Juicing experiment: Day #1

I’m planning to try an experiment.

Over Christmas break, I watched the documentary “Fat, Sick & Nearly Dead”. It chronicles Joe Cross’s 60 day juice fast. During those days, he drank only the juice that he extracted from fresh produce.  No food. Nothing to chew for 60 days.  During that time, he lost over 60 lbs. and no longer needed the steroid he’d been taking for a skin disorder. He’s gone on to eat a mostly plant-based diet which has kept him off the medication and in great shape.

It made me curious.

So I borrowed my Mom’s juicer for a couple days and experimented with a few combinations of fruits and veggies. Who knew cucumber juice tasted so good!?  When I had to return hers, my husband bought me a juicer of my own: the Hamilton Beach Big Mouth pro juice extractor.

It arrived last night, but I didn’t have any produce. So today, Ten & I ventured out to Farm Fresh. I got quite a few good deals: a 4 lb. bag of navel oranges for $1.99, pears for $1.69 a pound, 3 lbs. of apples for $3.60 and kale at $0.69/lb.! Altogether, I spent about $15 on the produce.

When I got home, I put together a quick experimental juice to have in place of lunch:

2 carrots, a handful of kale, 1 celery stalk, 2 small tangerines, 1 apple and 1 pear.

It made about 26 oz. of juice.  And apart from the rather strong celery taste, I think it’s pretty good!

I’ve been debating whether or not I’d like to try a true juice fast. Certainly not for as long as Joe Cross did! Right now, I’m thinking instead of giving up food altogether, I may just substitute juice for 1-2 meals a day.  I want to see the benefits of the juice fast, but I’m concerned about the cost of all the fresh produce. The documentary priced juicing at about $14/day. That’s not something my family can take on right now.

So I’m going to try this little experiment just to see how it goes. After a few days, we’ll see how I’m feeling and how the cost has turned out.

What do you think? Have you ever or would you ever try a juice fast?