Much of the food eaten today has been so processed that it is almost completely devoid of any life-giving forces. Cooking produce puts it in an altered state, in fact, cooked food can be described as nutritionally dead food. And you can’t feed or energize and vitalize your body 100% with anything that’s dead. Vegetable and fruit juices you buy in cans, bottles, or boxes have been pasteurized, and the high heat from pasteurization destroys their life-giving enzymes and amino acids. The nutrition facts you read on the label of the container is the nutritional analysis of the juices before pasteurization.

So why juicing? Why not just eat the raw produce? Well, for optimal health, the digestive system cannot assimilate the recommended volume of raw vegetables and fruits that it would take to give us 100% of the food value recommended by USDA in sufficient quantities just by eating them; we can’t consume that much bulk. In fact, nutritionists now say the USDA daily recommended 3-5 servings of vegetables and 2-4 servings of fruits should more accurately be stated as pounds instead of servings to take into account the mineral and other nutrient depletion of the soil in which produce is grown.

Juicing solves this problem. It’s easier to drink the recommended allowance of fruits and vegetable than it is to eat them. So instead of having to eat several pounds of produce, with a juicer the solids are eliminated, and what you have left is concentrated juice only, the live, life-giving source so essential for sound health. It’s still important to eat some amount of vegetables and fruits for the fiber or roughage they contain. Fiber is essential for scouring toxins and waste out of the colon.

Bear in mind that when you drink juice, you’re drinking a very concentrated form of nutrition, and this nutrition, which includes sugar, is released into the blood stream within minutes. Be advised that you should consult your physician before starting a juicing regimen, if you suffer from any blood glucose health related issues such as diabetes.

Manage your weight loss diet to a successful conclusion.

If you’re going on a diet for the sole purpose of losing weight, it requires discipline, a regular exercise program and counting calories, but not much else. What? Isn’t that enough trouble? Sure, but think of your weight loss diet program from the positive, glass-half-full perspective. People who are on ‘restricted’ diets, such as heart or diabetes patients, have many more factors to consider with every bite they take. So take heart. You can do it! The properly managed and planned weight loss diet lets you plan your menus and count calories, while allowing for an occasional forbidden treat. Let’s go over each aspect and see how you can stick to the program, without undue suffering, and still achieve your goal.

We’ll start with the discipline factor. Just as with any endeavor, you need to abide by the rules. For example, you’ve got to be on time to work. Students need to turn in assignments on a timely basis and drivers have to obey traffic laws. Conforming to these rules becomes simply a matter of habit. However, managing your weight loss diet program means that you make the rules.

For example, if your goal is to lose one pound a week, you’ll need to reduce your caloric intake by 500 calories a day. Let’s say you normally drink four or five regular sodas a day. Cutting back to just two a day cuts your calories by an awesome 400. Substituting a piece of fruit for your usual afternoon candy bar and you’ve reached your weight loss program goal!

Now let’s move on to exercise. If you want to enhance the effectiveness of your managed weight loss diet, know that exercise is your friend. A regular program of daily exercise burns calories. Your weight loss exercise program of choice makes all the difference. If you hate jogging, you won’t follow through. Choose something you truly enjoy. Do you like dancing to music? Turn on some music and dance to your heart’s content. A half hour of such activity burns lots of calories. With headphones, you can lose weight in the wee hours of the morning, without disturbing anyone and have a good time doing it! Do something you like and do it every day.

OK, how about counting calories? On a weight loss diet program, calories are the bottom line. Tailor your menus for maximum satisfaction and minimal suffering. If there’s nothing you like more than a juicy burger, there are a number of ways to have your cake and eat it too. Instead of packing your burger bun with beef, try a chicken or turkey burger. Soy burgers are another healthy, low calorie option, loaded with nutrition. Just as juicy and tasty, these burgers have far fewer calories.

Good weight loss diet programs include foods high in fiber. High fiber foods sometimes require that your body expend more calories in digesting the food than the calories contained. Fruits, like apples, and vegetables such as broccoli, cauliflower, leafy greens and carrots are high in fiber, packed with nutrients, and low in calories. Here’s a great weight loss secret. Eating an apple before lunch quenches your appetite, due to the high fiber content, making you feel full before you ever tackle lunch. You’ll need less food for your meal, consume fewer calories, feel satisfied rather than deprived, and burn off some of the calories you’ve already ingested.

Managing a successful weight loss diet program is easier than you might think. Planning is the key. Count your calories, exercise and stick to your menus. This formula allows you to lose weight while enjoying an occasional piece of cake or an ice cream cone without guilt! It’s doable! Watch the pounds disappear.

Vitamin supplements are not needed if you eat healthy, according to the currently prevailing advice from doctors. This is not necessarily true. For one thing, many of us eat on the fly, with a couple of fast food dinners and a couple more ready-to-nuke convenience meals consumed each week. For another, due to environmental issues, your commercially grown veggies are not only (sometimes, as with tomatoes) artificially colored up, they’ve been sprayed from beginning to end with pesticides and very often do not deliver the nutrients you expect. When a grower fails to rotate crops, as is the case on large commercial farms, the soil becomes progressively depleted.

This brings us to those Recommended Dietary Allowances (RDAs). These are figures our government puts out, also not necessarily true. In the alternative health community, it’s well known that these RDAs are, in great part, way off the mark, to our detriment. Alternative medicine typically suggests that the RDA of most vitamins should be increased by at least a third and sometimes doubled.

For example, the RDA for folic acid (vitamin B9) is set at 400mcg per day for adults and 600mcg for pregnant women. Dietary sources of folic acid are few, mainly found in green leafy vegetables, but only supplying in the range of 150mcg per half cup serving. Fortified breakfast cereals contain anywhere from 200-400mcg per cup serving. This makes a good case for taking vitamin supplements, or a good multi-vitamin.

If you’ve checked prices on different vitamin supplement brands, you’ve probably noticed there can be a wide discrepancy in prices. Aren’t they all the same? No! In the case of multi-vitamins, there may be a couple of problems. While promising 100% of the RDA of the listed vitamins, this may not be adequate. Another problem is that sometimes, the manufacturer will simply leave out a nutrient because it’s costly. This applies to many popular national brands. As for individual vitamin supplements, that cheap bottle of vitamin C may contain ascorbic acid as the form of vitamin C. Ascorbic acid is cheaper, but is also not as well absorbed as natural sources and can cause stomach upset. In some cases, a cheap vitamin supplement is virtually useless, because the form is not readily usable in the human body!

As we age, our bodies become less able to metabolize certain vitamins, resulting in deficiencies. A number of deficiencies can snowball into various health conditions that only become worse. There is evidence that a selenium deficiency can produce psoriasis. It’s interesting to note that the active ingredient in a good dandruff shampoo is selenium and is sometimes prescribed by physicians as a topical remedy for psoriasis. Older folks may want to have their doctor test for vitamin deficiencies. Vitamin supplements may be just the ticket to feeling better and avoiding other health issues.

If we have nothing else, we all want to have good health. You can educate yourself on what good nutrition really is with an up to date nutrition reference book. Any library carries several. There are many online nutrition sites with extremely detailed information, if you’d like to investigate a correlation between nutrition and a health condition you have.

One of the best resources on vitamin supplements is as close as your local health food store. Find a family owned shop rather than a national chain. Family businesses are typically staffed with people who know everything about vitamin supplements and can explain why one is better than another. Take care of your health!