Medical Medium Celery Juice

內容節錄：
CHAPTER 4

How to Make Celery Tuice Work for You

When we’re talking about the benefits of celery juice, we need to be clear that we are talking about pure, straight, unadulterated celery juice and no other variation of it. We're not talking about a green juice blend that includes some celery. We’re not talking about adding celery sticks to your smoothie. We’re not talking about eating celery sticks. We’re not talking about boiling celery in a broth. We’re not talking about blending celery until it liquefies and then consuming it without straining.

While yes, celery itself is healthy—keep snacking on it and cooking with it and blending it—when it’s prepared in these other ways, it doesn't offer the incomparable health benefits that drinking pure celery juice does. It’s not even close.

The surprising reasons for this will become clearer as you read this chapter and beyond. For now, hold on to that key piece of wisdom: nothing equals the simple power of pure, fresh celery juice. You need to know this right up front so you won’t be swayed by claims out there that any other preparation of celery is better for you.

(Not that you should panic if you don’t have access to celery or for any other reason can’t drink celery juice. There are alternatives available to you, and we’ll get to those in Chapter 9.)

I don’t want you to get lost in the maze of competing health claims. You could find yourself at a dead end with your health, following misleading theories that try to complicate what was never meant to be complicated. The knowledge in this book will ground you in the truth.

CELERY JUICE RECIPE

JUICER VERSION

1 adult serving

Let’s start with how to prepare celery juice properly. Making celery juice is beyond simple. If you have a juicer, here's all you'll need to do.

1 bunch celery

Trim about a quarter inch off the base of the celery bunch if desired to break apart the stalks.

Rinse the celery.

Run the celery through the juicer of your choice.

Strain the juice if desired to remove any grit or stray pieces of pulp.

Drink immediately, on an empty stomach, for best results.

Wait at least 15 to 30 minutes before consuming anything else.

(For reference, check out the photos. You’ll find more preparation tips.)

CELERY JUICE RECIPE

BLENDER VERSION

1 adult serving

If you don’t have access to a juicer, here’s how you can make it in a blender instead.

1 bunch celery

Trim about a quarter inch off the base of the celery bunch if desired to break apart the stalks.

Rinse the celery.

Place the celery on a clean cutting board and chop into roughly one-inch pieces.

Place the chopped celery in a high-speed blender and blend until smooth. (Don’t add water.) Use your blender’s tamping tool if needed.

Strain the liquefied celery well. A nut milk bag is handy for this.

Drink immediately, on an empty stomach, for best results. Wait at least 15 to 30 minutes before consuming anything else.

PREPARATION TIPS

By the time you finish this book, you’re going to be an expert on celery juice—and experts are always grounded in foundational knowledge. You’ve already picked up a lot of important information. Here are some more fundamentals for you.

Rinsing

When using store-bought celery, it’s a good idea to give it a rinse before juicing. You can even turn your kitchen faucet to hot to rinse the celery, if it’s chilled from the refrigerator and you don’t want to drink cold celery juice. Washing it in hot water will reduce the celery’s core temperature by at least 50 percent, meaning that you end up with more lukewarm celery juice. You’ll learn quickly how to gauge what water temperature and length of rinsing time yield celery juice that you like.

You don’t need to worry that washing your celery with hot tap water is going to cook your celery. You’re not going to damage the celery's enzyme content or hinder it in any other way with this technique. It would take superheated water and a longer time in the water to do this.

When you’re buying celery from a trusted local farmer or growing it in your own garden, then it’s likely to be rich in what I call elevated biotics: undiscovered beneficial microorganisms on the surfaces of naturally grown fruits, vegetables, and herbs. In this case, it’s usually best not to use hot water when rinsing the celery, unless the celery is caked with dirt, so you can avoid harming the elevated biotics. (You’ll find more information on these incredible microorganisms and how they help us throughout the Medical Medium series.) Do feel free to give your local celery a rinse in more temperate water.

Conventional versus Organic

It is best to opt for organic whenever possible. If for any reason you can’t get organic celery, don’t worry. It’s worth getting conventional celery rather than giving up on celery juice altogether. With conventional celery, take extra care by putting a drop of natural, fragrance-free dish soap on each stalk and then washing with it and rinsing well.

Taste

Everyone’s first taste of celery juice is unique. Some people aren’t wild about it at first and come to love it over time. Others find it appealing from the get-go. So much of this depends on how many toxins are in the system to the system. As it binds onto troublemakers and flushes them out of the liver, our senses can actually detect them—our taste buds and sense of smell can be affected. Toxins have a way of turning deliciousness into sourness or other unpleasant flavors. This will pass. Some people who don’t like celery juice on the first day love it by the end of the week. Some people may need six months of drinking it to really appreciate and crave it. People have a range of toxic, overburdened bodies and livers, so it all depends. There’s a trend of adding squeezed lemon to celery juice to alter the taste. By doing this, you’ll disable celery juice’s healing powers. You’ll get more benefits from drinking a lower quantity of pure celery juice than you will from drinking a high quantity of celery juice that has lemon added. For those who need help adjusting to the juice’s flavor, a smaller glass is better than a large one that has a squeeze of lemon.

One person’s experience of celery juice can change from day to day~even if it's all from the same store, same farm, same batch, same case, and stocked on the same shelf on the same day. Part of that could be that you’re detoxing your dinner from the night before, or it could be that you drank some coffee last night or brushed your teeth right before drinking your celery juice.

The flavor and color of celery juice can change from batch to batch, too. Over time, you’re likely to notice that you come home from the store with different types of celery that result in different types of celery juice. Some weeks, it’s greener. Some weeks, it has more leaves. Some weeks, it’s darker and more spindly; these wispier stalks tend to yield juice that’s a little more bitter and therefore maybe 汪 little harder to get down. Some weeks, you’ll find large, crisp stalks that provide lots of juice and a salty flavor with maybe even a hint of sweetness. Some weeks, you can barely taste the sodium content, even though the beneficial sodium cluster salts are still there. It all varies depending on what farm grew it with what type of seed with what type of soil amendments with what irrigation at what time of year in what type of weather conditions.

Try not to be turned off when you get a less palatable, less juicy batch of celery; these bunches can actually be a little more medicinal. Also don’t worry if you find lighter celery, almost translucent toward the bottom—don’t pass on this. It’s okay if it was wrapped during growing in a blanching process. Lighter celery is often more palatable, which means you can get more in you, so there is a plus side to it. Even with less chlorophyll, this celery will still provide other phytochemical compounds that help you heal. Further, celery juice’s chlorophyll is more powerful than the chlorophyll from any other source, because it’s bonded to the sodium cluster salts, plant hormones, and vitamin C that only celery possesses. This means that any chlorophyll you get in your celery juice, even if it’s a small amount, will be more potent than what you can get anywhere else.

You’ll see it all as you learn your way around the land of celery. Whatever celery you find, it will still provide the sodium cluster salts that you've read so much about and all of celery juice’s other valuable nutritional components. Whatever celery it is_as long as it’s not celery root—it will make celery juice that will help you heal.

Celery Leaves

People often ask about the leaves of celery —if they’re good for you and whether you should juice them. The answer is that celery leaves are extremely medicinal. They’re loaded with minerals and other nutrients and even beneficial plant hormones. Still, that doesn’t mean you have to use them. The flavor of celery leaves can be very bitter, so if the taste of your celery juice turns you off, try trimming the leaves, either partly or all the way, before juicing and see if that makes the juice more palatable.

Store-bought celery tends to have only so many leaves left on it. Celery that you grow yourself or that you buy from a farmers' market often has an abundance of leaves. When using local or homegrown celery, I prefer that you trim some of the leaves back and make sure that the majority of what you’re juicing is celery stalk. Too many celery leaves can give juice an astringency that makes it less enjoyable, so you may not want to drink as much of it. Too many leaves can also lead to more rapid detox, again making the overall experience of celery juice less enjoyable and making it less likely that you'll keep going with it. Since store-bought celery usually doesn’t have as many leaves, your choice whether or not to juice them really only depends on your own taste and preference.

Whether celery leaves register as bitter for you depends in part on whether you⁷ve acquired a taste for bitter greens in your diet. If you have had bitter greens on salads for years, celery leaves may seem no different from any other herb. The reason celery leaves are bitter is because of the alkaloids they contain. These phytochemical compounds are very strong to our taste buds; they can be a little intense. That’s perfectly normal and natural. They are not toxic alkaloids. While some alkaloids in other plants can be toxic in nature, this is not a concern with celery. Celery’s alkaloids are medicinal and very detoxifying. They help alkalize the body and reduce acids that are toxic in nature and that reside in our organs and elsewhere internally. In particular, celery leaves’ alkaloids help purge toxins from our livers.

By the way, when rm making celery juice, I like to chop about a half an inch off the tips of the celery bunch (the leaf end) and about a quarter inch off the base (the root end) before I start juicing. This has nothing to do with the leaves themselves. Rather, you’ll usually see that the celery has been cut on each end before. I trim it further because I don’t know what tool was used to cut the celery—whether it was clean, dirty, used near livestock, done by machine or hand, or whether there was grease on it. You don’t have to do this if you prefer to use every bit of your celery for juice. Chances are all is fine, and a clean tool was used to harvest your celery. This is solely a personal decision I’ve made.

Juicers

Any juicer that will juice celery is going to serve you. That celery juice is going to be beneficial to you. Rest easy with that knowledge. If you already own a juicer, it’s the right juicer. Please continue using it.

If you’re in the market for a juicer, either because you don’t own one yet or you’d like to upgrade, a masticating juicer is ideal. It will preserve and extract the most nutrition from the celery and make the least noise. Masticating juicers also get the most juice out of your celery, meaning more juice per bunch of celery—as well as less foam and pulp.

All that said, a centrifugal juicer is okay if that’s what works for your life. This type tends to be faster, so if what’s standing between you and celery juice is the time it takes to make it, a centrifugal juicer may solve that problem. Look for one that keeps the fruits and vegetables cool as it juices them, rather than heating them up the way some high-speed juicers can.

If all you have right now is a high-speed blender or food processor, you’ll probably find yourself wanting to get a juicer someday. The blending method tends to yield less juice than using a juicer, and the extra step of straining the blended celery can get old after a while. Remember, though: whatever machine you’re using right now to make celery juice, it’s a good machine. Don’t feel discouraged if you’re not using the highest-end masticating juicer. You’re still making great juice that will benefit your body in untold ways.

Juice Bars

It's fine to get your fresh celery juice from a juice bar, juice store, cafe, or the juice counter of a natural foods store rather than making it yourself.

If it’s cold-pressed celery juice, that’s great. Not that I want anyone to become fixated on going out and buying cold-pressed juice, thinking that’s the only way to go. Cold-pressed celery juice is not the only way to get its nutrients. Purchasing celery juice made with a centrifugal juicer is good, too. And juicing celery at home with a good, old-fashioned masticating juicer is just as beneficial as fancy cold-pressed juice from a store. Any type of juicer you have at home can create celery juice that’s nutritious.

If you still prefer to go out and buy your celery juice, there are a couple of considerations to take into account.

First, ask how they prepare the celery. Some places will put a drop of chlorine or bleach in with the water when they’re washing produce before juicing. You don’t want this.

Second, if the celery juice you’re buying is pre-bottled, check the label carefully to make sure it doesn’t say “HPP” anywhere. Sometimes it’s in small print or there’s a little symbol for it. Even if it doesn’t list it, ask the clerk to make sure it isn’t HPP. If it is, please consider picking another juice source that makes celery juice fresh on location. You do not want HPP celery juice.

HPP stands for high-pressure pasteurization, and it means that rather than being freshly cold-pressed, bottled, and put on the shelf for you that day, the juice was delivered from a manufacturing plant. The pasteurization process of HPP doesn't require heat, and this can lead to the illusion that it’s raw. Quite the contrary. Juice that’s been put through HPP has been denatured. Its cell structures have changed shape and form through this new process that hasn’t been time tested. Regular juice.

HPP stands for high-pressure pasteurization, and it means that rather than being freshly cold-pressed, bottled, and put on the shelf for you that day, the juice was delivered from a manufacturing plant. The pasteurization process of HPP doesn't require heat, and this can lead to the illusion that it’s raw. Quite the contrary. Juice that’s been put through HPP has been denatured. Its cell structures have changed shape and form through this new process that hasn’t been time tested. Regular pasteurization is a heating process that’s shown its safety over the course of hundreds of years. Not that you want regularly pasteurized celery juice, either—you want it fresh and raw. Assuming that HPP means it’s raw juice is a mistaken assumption, though. In theory, it’s raw. In reality, it’s been hindered and compromised to sustain shelf life. The reason to be wary of HPP is that it’s not going to bring you the health benefits of celery juice. I can see many people picking up HPP celery juice, trying it for a while, and then giving up because their symptoms and conditions haven’t improved. Don’t let that be you.

HPP for other fruit and vegetable juices can still provide nutrients, so if you’re used to consuming those HPP juices and you want to continue, you will get some benefits. Celery, on the other hand, is an herb. Because of this, HPP will cause the loss of multiple miraculous benefits that it has to offer, including some of its most important ones. When it comes to herbal medicines such as celery juice, if you’ve lost even one of its benefits, you've lost an opportunity to heal.

Storing Celery

If you’re regularly making your own celery juice, you may want to see if you can buy celery by the case from your local grocer. Ask the produce department if they have a case to spare or if they can add a case to their next order. You’ll often receive a discount, plus, you’re likely to end up with fresher celery that will last longer at home. It will also save you from running out as often.

Celery itself will usually keep in the fridge for a week. I’ve seen celery hold out, staying green and crisp, for up to two weeks if it was a really strong, fresh batch at the start. One way to determine your celery’s viability is color. Try to use it up before it starts to turn yellow or brown and loses its green color. If there’s ever a time when your busy life takes over and celery that you've purchased turns before you've gotten a chance to use it, don’t lose heart at having to throw it away. Don’t let that turn you off celery juice. Please buy yourself some new celery and try again.

If you’re buying celery and planning to use it up quickly, you should be fine storing it any way you’d like in the fridge. After a few days, celery sitting uncovered on the shelf is likely to dry out and go floppy. To prevent this, the crisper drawers of a refrigerator are a great place to store it. Sometimes celery comes in plastic sleeves, or you've put it in produce bags at the store. In that case, it should keep fine without the crisper. If you’ve bought a case of celery and it didn't come in plastic sleeves, grab some produce bags from the roll at the store— the produce department will likely be happy to send you home with them, since they just sold you an entire case.

Storing Celery Juice

If you’re not going to be able to drink your full batch of celery juice right away, the best way to store it is in a glass jar, with a sealed lid, in the fridge. Freshly juiced celery retains its healing benefits for about 24 hours. It will technically keep for about three days in the fridge—although it won’t be of much help to you after the first day. Celery juice loses potency by the hour, so drinking it more than 24 hours after it’s made is far from ideal.

You can freeze celery juice, although that’s not ideal, either. If it’s your only option, though, then go ahead and freeze it—I’d recommend in ice cube trays for ease of use—and when you’re ready, take it out and drink it as soon as it's thawed. Don’t add water to the celery juice cubes, though, and don’t thaw the frozen celery juice cubes in water. That will interfere with its benefits.

I wouldn’t freeze celery itself. Freezing stalks, defrosting them, and juicing them will not lead to a good outcome. Even though it seems comparable to freezing the juice, it’s not. When you juiced the celery fresh, you extracted its life force. If you were to freeze the celery, you would end up juicing a lifeless stalk later.

You definitely don’t want to boil your celery or celery juice—unless, that is, you’re intentionally making a broth. You can go ahead and put celery in your soups and stews; celery in your diet on a regular basis is helpful for a number of conditions. Still, when you boil celery, you're destroying the enzymes and denaturing some of its nutrients. It won’t be the hard-hitting, healing medicinal that you need celery juice to be. It won’t help you move the needle forward. That’s the job of freshly juiced celery.

WHY 16 OUNCES?

The ideal amount of celery juice for most adults is a minimum of 16 ounces per day. Not that you have to or necessarily want to start with 16 ounces the first time you try it. Feel free to work your way up, starting with 4 or 8 ounces if you’re sensitive and from there increasing it a little every day as you get used to it.

Once you’re ready, it is a good idea to commit to those 16 ounces as a minimum. Why? Because most people have more than a few health obstacles to overcome. The celery juice must travel quite a distance on its journey. Its first obstacle is often in the mouth, with bacteria or leftover toothpaste, mouthwash, or mouth rinse. (Make sure to thoroughly rinse your mouth with fresh water after brushing your teeth and before drinking celery juice to get rid of any toothpaste, mouthwash, or mouth rinse residue. Even better, wait to brush your teeth until after you’ve had your morning celery juice.)

Then there’s the esophagus, where the celery juice encounters additional bacteria plus deposits of ammonia and unproductive, detrimental acids. Next it reaches a hurdle at the bottom of the stomach pouch, just before the duodenum (the entrance to the small intestine). There’s a little ledge right before the duodenum, and depending on someone's age, that alone can be filled with decades— sometimes 30 to 40 years’ worth—of debris that has gummed up and weighed down that little cliff. This debris could be from proteins, fats, preservatives, solidified ammonia, acids, and more, all of it corroding and formed into a sludgy deposit. Celery juice’s sodium cluster salts start eating away at this old pile of toxic sludge, slowly dissolving it over time.
...  ...