I AM HealingStrong

68: Harnessing the Power of Juicing & Optimizing Your Health | Barbara Duck

November 28, 2023 HealingStrong Episode 68
68: Harnessing the Power of Juicing & Optimizing Your Health | Barbara Duck
I AM HealingStrong
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I AM HealingStrong
68: Harnessing the Power of Juicing & Optimizing Your Health | Barbara Duck
Nov 28, 2023 Episode 68
HealingStrong

Unlock the potential of your health journey as we dive into the expansive world of juicing. Joined by the phenomenal Barbara Duck, a juicing expert, we tackle the ins and outs of juicing, detailing its immense benefits and techniques. Discover how this nutrient-rich and easily customizable method lets you consume fruits and veggies in a whole new way, giving you an upper hand in your nutrient intake compared to eating whole produce.

Peel back the layers of knowledge about the two primary types of juicers that you'll find on the market - the centripetal and cold press/masticating. Each of these has its pros and cons, and we discuss these in detail. Learn how a high-quality juicer could be your best companion in your juicing journey, making juicing both easy and efficient. Further, we delve into batch juicing, sharing insights on its benefits and tips for preserving your juice effectively. 

Whether you're looking to gain weight, help in healing, or are on a cancer journey, find out how juicing can be your ally. Hear our personal experiences and how juicing aids us in our journeys. But that's not all; we also shed light on the mission of HealingStrong, a nonprofit organization committed to supporting and educating individuals battling cancer and other diseases. By the end of this episode, you'll be inspired to take control of your health and your healing journey, armed with a wealth of juicing knowledge. So jump in, and let's juice up our lives!

HealingStrong's mission is to educate, equip and empower our group leaders and group participants through their journey with cancer or other chronic illnesses, and know there is HOPE. We bring this hope through educational materials, webinars, guest speakers, conferences, community small group support and more.

Please consider supporting our mission by becoming a part of our Membership Program, as a monthly donor.

When you do, you will receive additional resources such as: webinars, access to ALL our past and most recent conference videos, downloadables and more, as a bonus.

To learn more, head to the HealingStrong Membership Program link below:

Membership Program

Show Notes Transcript Chapter Markers

Unlock the potential of your health journey as we dive into the expansive world of juicing. Joined by the phenomenal Barbara Duck, a juicing expert, we tackle the ins and outs of juicing, detailing its immense benefits and techniques. Discover how this nutrient-rich and easily customizable method lets you consume fruits and veggies in a whole new way, giving you an upper hand in your nutrient intake compared to eating whole produce.

Peel back the layers of knowledge about the two primary types of juicers that you'll find on the market - the centripetal and cold press/masticating. Each of these has its pros and cons, and we discuss these in detail. Learn how a high-quality juicer could be your best companion in your juicing journey, making juicing both easy and efficient. Further, we delve into batch juicing, sharing insights on its benefits and tips for preserving your juice effectively. 

Whether you're looking to gain weight, help in healing, or are on a cancer journey, find out how juicing can be your ally. Hear our personal experiences and how juicing aids us in our journeys. But that's not all; we also shed light on the mission of HealingStrong, a nonprofit organization committed to supporting and educating individuals battling cancer and other diseases. By the end of this episode, you'll be inspired to take control of your health and your healing journey, armed with a wealth of juicing knowledge. So jump in, and let's juice up our lives!

HealingStrong's mission is to educate, equip and empower our group leaders and group participants through their journey with cancer or other chronic illnesses, and know there is HOPE. We bring this hope through educational materials, webinars, guest speakers, conferences, community small group support and more.

Please consider supporting our mission by becoming a part of our Membership Program, as a monthly donor.

When you do, you will receive additional resources such as: webinars, access to ALL our past and most recent conference videos, downloadables and more, as a bonus.

To learn more, head to the HealingStrong Membership Program link below:

Membership Program

Speaker 1:

You know, the real enemies to juice and produce and losing the nutrients are air and heat. So if you apply some type of heat to it, like in that centripetal force, or if you have it, you know you put it in a container but you leave a lot of air, those things are going to break down those enzymes quicker than if you put it in a mason jar and seal it up nice and tight with no air.

Speaker 2:

You're listening to the I am Healing Strong podcast, a part of the Healing Strong organization, the number one network of holistic cancer support groups in the world. Each week we bring you stories of hope, real stories that will encourage you as you navigate your way on your own journey to health. Now here's your host stage four cancer thriver, jim Mann.

Speaker 3:

Today we're talking about, not a story. Normally, we share stories of journeys to health using cancer survivors or someone going through a life-threatening situation, but today we're giving you information. Actually, I'm going to be taking the information and you just have to be listening. We're talking about juicing, which is something I do. I'm probably doing it wrong, if there's a way of doing it wrong, so I brought in an expert that we've heard from before. She has told us her story and now she's going to give us information about juicing. It is Barbara Duck. How are you, Barbara?

Speaker 1:

I'm good, Jim. How are you today?

Speaker 3:

Great, I am ready to soak in the knowledge.

Speaker 1:

Well, I know it doesn't take much to be an expert, so I believe you're an expert as well, because you juice. So I think we can learn tips and tricks from each other.

Speaker 3:

Yes, I pretty much juice the same thing all the time the old carrots and the Granny Smith apples, and I usually throw ginger in there. But I grocery store doesn't have ginger for some reason. Is this time of year? Can you get it this time of year? Oh yeah, oh yeah.

Speaker 1:

Okay, they're just all on its house.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, I live like 45 minutes from a whole food, so that's too far. Yes, and then I throw in some leafy, some green leafy things every once in a while. So I know that's important, but the green it's important, right.

Speaker 1:

Oh yeah, green's good, green's good.

Speaker 3:

Well, tell us, let's just go with the basics, because you know juicing isn't that complicated. Why should we juice?

Speaker 1:

You know, I think it's a great question and I think really anybody who is on a health journey or wants to live a healthy lifestyle, whether you have an immune issue, whether you have cancer or not, juicing can be good for everybody because of the nutrients that it provides. And the thing about juicing, as compared to just eating the fruit in particular, is that when we juice, we really condense and are able to pull out all those nutrients that are in those fruits and vegetables that we would, you know, otherwise you could eat them in a big salad, but you can get so much more out of the juice and drink it. So it provides this nutrient, dense, very flavorful way to get in really fruits and vegetables of all sorts into our bodies without having to eat that much produce. And when you're in a healing journey, getting as many nutrients from our plant-based foods into our body can be very helpful and very healing. And there's, you know, different types of things that we're looking for from fruits and vegetables for whatever cancer type we have or whatever healing journey we're on. So we can customize our juice as well, versus sometimes when you take a medication or something like that, you may not be able to customize as much. But in this case you can pick the fruits and vegetables that will do you the most benefits and that you maybe are not comfortable eating in your salad, and you can juice them and provide that healing to your body. So again, I made that really long, but the short answer is you get a nutrient dense food that you can take in in a much smaller amount than you would if you had to eat it whole.

Speaker 3:

Now I'm a slow eater because I chew a lot, but most of us do not chew enough, so we don't get the juice that's in the food that we eat anyway. Right, we don't, we just gonna pass us through us without really providing the nutrients that's in there.

Speaker 1:

Well, I think you would. If you ate it, you would still get the nutrients, even if you didn't chew it all. You get more nutrients if you chew it, obviously, but your body's gonna digest it either way, but you're just able to take in so much more. You know, if you juice, let's say, three bags of apples right, nine pounds of apples you're gonna get about 80 ounces of juice. And you could, you know, whatever juice recipe you pick, you could probably consume that in two days where, if you said, well, I'm just gonna sit and eat nine pounds of apples, you would be exhausted from that. So you're able to really, you know, amp it up and, I think to your point, you can chew it, and chewing is good for us and eating the whole fiber can be good for us as well. But this is a way to really pack it in and get more into our bodies.

Speaker 3:

Like I get the carrots, I usually juice like a pound of it each time and I drink that, you know, in the day. Is that normal?

Speaker 1:

Well, yeah, I mean I think the question is normal for who? But, as all of us healing strong folks and our square one folks who have been doing a lot of juicing, you know a pound of carrots, I typically do a batch juice, which we can talk about later, but when I do it, I typically juice 10 pounds of carrots at a time, along with whatever I'm gonna put with it, and then I typically will end up with maybe about 10 to 12 juices, depending on what I put with it, and then I'll freeze it and use it that way. So I think I mean, if you juice a pound of carrots and get you know, I would say, probably 20 ounces of juice, that's fantastic.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, I wouldn't sit down and eat that many carrots, that's for sure.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, yeah, it would, it would, and it just makes it a lot easier to get that large amount of nutrients.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, and I always feel guilty about all that, the dry stuff coming out, the other you know into the other basket or whatever you want to call it. What should we do with that? I know some people recycle it back in there and get some more juice out of it, but other than that, yeah, if you have a good juicer, typically you can feel the pulp and you can feel how dry it is.

Speaker 1:

If it's pretty dry, you're probably not going to get much else out of it. And you know, I've been juicing probably about six years maybe a little bit less, but around six years and I have looked for all different types of things that you can do with your pulp especially. I was in the juicing business for a while, and we produced large amounts of that and looked for opportunities to use it. What I find, though, is is that, if you're trying to, there are recipes that you can make something for yourself. Typically, people make crackers or something like that with the pulp, but because all the nutrients are coming out of that fiber, about 90% of the nutrients that's in whatever you're juicing is going to be in the juice, so you really only have 10% of the nutrients that's left in the pulp, and so that also means that there's only about 10% of the flavor left. So to get it so that it's palatable for you, you're going to have to add a lot of stuff back in, a lot of things to hold it together, to bind it together, to cook it into something else. So what I have found is most beneficial.

Speaker 1:

You can use it for composting. If somebody does composting for a garden or if they're growing something, you can use it for that you can. Also, we would use it to potentially give to people who have or raising some type of animal that would use a lot of food. I'll call it food waste. But whatever it might be, especially pigs Not that I know any pig farmers, but they would eat a lot of food, different types of things. So you can find other people who need it for some purpose. But and you can again, you can. You can use it in baking, you can add it into soups and things like that, but most of the nutrients have been juiced out at that point.

Speaker 3:

Okay, and how important is the organic versus the non-organic?

Speaker 1:

You know, I think if you can afford organic produce because you're going to be juicing so much of it and putting it into your body for healing purposes If you can afford organic, then I recommend that you do organic. But if you can't, the real key is to watch out for things that are on the environmental working groups dirty dozen list and they have a clean 15 list as well. But if you go to ewgorg you can find the dirty dozen on the clean 15. And those are things that typically have a very thin skin and because they have a thin skin, they think of grapes or something like that they absorb a lot of the chemicals that are sprayed on them and it's very difficult to wash it off because it's actually gone into the produce.

Speaker 1:

So you know, top choice Susie likes to call it good, better, best. So you know your best choice would be to use all organic. Your better choice would be to use all. You could use regular produce, but then use the dirty dozen to eliminate the things that you should buy organic and then a good would be still to. You know, the question is if I can afford organic, should I juice? Absolutely, you're still going to get a ton of nutrients into your body, and so you should still juice, even if you can't get organic.

Speaker 3:

Okay, Now let's go on to the juicer itself. I know there is a plethora of them out on the market. What are the different types? I always hear the different cold press and all this stuff. How many different types are there?

Speaker 1:

So the two primary types of juicers there's one called a centripetal juicer and the other one's a cold press juicer, or some people call it a masticating juicer. So the centripetal juicer has a lot of force to it, it juices very, very quickly and it applies heat to the produce or that you're juicing. And what happens in a centripetal juicer is you can get juice really, really quickly, it does not take long at all and but it heats up the produce. So when it does that it starts the process of killing off those healthy enzymes that are in the juice, that the nutrients that you want to take in. So if you use a centripetal juicer, you typically want to consume that juice within an hour or two. The nutrients would and it would still be good, you know, think 24 hours. But if you're using a centripetal you really should just make it and drink it, versus batch making it.

Speaker 1:

When you cold press the cold press juicers or the masticating juicers, they basically crush the produce.

Speaker 1:

So typically you'll see that those machines have something called an auger in them and the auger just basically breaks down very slowly, whatever produce it is, and pushes it against some type of strainer, typically a stainless steel strainer, and the juice comes out and in that process, because there's no heat actually applied and the force is so much slower, then the nutrients last a lot longer.

Speaker 1:

So typically you're going to find that the nutrients are going to be good to four to five days in that juice if you put it in the fridge and store it without air and in a tight container, and so you can batch make juice, which typically is something that people who are going to drink as much juice as we do on a healing journey.

Speaker 1:

You're going to want to use a masticating or a cold press juicer. So that's the big difference between the types of juicers. And so you just get a lot. It takes you a little bit longer but you get a lot more shelf life and the nutrients stay brush a lot longer. You know the real enemies to juice and produce and losing the nutrients are air and heat. So if you apply some type of heat to it, like in that centripetal force, or if you have it, you know you put it in a container but you leave a lot of air. Those things are going to break down those enzymes quicker than if you put it in a mason jar and seal it up nice and tight with no air.

Speaker 3:

Now, you don't live that far away from me, so I think you know I'll pay you a few extra bucks if you prepare all mine for me.

Speaker 1:

Hey, you know that is always nice when somebody helps you juice or does your juicing for you. It's a real buffet and you know there is no paid plug here. I'll tell you this. But if you go out and look at the people who are in the juicing industry, who are on social media, for example, whether it's Sherry Cowbomb, whether it's, you know, chris Warke, or there's a couple of others in the juice industry that are, you know, famous for putting out juice recipes, those kinds of things they all have switched over from whatever their primary juicer was to the Nama juicer, the J2.

Speaker 1:

And it I've used the Champion juicer personally, I've used what's called a Knell juicer, c-a-y-n-e-l, and I've used the Nama juicer. And the Nama hands down is worth if you can, either, you know, find one that is for sale on Facebook Marketplace or something like that, or if you, you know, look for a great deal to, you know, discount code, those kinds of things. From the time and the ease of cleanup, it is well worth the investment in that particular juicer. I have been very pleased. But Sherry Cowbomb would say this, and she said it even at our conference that we had this year, jim, she said the best kind of juicer is the one that you will use. So you know, if you find that you have a juicer and you're not using it, you should look into the things that are causing you not to use it If it's difficult to clean, takes too long, etc. And find one that will, you know, increase your ability to juice. So, yeah, no good hung up on.

Speaker 3:

that is what you're saying. Yeah, and I would say too, jim, because you mentioned this about.

Speaker 1:

You know, should I make your juice for you? There are a couple of juice franchises out there where you can, you know, buy juice there locally. You can find juice shops and you can also find franchises like clean juice in some areas. If they're using organic, that is even better for your produce. But the key would be to make sure, if you're buying juice from someone, that it is cold pressed and it's fresh. You will find a lot of places like grocery stores and chains etc.

Speaker 1:

That will sell juice that is cold pressed but it has a longer shelf life. So if you're if the shelf life of that juice is any longer than about six days, you're going to know that that juice has been pasteurized and they're typically required to put that on the bottle. So if you pick up a juice and it says, oh, it's got you know 15 more days, it's a green juice. This is great If it's been pasteurized, which is what the health department requires. If it's sold in bulk, like that enseñMusic chain stores, the pasteurization process is there to kill off any bacteria that could be harmful to you. But in killing off the harmful bacteria, it kills off the good enzymes as well. So while the juice tastes good and it might have slight benefits to it. Most of that nutrient dense thing that we're looking for in our juice has been pasteurized out, typically by a heat process.

Speaker 3:

Right Places, like clean juice and I'm saying that because that's the only one I know of. I mean, they make it like that day, right? They?

Speaker 1:

do and they do not pasteurize their juice, so you'll find that they have, you know, typically a five to six day expiration date on their juice from the day they make it.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, and they're wonderful people, at least the ones near the station. When I was working, still in radio, and they heard about my jury, they came on the morning show and brought in all kinds of juices and talked about the benefits. You know, that's when I was just learning about that kind of stuff, and so, yeah, they were a couple that started that the franchise.

Speaker 1:

they're based out of Charlotte, actually, and they are believers and star Christians and they have done some amazing things in franchising to be able to make that type of a juice available in a cold press format.

Speaker 3:

I just kind of play around with it and it's hard to ruin carrots, and greatest with apples. You know, when there's only two things in there, it always tastes the same to me. But once you get a little fancier, which I haven't yet, where do you find the good recipes? I know, like you said, chris Warchot on his website and the Juice Ladies he's got that also but is that just the best place to find these recipes?

Speaker 1:

Just like a couple places. So if you're looking specifically for the square one juice formula, you'll find that on Chris's website and he, you know, talks about the different things that he put in his juice, and so if you're looking for that, that's available. Sherry Cowbalm, the Juice Lady she has several books as well, as she has several recipes on her website as well, and she's got some great ones, and Sherry in particular, does not use a lot of. She uses much more vegetables than she does fruits in her juices. So that's just one avenue.

Speaker 1:

If you're looking for things that would be a little more palatable and have a little more sweet flavor to them, there's a website called Good Nature, and Good Nature is actually a vendor who makes large cold press juicers, and they have for years.

Speaker 1:

That's the type of juicer that we used when I was running my juice shop, but they have available on their website a lot of different juice recipes and just tons of things that are available to you, and so a lot of fun recipes. If you want to do something seasonal, they'll, you know, show you how to use pomegranate, or they'll show you how to use, you know, hairs or some other fruit that might be in season, along with the vegetables that you can poke with it. So they have some great ones. And then just recently I got an email because I had purchased my juicer from Nama and they had sent out a lot of juice recipes. So I have it looked, but I imagine that the juice companies themselves, the juice machines like Nama or Greville or Knell, would also have recipes available to you. So those are all great resources.

Speaker 3:

And I've never done the bulk or batch juicing, which is so much more intelligent, which is probably why I haven't done it. I do it right on the spot and I drink it all either in one sitting or that day. But what's the best way of doing it? I mean, is there too much you can make? Obviously, you can't make so much that you can't consume it. That will be too much. But how do you do it?

Speaker 1:

So I do batch juice and that's because I, you know, because of the time involved in the cleanup and the setup and because I'm like you. I have a carrot juice recipe that I use and I just that's basically what I drink. I also have a green juice recipe that I use. I have a lot of recipes, but those two in particular. I want to make sure I'm getting enough carrots and I don't eat a lot of salads, so I get my greens through my juice. But because I drink so much of that, I like to make 10 to 15 of those at a time, and so the way I do batch juicing is I typically pick. You know it's going to take me, with the Nama juicer that I use, it's going to take me to make about 12 to 15 juices about two hours, and that includes taking the produce, washing the produce. If there's any prep that's required, depending on the size of your juicer, that can extend the prep time. You have to do a lot of chopping or anything like that, and you know. But the reason I like doing it that way is I get a lot more consistency and then I know the juice is right. If I had to make it every day. I don't think that I would drink it every day because something would come up and I would get busy. So I like batch juicing. And some people may not like batch juicing because you're going to have to freeze it and you know they may not want to freeze that much or that kind of thing. But I have found that freezing it works well. I typically freeze it right away. So all those nutrients get you know, frozen in the juice and then it takes about a day for a day to day and a half for it to thaw so that I can drink it and I use you. Can you know when you think about I'll jump this topic just for a minute, since we're talking about batch juicing two ways that I store my juice. If I'm making it fresh, I'll put it in a mason jar again, no air in it, and seal it off and put it in the fridge, and you want to do that. The sooner you do it the better. If I'm batch making it to freeze, I just get it off Amazon. They have juice pouches, think of, you know, like Capri, sun kind of juice pouches. These are plastic, they're BPA free and I pour my juice in there. You have to leave whether you're using. You can freeze in glass jars, you can also freeze in these little juice bags, but whichever way you're freezing, you always want to leave a little bit of room for the juice to expand. So juice is going to expand when it freezes and if you put something all the way up to the top and put it in the freezer, it's going to either bust the plastic or bust the glass, whichever you use. So leave yourself a little bit of room there.

Speaker 1:

I would also add that one of the things that extends the shelf life of your juice as well as makes the color of your juice preserved, is to use lemon. So when I make my carrot juice, for example, I use lemon in there, not only to preserve it, but it. You know carrots can. That orange color can turn a little bit brown if you just do pure carrot and I like the brightness. So I like to include a little bit of lemon in there to prevent it from that oxidization. The sensation I didn't say that right, frost it so it doesn't oxidize. Let's just say it that way.

Speaker 3:

So you like you do each juice separately, like the carrot juice, and then whatever else you're doing, and then you add them later when you drink or like mix them together.

Speaker 1:

No, I go ahead and make the full juice. So whatever my recipe is. So the recipe that I use for my carrot is I use carrot, apple, lemon and ginger, very similar to what you're talking about. I use a gala apple. A lot of people use granny smith to have less sugar and so I I mix all that.

Speaker 1:

I prep the carrot, the apple, the lemon and the ginger and when I'm juicing I typically will mix in those lemons with each part of the process.

Speaker 1:

So if I put apples in the hopper, I'm going to fill a lemon in there with it so that it doesn't oxidize while it's.

Speaker 1:

Because if you just do the apples, then the carrots, then the lemons, you typically are going to get some oxidization. It's going to turn a little bit brown and a lot of juicers, depending on the type of juicer you use. If you layer your soft and your hard produce, it's much easier to juice. So if you do a few carrots, a few apples, a few lemons, a few carrots, apples, lemons in the whatever hopper you have on your juicer, it's a whole lot easier for the juicer to juice it. Sometimes when we use, when I make my green juice, for example, it's got spinach, kale, cucumber, apple, lemon and pineapple in it, and when I juice it, because a lot of that is soft or leafy, you need to layer the spinach and the apple to kale than the apple, et cetera, and what that does is again makes it. A lot of people have a hard time juicing the greens because their juicer doesn't want to pull them through, and if you have that harder produce in there it helps.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, I always use a carrot to chase the apples through, because they'll just get a little mushy, and then a carrot will just clean it all out. So, man, I did something right.

Speaker 1:

Let me write that down. You got it you got it.

Speaker 3:

Now juicing and smoothing what makes the difference?

Speaker 1:

You know, when you think about juicing and we just gave some great examples of how you're going to layer the produce in, et cetera it's going to go through that juicer, it's going to be broken down and it's going to press the juice out. You're going to get the juice on one side and you're going to get the pulp on the other side, so it's separating those two out. Again, about 90% of the nutrients are going to come out in the juice. When we do blending and are making smoothies, you could be using the same exact produce, but you're going to throw it all in a blender, typically with water or almond milk or something, oat milk or something like that, and you're basically going to blend it up. So you're going to consume still going to consume the whole produce, and so you're going to get all of that what we call soluble fiber, in a smoothie.

Speaker 1:

The difference between the two is that if you were to make into a smoothie the same amount you would make into a juice, it's just going to take you longer to consume it, just like if you were going to have to eat it, at least in the smoothie component, though you won't have to chew it up, but you will get all. If you're concerned about getting all that fiber and getting the soluble fiber, then you can certainly do it through a smoothie, but again, in our case, the goal for those who are working to heal from cancer and use juicing as a method. While smoothies are good for getting in a lot of food, the juices are going to give you much higher concentration of nutrients per ounce than if you were just getting in a smoothie.

Speaker 3:

That makes sense. Also, like for myself, I'm in like a maintenance mode. I mean, doctor says I'm cancer-free and I like that. But the thing is I've always been skinny and I just I want to gain weight. I've never been able to gain weight and I'm always hungry After I eat a meal. I'm like hungry within the hour. I think my metabolism is just extremely high, even now, at my young age of 66, still, I'm like a pork chihuahua, I think it is. I'm always moving. But juicing will not help you gain weight, that's for sure Not in my world anyway. It just makes you healthier.

Speaker 1:

I would say there's not a huge amount of caloric intake with your juices unless you're adding a lot of the sweeter juices to it. But still, in your case you'd have to consume juice. If you are struggling with your weight, the juices are going to be helpful for you, but you're going to have to find another way in your diet to really increase the amount of protein and other things, other healthy fats, to really help get that feeling of fullness that you just talked about, because typically you won't get that with the juice, and also to increase the caloric intake. Move away from juices just for a minute. Things that can really amp that up would be things like chia seeds, hemp seeds, flax seeds, because they're very nutrient dense and they have a lot of protein in them.

Speaker 1:

Any of your nut butters can be helpful to add to what. If you're making a smoothie, add some seeds, add some almond butter, things like that, to increase that caloric intake. Those things can be helpful. If you're looking for something that's drinkable, you can always do something like we made a chocolate almond milk. That was something that was kind of a treat but still healthy and had more calories than the juice would contain.

Speaker 3:

Right. So a smoothie can be a meal replacement for a normal person, whereas juicing is not. Really it's good for a certain type of fast or basically it's just to get the nutrients in. You is not to replace a meal, whereas a smoothie can replace a meal. In my case, I need to add it to a meal so I can add dry things to the weight.

Speaker 1:

Right. Yeah, I think we see people do juice fast for lots of different reasons, whether it's health reasons, losing weight, etc. We see people doing that, but long term, and the guy who did the show fat, sick and nearly dead. I think he did 40 plus days on a juice fast, but he was looking to lose weight and he was trying to get healthy too, so he was doing that to really jumpstart his weight loss journey as well as his health journey. But I think, in the case of the cancer patient, things like the cancer fighting salad that Chris talks about and those types of things, as well as other things that are in, for example, chris's cookbook, etc. Have some great ways to either eat things that are raw if you're in that first 90 days, but I think both you and I would agree that eating some regular meals, along with smoothies, along with juicing, really makes it a good combination for healing.

Speaker 3:

Just a lot of work.

Speaker 1:

It is a lot of work. I think it's worth it. It is a lot of work but it takes a lot of. You have to think ahead. Just like you said, you're looking for ginger, when am I going to go to get my produce? It's going to be fresh when I get it, so then I've got to make sure I've got enough time to juice it or prep it or whatever. We have seen some folks on the Heal and Stroke Team talk about getting people to help them do the prep. A lot of people who are doing, for example, Chris's juice recipe will have someone come in on the weekend to help them wash and chop and bag up what they're going to juice every day. They'll then make that juice every day, but all the washing and the prepping has been done in advance.

Speaker 3:

How do you wash yours? Do you use baking soda and vinegar and all that soaking the leafy things in water?

Speaker 1:

I've done it several ways Baking soda and a little bit of vinegar. I have used those methods. I've used something called Thieves Oil, which is a fruit and veggie wash that you can get. I've also used something called Fit Wash F-I-T. That's what we use at our juice shop because at the time we could get it in a powder form and it was used for a long time. You can get it in a liquid form as well, but any of those methods work really well. A lot of people always wonder if they should peel their produce. If you see obvious defects on your produce, like your carrots, for example, or if they're starting to get something on the top of them, you feel like you want to cut it off, that's fine. But you don't have to peel your produce as long as you've washed it. Good, as long as it's not really heavy, dirty looking, I just juice the whole carrot. I don't take the time to peel the carrot before I juice it.

Speaker 3:

You use the greens with the carrots, the leafy part.

Speaker 1:

You can use that and it's got a lot of good nutrients in it. I typically don't buy carrots that have that on them, because when I'm buying them in those big packages, typically they don't come with the greens still on them. But if you grow them or if you buy them with that on there, you can absolutely juice those.

Speaker 1:

Okay, that's cool when you juice pineapples, for example. Pineapples are dents and something called bromeline, which is really healthy, and the bromelie concentrates in the core of the pineapple. When I juice my pineapples, I do peel them, but I use the core as well as the pineapple that you think of eating. But the core has most of the bromeline in it, so I juice it as well.

Speaker 3:

All right. Now some people dilute it a little with water. That doesn't sound like a good idea to me.

Speaker 1:

I don't think so, because you're trying to get the nutrient dense nature of the juice. So I'm not sure that adding I mean water certainly would stretch it to go further, but I'm not sure that that really matters in this case, because you're really just trying to get it nutrient dense. As long as it's palatable from a taste perspective, I would not add water to a juice.

Speaker 3:

Is there anything you would add to it, like spices or anything like that?

Speaker 1:

We would at the juice shop where we made juices. We would add things like turmeric or ginger and those types of things. You can add other spices to your juices, but I typically find that adding spice would I'd rather do that in my foods than I would in my juice.

Speaker 3:

Okay, that makes sense.

Speaker 1:

But I mean, you're not going to really juice a spice directly, unless you're juicing the point when you think of ginger. Right, you could do that. Yeah, and that's a great thing. To add to any juices is ginger.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, when your grocery store has it for crying out loud, I don't know what the deal is. They always had it in the same spot and all of a sudden there's nothing there.

Speaker 1:

Maybe they could just let them know. Maybe they have a special order for you.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, they're just going to have to do it. It lasts a long time.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, you can do that too.

Speaker 3:

And so how are you doing? Personally?

Speaker 1:

I'm doing really well. I was diagnosed a little over six years ago and actually today is my cancer bursary. But that's because I finished chemo and radiation six years ago today. But then that really started my journey because that was when I found about square one and I had not known about that before. So I still mark the day as a special day because I finished with the conventional treatment and found the holistic solutions that would really carry me forward. So still I do a lot of RGCC testing. So I still have a few circulating tumor cells, but they're continue to go down and I continue to treat my juice every day.

Speaker 3:

Excellent. It was good to see you in Houston. I've got to meet you in person. Yeah, there's so many people there, I couldn't get a lot of information out of everybody, but it was an exciting time.

Speaker 1:

It was. It's great to see what Susie and the team continue to do for all those who are part of the Healing Strong Network and just encourage people to dig into the available resources, just like this podcast, whether it is joining a group or hopping on a Zoom call with a group or reading some of our Bible studies and materials the I Am Healing Strong podcast that you do, as well as the Bible studies that are available and they're around the word in 80 Days podcast that we just posted. The resources are just continuing to expand for anybody who is in need of support in their journey.

Speaker 3:

All right. Well, Barbara, I really appreciate you sharing your knowledge and I've wrote down a lot of notes here. I can people get ahold of you?

Speaker 1:

Yeah, they can reach out to me through my Healing Strong email address, which is on the Healing Strong website If you go under Find a Group and you're looking for Kurzweil, north Carolina, but my email address is healingstrongcavillatriadrrcom, which is kind of long. So if you just go look up Barbara Duck or something on the Healing Strong website, you'll be able to find that email link on there.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, the website's a good place to hang out anyway, get more information. But yeah, you're on there. You can find me on there and all kinds of resources. Just don't bother me, father Barbara, I'm just kidding. Well, thank you so much. It's good to see you and it's good to know that you're doing well, thank you so much.

Speaker 1:

Keep on juicing.

Speaker 2:

You've been listening to the I Am Healing Strong podcast. A part of the Healing Strong organization. We hope you found encouragement in this episode, as well as the confidence to take control of your healing journey, knowing that God will guide you on this path. Healing Strong is a nonprofit organization whose mission is to connect, support and educate individuals facing cancer and other diseases through strategies that help to rebuild the body, renew the soul and refresh the spirit.

Speaker 2:

It costs nothing to be a part of a local or online group. You can do that by going to our website at healingstrongorg and finding a group near you or an online group, or start your own, your choice. While you're there, take a look around at all the free resources. Though the resources and groups are free, we encourage you to join our membership program at $25 or $75 a month. This helps us to be able to reach more people with hope and encouragement, and that also comes with some extra perks as well, so check it out. If you enjoyed this podcast, please give us a five-star rating, leave an encouraging comment and help us spread the word. We'll see you next week with another story on the I Am Healing Strong podcast.

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