A common question I get is, “What is the best juice to make?”
Any juice is better than no juice and so first things first: Don’t get your head wrapped up around an ideal of the “best juice” or the “perfect juice.” That will lead to inaction via paralysis-by-analysis. Or you’ll feel guilty for not drinking the best juice and thus juice nothing at all. As a matter of first principles, “Just juice.”
(New to Juicing for Men? Read our Guide to Buying Your First Juicer and/or our Guide to Omega Juicers.)
That said, some fruits and vegetable pack in more nutrition per ounce than others. Our dozens of dozens of juicing recipes incorporate the most nutrition foods in the most palpable way. Our juicing recipes rely in large part on the ANDI scale. That is, we seek to pack as many “high ANDI” score foods in each ounce of juice as possible.
Best Juices and the ANDI Scale or ANDI Score
An ingenious system created by Dr. Joel Fuhrman, ANDI is short for Aggregate Nutrient Density Index. The ANDI score is based on a food’s content of: Calcium, Beta Carotene, Alpha Carotene, Lutein & Zeaxanthin, Lycopene, Fiber, Folate, Glucosinolates, Iron, Magnesium, Niacin, Selenium, Vitamin B1 (Thiamin) Vitamin B2 (Riboflavin), Vitamin B6, Vitamin B12, Vitamin C, Vitamin E, Zinc, and the food’s ORAC. (Oxygen Radical Absorbance Capacity measures how many free radicals a food will “destroy.”)
Check out Eat to Live: The Amazing Nutrient-Rich Program for Fast and Sustained Weight Loss.
“1000” is a perfect score, and any good over 100 is very very good for you.
Best Juices Are Made from Top ANDI Foods
- Collard, mustard, & turnip greens 1000
- Kale 1000
- Watercress 1000
- Bok choy 824
- Spinach 739
- Brussels sprouts 672
- Swiss chard 670
- Arugula 559
- Radish 554
- Cabbage 481
- Red peppers 420
- Romaine lettuce 389
- Broccoli 376
- Carrot 344
- Tomatoes & tomato products 190-300
- Cauliflower 295
- Strawberries 212
- Pomegranate 193
- Blackberries 178
- Raspberries 145
- Blueberries 130
- Papaya 118
- Oranges 109
As you can see, the Real V8 Juice is extremely potent. Here are some other powerful juices:
Bok Choy Ginger Lemonade
- 6 bok choy leaves + stems
- 3 small lemons (I always remove the skin; others leave it on for zest)
- 1″ ginger
Cabbage carrot juice
- 1 whole cabbage
- 6 carrots
- 1″ ginger
Kale lemonade
- 6 large kale leaves + stems
- 4 lemons
- 1 apple
- (sparkling water)
What’s your favorite juice recipe?
what aren’t beets healthy then? I don’t see any of those on the list…
They are. The ADNI scale, like anything else, is arbitrary. It’s a good guidelines or starting place but there’s no magical number or formula.
Beets (and celery) may not be “ANDI Healthy” but what they are, are potent vasodilators. In other words they improve your circulation…in some cases, dramatically.
Improved circulation would also mean better use of all the other nutrients in the ANDI content of your juice.
I personally never follow a set recipe. I just buy whatever is available at my local weekly farmer’s market…usually Kale, Bak Choy, Pak Choy, Collard Greens, ginger, lemon, lime, carrots, beets, celery, fresh basil, chard. Sometimes one or the other is sold out (kale sells out quickly), so I’ll buy more of the other greens to compensate. I go home, take my mound of produce and juice it all and mix in some EVOO and some fresh ground sea salt. Love it.
interesting, I am guessing you use ground sea salt for taste? The one thing I am wondering about is the amount in one sitting. I usually juice with my omega 8004 0.5 liters once a day. But the thing I am wondering about is how much is too much? There is a limit to how many nutrients the body can take up at once. I think juicing more then 0.5 liters is a waste since the body won’t take up any excess nutriition over that anyway. I have tried searching for this on the net, but I can’t find an answer.
How can you know what your body needs at any given moment? Maybe it’s short on one nutrient and long on another. In my view it’s better to “overload” the body with nutrients as it’s better too have too much than not enough.
Exactly. My juicing style is the same as yours. I had to stop myself to count ingredients in order to create recipes. “If it’s green it’s good.”
There is a limit to how many nutrients the body can take up at once. I think juicing more then 0.5 liters is a waste since the body won’t take up any excess nutriition over that anyway. I have tried searching for this on the net, but I can’t find an answer.
It’s not like you’re gonna overdose on “good nutrition.”
In my view it’s better to “overload” the body with nutrients as it’s better too have too much than not enough.
The body has a process for dealing with both too much and not enough nutrition. If you have too much of something, you’ll piss, shit and/or sweat off the excess.
If you don’t have enough, your body will start to cannibalize itself to meet it’s requirements.
This is when you hit the deteriorating health mode.
Which side of the equation do think is best to err on?
I am guessing you use ground sea salt for taste?
Not really. Given the dominance of ginger, lemon and beets in my juice (no matter what other produce I use, those three usually dominate the taste buds), the salt doesn’t make any discernible difference.
I just add it for the trace mineral content.
Better to have more than I need of that stuff, than not enough.
interesting about the sea salt- I actually just recently ordered celtic sea salt soem days ago. I plan on making a sole(water 26% saturated with salt). And adding this to my drinking water to get more traceminerals, maybe a teaspoon or tablespoon. On this site you mentioned it says:
“For every 8 oz of water, stir in 1/8 teaspoon (or a pinch) of Celtic sea salt and drink. No, drinking Celtic salt water does not make you thirsty, only dead table salt makes you thirsty. Celtic salt is live food, and is nourishing to your body.”
Do you do this to everything even when your lifting weights, drinking salty water? It seems like a lot.
It is very interesting with nutrition, do you take any supplements in addition to the juicing? The best way to get vitamins and minerals is via juicing, but sometimes this might just be not enough. For example you need 500mg of magnesium every day, more if you are working out a lot. It is difficult to get this amount with juicing, so here I am planning on buying a supplement. Silica is also an important mineral that is difficult to get from food that is why I have a cool method for getting it found here:
http://curezone.com/forums/am.asp?i=1450091
Iodine is also important, I get mine from kelp.
:
The problem with taking supplements is that you can get an imbalance of minerals in your body, for example too much copper compared to zinc or skewing the magnesium calcium ratio. Have you taken a hair test or blood test to check your mineral levels? I haven’t done it myself, but might do it in the future just because it is interesting, I am a perfectly healthy 24 year old individual. anyway here is the silica stuff:
Silica:
The silica from diatomaceous earth provides numerous benefits. Most of these benefits come from its role in collagen and elastin formation. Collagen is a protein that gives tissues strength, while elastin gives tissues elasticity. This is why it helps with wrinkles and strengthening the nails. By increasing collagen it gives these tissues strength, and the elastin restores the elasticity that is lost in the skin leading to wrinkles. It also helps with varicose veins and aneurysms for the same reason. Varicose veins and aneurysms result from a loss of collagen and elastin in the veins and arteries causing these blood vessels to balloon out. Along the same line silica helps to prevent arteriosclerosis by both strengthening arteries to prevent damage, and because of silica’s anti-inflammatory properties. Emphysema results from a loss of elastin in the alveoli, and so is also helped by silica supplementation. It is the absolute most important nutrient for bone strength. Silica not only aids with calcium absorption, but it is also essential for the collagen matrix that gives the bones the majority of their strength. In addition the piezoelectric effect of silica is what allows mineralization of the collagen matrix. In other words, without sufficient silica all of the calcium, magnesium, phosphorus….. will not do anything for the bones. Silica can help prevent visual problems from aging due to loss of flexibility of the lens of the eye. It is great for tendonitis and other similar problems due to the strengthening and anti-inflammatory properties of silica. Silica also links together glucosamine molecules to form chondroitin molecules for the production of cartilage. these are a few of the beneficial properties of silica.
As for absorption, silica does not absorb as silica but rather as orthosilicic acid. This is produced by the reaction of water on silica, though the presence of acid increases this conversion. The reason for many of our aging problems such as osteoarthritis, emphysema, diverticulitis, wrinkles, etc. are from declining silica levels in our tissues. This is a direct result of declining stomach acid levels, which decreases the conversion of silica (silicon dioxide) in to its absorbable and usable form orthosilicic acid. This is another good reason to avoid antacids, acid blockers, and alkaline waters and drinks such as sodium bicarbonate (baking soda).
The absorption of silica is very poor so I found the best way to take it is by adding it to water to begin with. I put a large spoonful in a gallon of water and let it settle out. Once it settles out you cannot taste it. The water will dissolve a tiny amount of the silica to form the orthosilicic acid. The more pure the water is to begin with the more it will dissolve. This actually solves a few problems. First of all it reduces the solvency of purified waters (distilled and reverse osmosis) so they will not be as aggressive and rob your body of nutrients. This also helps to prevent purified waters from becoming as acidic from the carbon dioxide it will absorb from the air to form carbonic acid. Purified waters are notorious for this problem. Finally, the silica will help to strengthen tissues throughout the body and reduce inflammation. By adding it to a large volume of water you will also get more in to your system as opposed to supplements. If you take a capsule of silica the vast majority will never be absorbed and will just pass through your system. When added to water and drunk throughout the day you will absorb a little each time you drink your water. So in the long run you will end up with more silica entering the bloodstream for use by the body.
Has anyone else noticed this or am I crazy: the color of the juice changes depending on what you juice first. So if I make two juices, identical ingredients and identical percentage of each ingredient, the juice will be a different shade depending on what I juice first. I swear I’ve noticed that if I juice carrots first and then Kale, the juice is more orange. But if I do the Kale first and then the carrots, it’s more green.
Interesting stuff with the ANDI score there. I do a lot of kale and spinach currently, but I’ll have to start adding in those other foods as well.
Juice for Anti-oxidents and intestinal cleansing
1/2 Cup Strawberries
1/2 Cup Blue berries
1 cup kiwi fruit
2 cups water
juice, then add into juice 2 tbsp psyllium husk