I am often asked why we need to juice our fruits and vegetables and why we don't just eat them. It is a very good question and the answer is simple - why don't we? However, we just don't. In a recent survey 50% of adults admitted that they ate less than one serving of fruit a day and no vegetables whatsoever!

Even if you are very health conscious and strive to eat our government's recommended daily amount (RDA) of between five and seven a day, would this be sufficient for good health? Other countries don't think so; the RDA in the USA is nine a day and in Japan it is seventeen.

The answer is no -it is not nearly enough and the reason is that it's not what you eat that counts, but what you can absorb!

Our digestive systems act like blenders and juicers to reduce all food into a soluble liquid, which can then pass through the gut wall into our bloodstream. This process requires a great deal of our energy and resources, including many metabolic and digestive enzymes and the whole process, even in the most healthy humans with the strongest guts and teeth (such as our ancestors and some current day remote tribes), is only about 35% efficient. In practical terms this means that if they ate three carrots they would only be able to digest and absorb the nutrition in one of them. However most people today have guts that are much less efficient than that, with some achieving as low as 1%. Think of eating 100 carrots but only benefiting from one!

The reason our digestive systems are so impaired is because of our modern day diets and lifestyles. We are eating far fewer fruits and vegetables and the majority of our food is soft i.e. cooked, processed and refined so the gut muscles have less work to do, therefore becoming weak like any other muscle would. The gut lining also produces mucus, to protect it from the harmful acidic waste products produced when these processed foods are digested, thus reducing absorption even further. Added to this is the fact that cooking and processing destroys the natural food enzymes contained in raw fruits and vegetables, meaning we have to deplete our own digestive enzyme reserves. The problem is compounded by the decreasing quality of our produce due to impoverished soils and modern, intensive farming methods (you would have to eat 3 apples today to reap the same nutritional benefits of an apple grown in the 1950s!).

Putting all of this together; impaired digestion, reduced absorption, increased consumption of nutrient-poor processed foods and the reduced quality of the little fresh produce we do eat, it becomes clear why our modern day diet is very nutritionally deficient, toxic and leads to many modern day diseases.

There is however a very simple, effective, enjoyable solution to these problems and one which leads to optimum health and vitality and is readily available to all - JUICING!

Juicing is an amazingly easy way to dramatically increase our consumption of fruits and vegetables. It is SO much easier to drink a kilo of fresh vegetables rather than eat them.

The life blood of the plant (it's juice) is delivered in liquid form which can be absorbed directly into the blood stream, so bio-availability increases dramatically from maybe as low as 1% to almost 95%, ensuring that the cells are flooded with essential nutrients. In addition, because the juices are raw and uncooked, none of the essential vitamins and minerals is destroyed and neither is the naturally present vital food enzymes contained in the food, which help with their own digestion.

Did you know that 60% of all our energy goes into digesting our food? That's why you can often feel tired and sleepy after a heavy meal. By resting the digestive system, all the energy that is normally required to juice and blend our food can be diverted into other essential metabolic processes, such as toxin removal, fighting disease etc.

This is why juicing is such a powerful tool in the fight against disease, as it allows the body time and energy to heal itself, as well as receiving an abundant supply of the essential raw materials to do so.

People who start to add juices into their lifestyles enjoy so many benefits; energy levels soar, mental outlook improves and the body shines with good health and vitality.

So the question should not be whether to juice or not, the question should be; if we want to remain fit and healthy, can we really afford not to?

Click here for information on the Dualit Dual-Max™ Juicer

Click here for information on the Dualit Juice Extractor

For information about Lesley Hawker and the benefits of juicing visit www.juicedrop.co.uk