Juicing -- Ingredients To Include And To Avoid??

[Hoosierfan]

My holistic doc who I have been seeing for the last couple of months is trying to improve some issues through my diet, most importantly getting in more leafy greens and cruciferous veges -- since I have picky eaters in the house and am not one to sit down to a bit kale salad, I've decided to start investing in juicing.....

There are a few threads on here lauding the benefits of juicing, and that plus internet research has led me to be THOROUGHLY CONFUSED!! I have NMH (not POTS), but in general I want to try and include ingredients in my juice that will RAISE my bp, not risk lowering it. (of course, all of the juicing books have recipes for hypertension, but not hypotension.....rrrrrggggg!!!).

So for those who have juiced (and in particular green juiced), can you give me an idea of ingredients (veges, fruits and herbs) to include and those to avoid? Don't want to make my hypotension worse!!!

[Dizzysillyak]

I've been juicing kale, collards, carrots, apples, lettuce, ginger, beets, etc since march and my hypotension

hasn't been affected. I "think" what you're seeing is a sales pitch. I've heard juicing can help us

lose weight too but from what I've seen unless that's all your eating, its not going to help. Sadly

much of what we see on the web is pr.

As far as what to juice, I'm still working on that myself. I have an oxalate problem and allergies so it's

a work in progress. And it changed. For instance, when I started juicing I was fine with beets and ginger but

now they hurt my throat. I really don't know if it's an allergy, the texture of beets and ginger or oxalates.

Several of the foods I started out with a now problematic. But I can juice lettuce and apples without a problem. I'm backing off juicing as much due to the increase in intolerances. Maybe it's not

good for everyone.

Tc .. D

[sue1234]

The only things I can think of are beets have the ability to up your nitric oxide levels, which would lower blood pressure in theory. So, not sure if you'd want to have those.

From what I understand, celery has like the highest sodium content for a vegetable, so that might be good for you.

To encourage kids, add a banana or apple to get that naturally sweet flavor and they'll not notice the other ingredients!

[Hoosierfan]

Thanks, Sue. I hate beets anyway so that one is out to begin with!!!!

I've also seen garlic and pomegranate juice as no - nos; but stil haven't seen anything that I should INclude.

[Birdlady]

When I used to juice 3 times a day, I used a cucumber as a base and then added either a lemon or lime to help with flavor. After that I added whatever I had on hand-- Some of my favorites are spinach, romaine lettuce, cilantro, cayenne pepper and celery. I really like spicy stuff, so this might not be good for you. lol If you are looking for a low sugar, nutrient dense drink, I'd stay away from beets, tomatoes and other sweet veggies/fruits.

[Kellysavedbygrace]

I have both NMS and POTS so I have the same need as you. I started juicing about a month ago and have found it to help with overall energy. I have to be careful because too much of it (more than 24 oz) in a day gives me GI problems. I have not noticed any drop in BP due to the juicing but I will check tomorrow after I juice and see if there is any change. I'll post back here if there is a significant change. If you don't hear back you can assume no significant change.

I typically green juice with the following:

Organic Greens: 3 small kale leaves- stems removed, 3 big handfuls of spinach and a handful or romaine or parsley or whatever I have which depends on what looks good in the organic market (I try to make it at least half greens)

Organic apple( or organic apple juice- which I'm using now since they are not in season). - probably 1/8

Organic Celery. -about 1/4

Frozen bannana. -1. (I Peel and keep these in my freezer bc my kids love smoothies. They work great at chilling the juice. Also, non-organic is fine in my opinion bc of the thick skin.)

1/2 lime or lemon- skin peeled

Small piece of Ginger (to taste). - I use about a 1/4" small piece

Organic sweet fruit of any kind. (pineapple, grapes, kiwi, apricot, plum, etc.)- about 1/8

This green juice is on the higher sugar side but I can drink it. I tried the low sugar version (add cuke, lose fruit) and I didn't care for the taste. Maybe as time goes on I'll cut back on fruit but for now at least I'm grin king green juice!

What I like about this is that all those vitamins, minerals and enzymes go right into my system - quicker to the bloodstream- w/o the work of digesting. And even though GI issues are not my biggest problem, I figure this cannot hurt.

I also do a more savory veggie juice using organic carrots, tomatoes, broccoli, greens, celery, jalapeño , and salt. It's really good too but this is more for variety. I aim to have fresh juice once a day- I'm probably actually at about 5 days a week- just take time and energy which is a struggle.

I started w the Vita-Mix and striving through a nut bag. My hubby then bought me a Breville juicer, which I like, but it has more parts to clean and I think is a bit less efficient (in terms of squeezing all the juice out.). So I'm going back to my Vita-Mix, my favorite tool in the kitchen!

[Hoosierfan]

Read that rosemary may help up bp, and also licorice root powder (which I know several on this forum use anyway). Thoughts? I'm already on florinef...tried to get off a couple of times earlier this year and crashed....ugh. Long story.

[RichGotsPots]

One of the healthiest things to juice is sunflower sprouts, they are also awesome in salads, yummm

[westernmass]

Not sure if this has been said-

Celery has lots of salt! So probably good. Spinach I like cuz it has a much lighter flavor than kale. Cucumber while delicious is a mild diuretic so maybe avoid.