1. Do not Pasteurize.

Pasteurization heats the juice up to a high temperature in order to kill all the microorganisms. This also denatures all the enzymes, vitamins and minerals, so that our bodies cannot use them.

2. Use Locally-grown produce.

Fruits and vegetables are at their highest nutritional peak when they are ripe. Once picked, they begin to lose nutritional value. For example, an orange that sits on a counter for five days has loses 50% of its vitamin C.

Over 60% of U.S. commercially grown fruit, vegetables and greens are picked several days before ripening. This is because most are grown in California, Texas and Florida and are shipped to other parts of the country.
Agricultural technologies use fungicides, coolants, and chemicals to enhance the appearance of unripe produce. This also ‘embalms’ the fruit, so that it will not age or perish.

Locally grown produce does not have to travel far to get to your market and can therefore be picked after ripening on the vine or in the earth.

3. Use organic produce.

A report by Donald Reed of the FDA states that in the U.S., farmers apply approximately 700 million pounds of more than 300 different pesticides to their crops to destroy weeds, insects, fungi, bacteria and rodents. Many crops are sprayed with pesticides over 20 times in one season. Foreign imported produce may be sprayed as many as 50 times, with pesticides that are banned in the U.S.. The Environmental Protection Agency rates pesticides as the third-highest risk for causing cancer.

Irradiation may also be used to preserve produce which destroys its enzymes. Irradiation levels can be as high as 100,000 rads which is the equivalent of 4 million chest X-rays. Current law does not require food to be labeled as “irradiated”.

4. Drink juice fresh.

Once fruits and vegetables have been mechanically juiced, their flesh has been exposed to heat and air. As time passes, nutrients begin to oxidize and break down and bacteria may reproduce. It is best to drink juice within 24 hours of making it.

7. Fruit and vegetables should be correctly combined.

Every food that we eat requires a specific enzyme to digest it. It also requires the stomach to secrete either acid or alkaline.

When we mix our foods incorrectly, the enzymes can cancel each other out, so can the acid and the alkaline. For optimal digestion and absorption of nutrients, we need to follow some simple food combining rules: • do not combine acid and sweet fruits • do not combine melons with anything • do not combine starches and proteins • do not combine fruits with grains

8. Raw cuisine is organic food from the earth in its natural and uncooked form. Its healing powers and diverse flavors are matched only by Mother Nature herself.