Colorful, healthy and delicious foods are a passion of mine. I love coming up with new flavor combinations and try to consume at least five cups of fresh fruits and vegetables and at least one 16 oz. glass of fresh pressed juice a day.

That might seem a daunting task for the uninitiated, but if you’ve developed your taste buds for fresh produce, it’s not hard at all.

The trick is knowing what produce is in season and what tastes good together. For instance, I love pears and apples in the fall and winter, and peaches and berries in the spring and summer. Of course many fruits and vegetables are good year round too.

Mango-Avocado Salsa Salad

1 mango
1 avocado
1/2 red bell pepper
6-7 large cherry tomatoes
1 16 oz. can organic cannellini beans
2 cloves garlic
2 slices red onion, chopped coarsely
cilantro
lime juice
sea salt

Peel the mango and slice lengthwise from stem to stem as close to the pit as you can get. Then slice along the sides of the pit to remove excess mango. Cube. Peel and cube avocado. Chop coarsely red bell pepper and onion. Chop fine garlic and cilantro.

Combine all ingredients in a large bowl and toss with lime juice and sea salt to taste. Serve large size helpings on lettuce leaves.

In my quest for answers to a recent health issue, I’ve been watching and reading all things related to aging and degenerative diseases. What I’ve found is that basing your diet on fresh plant type foods like whole sprouted grains; fruits, vegetables, beans, seeds and nuts rather than dairy, meats and packaged foods is a proven way to combat disease without medication. And that juicing is an easy and delicious way to getting a ton of nutrients in a single glass.

It isn’t realistic to expect yourself to eat two apples, six carrots, a beet and six oz. of kale in one setting…but you can easily drink it.

After trying out a friend’s for a week, I decided to go with the Breville Juice Fountain which is an easy to use, easy to clean juice extractor. It is available at Amazon for $99 plus shipping.

Here are some of my favorite tried and true recipes. I guarantee their deliciousness!

carrot-apple-beet: five medium carrots; two apples; and one raw beet

carrot-orange-beet: five medium carrots; two oranges; and one raw beet

carrot-kale-apple-beet: four medium carrots; three kale sprigs; two apples; one beet

carrot-broccoli-apple: five medium carrots; one broccoli stem with florets; two to three apples

Shopping for juicing ingredients is tricky at first. It takes a lot of fruits and vegetables to make one glass. As well, not all produce is suitable for juicing. Soft fruits are not: bananas, mangos, papayas for instance. All leafy greens, cabbages, and some root vegetables are. I especially love apple and carrot based juices and they are highly touted for healing reasons.

Shopping List

Here is my own shopping list to get you started. These are just for juicing. You’ll need to buy more for eating whole and for cooking.

You can refine the list as you get more accustomed to juicing. You can try cucumber and celery but use sparingly as cucumbers are hard to digest and they are both strongly flavored. I haven’t tried Swiss chard or romaine lettuce yet, but am looking forward to it. Spinach is good too but it doesn’t give much juice. I prefer to eat my spinach.

5 lb. bag organic carrots
5 lb. bag organic apples (alternate with oranges)
1 bunch organic broccoli
2 bunches organic red beets
1 bundle organic kale
small basket strawberries or…
small basket blueberries

Colorful foods are full of anti-oxidants so beets, berries and carrots are highly rated for fighting free radicals.

For more information on juicing check out Fat, Sick and Nearly Dead and watch the documentary. Also, check out The Gerson Therapy. I found many wonderful solutions to my arthritis through their books.