Healing Power of Live Foods
The use of juices as medicine has been a practice dating back to the ancient cultures of the world.
Juicing has a rich and illustrious history that goes back to biblical times, back during the ages when fruits and vegetables were eaten raw and fruits were made into beverages by island peoples. In ancient times, the Polynesians were known to prepare juices from tropic fruits which have been proven today to hold countless health benefits. Peru made passion fruit famous with its combination with water to make for a cool drink.
During the Biblical era, juicing began to take root as well. In Genesis of the Bible, God makes references to ‘herb bearing seeds.’ In addition, juices were promoted for healing in the Dead Sea Scrolls found in the middle of the 20th century in caves and written by the Essenes and Jews who were well known for their vegetarian diets. In ancient India, many writings sing the praises of juices for medicinal purposes in concordance with Ayurvedic medicines which started out in the region.
In Ayurveda, there is a term called “ras” which means “life” and “juice” and is a reference to the life energy’s capacity of being “full of juice” in order to achieve optimum health. Ayurveda practitioners made a field day out of press fruit, vegetable, and herb juices where healing juices called svarash were extracted using heat and mixed with either raw or cultured milk along with honey to make taste better. Some plants uses for these juices included aloe vera. Other Ayurvedic juicing remedies included lime and orange juice along with salt to prevent fatigue and others like grape or beet juice that helped restore blood. Energy was also promoted through mango juice mixed with milk and spices.
Onions and radish were other vegetables hailed by the Ayurvedic tradition. It was proven to improve vitality and serve as a treatment for head lice. Radish turned into juice helped Ayurvedans treat stomachaches, reduce farting, and prevent gallstones by cleansing the kidneys.
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