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Everyone knows that orange juice is good for you because it is full of vitamin C.

However, many people also try an orange juice diet as a means of weight loss. This can be a workable diet provided the dieter understands a few basic facts regarding orange juice.

Warning About Refined Sugar

Don’t assume that the cartons of orange juice you buy from stores shelves is always a healthy drink. This is far removed from reality because most brands of orange juice are mostly comprised of refined sugar. Now, an orange juice diet that is heavy with sugar will prove disastrous so it is best to avoid these types of products.

Get A Juicer

Probably the most successful ingredient of an orange juice diet would be a juicer. With a juicer, you will always be sure that you get the freshest juice from the orange. The rich vitamins found in an orange that are often eradicated when orange juice is unnaturally processed will be retained.

Another thing that needs to be understood is that orange juice (whether processed or natural) contains calories and without a calorie deficit a diet will not shed weight. Unfortunately, many people assume that because an orange juice diet is healthy they can drink as much orange juice as they want. This is disastrous internal logic as overdoing liquid calories will lead to a rapid weight gain – so avoid it!

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Noni juice is being criticized on issues such as health benefits, false claims, and lack of nutrients. Noni juice claims to help many illnesses and health issues. Some people claim this to be true, but for the most part, many people are disappointed in the fact that noni juice really isn’t all it is hyped up to be.

Noni is made with a supposed “miracle” ingredient called proxeronine. This is supposed to be a precursor to xeronine. Not everyone has a deficiency or problem obtaining this supposed “miracle of life” ingredient. This is only one of the issues that has been brought against the sellers of noni juice.

Noni juice has also been heavily criticized on the issue of their false claims and bogus research. Many noni-producing companies claim to have research that is true as time and thoroughly tested. This is not the case; most of their research is bogus advertising and marketing material that is used to get you to buy their product.

One other reason that people heavily criticize noni juice is because it is severely lacking in core nutrients. If you wanted to get the bare minimum of grams of protein you need a day, you would have to drink 22 bottles of noni juice.

Do you know how much this would cost? The average is about $850 a day!

What about calcium? If you wanted to consume the minimum amount of calcium a day you would have to drink 50 bottles of noni juice.

This alone would cost almost $2,000-2400 a day. Although there are other nutrient deficiencies in noni juice, these are two of the most outstanding.

Read more about Noni on Wikipedia. 

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Once you reach a certain age, your metabolism goes down and you gain weight more easily. So if your desire is to shed those extra pounds, the solution lies in increasing your metabolic rate and the amount of calories you burn every day. The more calories you burn everyday the more weight you will lose.

Here are some practical suggestions on how you can burn more calories each day.

Get moving.

Movement of your body counts a lot. The more you move the more calories you burn. Routine activities do involve a lot of movement around the house as well as in the office but the percentage should be increased to a higher level. The old maxim of moving every now and then applies true in your attempt to burn more calories.

Park your car further and take a walk. If you work in an office, take breaks to  stand up for a stretch. Avoid being seated in one position all day.

Eat small meals more often

Instead of sticking to a fixed schedule of breakfast, lunch and dinner opt for small packages of food in between. This will keep your metabolism running smoothly and efficiently. Eating a smaller meal every 3 to 4 hours will help speed up your metabolism so that it burns through food quicker. Eating one or two larger meals each day will cause your metabolism to slow down. If it’s not presented with food more often, it doesn’t burn through it as fast.

Skipping meals altogether will cause your body to hold onto stored fat as a defense mechanism. Your body isn’t sure when it’s going to get its next meal, so it conserves stored fat to use in case of future calorie needs. This can help you in two ways. First it relieves you of tiredness, which comes due to work. Secondly there is always a check on the food consumption you have when it is eaten in small amounts very often. Small and occurring meals in between can help in increasing your rate of metabolism.

Browsing through the following points can give a clear idea as to how the weight loss program should be undertaken. Eat little amount of food very often instead of maintaining a fixed discipline in regard to food. The amount of calories consumed should be in proportion to the amount of calories burned everyday by the way of exercises.

Consider weight training

Weight training will not burn a sufficient amount of fat while you’re doing it. Weight training will help you burn more calories and fat in the future.

When you add more lean muscle tissue to your body, you have to expend more energy (burn more calories) just to maintain that lean muscle tissue. So when you’re at rest, even sleeping, you’ll burn off more calories with this additional lean muscle. The more calories you burn, the more body fat you will lose.

That’s why weight training is an important part of the weight loss equation. The more lean muscle tissue you have on your body, the more calories you will burn off as a result.

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The Goji berry has been widely known and used by the the Chinese and Tibetans used for promoting general wellness. These days, goji juice is becoming more popular in the west due to media exposure and marketing efforts. However, as the name implies, the best berries that are purported to make the best Himalayan goji juice, are grown in some areas close to the Himalayan mountains and Tibet, particularly in China and Inner Mongolia.

Goji juice is rich in vitamins, minerals and amino acids. Additionally, Himalayan goji juice contains many forms of polysaccharide which is an immune boosting agent, and is also very rich in Vitamin C. Among the benefits attributed to the Himalayan goji drink include overcoming the effects of depression, fatigue, and anxiety.

Actually, the goji berry has traditionally been known as the wolfberry, a member of the nightshade family. Potatoes are also members of this same family. The berry was introduced into the United Kingdom in the seventeen hundreds as a hedging shrub and continues to be used there to this day. In the United Kingdom the plant is known as the Duke of Argyll’s Tea Tree and has recently been allowed to be sold commercially.

Do These Berries Really Come From The Himalayas?

The marketing folks may have popularize the term Himalayan goji juice in order to evoke a sense of freshness and purity. It appears the Himalayas’ terrain and and climate would probably not permit these berries to thrive. The berries are more likely to come from China or Inner Mongolia where the growing conditions are more appropriate.

Goji Berry Habitats

Himalayan Goji juice is reportedly produced from the very best berries that can be found. These red berries may well have been grown in the Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region of north-central China or the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region of western China. The berries are cultivated on plantations that can range from one hundred to one thousand acres in size. The Ningxia berries are grown on the most fertile floodplains of the Yellow River. The quality of these Ningxia wolfberries is so well known that they are sometimes known as “red diamonds”.

You can try to ask them but most sellers of Himalayan goji juice do not disclose the actual source of the berries. However, a few will disclose that the berries have not been grown in the Himalayan Mountains.

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You have often heard that your diet should include lots of fresh fruits and vegetables. But if you don’t want to eat them, there is another solution - juice them and drink it! And if you’re too lazy to do it yourself, you can buy fresh juice at a juice bar or a health foods store. The key here is drinking it fresh as opposed to bottled.

For the do-it-yourselfers, you can purchase a juice extractor which removes the pulp and filters about 90% of the liquid matter into a cup or jug. This will make your life a whole lot easier than trying to use manual juicers.

Fruits and vegetables commonly used for fresh juice include:

• Oranges
• Apples
• Watermelons / Melon Dews/ Rock melons
• Pears
• Strawberries
• Carrots
• Spinach
• Beetroots

A lot of people  also like to include a small amount of fresh ginger or garlic for an added immune system boost. It all depends on your individual tastes. Ginger and garlic in your juice may be an acquired taste. Experiment with it and see what combinations work best for you.

The human body is comprised of at least 70% water and drinking fresh juice is a great way to stay hydrated. Each piece of fruit and vegetables is also around 70% water content, but the water is vitamin and nutrient rich for quick and effective assimilation into the body. Fresh juice will give you an energy surge and it will carry vital vitamins and nutrients to cells throughout the body the way nature intended it to.

Health Benefits

There are so many health benefits to drinking fresh juice it would be impossible to list them all. Many people like drinking fruit and vegetable juice to detoxify their bodies for a few days every month or a day or two a week: This means they have nothing but fresh juices, fruit, fresh vegetables and water for the detoxification period. Since the enzymes in the fruit and vegetables are still buzzing in their uncooked form, fresh juice is pure energy to support our natural life force. While cooked, dried fruits and vegetables have nutritional value; it is small in comparison to fresh juice.

Whether you drink one juice a day or several you will notice changes after a week or so: your skin will be smoother, glowing and clear, your eyes will be bright and your body will feel clean. You will have elevated moods and energy levels compared to before and your appetite will possibly decrease because you are receiving all the vitamins and nourishment you require for the first time in a long time. Hair, nails and your immune system will all be noticeably stronger and you will feel calm and surprisingly at ease. Over time your digestion will improve, your bowel flora will re-balance and you could possibly cure any disease or illness in your body.
Detoxification

A good way to start with fresh juice, is to do a detoxification for a day or two initially to clean your system out and relax your digestion. Then you can start your new routine of having one fresh juice first thing each morning or perhaps even one with breakfast and lunch, whichever you prefer.

This is not a change you will ever regret and you will start to look more seriously at all the beverages you consume as you come to realize how beneficial a fresh juice can actually be to your health.

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When you go on a lemon juice detox diet, you keep to it for a fixed number of days, like the 7-day plan or the 14-day plan. A juice diet plan generally includes juices of various fruits and vegetables. But here we are focusing on just two elements - cayenne pepper and lemon juice. It’s really a simple diet.

You should not follow it for more than two weeks at a time because your body will need more nutrients after that period of time. The diet is extremely inexpensive, so you won’t need to buy any expensive supplements or food plans. The lemon juice and cayenne pepper diet is a detoxifying diet that is primarily used to cleanse the body and provide a quick start for weight loss or a more nutritious weight loss plan.

How To Prepare The Juice

Prepare the following juice recipe and drink it six to twelve times per day for the duration of the diet:

2 tablespoons fresh-squeezed lemon juice or lime juice
2 tablespoons real maple syrup
1/10 of a teaspoon cayenne pepper
8 oz. water, preferably distilled or bottled water.

That’s it. Just mix all the ingredients well, drink the mix, and repeat up to 12 times a day for up to two weeks. You should see the weight start to drop off after the first few days.

What About Exercising?

Most dieters, even those who regularly exercise, refrain from strenuous exercise while they are on the lemon juice and cayenne pepper diet. The diet simply does not provide enough calories to sustain either a cardio exercise routine or a weight lifting, strength building routine. If you feel you must exercise while following this diet, restrict your activities to simple walking, and don’t walk far from home. If you start to feel faint while walking, stop and rest until you are able to walk back to your home.

It’s Really Juice Fasting

This diet may more accurately be called the lemon juice and cayenne pepper fast than diet, because the calories consumed resemble a fast more than a meal plan. You will gain some nutritious calories from the fruit juice and maple syrup in the lemon juice and cayenne pepper diet, but many dieters find this plan hard to follow beyond a day or two.

Possible Side Effects

There could be certain side effects of a lemon juice diet plan on your body, especially in the beginning. It is better to consult a doctor before you start, but even then headaches or a general weakness could occur in the beginning. It is common sense that if you drink juice for a week, you will lose a certain amount of weight.

A juice diet plan actually makes you feel healthier and slimmer, and just by losing a few kilos over a period of 7 or 14 days, gives you a kick start towards a healthier life. You tend to cut out on junk food. It also helps you to change your eating habits forever.

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Hawaiian Noni juice has been available for several years in the western market. Among the companies marketing this juice, the Healing Noni Company has been one of the largest manufacturers of Hawaiian Noni juice. They are serious about quality control as they handle the product all the way from the farm to the bottle. You can buy them in bottles as well as entire cases. Can you believe that the company produces twenty five thousand gallons of Hawaiian Noni juice every month?

The Bottling Process
The company owns farms where they plant Noni trees, fertilize them, pick and then juice the Noni fruit to sell. The farms are on the Big Island of Hawaii, where the soil is rich in nutrients. Some of the Noni trees are over 50 feet in height, and this is due to the volcanic lava soil.

In order to preserve the potency of the Hawaiian Noni juice, the company uses the traditional Hawaiian methods. Once the fruit turns ripe, it is hand picked with care, washed and then further ripened in the sun. This ensures that the Noni fruit remains intact with all the healthy enzymes. Great care is taken to ensure that no immature fruit or green fruit is picked.

To ensure the quality of Hawaiian Noni juice, only the pulp of the Noni fruit is used. No other parts of the fruit or tree like the seeds, bark or leaves are used. Even fallen fruit or bruised fruit is not included in the process.

How The Noni Juice Is Obtained

There is the traditional way and the modern way to make noni juice. The traditional method is more time-consuming because the whole Noni fruit is left to age or ferment for several weeks or months.

The modern method is like taking a short cut. Frozen pulp or concentrate is imported from Tahiti or someplace else. Then water and other fruit juices are added to it to bring it to a liquid form. Don’t believe the marketing claims that this method has the ‘true’ and ‘original’ Noni juice. Do your own research!

The key thing to look out for when you are shopping for Hawaiian Noni Juice is purity. Natural juice should be undiluted and pure and not be in the form of a concentrate or a powder.

Resources: Healing Noni, ResortHealth.com, Noni Connection

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The Goji berry is also known as wolfberry (lycium barbarum). Goji health benefits have been known in Chinese traditional medicine and are beginning to gain attention of those in the west. The Chinese have long used Goji berries in soups.

image credit: gojisaft (Flickr)

Different Types of Goji Berries

Traditionally, goji berries have been grown in many different regions, such as China, Mongolia, and in the Himalayas in Tibet. They have been eaten locally for centuries, and many local cultures celebrate the goji berry (nicknamed the “happy berry”) at festivals.

There are two main types of Goji berries - Himalayan and Chinese. The Chinese Goji berries are smaller and bitter tasting compared to the Himalayan ones which are plump and sweeter. Both types provide similar health benefits.

The Health Properties of Goji Berries

The health properties that have been known for centuries are just beginning to be realized by the commercial markets. The benefits of goji berry juice include: improved vision, increased sperm production, replenished semen, improved circulation, better complexion, nourished liver and kidneys. Additionally, it is a powerful anti-oxidant (as many berries are) and is thought to have cancer-fighting properties.

To truly realize the benefits of goji berry juice, all one has to do is consider the natural vitamins and nutrients found in the beverage. Goji berry juice contains nutrients like betatine, beta-sitoserol (lowers cholesterol), physalin, and cyperone. They also contain 19 amino acids, 21 trace minerals including zinc, calcium, germanium, selenium and phosphorus, B vitamins, beta-carotene, vitamin E, vitamin C, and fatty acids.

Additionally, it is rated number 1 on a list of natural foods with the most antioxidants, which can help your body stay healthy.

The key is to find pure goji. Also make sure to read the ingredients list and make sure that it is not watered down with other juice concentrates. Now you can include Goji berry juice as a part of your juice fast and gain all the benefits!

Read more: Goji berry - the superfood advocated by Madonna, Kate Moss and Liz Hurley

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The main goal of a juice fasting diet is to detoxify your body and improve your health. One of the main effects is that it can help you to cleanse toxins from your digestive system and make you feel better.

Fasting Before A Blood Test

When you go for a yearly physical, you normally need to have a blood test. Before you get your blood taken, you normally have to fast for at least 12 hours in order to get an accurate count for things like cholesterol and blood sugar levels.

It’s been reported that what you eat can affect the amount of cholesterol in your bloodstream, so if you had a cholesterol test, you had to fast so your blood could get back to its normal levels of cholesterol.

A test involving your digestive tract also requires you to fast and perhaps drink a cleansing solution. This is done so that your doctor can start with a cleaned-out system. Under these medical fasts, the patient eats nothing and drinks only plain water.

So What Is Juice Fasting?
When you are undergoing a juice fasting diet, you don’t eat anything. Drink only water and juices from pure, raw vegetable and fruits. A juice fasting diet is said to accomplish some of the same purposes as fasting before a doctor’s visit: it can reset and cleanse your body’s systems. The two components of the diet are what is excluded from the diet, and what is included to replace the excluded elements.

A juice fasting diet is entirely plant based and raw. Dieters should extract their own juice to ensure they receive nutrients packed with vitamins, minerals, and antioxidants. The juice fasting diet is somewhat counterintuitive, because the juice on a fast should be fiber-free, and dieters have been told that fiber is good for a diet.

Foods to Avoid

On this diet, cooked food and animal products are removed from the meal plans. Refined foods like white flour, granulated sugar, and hydrogenated vegetable oils are cut out entirely. Likewise, animal products like meat, poultry, fish, eggs, milk, cheese, and sour cream are all excluded.

Excluding these processed foods and animal products may make the juice dieter feel noticeably better and have more energy in just 24 hours.

In a juice fasting diet, part of the energy boost comes from the fact that the body does not have to spend energy digesting food. If the dieter eats fruit or vegetable pulp, the pulp must be digested. That is why the fruit and vegetable juices consumed during a juice fasting diet should be juice only, free of any fiber.

Examples of juices that make up your fast can include vegetables, fruits and herbs such as

• celery, cucumber, tomato, bell pepper
• parsley, kale, beet greens, chard, spinach, dandelion leaf
• broccoli, cabbage
• carrots, beets, sweet potatoes
• dark grapes, apples, citrus, Açai berry
• yucca root, fennel, spearmint, peppermint, basil, ginger, garlic, green onion, chile pepper, fresh turmeric root, milk thistle
• wheatgrass juice, spirulina

In order to compensate for the lack of fiber, juice fasters often use an enema or an herbal or saltwater laxative during the time of fasting to continue having regular bowel movements.

The Length of a Juice Fast

Some people take week-long periods of fasting twice a year in order to cyclically purify the body. While they are on this schedule, they may also take monthly, shorter (two or three days) periods of fasting. If you don’t want to do this at home, you can go some place exotic. There are spa resorts that cater to juice fasters, with Thailand being an especially popular destination.

A Word of Caution

If you are on any type of prescription medication, be sure to talk to your doctor before making changes to your doctor. You want to be sure that there won’t be any undesirable effects of a juice fasting diet on your medication.

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