Healing Pineapple Smoothie For Relieving Inflammation & Pain

A lot of diseases we see nowadays are triggered by inflammation which manifests as pain in different areas of the body. The majority of inflammatory-related diseases begin in the gut with an autoimmune reaction which progresses into systematic inflammation. Addressing the root cause of inflammation through diet instead of relying on medical "band-aids" for temporary relief is the best way to help heal the body from the inside out!

If you suffer from inflammatory-related pain caused by bruising, swelling, wound healing, cramps and spinal pain or through conditions like arthritis, gout, fibromyalgia, carpal tunnel syndrome and cancer, drinking this smoothie can help relieve your symptoms. It is important to note that removing foods that trigger the inflammatory response (animal products, highly processed foods, refined sugar, table salt and wheat) will help speed up your recovery, especially when supplemented with foods that are highly anti-inflammatory (such as those featured in this smoothie!).

Pineapple contains bromelain and this enzyme has been shown to be extremely effective in reducing pro-inflammatory lymphocytes like CD4+T, primary effectors involved in inflammation in the body. Turmeric and ginger are also two powerful anti-inflammatory roots that have been studied extensively for their pain-relieving properties. Drink up & heal!

Ingredients:
- 1 small, ripe pineapple, chopped into cubes
- 1/2 large cucumber (remove the skin if there is wax on the outside, even if organic)
- 2 oranges, squeezed for their juice
- 1 cup young thai coconut water
- 3 inches turmeric root
- 2 inches ginger root

Put the above ingredients into a high-speed blender like the Vitamix and pulse-blend for 30 seconds. Enjoy immediately and receive immediate pain-relieving benefits!

Full-Body Beet Cleanser

This juice is a powerful full-body cleanser! Beets, rich in betaine (amazing antioxidant), are one of natures most detoxifying vegetables out there! They are loaded with vitamins, minerals and phytonutrients and are one of the best ways to help cleanse the liver (which is where major health-related issues stem from). The anti-inflammatory effects of ginger and turmeric help to keep pain-related inflammation at bay, and the diuretic effects of cucumber help to flush out unwanted toxins.

Major cleansing benefits of this juice include:

- Optimized oxygen transfer throughout the blood and lymphatic system

- Wonderful treatment for anemia, bladder & kidney disorders

- Flushes the liver of harmful toxins

- Improves mental functioning and mental acuity

- Reduces homocysteine levels (thus reducing cardiovascular disease risk)
- Balances mood & helps fight depression

- Improves endurance and energy levels (fights fatigue)

- Great for treatment of gallstones, gout and jaundice

- Natural diuretic to help flush and hydrate
- Reduces uric acid in the body which is a major cause of inflammation in the joints, muscles and tendons

- High in silica for healthy hair, nails, and skin
- Stimulates digestion, relieves bloating and gastrointestinal distress
- Regulates blood pressure and can help stabilize a high fever

Ingredients:
- 3 large beets, peeled
- 3 large carrots
- 3 apples, of any variety (make sure organic)
- 4 inches ginger root
- 1 cucumber
- 4 inches turmeric root
- 1 lemon, peeled if not organic, or peel left on if organic

Put the above ingredients into a juicer (such as the Omega, which I highly recommend), and drink within the hour to avoid oxidation. If you do not have access to turmeric root, add 2 tsp. turmeric powder to the juice and shake up before consuming. Enjoy!

Morning Detox Smoothie

Breaking your fast in the morning (aka. "break-fast") with the proper foods is incredibly important. The last thing your body wants in the morning is a heavy protein and fat-infused meal such as the typical bacon and eggs. This will reverse all the hard work your body slaved away at over night to help repair and regenerate tissues from the previous days work. Stuffing yourself with exorbitant amounts of food in the morning is incredibly taxing on the body, and will only leave you feel tired, grumpy and depressed.

Consuming fruit-rich meals in the morning is one of the best ways to start the day. It will leave you feeling clear, light, and 100% vibrant! This smoothie is a great way to kick-start the liver, gallbladder and kidneys to help flush toxins that accumulated as a by-product of tissue repair and regeneration that happened over night (when we sleep our bodies are busy improving the way we will function the next day - just another reason why sleep is so important). Jump-start your morning routine with this morning detox smoothie, after you have refreshed yourself with some water beforehand! (aim for 1 litre of water upon waking)

Ingredients:
- 2 cups organic raspberries
- 1 cup mango, chopped
- 1 cup freshly squeezed orange juice
- 1 cup kale
- 3 inches ginger root
- 1 lemon, squeezed for juice
- 1 cup young thai coconut water

Put all of the ingredients into a blender and pulse blend for 30 seconds to best minimize oxidation. The blender I most recommend is the almighty Vitamix!

Young Thai Coconut Lime Mint Cooler

Want a quick refreshing pick-me-up? This slightly sweet and tangy coconut lime mint cooler is just the thing to help you feel refreshed and revitalized! Instead of reaching for gatorade or some other refined-sugary infused drink, opt for coconut water. Coconut water is natures natural electrolytes, filled with exactly the right ratios of all-natural potassium, chloride and calcium as well as small amounts of sodium. 

Benefits of drinking this cooler include: 

- Lowered arterial blood pressure

- Reduced fatigue (more energy)

- Strengthened immune system (shield from a variety of ailments)

- Helps repair and replace worn out tissues

- Helps replace vitamins and minerals lost through sweat (best electrolyte)

- Increases metabolic rate (great for weight loss)

- Helps dissolve kidney stones

- Rich in enzymes for optimal digestion and metabolism

- One of the best dehydration aids

- Prevents muscle cramping

- Rich in calcium for stronger bones, tissues and and muscle

- High in B vitamins to help manage stress and anxiety

 - Excellent diuretic to help flush toxins

- Reduces bloating

 - Helps control diabetes (improves blood circulation in the body) 

- High in antioxidants for optimal health

Ingredients:
- 2 young thai coconuts (or enough young thai coconut water to make 3-4 cups)
- 1 lime, sliced into half-moon shapes (as pictured)
- 4 sprigs mint leaves

Put the lime and mint into a glass container and add the coconut water. Let sit overnight to infuse, or sip right away throughout the day. Enjoy!

Easy Creamy Guacamole

This avocado-based raw guacamole recipe is one of the best I have come across! The perfect balance of herbs and spices make it a great savoury recipe to enjoy at lunch or dinner. You can make vegetable "chips" by simply slicing some cucumber or zucchini rounds to dip into the guacamole. If you can find sunchokes (jerusalem artichokes), I find that they resemble chips the best (especially when sliced very thinly).

There are numerous benefits when you choose to include avocado as part of your diet. These include:

Immune Booster - contain the master antioxidant, "glutathione," which boosts your body's immune system and keeps your nervous system healthy

Eye Protection - avocado's are rich in lutein, a nutrient necessary to keep your eyes healthy and prevent age-related macular degeneration

Cardiovascular Health - contain oleic acid which improves cardiovascular health. Vitamin B6 and folic acid control homocysteine levels which are linked to increased risk of heart disease

Digestive Aid - contain more natural fibre than any other fruit! This high fibre content aids in digestion and blood sugar regulation

Nutrient Absorption Aid - eating avocados with other vegetables (such as salads) helps your body absorb 3-5 times MORE carotenoid antioxidants in those foods, than if they were eaten alone

Ingredients:
- 2 ripe avocados, mashed in one big bowl
- 1/4 red onion, chopped finely
- 1/4 tsp. cumin
- 1 jalapeño pepper, chopped finely (this is optional - if you don't like spicy, leave out)
- 1 lime, juiced
- 1/4 cup cilantro, chopped finely
- 2 garlic cloves, crushed
- finely ground black pepper

Mash the avocado, and add in the rest of the ingredients. If you want, you can also add a little bit of cracked himalayan salt. I personally do not add salt to my diet (I get salt from cell salts found in fruit and vegetables), but that doesn't mean you cannot add it if you prefer a little salt! This recipe tastes just fine without added salt. Best when served immediately. Enjoy!

No More Acne: All-Natural Juice Tonic

Suffer from acne? This juice can help clear your skin due to its blood-cleansing and toning properties. Cabbages are great for improving the health of our intestinal tract because they are high in sulfur which is especially valuable in skin cleansing. In fact, cabbage juice is valued in Irish Folk Medicine for giving a beautiful complexion. Beets are a wonderful blood purifier, and ginger helps to expand and make blood capillaries more open to receiving these nutrients. Celery and cucumber are also excellent diuretics and this helps to flush and kidneys and expel toxins at a faster rate. 

It is important to keep the liver, kidneys, and intestinal tract clean, as these two organs, if they are not functioning properly, will lead to blemishes on the skin. Drinking plenty of water throughout the day (2-4 litres daily) and avoiding processed/refined foods, deep-fried foods, dairy products, flour & sugar products, alcohol and caffeine will improve the look of your skin in just a few weeks! Speed up the process by incorporating this juice in your diet. 

Ingredients:
- 2 cups red cabbage
- 2 large beets
- 2 apples (any kind)
- 4 stalks celery
- 1 small cucumber
- 3 inches ginger root
- 1 lemon

Juice the above ingredients in a juicer such as the Omega - this makes one serving. Drink twice daily!

Raw Vegan Cookies N' Cream Smoothie

Want to enjoy the sweet flavour of cookies n' cream while not remaining guilty after eating an entire ice cream container full? Why not try this cookies n' cream smoothie? The flavour tastes exactly like the "real thing" and in addition, it is full of body-enhancing vitamins and minerals and can even help you LOSE excess weight! It will help prevent you from reaching in the freezer for the nearest ice cream container, and will leave you feeling vibrant and ALIVE - instead of tired and bloated (which dairy products tend to do). 

The ingredients are simple, easy, and the recipe takes in total around 5 minutes to prepare and whip up! Enjoy for breakfast, lunch, or as a sweet treat after dinner! Bon appetit!

Benefits of Dragon Fruit:

Improve metabolism and blast away fat

Help improve our memory and mental acuity

Naturally lowers blood glucose levels and is therefore a wonderful fruit for diabetics

High in calcium for strong bones and teeth

Helps regulate bowel movements

Possesses natural skin moisturizing properties

Lowers cholesterol and high blood pressure

Improves conditions in the lungs (asthma, bronchitis, respiratory infections)

Helps build the immune system and speeds the healing of wounds

Natural detoxing agent, helps the body neutralize substances like heavy metals

Ingredients:
- 3 ripe dragon fruit (they are ripe when the green leaves on the outside start to turn brown)
- 5 pitted medjool dates
- 1/2 tsp. fresh vanilla bean
- 1 ripe banana

Blend the ingredients in a blender (such as the Vitamix) for 30 seconds and enjoy!

Beta-Carotene Booster Juice

This "Orange" Juice (in the literal sense) will enrich your body with a host of vitamins and minerals, particularly beta-carotene which is converted by the body into vitamin A. The rich orange pigments in carrots, sweet potatoes, golden beets, and oranges will help combat disease and illness, and will also ensure proper cellular functioning. 

Beta-carotene is a carotenoid that is responsible for giving fruit and vegetables their vivid orange hues. Once ingested, beta-carotene turns into Vitamin A (retinol), which the body uses for a variety of different cellular processes (reproduction, embryonic development, vision, growth, cellular differentiation and proliferation, tissue maintenance and lipid metabolism) or as an antioxidant where it protects cells against damaging free radicals. 

Some of the major roles of vitamin A include:

Eye health (rhodopsin formation and prevention of night blindness)

Gene expression (prevention of birth defects and activation/repression of certain genes)

Immunity (required for normal functioning of immune system and proper white blood cell development. A vitamin A deficiency can be regarded as a nutritionally acquired immunodeficiency disease)

Cancer (improves immune function in addition to eliciting an anti-proliferative effect through the RAR and RXR receptors, thereby acting to block certain carcinogenic processes and inhibit tumour cell growth)

Red blood cell development (heavily involved in red blood cell production, which are derived from stem cells and require retinoids for their proper differentiation. In addition, vitamin A mobilizes iron stores to developing red blood cells, where it is incorporated into the oxygen carrier haemoglobin)

Ingredients: 

- 6 carrots 

- 1 sweet potato

- 3 oranges

- 2 golden beets

- 1 lemon

- 2 inches ginger root

Juice the above ingredients in a juicer such as the Omega 8006/5 or NC800/900 (my two favourites!) and enjoy!

2 Healing Juices for Gallbladder and Liver Cleansing

The gallbladder and liver are two very important detox organs which should never be over-looked. They help to eliminate and flush toxins from the body and are heavily involved in the digestive process.  Your liver must produce at least 1.5 litres of bile per day in order to maintain a healthy digestive system and send nutrients to all of the cells in your body. The gallbladder's role is to concentrate and store bile, so when we do liver cleanses, we should also target the gallbladder too!

These juices contain ingredients that will help stimulate and cleanse the gallbladder and liver. Find out why below!

Grapefruit: cleanses the liver due to high flavonoid levels. Flavonoids help stimulate the liver, improve insulin levels and metabolize fat better.

Bitter Greens: stimulate digestion and increase bile flow to help the liver flush toxins more efficiently.

Lemon: maintain good digestion and stimulate bile flow. Also very high in vitamin C to help eradicate free-radicals and ease the workload on the liver.

Apples: the more sour or bitter the apple, the better it is for the gallbladder & liver (which is why I suggest using granny smith apples in these recipes) - the fiber in apples called pectin help reduce cholesterol levels which contribute to gallstone formation.

Beets: excellent cleansers of the blood! Help to cleanse and tone the liver and purify the blood. 

*Turmeric and ginger are also two healing foods which I never leave out of my juices. They cure almost every ailment!

Ingredients:
Deep Red:
- 3 beets, peeled
- 2 granny smith apples
- 3 inch piece ginger root
- 1 cup dandelion greens
- 1 lemon, peeled if non-organic, or, peel left on if organic

Cleansing Green: 
- 2 cups of your choice of bitter green (arugula, dandelion greens, mustard greens, chard, kale, watercress). I personally used arugula in this recipe.
- 1 large grapefruit, peeled if non-organic, or, peel left on if organic (I used organic and left the peel on)
- 2 granny smith apples
- 3 inches turmeric root
- 1 lemon, peeled if non-organic, or, peel left on if organic

For each juice, put the ingredients through the feeding chute of the juicer (such as the Omega NC800 or 8006/5 model, which I best prefer) and enjoy! Each juice is for 1 serving. Drink once a day to maintain a healthy gallbladder and liver, or 3 times a day if you are suffering from gallbladder and liver problems.

Supreme Kidney Cleansing Juice

Cold, sweet, and refreshing - this watermelon kidney cleansing juice is just the thing you need to help quickly expel toxins from the body. Watermelon is 92% water by weight, so it helps flush the kidneys and can even remove small stones. The potassium content in watermelon can even dissolve kidney stones, and allow the stone residue to be passed effectively and pain-free! 

What else can watermelon do? It is one of the most alkalizing fruit, so it helps balance pH levels in the body, and is a wonderful anti-bacterial, anti-inflammatory, antioxidant, anti-coagulant, digestive aid and laxative. It is a great source of vitamin C, beta-carotene, potassium (as mentioned above), and silicon (say hello to beautiful hair and nails!). In addition, watermelon contains lycopene, which has been proven to help prevent cancer.

Ingredients:

- 1 organic watermelon (any size you please)

- 2 limes, juiced

- 1/4 cup fresh mint leaves (optional)

You have the option of either juicing the above ingredients, or blending them and then straining out the pulp. OR you can leave the pulp. The reason I suggest juicing is because if you use an organic watermelon you can juice the rind which balances the sweetness of the watermelon, and provides you with more vitamins and minerals - especially the special watermelon compound called citrulline. 

DO NOT JUICE THE RIND OF NON-ORGANIC ANYTHING. I highly suggest against it, as non-organic fruits are sprayed with pesticides and herbicides (and I wouldn't want any of you consuming these things). 

I also suggest looking for organic watermelons because they are often the ones which have seeds and watermelon seeds contain curcubocitrin which dilates capillaries and thus improves circulation throughout the body. When I get my hands on locally grown organic watermelon at farmers markets in summer, they are loaded with seeds, and I eat all of them! They are very healthy for you, and will not sprout a watermelon from your stomach (I promise!). 

Key Lime Pear Smoothie

Improve the look and feel of your skin, functioning of your digestive tract and liver with this key lime pear smoothie! Not many people realize the incredible benefits of pears. These fruits are packed with Vitamins B2, C and E and contain potassium and copper, all of which help conductivity between the cells in our body and ensure proper organ function. They also contain the incredible master antioxidant called glutathione, which helps prevent high blood pressure, stroke, cancer, and inflammation!

What about the other ingredients? Well, celery is a great diuretic which helps flush harmful toxins from our body, and limes remove mucoid plaques from our digestive tract and circulatory system to ensure that everything runs smoothly in the body. Leafy greens and herbs are also incredibly chlorophyll rich, as well as packed with a variety of vitamins and minerals which helps prevent deficiencies alkalize the body. 

What are you waiting for?! Go make this smoothie! Make sure your pears are RIPE. Otherwise, you might suffer from heartburn and raise the acidity in your body. 

Ingredients:
- 4 ripe pears, stems removed (can leave seeds)
- 4 key limes, or 2 regular limes (peeled if non-organic, or leave the peel on if organic)
- 5 stalks celery
- 2 cups of greens of your choice (you can choose spinach, kale, romaine, or herbs like arugula, watercress or parsley)
- Optional: If you have a pineapple on hand, add 1 cup of ripe pineapple to the mix! Pineapple is a great anti-inflammatory

Blend all of the above ingredients in a blender such as the Vitamix and serve with a garnish of 1 small celery stalk. Enjoy!