Last week I attended a press event in London and was delighted to have the opportunity of meeting Joe Cross in person, author of "Fat, Sick and Nearly Dead" or @JoetheJuicer if you want to reach out to him on twitter.
My first sighting of him as I arrived, with Cranberry juice in one hand, camera and notepad in the other, was of a tall Australian guy, oozing vitality and health, commanding the attention of the females surrounding him, all asking questions as he spoke about his favourite topic "Juicing".
One lady stood behind the display, preparing little juice shots for us to sample, and demonstrated how easy it really is to increase your natural juice intake. She demonstrated how to make carrot, apple and lemon juice, and extracted this juice mixture from the freshly prepared fruit and vegetables in front of her. Simply drink the juice and you have these additional nutrients straight into your diet.
The benefits of the juicer is that there is nothing taken out. When you make the juices yourself, you know these juices are pure, without sacrificing any of the nutrients.
With shop bought juice it is often pasteurised, and this process means it is heated. Thus nutrients are lost during this process. There is however a new process of juicing that is currently being introduced in the USA and will soon arrive in the UK, according to Joe Cross. So as soon as we have more information, we will of course share this with you. The juices are HPP (high pressure processed) so fewer nutrients will be lost in this process to make the juice last longer on the supermarket shelf. So this will be a better, higher nutrient content juice than the pasteurised juices available currently. So do check your labelling carefully!
If you see juices arrive in the supermarkets labelled up HPP, do let us know!
Little did I know on arrival what had gone before in Joe Cross' life that resulted in the book "Fat, Sick and Nearly Dead!" and a TV documentary that aired on Channel 5 last week. He had set himself the challenge of freeing himself of his weight, and reliance on medication in order to lead a stable life. He hired a documentary film crew, headed out to the USA where he grew up as a child and had the crew film his 60 day journey across the country. It is a very inspiring story.
If you want to catch the show, you can see it on Channel 5 and the link is here. This is a UK TV channel, so only available to our UK readers. It may be on YouTube if you're reading this from outside the UK - sorry!
I managed to grab a 5 minute chat with him and came away totally inspired, with a copy of the book below, which I have been reading every since. I vowed I would juice regularly for 30 days and report back.
Anyone who knows me will know of my slender build and wonder why I would want to try a 30 day juice challenge? I am not overweight, nor sick. However I do have periods of time when I lack energy, suffer from headaches and feel the vitality is not at the level it once was, and so believe it is worth a go.
So this is my challenge, (amongst others!) for the summer holidays - to have 1 litre of juice in the morning for 30 days. I am hoping it will give me more energy, give me a more balanced lifestyle and a sense of calm...
With this heatwave we are experiencing, juicing seems a wise way of getting those nutrients in and fast.
A cool refreshing smoothie or juice freshly prepared on ice seems just the perfect way to copy with this heat.
And if you're in need of a new bottle, ice pack, lunchbox or picnic gear, do check out our shop
So do you drink freshly made juice or smoothies or prefer bought?
The Lunchbox World Team x