Juice | Edibly Educated

What to do When you Feel ‘Hungry-Not-Hungry’

May 19, 2015 by Sarah

Have you ever felt like you weren’t hungry yet you find yourself looking in the pantry for something to eat? Maybe you kind of ate junky during the day and know you need some sort of nutritional boost or some ‘real food’ even though you aren’t necessarily all that hungry? Or you feel your metabolism is being kind of sluggish yet you feel the need to eat because you think you should be eating?

This is what I like to call ‘hungry-not-hungry’. And I felt it today. Maybe I’m the only one who gets this feeling every once in awhile, but I have a feeling I’m not. I can’t be certain, but I can take a stab and suggest that maybe your body (at least I feel my body anyway) is basking for some nutrients.. you know, some vitamins and minerals from real, whole, nutrient-dense food. And can you guess where’s a great place to start? Yup, you got it – raw vegetables.

Next time you find yourself in that ‘hungry-not-hungry’ state, don’t reach for more snack food. I know those chipotle black bean chips look oh so crunchy and appealing, but give your body something it will feel satisfied with without shoveling down more calories, which your body probably doesn’t want anyway since you don’t feel hungry. Raw vegetables will not carry the caloric load, but will give you nutrients your body is most likely yearning for.

Next time you get this feeling, try one of these two things:

1. Snack on some raw veggies or make a small salad with a variety of vegetables.

There are plenty of times I used to get home from work late and even though I wasn’t all that hungry, I would make a nice little salad with greens and veggies we had on hand. I felt like my body really wanted it, and it was something I didn’t mind eating even before bed. Start with a variety of greens on the bottom, cut up some veggies and put a small amount of dressing, preferably homemade, on top to jazz it up a little. A little lemon or lime juice with avocado is always nice!

2. Juice, juice, juice away!

That was the answer for today. What was even more perfect is that there were some veggies in the fridge that I needed to eat up – I’ll admit, I just didn’t feel like having a nappa cabbage-broccoli-asparagus salad. Wasn’t in the mood for it. But the minute I thought about juicing I started getting thirsty 🙂 It was perfect; I ended up juicing nappa cabbage, a big broccoli stalk, asparagus ends (I keep the tops to steam), a thumb of ginger, a whole organic lemon and some cantaloupe! Juicing vegetables when feeling ‘hungry-not-hungry’ is such a fantastic way to satisfy your confusing craving – you hydrate yourself while giving your body readily available nutrients to utilize for carrying out its many intricate processes.

Now over to you!! What is your favorite way to satisfy that ‘hungry-not-hungry’ feeling?

With lots ‘o love,

Rooted Detox Juice

December 2, 2014 by Sarah

Here’s a little post-holiday detox juice for ya 😉

But let’s talk detox really quick:

Our bodies are equipped with the ability to rid ourselves of toxins and self-heal. However, we live in an environment where we are constantly bombarded with chemicals and toxins that are not good for our health: chemicals from cleaning products and personal care products, unfiltered water, vaccines, plastics, and chemicals and pesticides in our food, to name a few. Bottom line; our bodies are overworked from trying to get rid of these foreign, and damaging, substances that are in our system. We can make lifestyle changes to help eliminate these toxins from our life, but it doesn’t hurt to give our bodies a little assistance. That’s why consuming foods and herbs that aid in detoxification is highly beneficial.

Detoxing is like doing chores around the house; you just gotta do it, or you’ll be living in filth.

One herb that is well known for its ability to detox heavy metals is cilantro. It possess properties that make it bind to heavy metals in the bloodstream, also known as chelation, and consequently, it purifies the body. Because heavy metals can harm the immune system’s effectiveness, cleansing the body of them could also lead to a more efficient immune system. Pairing cilantro with parsley is a good idea because parsley contains vitamins and nutrients necessary for chelation and helps with the removal of the toxic molecules from the body.

My favorite way to consume cilantro and parsley is by juicing them, because let’s face it, how else are you going to eat a whole bunch of either of these? I do suggest making tabbouleh if you want to use a good amount of parsley in your cooking, but most recipes don’t call for that much of either parsley or cilantro. These herbs are also great to add into smoothies if you want the added fiber! Here is an idea for juicing them with some lemon and lime, which also promote cleansing, and some rooted vegetables.

Rooted Cleansing Juice

Prep time

5 mins

Total time

5 mins

Author: Sarah

Serves: 2

Ingredients

2 limes
1 lemon
1 bunch organic cilantro
1 bunch organic parsley
1 organic apple
1 large handful of fresh cranberries
1 beet
5 carrots

Instructions

Juice all ingredients and enjoy!

Stay tuned for more posts on detoxification and as always, happy juicing!

With love,

Juicing: Dandelion Greens

October 11, 2014 by Sarah

Have you ever heard of dandelion greens?

Although they are one of the more bitter-tasting greens, they are also among some of the most nutrient-rich as well. They are high in vitamins A, C, E and K and contain a good amount of iron and calcium! They are known for aiding in detoxification by assisting functions of the liver. If you are looking for another type of greens to add to your diet.. this is it!

There are various ways to eat the greens, including sautéing or adding them to salads and pasta dishes, but another easy convenient way is to juice them. Just as I mentioned that they are commonly associated with detoxification, you will find these in various detox/cleanse juice recipes like the one below. This one that I made was very earthy tasting because I didn’t add any fruit. It was a little hard to drink, if I do say so myself, so if you have a difficult time with strong tastes like that, I would definitely add an apple or two (I just didn’t because I’m trying to decrease my overall sugar consumption).

Instead of providing a recipe with amounts, I’d just like to tell you what was in this one to give you ideas so you get a better understanding of how to juice dandelion greens. And to demonstrate that it’s a good idea to juice those foods in the fridge that you need to eat up or they will go bad (like the half of a tomato I added and some beet greens that aren’t pictured hence the purple color of the juice) 😉

The juice I made had a lemon, a couple stalks of celery, ginger root, turmeric root, a cucumber, a good handful of greens, cilantro, a half of a tomato, and beet greens. Like I said, I would probably add an apple to this if I made something similar again because it was quite bitter, to say the least.

Cilantro and lemon juice are also good for detoxification and cleansing so they are good additions to any dandelion green juice.

Happy juicing!!

Juicing: Beet Greens and Turmeric Root

August 24, 2014 by Sarah

Want to know another way to get dark, leafy greens into your diet?

Beet greens.

Buying bunch beets where the greens are still attached to the beets is a good way to help yourself consume more greens. I usually juice the greens, but you can also use them in salads. If I’m going to have them in a salad, I like to mix them in with other greens like romaine, spinach or spring mixes.

You’ve probably heard of turmeric; it’s what gives mustard its yellow color and is a spice that originated in India. I never thought it was anything more than that until I came across this article one time called, ’10 Ways To Get More Turmeric’.

I then became interested in turmeric and began to read about it more. I found a chapter dedicated to ‘The Golden Spice’ in the book Herbal Medicine: Biomolecular and Clinical Aspects. It turns out turmeric has a long history of being used as a traditional medicine and may provide many health benefits including relieving arthritis because of its anti-inflammatory properties, improving digestion, helping with menstruation, aiding in dispelling worms and other intestinal discomfort, and supporting the liver. In a nutshell, “modern in vitro studies reveal that turmeric is a potent antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, antimutagenic, antimicrobial, and anticancer agent.”

So with the help of the aforementioned article and others like it, I started trying to incorporate more turmeric in my diet (because why not?!). One easy way to do this is by juicing the root! I find it by the ginger root in the produce section at a local grocery store, Meijer, and you could also look for it at ethnic (Indian or Asian) grocery stores or Whole Foods.