Juice master Jason Vale has the perfect recipes to stay healthy all season long
With the chill of winter in the air there’s no better way to warm up than with tasty low HI (Human Intervention) soup or a beautiful, freshly extracted healthy juice with a kick.
I recommend getting more nutrition in over the winter months as when it gets colder our immune system can pick up little bugs. One of the best juices to have on a cold winter’s night that I always recommend for busting colds is my J’M-sip (pronounced ‘Jemsip’, like the popular packaged kind!). This consists of fresh apple, ginger and lemon juice mixed with hot water, sweetened with a spoonful of Manuka active honey.
A couple of years ago I also discovered something called the ‘Ginger Shot’ and now I swear by them for a daily dose of intense nutrition. It is so simple to make as all you do is juice one apple with a fairly decent sized chunk of ginger (approx. one inch). As with any shot it’s best to ‘knock it back in one’ and as long as you put enough ginger in, you will really feel this as it hits your throat and awakens your senses. Ginger is everyone’s favourite ‘anti’, it’s antiviral, antiseptic, antihistamine, anti-inflammatory and a great natural antibiotic. It is also what you need to be getting inside you if you ever suffer with a head cold or sinus congestion.
For me, you can’t beat a nice warm soup on a cold winter’s day! You can either eat it right away or stick it in a thermos flask and take it out with you. For those that find it difficult to ‘stay on track’ when it comes to being healthy, I highly recommend a hearty homemade soup to keep warm, energised and, most importantly, feeling full! We all have our comforts so I think in this case it’s making the soup nice and thick. There are many seasonal delights to enjoy like my Pear & Parsnip Soup, Carrot & Coriander or Butternut Squash. You can find the recipes at www.juicemaster.com
I receive questions all the time about what to snack on during the day, as naturally during the winter I think we try to ‘insulate’ our bodies. If you’re not doing a juice only plan, it’s good to avoid the inevitable Christmas chocolates and gingerbread, mince pies and other festive snacks that creep in by snacking on raw nuts and seeds, fresh fruit, homemade hummus and carrot sticks, cucumber or slices of bell pepper.
With everything, I believe moderation is the key and adopting a ‘5-2-5’ mantra is a good and manageable way forward. This includes healthy eating and juicing (or just juice) throughout the week and spending a more ‘relaxed’ two days at the end of the week enjoying little treats in moderation. This is what the 5:2 Juice Diet also encompasses, as it’s not a fixed ‘diet’– more of a way of living. I personally live my life by the 5:2 concept and have never looked back!