Vegetables should be the key players in all your juice blends. They have little or no sugar, and they offer you what you need in nutrients that help prevent diseases, improve your energy levels, and keep you healthy even into old age.
There is a wide-open field of vegetable to choose from, so the question is which the best vegetables for juicing are.
You also want to know which choices taste better when used in a combination with others, and which offer the best nutritional value. Yes?
Hence, your goal is to pick the vegetables that produce the biggest yield in terms of taste, the most juice, and the most nutrients.
Why? Because:
- Without taste, you’re not going to want to juice ever again and you will most likely keep buying those sugar-laden fruit juices from the supermarket.
- Without much juice, you’re not getting any goodness and the whole exercise is pointless.
- It is the nutrients that make us feel good about juicing.
You can juice any vegetable, but the vegetables with a high water content, like cucumbers make your base juice. The leafy greens like spinach and kale, are what give you many nutrients.
Nutritious Vegetables Good For Juicing
Think of the vegetables you choose to juice like a delivery driver trying to make record time. Keep in mind that juicing is pretty much a nutrient express train that zooms through your body rapidly.
Here are some of the top vegetables to put in your juicer. They are full of nutrients and extremely supportive of good health.
However, keep in mind that this list is not exhaustive because most vegetables can be juiced despite the fact that they will not yield the same amount of juice.
1. Cucumber
The humble cucumber has a 95% water content that makes it a great base juice that offers you excellent hydration benefits. They also have other health benefits, including potassium, which reduces your risks of stroke.
It also has an anti-inflammatory flavonol that plays a role in brain health along polyphenols called lignans that may reduce risks for cancer.
Cucumbers also have plenty of antioxidants such as vitamin C and beta-carotene that fight free radicals. They also promote skin health to make aging easier on the eyes.
2. Carrots
Carrots not only add some color to your juice, they also taste great, complement all your other vegetables and they have many nutrients.
They contain plenty of vitamins, including vitamin A, vitamin C, vitamin K and vitamin B8, and numerous minerals such as potassium, copper, iron and manganese. Carrots can also prevent heart disease, lower your blood pressure, and give your immune system a timely boost.
The beta-carotene in carrots is responsible for their orange color. It is also an antioxidant that helps maintain healthy skin and plays a key role in eye health.
3. Broccoli
Kids and some adults as well cringe at the thought of eating broccoli, however, broccoli is really supportive of human health and nutrition.
Most athletes, bodybuilders and health nuts, include this cruciferous vegetable in their diet to prevent certain cancers, reduce cholesterol, strengthen bones, and help keep their bodies nice and lean.
Broccoli is rich in vitamin K and vitamin E, antioxidants that protect cells from free radicals. It also has B vitamins and vitamin C that boost immunity.
Broccoli blends well with apples, pears and even berries, making great smoothies.
4. Sweet Potato
Juice is cooler with a pinch of sweetness. The suave sweet potato is the smoothest vegetable you can use to add sweetness to your juice.
The sweet potato looks the part and definitely tastes the part. It’s sweet and comes with lots of nutritional value as well, it’s a package deal!
It’s rich in vitamin A, vitamin B6, and vitamin C. It also contains lots of iron and magnesium. Their natural sweetness are released slowly into your blood stream, so you don’t get any of those nasty spikes in your blood sugar levels.
5. Cabbage
Cabbage has 95% water making it a great base juice. Most people don’t like eating cabbage whole because it’s big, chewy and doesn’t go down too well. Juicing makes it amazing!
Cabbage can be juiced alone, however, its flavor is much enhanced by apples or carrots. The cabbage juice helps you lose weight by purifying your intestine so that disposing of waste becomes so much easier.
It can also protect you from certain cancers, ward off cataracts, and strengthen your immune system.
6. Celery
Oh how I love celery! It is the slimmest, tallest and leanest vegetable on the planet. It has a 95% water content that makes it great for juicing and allows you get lots of fresh nutrient juice.
Despite its slim nature, a single stick of celery contains high amounts of vitamin K, vitamin A, vitamin C, folate, and potassium. Make sure to also juice the green leaves because they have the most potassium content.
The best thing about celery juice is that it blends well with all other vegetables and many fruits. To make it more refreshing, add ice.
7. Kale
Kale is a powerhouse of nutrition that contains the highest vegetable source of vitamin K, which supports bone health. It also has calcium, minerals, copper, potassium, iron, manganese, and tons of vitamins.
Alongside broccoli, it is also a member of the cruciferous family. It is also noted by the National Cancer Institute that kale plays a potentially key role in cancer prevention studies.
Kale juices are great because they are low in calories and they blend well with many fruits and vegetables. It’s the star of the famous ‘green juice’ that has taken the health world by storm.
8. Swiss Chard
Swiss chard is high in vitamin K, which assist with blood clotting and protects your bones. It also gives you vitamins A and C, magnesium, potassium, and iron.
It’s the best substitute if you hate eating greens. Swiss chard has all the health benefits and also blends with lemons, ginger, apples, or pears.
9. Spinach
We all saw Popeye’s muscles bulge when he ate spinach, yet most of never touch the stuff. Juice spinach instead if you really hate eating it.
It’s an excellent source of vitamins A, C, and E, along with iron, calcium, potassium, protein and choline. Choline supports healthy brain function.
If you are disgusted by the taste, it blends great with ginger, apples and carrots.
10. Kohlrabi
Kohirabi is a member of the Brassica family that also features collard greens, cabbage and Brussels sprouts.
It is very low calories in calories and has a mild sweet flavor. It gives you lots of vitamin C for health immunity, and protects you from chronic diseases. It also protects you from cancer as it scavenges harmful free radicals that can roam inside the human body.
According to the National Cancer Institute, the phytochemicals (isothiocyanates and sulforaphane) in kohlrabi may protect you from prostate and colon cancers.
It is very rich in B vitamins such as niacin that helps protect the heart, along with minerals like potassium, manganese, and copper, calcium, iron and phosphorous.
The green tops also hold key nutrients so they should also be juiced for the B vitamins, carotenes, vitamin A, vitamin K, and minerals.
You can juice it with kale, carrots, apples, ginger, and lemon to complement the flavor.
11. Wheatgrass
Wheatgrass, nature’s best plant foods! There has been lots of talk that wheatgrass can cure diseases, prevent diseases, however, experts like Mayo Clinic and WebMd advise that there is no scientific evidence to support the speculations.
It provides a highly concentrated amount of a wide range of important nutrients that boost your health. It is a young grass of the wheat plant family that contains high amounts of chlorophyll, amino acids, calcium, enzymes, vitamins A, C, E, K, B6 riboflavin, thiamin, 92 minerals, zinc, copper, zinc, manganese, and selenium.
4 grams of wheatgrass also contains 252mg or 1260% of the daily-recommended value of Niacin. Niacin also vitamin B3, is important for general health. It is used in medicine as a treatment to improve high cholesterol levels and reduce risks for cardiovascular disease.
According to WebMD, evidence exists that Niacin helps reduce atherosclerosis, or hardening of the heart arteries.
Once you juice wheatgrass, drink it within 15 minutes to get all its nutritional benefits. Drink it undiluted and on an empty stomach for the body to absorb all its nutrients.
