Juice like a champion

You’ve heard the hype, so here’s the facts on smashing back the juice to give your future cancer the 🖕

By now you’ve probably heard of the juice craze that’s been popularised in recent years as a health and weight loss choice. Well, as a tall skinny ass, losing weight is certainly not a goal of mine, but some of the health benefits of juicing — specifically the anti-cancer properties really caught my attention. So much so, that I dove deep into researching juicers to understand just why someone might pay $2000 for a juicer in their home. It seemed crazy but clearly there was something behind it. Now that I myself have become an avid juicer, knocking back close to a litre a day of my own home-batched goodness, I wanted to share with you how you might avoid your own cancer story with the help of some carrots and beets.

ps I’ve made my second contribution to my Kids Cancer Project Gofundme. $2595 and counting! Please throw in a donation if you like this post :)

Tackling cancer with juice

Anyone who’s been close to someone going through cancer has likely heard of Gerson Therapy. It’s a somewhat rigorous, and also contentious regimen, that involves copious amounts of juicing. And I mean serious amounts, like 5–7 kg of fruits and vegetables used to make 13 glasses of juice, drunk at one glass per hour each day. Although no clinical trials have officially proven Gerson Therapy works and therefore rubber stamped it as an official cancer treatment, there are enough successful documented cases of recovery over the 80 odd years that has passed since Max Gerson first developed it, to suggest there is definitely something to it.

The core premise of juicing when it comes to cancer is that sufficient quantities of the micro nutrients in juices has a stimulating effect on the immune system by increasing the oxidative metabolism of cells, which in turn helps to eliminate waste and detoxify the body. In addition, many of the phytonutrients and flavonoids in vegetables have been observed as having specific anti cancer properties that actively fight a range of cancer cell growth. Not convinced yet? Then read on fellow wine lover!

Carotenoids

Numerous studies over the last 30 years have pointed to strong evidence that β-carotene, a food carotenoid found in a wide array of vegetables, but especially carrots, could prevent the onset of cancers, especially lung cancer. We haven’t yet come up with a carrot chemo, but in one trial, higher concentrations of carotenoids were associated with 18–28% statistically significant lower risks of breast cancer occurrence.

And while beta-carotene has attracted the most interest, a variety of other carotenoids such as alpha-carotene, have also showed high potency to suppress cancer cell growth in experimental studies.

Flavonoids

Flavonoids also kick ass in the cancer world because of their antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties that act in anticarcinogenic and antimutagenic ways. One of them, proanthocyanidins, have been found to cause cell death by apoptosis on human colorectal cancer cells. Luteolin, found in large amounts in celery, has been shown to suppress breast cancer metastasis in some studies. Another flavonoid is apigenin, which in several studies have shown to suppress angiogenesis and induces autophagy and apoptosis (you’ll remember in my last post I talked about anti-angeogenises and apoptosis). Flavonoids are abundantly available in fruits, berries, bark and red and green vegetables.

Falcarinol

Falcarinol is our favourite as it’s a fatty alcohol also found in carrots. Not to be confused with regular alcohol, falcarinol is actually very healthy for the body. And while a carrot juice won’t give you the carrot-courage you need to approach that sexy person at the bar, it may help you stave off leukaemia + colon cancer, as it was found to reduce the risk of cancer developing in rats by a third.

Betalains

Betalains get a special mention as they are the nitrogen-containing pigments found primarily in red beetroots and prickly pears. These beauties have shown much promise in studies for their anti cancer effects due to their antioxidant nature. Basically beets are gooooooood.

Getting practical

Ok so you’re ready to knock back the carrot juice to balance out that filthy hangover from last weekend. So you just need to get a juicer right? Well sort of. This is where the whole question of that $2000 juicer comes into play. So let me break down for some more science behind juicing so you can understand if you want to be a black belt or just a fair-weather juicer.

Enzymes

Enzymes are key players in the fresh foods that we eat as they extract the nutrients from the food you eat and convert them into substances your body can use. Their main functions are to facilitate optimal nutrient delivery and the efficient excretion of wastes at the cellular level. Enzymes are basically the stuff you want to maximise in your juice, which is the ‘alive’ part of the juice. When juice is fresh, the enzymes are maximised and it carries the most health benefit for you, unlike packaged or long life juice.

Enzymes can basically be killed off in two different ways through juicing: through the juice heating up or by being oxidised from air intake, both a common issue in high speed centrifugal juicers. This is why you can buy a juicer for under $200 and also pay up to $2000. Basically the more expensive ones minimise both these issues which effectively means you are getting more cancer-fighting nutrients into your body for every unit of vegetables you juice. For people with cancer, this is a big consideration and they are prepared to pay extra for maximum benefit, but for those looking to simply prevent cancer, a cheaper version should be adequate. Having said that, is should be noted that you’ll be getting on average around 30% less enzymes from centrifugal juicers as can be seen here.

So to help you wrap your head around the considerations of each type of juicer, here’s what you need to get started. The important thing is to just pick the one you like, can afford and will use regularly. Which is way better than not juicing at all!

Centrifugal juicers

Average price ~ $150

Made for the time poor and budget conscious, as long as they get you juicing regularly then who cares right? Fast to juice and clean (about 15 mins) these are a great way to juice daily. Besides the lower enzymes from the oxidisation through foaming, there are also questions over how long the juice will keep. So you may need to be juicing every day, instead of juicing a big batch to drink over a couple of days with the other juicers. But these are an excellent way to start your juicing habit.

Masticating juicers

Average price ~ $400

These generally comprise of just one slowly turning screw-shaped gear that mulches the veggies and then compresses the juice through a screen. This slower action preserves a lot more of the enzymes in the juice (see the Champion juicer as example in the chart above), but in turn makes the entire juicing process slower overall. However overall juice yield is usually higher than the centrifugal and these usually come with a number of different parts that can juice all types of different vegetables and fruits effectively. Definitely takes longer to clean, perhaps around 30 mins. I actually bought the Champion juicer first and then returned it as it was overheating my juice, which I subsequently found a lot of similar complaints about on Amazon, so recommend you stay away from that one.

Twin Gear Triturating Juicers

Average price — $600

Another step beyond the single gear is the twin gear juicers that work at even lower speeds, retaining even more enzymes (see the Green Life juicer as example in the chart above and is the one I ended up purchasing). As the two gears crunch up the veggies until the pulp is nearly dry. This gives a superior volume of juice and also increases the shelf life, arguably up to 3 days or more. This is where I started as I wanted to go the whole hog with the budget that I had and I’m glad I did as I batch up almost 2 litres at a time with mine, which means I only have to juice every two days and sometimes even three. I personally also found the quality of the juice better with almost zero foam. It does take about 45 mins end to end from food prep to clean up for my big batch.

Hydraulic press

Average price ~ $2000

Why anyone that wasn’t running an illegal backyard juice operation would want one of these bad boys is hard to understand, but for those on Gerson Therapy it is the one and only choice. These have been proven to produce not only the highest amount of enzymes at each batch, but also superior volume far exceeding all other juicers as they literally squeeze every last drop out of your produce leaving only a dry bag of pulp. However these are definitely challenging to clean and the whole process takes a long time, so get ready for some not so flattering nicknames from your friends and family after Amazon drops this one at your front door… Carrot Chris?

The Veggies

And to the most important part! What you want to be peeling, mulching and downing with you new fangled juicer. Well as previously mentioned, carrots are pretty much a must, given the cancer fighting compounds they have. Both celery and beetroot make great accompaniments, not only due to their cancer countering flavonoids, but this juice combination tastes great. My juice comprises these 3 veggies as the primary base, but I also throw in some ginger and garlic for good measure. You won’t be getting lucky at the end of any Tinder dates with that last one thrown in, but given garlic has been shown to be the most effective vegetable at fighting cancer cell growth in lab studies, you can justify to your future better half that you’ll be around a lot longer for it. An apple thrown in on this recipe gives it a slightly sweeter edge for those wanting a little less rocket fuel type flavour!

So that’s the scoop on juicing when it comes to using it to prevent cancer. As one of the cornerstones of holistic cancer treatment, most notably Gerson Therapy, instilling a weekly juicing habit to combat the accumulated cancer causing toxins flowing into our bodies each day is just plain sense. This simple habit could very well prevent cancer cells from taking a foothold and slowly starting the proliferation process that ends in a cancer diagnosis years down the line. Plus it just tastes great! Having swapped the booze for juice for an entire 12 months to raise money for the Kids Cancer Project, I’m now a big juice advocate. If you start juicing I want to know about it. Drop me a comment and tell me how you get on.