Juicing and the Immune System
Our immune system is the system of bodily defense, and like any good militia, has regimens of front-line foot soldiers, and intelligence officers, and can receive external reinforcements (this is passive immunity from mom to baby and via vaccination). This system gets going while we are still in utero (study) and doesn’t stop until after our final breath. It is with us through thick and thin, through hardship and triumph, and through childhood colds and chickenpox (or now through immunizations against the infectious diseases of childhood).
We used to describe the immune system’s functioning as distinguishing between ‘self’ and ‘non-self’ with the emphasis that our immune system would take out whatever wasn’t ‘us’, but it is waaaayyy more complicated than that. Our immune system must make good gut bacteria (‘not us’) welcome while disposing of defunct cells (‘us’). Our immune system maintains surveillance all the time and periodically turns on an ‘action’ mode, like activating a regimen of the army, to neutralize any perceived threat – like when you swallow all those bacteria from chewing on the end of a pen.
What’s tricky is that the action mode has to be just the right amount of action, at the right time, for the right duration, and then cease. Our immune system is one of the oldest intelligence systems on the planet (study and article), and it is a dance like no other.
To truly understand the immune system, we have to know the first step is sensing our environment. There are two arenas to surveil. Our endogenous environment is the goings-on inside our bodies, including our organs, tissues, and cells. Our exogenous environment comes at us from the outside and includes the air we breathe, the water we drink, pollution, temperature, soil, dust and yes, you got it, food. In fact, everything we put into our mouths and swallow, be it Twinkies or kale (or Lego helmets if you’re my son’s neighborhood friend), gets the once over from our immune system.
All these elements (endogenous and exogenous) exist as molecules and groups of molecules which give us the information evaluated by the intelligence of the immune system – is this nourishing or a threat? If a threat, what type, severity, and duration of response is needed? When is it safe to turn down the immune system response? With the fast-paced screen-driven lives we lead these days, instead of getting the dark quiet of the night and the feeling of Earth under our feet to restore us, we are bombarded by light, and pollution (last year, research showed even in Yellowstone National Park, the air has microplastics!), and sound seemingly non-stop.
There’s a lot of sensory and physical information for our immune systems to process.
One thing we can do, and we can do nearly immediately, is choose foods that supply a variety of nutrients and co-factors.
Cold-pressed juice is one easy way to enjoy a concentrated mix of fruit and vegetable nutrients. When the body has the raw building blocks to make its necessary cells, it’s like the militia finally having the resources and capacity – the job gets easier.
Here are three sweet and simple juices made with fruits and vegetables that contain nutrients and plant compounds researchers have studied.
1. Dandelion, kale, lemon, celery, cucumber, pineapple
Dandelion has been studied in lab research for its antioxidant activity (study). Kale is part of the brassica family. It contains vitamins C and E and sulfur compounds (the smelliness of cooked brassicas) (study). Celery contains the flavonoids lutein (study) and apigenin (study). Cucumber contains amino acids including glycine, arginine, lysine, and aspartic acid (study). Pineapple, in addition to adding some sweet juiciness to this recipe, contains bromelain, a group of enzymes (study). Lemon (and lime & oranges in recipes below) all contain d-limonene, a compound researchers have studied for a wide variety of biological activities (study).
2. Elderberry, coconut water, hibiscus tea (or elixir), lime
Elderberry has been used for millennia (article) and contains phytonutrients called anthocyanins. An April 2021 review of 1187 articles noted that the evidence on elderberry is limited. Coconut water has been studied in animals (study). Hibiscus has been studied in lab and animal research (study). Limes also have the d-limonene discussed above.
3. Mango, orange, carrot, horseradish
Mangos contain mangiferin, a compound that has been studied for its antioxidant activity (study). Mangos also have fisetin, a dietary flavonoid (study). Horseradish has been studied in the lab in relation to oxidative stress (study). Orange extracts have been the subject of lab research (study). Carrots come in different colors that reflect different compounds: orange with carotenes, yellow with lutein, purple/red with lycopene, and white without almost any carotenoids (study and research article).
Each juice also includes at least one bright, zesty ingredient (horseradish, lime or lemon).
Gillian Ehrlich is the owner of the Center for Healing Neurology.
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This article is for educational purposes only and is not medical advice. Talk to your doctor before changing your diet, especially if you have a health condition or take medication.