Health Benefits of Juicing Cucumbers

Juicing vegetables and fruits is becoming more popular as people begin realizing that our diets are nearly what they should be.

A diet high in vegetables and fruits is extremely beneficial to our bodies. Perhaps you've heard that red meat is bad for you, processed foods are bad for you, and refined sugars and flour are bad for.

You may have also heard that vegetables are good for you, and some are cancer fighting and can help prevent a lot of diseases.

But why do these food affect the body in such a way and how does juicing cucumbers help?

Different parts of you body maintain a pH balance (acidic vs non-acidic called alkaline). Keeping this balance is important to staying alive, feeling good, and living longer.

Different foods that we eat can inject acidic or alkaline molecules into our body. For instance, soda pop is extremely acidic. When the body receive soda into the system, it needs to neutralize the the acid and it pulls calcium from the bones to take care of the acid.

Other acidic foods are red meats (and many other meats), processed foods, junk food, and more.

Alkaline foods (or foods that when processed by your system are alkaline) include spinach, kale, and yes, cucumbers.

Eating more alkaline foods will help your body not have to work as hard and leech calcium from the bones to maintain balance.

You can read more about feeding your body the right foods with some great recipes in the pH Miracle book by Dr. Young.

There are many different veggies that you can juice, and you can mix and match as you juice to find the right recipes that you enjoy the most.

Cucumbers help your body maintain its correct alkalinity, which is huge (just get a pH test and test your urine or saliva after juicing cucumbers and other vegetables, and you'll start to see a big difference).

Benefits that juicers have identified include:

• Increased alkalinity of the urine which indicates a better acid/alkaline balance in the body.
• Reduced inflammation (which can be beneficial if you're fighting arthritis).
• Removal of cell waste. Since the cucumber has diuretic properties, it helps rid the body of retained water and waste.
• Can help cool you down on a hot day. Some even suggest using it to help ease a fever.
• Some have also identified cucumbers in helping promote hair growth. I'm not so sure about that claim. If it's helped you, leave your thoughts in the comments, I'd like to know how often you're drinking cucumber juice to make that happen.
• They make you want to juice more. Some "Green" juice can be hard to drink because of the taste. Cucumbers are cool and tasty. If you need to add a little to it, you could try a few seedless grapes.

For more details on these benefits see: Juicing for Health or Health Benefits of Cucumbers

If you're going to eat cucumbers for your health, you might as well get the best cucumbers around, and the best will be the most fresh and pesticide free.

You can acheive this by growing cucumbers right in your own garden.

If that's not an option for you, check your health food store or farmers market.

There are a variety of juicers that you can use to juice your cucumbers. A centrifugal juicer will process them quickly and give you a great drink in no time.

You can see a couple different juicers in action juicing cumbers here.

Some people are concerned about juicers heating the juice and destroying the enzymes in the juice, but not to worry, the temperature needs to be at 118 degrees Fahrenheit to ruin the enzymes.