Liquefied veggies are fine fertility foods. Aside from objections from some fertility acupuncturists who tell their patients to eliminate all cold beverages, most holistic infertility experts agree that juicing is good for you.
And as everything else, juicing could have a downside.
It is thanks to one of the newly pregnant Moms in our community, that I realized we could use a little review of juicing for fertility guidelines. Not all juices are created equal and yes, some combinations of fruits and vegetables might actually not be all that helpful.
On a recent call, one of our ravishing Visionary Mamas shared that her daily juice boost was a spinach cucumber combo.
Unsurprisingly, when I asked if she enjoyed the taste, she said, No, not really.
But aside from what I imagine must be a less than appetizing taste, juicing a half glassful of spinach juice may not be best for the Mom or the developing fetus.
Spinach is a wonderful, nutrient dense vegetable with high levels of iron, carotenes, vitamin C, folic acid. But it’s also one of the vegetables highest in oxalic acid. When combined with calcium, oxalates (oxalic acids) produce calcium oxalate which is hard to assimilate and can form kidney stones.
A few quick juicing for fertility tips
I intend to expand on this post with more detailed information on why and how, but for now just a few quick juicing for fertility tips to avoid taxing the body.
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Include at least 4 or 5 varieties of veggies in your juice.
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Rotate the green leafy vegetables, especially if you are using high oxalic greens such as spinach. Greens lower in oxalic acid are lettuce and arugula.
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You can add some green apple and lemon to counteract the bitterness of greens, but for the most part fruit will needlessly increase the sugar content of your juice. The relationship between impaired ovarian function and sugar is well documented.
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When trying to conceive, the thyroid is one of the key organs to keep in tip top shape. Since many holistic experts recommend juicing pretty much everything (including goitrogenic foods such as brocoli, cauliflower, chard, etc) quite indiscriminately, many of my clients find themselves placing un-necessary stress on their thyroid. When choosing to juice goitrogenic vegetables, steaming them slightly will neutralize the goitrogenic effect.
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In addition to juicing, drink plenty of water during the day to support flushing out the kidneys.
Green Lemonade Cleansing Cocktail from The Fertile Female
Ingredients:
1 lemon (with skin)
2 celery stalks
6 or more dark green leaves of lettuce
1/2 cucumber with skin
1/2 or 1 whole green apple depending on what’s more pleasing to your tastebuds
Sip slowly. In the macrobiotic tradition celery and carrot are considered helpful with ovulation irregularities, so be creative, add some carrots, beets and remember to rotate, rotate, rotate your veggies
Your turn. Are you juicing? What’s your favorite combo?
For inspiration:
A DELICIUOS juice after Julia inspirational circle last Monday:
a whole lemon skin included (organic and non-waxed is preferable), 3 medium organic carrots, half large organic cucumber with skin.
OMG! Another ABSOLUTELY delicious juice the following day!
3 stalks of celery, one pear, 3 large carrots and a medium bowl (approx.15cm diametre) of chopped kale.
I’ve been juicing for a while but did not realize the situation with spinach. I went back to kale and will add in some other greens. The lemon is key. It’s really the only way tolerate the bitterness of the greens. I find that I have to juice in the morning or it doesn’t happen. I’m really trying to make my food decisions visionary-rooted and juicing is one of these. It’s something I’m drawn to do. My family is not on board with this regimen though I can sometimes get my young son to try the juice (occasionally). :-)
hi all,
yesterday our juicer arrived, and we made our first juice in a couple years. It tasted so familiar. It is exciting to be juicing for the reason of life, not disease this time. I may even get used to it.
When I take the time to juice I love the results. For some reason I don’t do it nearly as often as I would like. I buy all the ingredients and by the time I get around to it one or more of them has gone bad. I’m not sure why I don’t just make the juice without that item. Just another case of perfectionism winning out over good enough. During the last call Julia asked what we were willing to commit to. I have two: juicing daily and finally decorating our bedroom. We’ve lived in the house for almost six years and have never done anything with the bedroom. It is time to make it the retreat it deserves to be.
Yesterday I woke up and made a juice for myself with bitter gourd (karela in Hindi). I almost had a gag reflex as I was taking the last few sips then I stopped and let it go. I was alright. It had a noticeable cleansing effect on my body!
I have not practiced imagery nor body truth for few days. But on my train ride I did the ‘Meeting your child halfway’ imagery practice. It had a calming effect on me. Hope it lasts through the day. I have new orphans coming up – one says trouble always finds you. I had a sort of difficult conversation this morning with my husband about family members visiting from India really soon.
I know I’m a giving person at the core. But there’s a rebelling orphan who is not happy. Need to work on that.
Cheers everyone.
Love.
I love juicing! And I would never have started it without Julia’s Fertile Heart practice. I usually have a green lemonade every morning before eating – and my husband does most days, too (provided I make it for him). Julia, thank you very much for clarifying on our last call about how to juice beets (ie raw with skin), as I used them now during/ just after my period together with some extra ginger, all added to the green lemonade. Yummy! I know the juicing gives me so much more energy and helps digestion and lifts my mood every time as it tastes so good. Even my little daughter likes green lemonade! (Though not every day).
Lots of love
FearlessRose
I enjoy juicing and for the most part don’t follow any specific recipes. I tend to adjust the flavor as I go by adding different veggies or apples to the mix. I was adding spinach to my juice but I’ll alter that now. I usually juice kale, carrots, cucumbers and green apples as my staple. I do like the recipes mentioned here and will have to try them. I have preferred to drink the juices on an empty stomach to get the most nutrient absorption. But I’m realizing that it’s probably more important for me to juice, even if it’s at dinner time. Thanks to all for sharing their recipes!
I love juicing! And I would truly never have started it without Julia’s Fertile Heart practice. I usually have a green lemonade every morning before eating – and my husband does most days, too (provided I make it for him). Julia, thank you very much for clarifying on our last call about how to juice beets (ie raw with skin), as I used them now during/ just after my period together with some extra ginger, all added to the green lemonade. Yummy! I know it gives me so much more energy and helps digestion and lifts my mood every time as it tastes so good. Even my little daughter likes green lemonade! (Though not every day). I would add that I avoid juicing raw spinach and kale as I do not eat dairy.
Lots of love
FearlessRose
Dear Fertile Mamas,
I mostly do the green lemonade – sometimes I add beet or parsley or watercress. I like it because it feels like I’m doing something good for myself.
Wonderful juicing story MiraculousLife and always great to hear from you and kale with olive oil sounds good, gutsymama. RuthNoddfa wonderful vegetables and Harmonious Life that’s really good to want to tune in to your body right now. Great for listening to your body Sparxy and great for juicing Annabell. Great creative juices butterflyfaith and Mermaidmom it’s wonderful to be tuned in to your body. Great for juicing RaeSF.
I very much enjoyed the information about body truth as a time to really listen to your body. I’ve been doing Meeting your child Halfway imagery and just noticing how my body feels as I move it body truth. I’ve been mostly making my body do this and making my body do that so just the phrase “How would it feel” and really trying to feel it has been good for me. I’m mostly in my head. I’ve been working with how I use my time lately and getting frustrated because it seemed like if I do everything i think I should do, there isn’t time to take care of me. So my husband’s interpretation about how he would handle things helps because some of the things I think I have to do, maybe I don’t or to not such an extent.
Blessings to all
Blessings to all.
I really like the green lemonade recipe. I tend to rotate spinach and romaine but always use a green apple and lemon and or lime in the list. However I also use my blender alot and blend my veggies but always have some berries in that otherwise I cannot stomach it. I have tried Kale but I just cannot do it. I really love cooked kale with a little olive oil and onion but for whatever reason I cannot stand it in my juice.
Hi GM: I find that kale tastes better in juice if I just juice the leaves (not the stems) and add lots of lemon. If I put kale in my smoothies, I look for the smallest leaves. Baby kale (I picked up a bag of organic at our local warehouse store for like $4) is much less bitter and much more tender. Orange, pineapple and lemon work really well at masking the bitterness of greens.
By the way, what exactly is the green lemonade recipe? I have one, but I’m not sure if this is the one you are referring to. I need to get my hubby to embrace the green juice! ;-) He chokes it down, so I am on a mission to find him one he likes.
I’m thinking you are referring to Julia’s Green Lemonade recipe? I seriously have three, but I like Julia’s the best. Not at all bitter.
Thanks for the tip BF! I will to give the baby kale a try and see how it goes. I use the green lemonade from FF in the back it is:
green lemonade
1 peeled leomn
2 celery stalks
6 or more dark green lettuce leaves
1/2 cucumber
1 green apple
IT is yummy! My husband will drink this one!
Thank you!! I just made that today and it’s so good! I doubled the recipe so my husband would drink it. He did, but he didn’t love it. His juices are more like a bunch of apple, orange, lemon and a single kale sprig. ha ha. But at least he tolerated the one I made him. Progress! I tossed in a bit of cilantro that was about ready to turn and it tasted great! I do add a lot more lemon than usual, but I love the tang (and how it masks any bitterness).
I still remember the specific session where Julia challenged me to start juicing. Just couple of months prior to that conversation, I thought to myself why waste $400 on a juicer and who would really do it. But when Julia challenged me “…..And juicing minimun 16 oz of green juice a day for both of you but only if you really want to have a child… :)….with love,Julia”. These are her words and I can never forget them and not sure how can I ever repay her debt in this life !!
There was just this huge resistance not to juice, my orphan was just screaming that it didn’t want to do all this juicing stuff and all as it felt it already did a lot.
But then when I mentioned Julia’s challenge to my husband, he was so cooperative and we immediately bought the same $400 juicer back in 2013 and till date we juice regularly, even after getting pregnant (hopefully my baby is also accustomed to juicing now) and I should say, all the credit of the juicing goes to my husband. He has ardently followed Julia’s challenge and made sure I get 16/30/44oz (when I was again challenged by Julia to increase the juicing doze :)))) and tried all kinds of different combinations.
Prior to buying juicer, I was regularly buying juices from Whole foods. But I have to say, I fell in love with the green juice. Man its so darn refreshing and just feels so very good.
We made it a ritual to have the juicing in the evenings. So here’s what we tried:
Kale, Romaine, Celery, Carrots, Cucumber, green apple or red apple, lemon, ginger, mint, beets. Mostly it used to be a combination of the above and all organic. And to top it, I used to add “Wheatgrass+barleygrass+alphaalpha grass pwd” that we get in whole foods (1tsp) to my juice.
The whole concept juicing itself which was so foreign to us became part and parcel of our lives. Thanks a ton Julia !!
Hi MH! Glad it’s all going well. May I ask how much produce goes into a 44-oz green juice? It sometimes feel I’m feeding an entire garden into my juicer to get 8 ounces. ha ha. Miss you on the calls!!
Hi BF
How are you doing? I checked with my husband as I have no clue….lol
So he usually added around 10 carrorts (Costco organic ones, pretty huge in size), 2 apples, half lemon, a big bunch of organic power greens (Kale, spinach, chard), organic romaine one full bunch, celery almost full stem. Again we used to buy everything from Costco and usually the sizes of the fruits and veggies are pretty large in size compared to what we got outside.
Hope this was helpful.
I do not have a juicing regimen. But all your fertile heart mommy friends are inspiring!
I occasionally drink all-greens juice from the Vitamix, sometimes drink bitter gourd juice (indian ‘Karela’) as is or mixed with cucumber, and other times carrot and beets. I am not at all regular with juicing – definitely one of the areas I need to do better than current state. Most of the times I end up having the juice because my husband is making some for himself, and he would ask me, or i would tell him that I want it.
Bitter gourd is very bitter as the name suggests, but it is exceptionally good for insulin balance in the body. My genes and partly my lifestyle (stress, too much sugar indulgence, fat around the belly), put me at a risk for diabetes. So I have been regular in monitoring my HgbA1c every 6 months or so. And bitter gourd juice has improved the numbers for both my husband and i even with the not so regular intake of it.
I feel there’s a side of me who feels ashamed to write a comment on today’s blog because i am not a regular juicer (maybe she is an orphan), but there’s a side of me who wants to engage with the community. So after Julia’s appeal yesterday to make my interaction with the blog more fun/exciting for me I decided to make a commitment. I would like to write one comment daily – with one of these things. My morning/night practice note that I did the practice, if i drank home made juice then make a comment, or, write one quote that i have encountered in either Inconceivable or Fertile Female, or another source that resonated with me that helps me on this journey.
I have started with the ‘Ovum of creation’ imagery since last two days and continuing with ‘Speak your peace’ body truth. I need to work on both imagery and body truth to improve my relationship with my body and in general with my O, V and UM. On the call yesterday I found the dream reading very healing – thank you all. In the beginning when Julia asked us to drop into the body deeper, I realized that I am not really in tune with my body. We may not be on the same page. Which means I need body truth the most now.
It’s so interesting something clicked for you when Julia talked about Body Truth and dropping into the body. Me too! I realized that even at rest (watching TV, drifting off to sleep), my hands and jaw are ALWAYS tightly clenched. Always. Even when I’m not overtly feeling stress. There’s something there that needs attention, and I never realized it until the call. Aren’t those calls amazing? Even after all of this time doing them (I’ve been on them for about 18 months or more), I never ever fail to walk away without some new insight.
Thank you for kind words ButterflyFaith, and thank you for requesting Julia to spend some time on body truth.
I love being on these calls. They are a great tool to keep grounded and to get energized, so we can stay in the ‘yes’ current. And I feel even more indebted to Julia after coming back from the workshop. Looking forward to connecting again next Monday :)
This blog actually brought out my fear of being wrong orphan, because I don’t juice at all. And I guess I feel a little bad about that. I am amazed by all of your recipes and ideas!
My nutrition story is a little circuitous. I never really thought about nutrition or food until I started my Fertile Heart journey. But then, I kind of went way overboard. I decided to go vegan and gluten-free, but probably not responsibly. I wasn’t really doing this as a visionary action, more because it seemed like what I should do. I was making smoothies every day, no dairy, no meat. I ended up losing weight and feeling kinda yucky as well as seeing changes in my always regular cycles. I am very thin, so the weight loss was not good. I went through another year of experiencing angst about almost everything I ate. Does this have gluten? How much sugar? I shouldn’t be eating this! Food and eating became a huge outlet for an orphan.
Then I started cooking more and really listening to my body. I am back to eating dairy and meat and feel a lot better. I buy from local farmers. I am also eating a ton more veggies than I ever have before. I just love cooking and creating healthy, nourishing foods. I also eat sugar sometimes, but much less than before. Sometimes, the orphan still pops up and starts haranguing me about food. I am doing my best to make good decisions. I think that I needed to just get back to listening to what was right for me (what Fertile Heart is all about), rather than blindly following this and that plan for what would get me pregnant without truly feeling like that was the right path. Maybe juicing is in my future :D.
I really found that whole conversation about juicing so helpful and so freeing. I have been really enjoying adding beetroot and carrot to the green juice sometimes. I also often like to add a small piece of avacado to my juices for the nice texture they provide.
Revisiting Julia’s video about food was also hugely helpful. Especially to be reminded that I can think, feel choose and act for myself around everything including food. I realised I have been quite weighed down and carrying a lot of guilt about food for a long time. Realising that actually I get to decide, experiment and work out what’s best for me (& not some “expert”) has brought some joy back into my kitchen. I brought a lovely colourful bag of veggies home from the local market stall on the weekend, and I have been really enjoying the vibrancy of my juices and salads the past few days. They feel so full of life, & that has to be a good thing!
My go-to juice is a green one. But every now and again I feel I need something different. While my green one (with cucumber, celery, greens, apple, lemon) feels very cleansing, I also love this combo, which feels more of a tonic: carrots, apple, a handful of spinach, a load of flat leaf parsley (if it’s the first half of my cycle), lemon with the skin on, and fresh tumeric. It’s sweeter, so I don’t have it that often, but it packs a punch for me.
I usually juice a big salad. I put in anything and everything, but I do add an orange or two depending on size and a lemon. It cuts the bitterness. So we’re talking lettuce, dandelion greens, carrots, celery, kale, swiss chard, ginger. I got the book “Crazy Sexy Juice” by Kris Carr and she has some lovely recipes in there. I love putting beets and the greens in my juice (and eating the beet greens. Good stuff!). I actually prefer smoothies because I have a Vitamix and can blend the bejesus out of anything. (I just made this “chocolate pudding” out of almond milk, avocado and carob powder. Insanely good). But I need to remind myself, though, that I need to mix things up, so I’m trying to juice more. Good to know about the spinach. I often put that in my smoothies with almond milk, so I may want to change that.
Kale aid! Amazing! Very hydrating. Kale, lemon, cucumber, ginger, Apple. I crave it and try to drink it often for hydration and vitamin boost. I use a full bunch of kale, 2 large cucumbers, 1 lemon, 1 apple, 1 chunk of fresh ginger, but it’s fun to add in carrot and fresh turmeric. I crave this more in the summer months probably since I’m sweating more and need hydration. It has cured headaches and given me an afternoon energy boost. I am cautious not to juice too many fruits. I notice I don’t feel too great with a load of sugar, even natural sugar from fruit. It feels so empowering to be tuned into my body enough to really notice how foods affect me. I can make smarter choices and continue to strive for optimum energy. This boosts my creativity, sex drive, and fertility in every sense of the word. I guess it’s my VM that gets fed with veggie juice and regular exercise! She loves it and feels energized!! Now to get more serious with imagery and body truth!! I struggle to get this all in balance and keep it that way. It’s a process I suppose. I will mother this practice into being more balanced, just like I strive to mother my son to have balance in his life …and also as I hope to give to my next baby. I will rock that baby within myself and nurture her with a balance fertile heart program….. Starting with kale aid!!
Hi Mermaidmom. It’s so nice to hear from you! I was in the workshop with you.
Your comment is inspiring. Keep up the nurturing of your body child :)
I based it on something similar to the suggestion in the Fertile Female. 2 stems celery, half a cucumber, a lemon, half an apple (green ones usually) and usually about 5 pieces of romaine or green lettuce at times, if I can’t find romaine. I drink it in the morning before eating anything. I pretty much do the same thing each day…I’d love to hear other suggestions for ideas.