or two days of juice fasting. It is therefore important to build in sufficient rest during the period you choose for your juice fast. The effects of the juice fast are not always easy to predict. Other side effects that occur include headaches, diarrhea, congestion, muscle aches and restless sleep. If these symptoms occur, it probably means your body is settling down. Also, these symptoms may occur because you are stopping harmful foods and drinks. So the juice cleanse is doing its job!

Therefore, these symptoms should go away on their own after a few days. You will feel energetic again and experience an overall “clean” and healthy feeling.

Side effects and effects of juice fasting listed

The possible negative side effects of juice fasting, which are far from common to everyone, are (from most to least common):

• Headache
• Sweating
• Restless sleep (weird dreams and nightmares)
• Extreme cravings for (unhealthy) food
• Muscle pain
• Fatigue
• Low energy level
• Irritations
• Bloating
• Nausea/vomiting

Possible positive experiences during and after juice fasting are:

• More energy for fatigue (including through vitamin C and folate)
• Normal concentration (due in part to iron and zinc)
• Euphoria
• Soft, shiny skin
• Deeper breathing
• More intense taste sensation

Effects of juice fasting on the body

Sometimes during a juice fast cleanse, it seems like you can literally feel your body come to rest. But what exactly happens in the various systems of the body during juice fasting? The main effects at a glance.

• Contributes to the process of cell renewal (by folic acid, among others)
• Supports the immune system (through vitamin C and zinc, among others)
• Helps keep skin healthy from the inside out (through vitamin A, among others)
• Supports normal muscle function (due to potassium, among other factors)
• Helps maintain smooth and strong blood vessels (due to vitamin C)
• Beneficial for good mental balance (due to vitamin B1, among others)
• Good for blood pressure (due to potassium)
• Protection against oxidative damage (by vitamin E, among others)
• Promotes energy metabolism (by including B vitamins)
• Helps normal oxygen transport in the body (due to iron)
• Supports digestion (due to calcium)
• Good for eyesight (due to vitamin A, among others)

The Benefits of Juice Fasting:

Despite the many positive stories about juice fasting, you may still have your doubts about whether juice fasting is really such a wise idea. Is juice fasting really healthy? Some sources advocate a diet with more variety and more fiber than what juices can offer. And there are certainly conceivable health situations in which juice fasting is not such a good idea. Let’s list some of the benefits of juice fasting.

1. Juice fasting can support your immune system

A juice fast detox cleanse can support your immune system and therefore help maintain a healthy and vital body. This is because the wide variety of organic ingredients in vegetable juices are packed with micronutrients known to have a positive impact on your immune system. Examples include vitamins C and A, folic acid, iron and zinc. In vegetable juice, these nutrients are present in their completely natural form.

2. Juice fasting against oxidative damage

The vegetable juices you drink while juice fasting contain many antioxidants. These are active substances in your body that help trap free radicals. These free radicals can cause damage to your body cells, so you don’t want too many of them in your body. The antioxidants from vegetable juices can help protect your body from damage in this way. The vitamins B2, C and E and the minerals copper, manganese and zinc, among others, that are commonly found in vegetable juices have antioxidant functions.

Find and order a juice fasting package with a content of at least 80% vegetable juice and less than 20% fruit juice. Preferably also packaged in glasses and not plastic bottles. At Sapje you can order a cleanse of juice order based on organic vegetable juice of the highest quality delivered throughout the Netherlands and Belgium. Always consult a qualified physician if you are considering a juice fasting cure to support your health or to change your lifestyle in a positive way.

3. Juice fasting is a good way to replenish your micronutrients

With a juice, you treat your body to a bomb of nutrients. Vegetable juice contains an alphabet of vitamins, minerals, amino acids and antioxidants.

Read more benefits of drinking vegetable juice for your health here.

4. Juice fasting can lead to healthier habits

Especially for people with unhealthy eating habits and a penchant for alcohol, coffee and tobacco, juice fasting can take a lot of getting used to at first. The pronounced “green” taste of some juices can cause some discomfort at first. Fortunately, our body is a sensible and flexible system. It is happy to be moved to healthier habits!

The taste buds, for example, are very changeable. The body can reset itself to find exactly the things that are healthy for you. Often we find exactly the things we do not like healthy. The good news is that it is possible to change this. Once the body is in a healthy flow and experiences how delicious it is, it will naturally start to adapt more and more in the right direction. So beware: juice fasting can change your whole life!

The disadvantages of juice fasting

1. Little fiber

The main difference between juice and smoothie is that during the pressing process of juice, most of the fiber is removed. The advantage of this is that fiber does not interfere with nutrient absorption. A disadvantage is that fiber itself is important and healthy substances. At Sapje we screw press the juice with a special slow juicer where you still get 20% of the fiber and also 100% of the insoluble fiber.

2. Juice fasting can be intense and challenging

A juice fast cleanse of 3, 5 or 7 days is a profound event for the body and mind. All kinds of things can get stirred up physically and emotionally. It is important to handle fasting wisely. It is smart to pick a week when not too many other drastic things are happening in your life. In addition, it is very important to follow a proper preparation and winding down, the pretox and aftertox. This helps make the juice fasting period an enjoyable time. With proper preparation, the body and mind will maintain their balance better.

For some people or in some periods of life, it is not so wise to follow a juice fast cleanse. During pregnancy and menstruation, juice fasting is not recommended. For people with mental illnesses such as psychosis, it may also be unwise. Also persons with an eating disorder usually better not to juice fast. In case of serious psychological and physical complaints, it is always important to consult a doctor before starting a juice fast cleanse.

3. Juice fasting can be expensive

If you want to support your body through a juice fasting cleanse, it is wise to use only organic produce for your juices. The chemicals used on non-organic vegetables and fruits are exactly those heavy toxins we want to avoid during juice fasting.

Unfortunately, fresh organic fruits and vegetables are not cheap. And a juice often requires considerably more vegetables than you would use for a regular meal. So the price of a week of juice fasting can quickly add up. If you order a juice fast orders, you can be assured that you are ingesting high-quality juice with a wide variety of nutrients, and what’s more, you don’t have to purchase a slow juicer. Often the organic cleanses are pricey, though. You might consider, however, that following a detox cleanse might still be a good investment in the long run. As your body builds healthier habits, you will spend less money on alcohol and cigarettes, for example, and hopefully end up saving on any medical expenses!

Juice fasting at home, how do you do it?

Welcome to the wonderful world of juice fasting! Are you curious about how to do a juice fast yourself at home? We are happy to offer you Sapje’s knowledge and experience as support on this adventure.

Juice fasting cleanse recipes

Making the most delicious and beautiful vegetable juices is quite an art! If you are wondering how best to combine ingredients to make the healthiest and tastiest juices possible, we have a few pages of juice recipes here. In general, it often works well to combine ingredients of the same color. We also recommend using as many vegetables and tubers as possible for your juice, and up to 30% of fruit. This is to avoid a high intake of fruit sugars.

For delicious, unusual flavors, you can also work with herbs and spices, and don’t forget the super-healthy zest of the lemon, for example! Have fun and experiment. Creative juicing can lead to great joy! Create a good balance by using as wide a variety of ingredients as possible. Use only raw and as many organic vegetables as possible for the most healthy and pure juicing experience!

Juice fasting: how long and how many days?

Ultimately, how long you keep up the juice fast is entirely up to you. There are people who juice fast for weeks, but for the beginner, we recommend a 1, 3 or 5 day juice fast cleanse. Juice fasting for 1 day can be a wonderful gift to you. A 3- or 5-day juice fast is a bit more intense and requires good planning.

It helps to make clear agreements with yourself in advance about how long your juice fast cleanse is going to take. This prevents confusion along the way. It is smart to work with eating schedules. This way you know in advance when you will drink which juice. In this way, you can plan a healthy and balanced day in which you can be sure to get a varied amount of nutrients from vegetable juice, at regular times. A clear structure can help our minds relax during the adventure of a juice fast!

Juice fasting preparation

Juice fasting requires proper preparation. Do research on healthy and balanced recipes. Do your shopping in advance and make a juice schedule so you know when you will drink which juice. You may need a good slow juicer purchase.

Perhaps the most important preparation is for your body to gradually prepare itself for the juice cleanse by what is known as a pretox. We have found that taking the pretox and aftertox seriously usually leads to a much more pleasant and effortless experience during the juice fast. Start adjusting your eating habits at least three days in advance. It is wise to stop coffee, alcohol and cigarettes three days before the juice fast. We also recommend not consuming meat and as little sugar as possible during the pretox. You could already start by drinking juices a few times a day, for example instead of a snack. Build off animal protein during the pretox and also eat less fat.

For the aftertox, you can maintain similar habits as for the pretox. It is really advisable not to immediately start back with heavy meals and toxins such as alcohol and caffeine. Give your body a gift by rebuilding slowly. You then have a greater chance that the healthier habits of juice fasting will permanently change something in your lifestyle patterns.

Ordering juice fasting cleanses

Juice fasting: healthy or unhealthy?

With all this info listed, we can ask ourselves what the final conclusion is: is juice fasting healthy or unhealthy?

We believe juice fasting is a healthy option for almost all people. It gives your body and mind a reset that can provide more balanced and healthier living habits. You support your immune system¹ support and your digestion gets a rest. By temporarily eating less, you mimic scarcity for your body. During juice fasting, you will ingest several pounds of vegetables per day and thus a large amount of micronutrients.

Do you take medication or want to juice fast for more than 7 days? If so, always consult with a specialist or physician. There are people who have fasted on juices for 30 to 60 days and feel excellent.

Many people in the Netherlands could change their lifestyle by fasting. But always fast wisely: don’t make it a competition and only do it out of love and care for yourself.

Frequently asked questions about Juice Fasting

Drinking beet juice is healthy for the body and mind, according to research. Here we list 10 benefits of beet juice.

WHAT MAKES BEET JUICE SO HEALTHY?

Beet juice is made from the tuber and possibly leaves of the Beta vulgaris plant, better known as the red beet or kroot. This ancient Dutch vegetable with its deep purple-red color has become very popular in recent years. The powerful juice from these earthy-tasting tubers is therefore full of healthy nutrients. Thanks to several scientific studies on the health benefits of red beets, we know that they are rightfully counted among the superfoods. Find out below what regular beet juice drinking can do for your health. Want to make your own beet juice? Then check out the healthy and delicious beet juice recipes below. But first: 10 benefits of beet juice for your health!

1. Beet juice is full of vitamins and minerals

It may seem like a simple juice, but make no mistake: beet juice is rich in healthy nutrients. Before we get into the health benefits of beet juice, let’s list the most important ones for you. Beet juice contains nice amounts of:

• iron (helps normal oxygen transport in your body)
• vitamin A (good for your eyes, skin and iron balance)
• vitamin B6 (helps make red blood cells and is important for your metabolism)
• vitamin C (is good for your immune system and nervous system, is important for skin. Helps protect against free radicals)
• vitamin K (helps with normal blood clotting and maintaining strong bones)
• folic acid (helps make cells and tissues)
• potassium (supports your nervous system, muscles and blood pressure)
• manganese (important for your metabolism and cell protection, among other things)
• copper (good for your immune system, hair, skin and nervous system)
• phosphorus (good for your bones and teeth)

2. Beet juice supports the production of red blood cells

Red beets are a natural source of the mineral iron. This contributes to the normal formation of hemoglobin and red blood cells. Drinking beet juice can therefore contribute to normal oxygen transport in your body. Iron is also important for maintaining a strong immune system, adequate energy and a clear mind. In addition to iron, beet juice also contains a lot of vitamin C, which in turn helps with the absorption of iron in your body. If that’s not an ideal combination…

3. Beet juice is good for your blood pressure

Do you suffer from high blood pressure? If so, you may also benefit from drinking beet juice. Several studies show that drinking 250 milliliters of beet juice a day can help lower your blood pressure ( 1, 2, 3). Researchers relate this effect to the hefty amount of nitrate naturally present in beet juice. Because high blood pressure can lead to various cardiovascular diseases, it is wise to look into lowering it.

Want to give your blood pressure extra support? Then you can also benefit from drinking beet juice. Beet juice, in fact, is rich in potassium. This mineral is beneficial for blood pressure. So by drinking beet juice, you can naturally give your blood pressure a helping hand.

4. Beet juice can help prevent cardiovascular disease

Beet juice contains a lot of vitamin C, which is an important nutrient for your blood vessels. Because vitamin C contributes to the formation of collagen which is important for maintaining a strong vessel wall, also collagen is important for supple veins. The iron in beets also contributes to the normal transport of oxygen in your body.

A scientific study (4) on the effect of nitrate from beet juice in healthy volunteers showed that this substance can help prevent cardiovascular disease.

5. Beet juice helps maintain healthy skin

Beet juice contains several nutrients that help maintain healthy and even skin. The first is vitamin C. Vitamin C is an antioxidant, which helps protect against damage to your skin cells, such as from UV radiation. Vitamin C is also important for the production of collagen in your body, which help support the condition of the skin. Beets are also a natural source of betalains, oxidants that have a purifying effect. Because these also have an anti-inflammatory (5) effect, they can help prevent skin inflammation associated with acne. The mineral copper in beet juice contributes to the normal pigmentation of your skin.

6. Beet juice supports energy levels

Beet juice is a drink to activate your natural energy. There are several B vitamins in the juice, especially B6 and B11. B6 and the mineral iron in this deep red drink activate your natural energy in your body. B11 is good for fatigue.

7. Beet juice can help protect your cells

Beet juice is rich in many different nutrients, including antioxidants. These capture so-called free radicals, which can cause damage to your cells.

8. Beet juice has anti-inflammatory properties.

Beets owe their red color to betalains. These are often used as natural dyes in the food industry, but they can also be very healthy. For example, research (6) shows that they have anti-inflammatory properties. Do you suffer from inflammatory diseases such as gout or rheumatoid arthritis? Then drinking beet juice can provide relief.`

9. Beet juice contributes to brain and nerve function

Beet juice is not only good for your body, but also for psycholosic function. First, it contains a lot of folic acid, which is good for your concentration and memory, among other things. As a result, beet juice helps maintain your normal cognitive performance. In addition, beet juice contains iron, which plays an important role in mental effort and contributes to normal problem-solving abilities.

10. Beet juice supports your athletic performance

Did you already know that beet juice is an excellent sports drink? Especially if you drink it before you start your workout, you can benefit from the supportive effects of beet juice when exercising. Research shows that beet juice makes amateurs perform better, especially in oxygen consumption(7). It is not for nothing, then, that beet juice is incredibly popular among athletes. Beet juice contains a remarkable number of nutrients that can have a positive effect on your endurance and muscle strength, among other things.

Nitrate

Beet juice naturally contains high levels of nitrate. This substance can be converted into nitric oxide (NO) in your body. So for avid athletes looking for a way to increase their nitrate intake, beet juice is ideal.

Several studies show (8) that drinking beet juice can improve your athletic performance. This is due in part to the amount of nitrate in beet juice. This substance is converted into nitrite in your body, which then promotes the production of nitric oxide. This causes your blood vessels to dilate, making it easier for your blood (and oxygen) to flow through your muscles. This has positive effects on your muscle function: you may experience increased endurance, for example.

Betalain, betanin, betaine

Another study (9) found that the betalain in beet juice also has a positive effect on blood flow to your muscles, both during and after exercise. The results of another study (10) suggests that betalain can increase your muscle strength.

Other vitamins and minerals

Several vitamins and minerals make drinking beet juice especially interesting for athletes. Think for example of iron, this activates your natural energy in your body, folic acid supports with lethargy. Vitamin B6 contributes to the energy supply of muscles, or potassium, which helps keep your muscles strong and flexible. Did you get excited about the health benefits of beet juice? Further down you will find tasty recipes that will help you make your own beet juice. Also, be sure to read the comments about beet juice below.

What else you need to know about beet juice and your health

As you have been able to read, drinking beet juice has many positive effects on your health. However, beet juice can also cause some unexpected side effects, which are not necessarily negative, but good to know. Due to the strong dyes in beet juice, your stool and urine may take on a reddish-purple tint. This is nothing to worry about, but it may look a little strange at first.

Furthermore, it is important not to drink large amounts of beet juice every day. In fact, some people may experience adverse effects if they ingest too much nitrate. For example, are you predisposed to kidney stones or other problems with your kidneys? Then it is wise to drink beet juice in moderation. This is because the oxalic acid in beet juice can bind calcium to it, which can start to crystallize into kidney stones.

Making your own beet juice: 3 recipes from Sapje

Want to make your own red beet juice? We’d like to make it easier for you with these three recipes. If you want to take full advantage of the healthy nutrients in red beets, it is important that you choose fresh, organic red beets. These are available year-round in the Netherlands. Use both the tubers and the leaves and wash them carefully beforehand. There is no need to peel them. Making your beet juice with a slow juicer will also give you the healthiest results. Slow juicing is the best way to preserve the original nutrients from your ingredients. These recipes for beet juice can also be made with the juicer. Another tip: remember that beets give off a strong color. So wear a good apron to protect your clothes and preferably use materials that the dyes cannot soak into.

Recipe red beet juice for sports

This red beet juice with cherries is an excellent sports drink. Cherries, like red beets, contain several nutrients that support your body during and after exercise. They promote your sports performance and recovery afterwards. Not for nothing do we use this combination in our proven Recover juice, which top athletes love to rely on. Moreover, they make the color even more purple and the taste a bit richer and sweeter. The carrot provides some extra body, the lemon juice some freshness and the turmeric some spice.

Ingredients:

• 2 x beet with the beet leaves
• 2 handfuls of cherries (possibly from the freezer, thaw first)
• 1 carrot
• ½ lemon
• 1 piece of fresh turmeric

Preparation:

Carefully wash all the ingredients, cut them a little smaller, remove any seeds from the cherries and squeeze this delicious beet juice with the slow juicer or juicer. Drink your beet juice as soon as possible to preserve its freshness and nutrients.

Recipe pure red beet juice

This red beet juice recipe is perfect for lovers of that warm, earthy and sweet taste that beets are known for. The carrot and ginger enhance this effect and increase the antioxidant value of this beet juice. The lime adds a surprisingly fresh touch.

Ingredients:

• 2 x beet with leaves
• 2 x carrot
• ½ lime
• 1 piece of fresh ginger

Preparation:

Wash all the ingredients carefully, cut them a little smaller if necessary and squeeze this delicious beet juice with the slow juicer or juicer.

Recipe sweet and creamy beet juice (also accessible to kids)

As healthy as beets are, the earthy taste sometimes takes some getting used to, especially for children. This red beet juice becomes extra smooth and creamy with the addition of sweet potato and extra sweet and fresh thanks to the pineapple and orange. They also add nice amounts of vitamins A and C. So this tasty beet juice is also perfect for stronger resistance and healthy skin.

Ingredients:

• 1 red beet
• 1 orange sweet potato / sweet potato
• 2 slices of pineapple
• 1 whole orange without peel

Preparation:

Wash all the ingredients carefully, cut them a little smaller if necessary and squeeze this delicious beet juice with the slow juicer or juicer.

Prefer to order organic beet juice?

Want to enjoy the health benefits of fresh organic beet juice, but don’t have time to make it yourself? Not to worry, you can of course order it from Sapje. Both the aforementioned Recover juice and the powerful Energy juice have beet as one of the main ingredients. Both beet juices are very suitable as sports drinks, but also delicious during a long day. Of course, they are also an excellent general support for your health.

Especially check out the range of healthy nutrients present in these beet juices. They are made from the best fresh, organic and local ingredients and hand-pressed with the slow juicer. We then freeze the juices directly with the shock freezer to naturally preserve freshness and nutrients. Order your beet juices through our website and we will come and deliver them frozen to your home at a time that suits you. We also sell a sample box that includes Energy. That way you can easily experience all the goodness that fresh beet juice has to offer!