If you are thinking of taking up juicing you are on the right track simply because you’ll get a lot more concentrated, nutrient dense juice than you would buying juice in the store.
Juice from the store has far fewer nutrients because the process of pasteurization literally kills most of the vitamins, minerals, enzymes and polyphenols (antioxidants) found in the fruits and vegetables. Just remember WHY you are becoming a “juicer.”
Juicing Benefits
The main reason to become a juicing fanatic is to heal your pancreas, keep it healed. Juicing allows you to consume real, live, vitamins, minerals and phytonutrients. The healing power of fresh, organic, nutrient dense juice is simply amazing.
Juicing will allow you to obtain maximum nutrients while lightening the load on your pancreas because juice digests much easier than raw or cooked fruits and vegetables. Juice is absorbed by the small intestines much easier. That means those who have chronic pancreatitis, with malabsorption issues, or those with IBS, Crohn’s Disease or Celiac Disease will absorb more nutrients by drinking powerhouse, nutrient dense, organic vegetable juice.
It is my opinion that nutrient dense vegetable juice should be the first food introduced after acute pancreatitis, not some fat-filled meal that hospitals normally feed patients. In my opinion a quality juicer is one of the best investments possible by someone with pancreas or intestinal issues. Fresh, organic juices coupled with supplements will promote healing.
Raw Foods
Raw foods (veggies and fruits) have far more nutrition than cooked foods. There are a couple of exceptions but very few. The lycopene in tomatoes is activated with heat and so you get more lycopene in tomato sauce than in fresh out-of-the-garden tomatoes. Unfortunately the rest of the nutrients are killed via the long cooking time to create the sauce so …
I’ll go with a little less lycopene in order to obtain the abundance of other nutrients in a fresh, organic, raw tomato.
There are some things you need to know before you just plow into juicing.
Juicing Is Messy
I don’t care what anybody tells you juicing is a pain in the butt especially when you have a cheaper, entry-level unit. With most entry-level juicers you need to of course wash your produce, then cut up the fruits and vegetables you plan to juice whereas if you go just a few bucks more you can get a juicing machine that takes whole produce. That eliminates the time to cut everything up.
Then there is clean up. Cleaning a juicer isn’t hard, it is just time consuming. Some have dishwasher safe parts BUT your dishwasher won’t clean your juicer properly. You need to clean it manually and then run the dishwasher safe parts through the dishwasher for germ killing.
Juicing Isn’t Cheap
It takes a fair amount of vegetables to create a glass of juice. Fresh organic juice will keep well in your refer for only two, maybe three days. Unless you are drinking a lot of juice don’t make more than you can consume in two days.
Since organic vegetables are not cheap I juice what is nutrient dense and makes good soup. Now good soup, to me, may not be good soup to you but keep the thought of using the leftover fiber or pulp to make soup. If you don’t want to make soup the day you juice then freeze it for later use. I’m serious. The skin, fiber and pulp leftovers from tomatoes, onions, green pepper, celery, kale, carrots, spinach, watercress and garlic (my nutrient dense veggie concoction) makes great vegetable soup. Add lentils (protein), a potato with skin and you have a nutritious, very low-fat, lentil soup. Learn more about juicing.
You Don’t Need a $500+ Juicing Machine to Start!
All you need is a good, dependable, easy to clean juicer that gets the job done. In fact I’d suggest going inexpensive at first to see if you like juicing and will stick with it. No sense having a $500 – $1200 conversation piece stuck away in your garage or basement. Start with a good juicer, that meets your needs, budget and one that will do the job. When you feel the difference in nutrition and are sure you are gonna be a “juicer” then you can move up to a better juicing machine if you feel the need. Below you’ll see my personal favorites.
Black & Decker JE2200 400-Watt Fruit and Vegetable Juicer
The Black & Decker JE2200 400-Watt Fruit and Vegetable Juicer is an entry level juicing machine. For under $40 this juicing machine is hard to beat. It’s easy to assemble and clean but …
You will spend time cutting up fruits and vegetables so they fit into the juicer. The container for the fiber/pulp leftovers (your soup mix bin) is small. If you don’t mind the extra time cutting up the produce the Black & Decker JE2200 400-Watt Fruit and Vegetable Juice Extractor is a decent, inexpensive choice for the 1st time juicer. Learn more …
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Hamilton Beach 67608 Big Mouth Juice Extractor, Stainless Steel
This is probably the best juicer available for under $70.
Hamilton Beach 67608 Big Mouth Juicer takes whole vegetables and fruits (no cutting first), it is easy to clean, and will most likely do anything you ever want a juicer to do at home.
It’s rated 4 stars out of 5 by 165 customers on Amazon and 5 stars by 355 customers.
4.3 stars average.
This juicer is also highly rated (#2 if my memory serves me) in Consumer Reports.
The Hamilton Beach Big Mouth Juicer is a great value and a fine choice in juicing machines. Learn more …
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Breville JE98XL Juice Fountain Plus 850-Watt Juice Extractor
The Breville JE98XL Juice Fountain Plus 850-Watt Juicer is the only juicing machine you’ll ever need to own, unless you make your living by owning a gym and juice bar. There are other Breville juicers with more whistles and bells, for more money, BUT …
There isn’t a juicing machine on the market that does its job any better than this one. For home use you don’t need anything else. The Breville JE98XL Juice Fountain Plus 850-Watt Juicer boasts enough power for the toughest home jobs. It has a nice large leftover (soup makings) bin and large juice cup
It’s durable and easy to clean. It’s rated 5 stars by over 1,150 customers on Amazon with a 4.5 out of 5 star average. Learn more …
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The only other thing you may want for juicing are some books with recipes and ideas.
Juicing Books, Recipes
Hi Healthy Guy! I want to thank you for all your great information that you share with everyone, and the fact that it’s free is even better! I had my first attack 2 years ago,( luckly my pain and nausea is not bad, even at very high lipase levels) I was told by a specialist that since i recovered fast and scams were normal there was no need to worry , go ahead eat what I want and hopefully this would be a 1 time thing. WRONG! Had another episode last week, lipase wad crazy high, I was admitted for 2 days NOP and before being released was told to eat anything I wanted from the menu, what a joke right? ! Luckly i had came across your site a day before i was admitted because i felt sick and was Googling for answers. I was so scared and worried that this would ruin my life and with 5 kids that is not a choice. I only ate the veggies and was ok to go home. I immediately stopped at a juice bar and started to drink that. I am able to eat food and chicken as well but have followed your advice about no fats and just got my supplements, and juicer yesterday. I’m so hopeful now that naturally I can heal myself (with minimal help from my “specialist” ) so thank you again! I sure do misses all my fatty foods but hey if it means i have a chance to never be sick or in the hospital away from my family I can careless for those food, i can always smell them 🙂
1 question**** would it be a good idea to get scoped to see if they missed something on the scans, or just avoid it if I’m feeling good and lipase is bk to normal?
-Daisy
You are so welcome Daisy! I am glad to hear you are feeling better by eating properly. Eating properly certainly does make a huge difference. Hahaha yes! we can still “smell” unsafe food! 🙂 About getting scoped …
If your doc will order a follow-up CT and or EUS (more invasive but sometimes shows damage missed on other scopings – NOT ERCP which is dangerous) to check your pancreas it may be helpful but some folks have mentioned that damage has “cleared” after being on a proper pancreatitis diet and supplements for a time. So AFTER you are well may prove fruitless. It may be more beneficial to have the scoping done before healing so that damage might be seen. Then one done in a year or so may be really eye opening; where did the damage go George? Not saying that is the scenarion but I’ve heard it before. Anyway, I wish you healing and all the best! 🙂
Thank you for your suggestions, my Dr wants to do a HIDA scan and a scope, he really thinks it’s caused by my gall bladder, but we will see. I messed up and had a grilled chicken soft taco (from a fast food place) and my lipase is elevated again, had nausea,but feel better with a 24 hr fasting, I made a fresh juice bc my blood sugar drops. I will get more blood work on Monday n hopefully it elk be better. Thank you again for all your information.
You are welcome Daisy. I hope you soon feel better 🙂
Dear Health Guy,
Thank you so much for this article too.I am so luck because of ı’ve found this site.
I want to ask qustion ;
– I had heard who has chronic pancreatitis must drink fruit juices with adding water.
Is this right or not?
Can we drink all type fruit and vegetable juices as %100 pure ?
Second question ;
– We must eat no fat.OK.Then, i want to ask you kindly please give information.
How we could get A,D,E,K Vitamins then ?As you know these vitamins must fat to digestion.
Third and las question 🙂 ,
Can we eat legume family(beans, white beans,chikpea, cranberry beans etc.) vegetables?
Because we need protein.If we don’t eat the meats we don’t get protein.Where we can get protein?
Thank you so much for your advices.
My Best Regards,
Umut ŞAHİN
Hi Umut ŞAHİN 🙂
Question 1) – I had heard who has chronic pancreatitis must drink fruit juices with adding water. Is this right or not? Can we drink all type fruit and vegetable juices as %100 pure?
Answer: I drink juices straight 100% no added water
Question 2) – We must eat no fat.OK.Then, i want to ask you kindly please give information. How we could get A,D,E,K Vitamins then ?As you know these vitamins must fat to digestion.
answer: Yes, NO fat does pose that problem but the good news is that even a solid plant based diet contains some fat. Not much but plants contain fats called polyunsaturated. Once you have healed up to the extent you know longer have symptoms or abdominal tenderness then you can add some other fats to your diet as long as they do not come from taboo foods such as beef, pork, lamb, duck, goose. Skinless chicken will offer some fat content, white meat fish will as well. If you can tolerate a small handful of peanuts or almonds every now and then those too will offer some fat. It doesn’t take a ton of fat to help absorb fat soluble vitamins.
Question 3) Can we eat legume family(beans, white beans,chikpea, cranberry beans etc.) vegetables? Because we need protein.If we don’t eat the meats we don’t get protein.Where we can get protein?
Answer: Yes! Those are all good choices. Egg whites also porvide protein without fat. Each large egg white offers 4 grams of protein.
I wish you healing 🙂
Dear Paul, I got a stomach virus the other day and it apparently triggered an attack. I was in such pain that I went to the ER. The doctor wasn’t really very well versed in CP or AP so I told him about your site. I have a feeling he googled it, after winking at nurse Hot4Action… at any rate, my lipase level was 500. They gave me IV fluids, a shot of painkiller, some prescriptions to fill and sent me home. The diagnosis was recurrent pancreatitis. My question for you is: Do you consider a lipase level of 500 to be acute pancreatitis? How do you know whether is AP or CP? At any rate, I am back to square one and have had nothing but fresh vegetable juices and your broth and soup recipes. This morning I had egg whites with veggies. Boy those plain egg whites in the carton are gross. I guess it’ll taste better to just get real eggs and separate them. And as usual I am bathing my pancreas in grape seed extract, curcumin, and vitamin C. Plus taking a digestive enzyme before solid foods. I was hesitant to go to the ER as I know they can’t do much for me, but the pain was unbearable. Also when do you know it’s really time for the ER? Thank you again and I hope you are doing well.
Hi Jayne sorry to hear you are having problems again. That sucks. I’m laughing about your ER doc and nurse. Ok, now I’m compossed again 🙂 Upper limit for lipase is 140 for those younger than 60. Docs usually think if they aren’t 3x higher than upper normal which would be 420 you are fine. Obviously, if you are under 60 you weren’t fine at 500. If you are over 60 180 would be considered the upper level of normal and 3x 180 = 540. So if you are over 60 obviously you were fine, right? Not necessarily so Kemosabi! Since the pancreas makes enzymes from ductal and acinar cells it would also depend on the amounts of those cells that have been damaged by previous attacks as to how much lipase and amylase you produce. In those with long-term chronic pancreatitis it isn’t completely uncommon for a zero rise in enzymes because the pancreas can actually “burn out” and not only produce little to no enzymes but actually cause no pain. It is also possible to have even severe acute panreatitis without high levels of enzymes. In this article you’ll read in the top summary section where a certain % of patients had no increase in amylase or lipase levels yet had acute pancreatitis. In fact 4 were diagnosed only via operation or autopsy!
When do I know it’s time for the ER? If 800 – 1200 mgs of Ibuprofen do NOT resolve my AP I would think it is definitely time to head for ER. I would suggest that everyone who thinks they are having AP go to the ER. You can always take your bottle of Ibuprofen with you and take some after they have done their diagnostic thing because even if your lipase falls 40 points under their “criteria” if you have had AP before you never forget what it’s like. You can recognize it immediately 🙂
Thanks fo ryour information. I have chronic pancreatitis and I am looking for ways to improve my dietary health. However, I am having a problem reading your blog because a vertical row of icons for sharing runs down each page (lining up between the facebook and twitter icon bar running horizontally above the posting date). Is there something you can do about this?
Hi Kim – You must be on a hand held device like an iPhone? Those are NOT suppose to display on small screens. Thanks for telling me. I’ll check it out. I may have to remove that verticle bar.
Hi Kim,
You can resize the page to resolve. You can do this by holding ctrl on Windows or command on OSX and the + or – key.
I swear somewhere on here you had a link to a smoothie? Is it here is saw it? If so where is it?
April – I seem to recall posting my favorite smoothie somewhere myself BUT I can’t find it! It’s made with 1 cup of OJ, 1 cup of pineapple juice, 2 bananas, 2 cups of strawberries and 2 cups of FROZEN blue berries. It isn’t a cheap smoothie but it is so GOOD lol.
Juice a couple large oranges and some pineapple to get the juices then pull out your blender and pour in the juice and the other whole fruits. Blend it up and you get a nice, thick, cold awesome tasting smoothie! It makes a nice blender full of smoothie so you can either share it or be stingy and drink it all yourself. IF it’s too much at one time cut the recipe in half or put the remainder of what you can’t drink in the refer and have more later lol 🙂
You can substitute other fruits when they are in season. Raspberries, black berries, huckleberries (if you can get them are awesome) etc all work and give a different flavor.
Thats it! thank you! I get up at 4am for work, Im in bed between 7-9pm. Husband stays up later. I was going to have him make it for me at night so I can drink it in the mornings on the way to work! I was getting upset about it, I was positive I saw it here but was searching everywhere and no luck!
You’re welcome 🙂
Hi, do you have any suggestions for smoothie recipes that are a good source of protein? My husband has been told not to have any of the store protein shakes or supplements
Hi Pari – When I think of “smoothies” I usually think of fruit. I don’t know of any fruit smoothies that have high protein content. I know some vegetarian protein powders are made from peas. Broccoli also has a fairly high protein content (for a veggie). Maybe a mixture of green peas and broccoli would work. Normal protein shakes use whey (from milk) for protein. I’ve never had this question before. It’s a really good question. I may have to experiment!
Hi Healthy Guy! I was wondering what you thought of the nutribullet and similar blenders that don’t extract pulp but shred it and include it in the juice instead? Thanks and good health 🙂
Caroline
Hi Caroline – great question, thanks for visiting and asking. 🙂 I think the NutriBullet is a dang fine machine and drinks that contain the whole fruit, veggies etc are far superior to juice itself. The only place pure juice may be more beneficial is when one is trying to heal (like after an acute attack) because juice it is easier to digest and absorb.
Thanks for a quick and comprehensive answer Health Guy, that really helps 🙂
You’re welcome 🙂
Hi. Just a suggestion for protein in a smoothie. I often use a half cup of egg white, a half cup of almond milk, spinach, nut butter, stevia and vanilla
Hi Laura – For those who are able to tolerate almond milk and nut butter it is a good suggestion. As much as I love vanilla I’d probably pass on that because most brands of quality vanilla extract contain 25% alcohol which isn’t too safe for anyone with pancreas damage.
Interesting. Thanks I didn’t know that. The one I use is 1%. I usually get a supply when I visit Mexico.
You’re welcome – I have been meaning to try vanilla beans (the real thing) to see how that tastes. It is supposed to be great and I would guess alcohol free lol
I posted a recent question on the diet diary page, so I apologize for multiple posts. But this is a separate question concerning juicing.
I really want this juicing idea to work, but I read a recent article that makes me question if its okay.
Tomato juice contains a variety of acids. They stimulate the production of gastric juice and aggressive pancreatic enzymes, exacerbating inflammation, and promote gassing. As well some vegetables such as carrots and beets, as well as a lot of fruits are high in sugars, raising glucose levels. This requires insulin, the development of which is often complicated with inflammation of the pancreas. This can add to the development of diabetes.
Is it safe to juice? I guess all I can do is try and see if it causes flare ups. You seem like this diet works well for you.
Anthony juicing is a very good way to heal. I drink juice. I don’t have diabetes, cancer and I am not dead yet. You can do what you want after all it is your life and your pancreas. But why worry about stuff that you don’t have and probably never will? Focus on healing so you can live life pain free. 🙂
Thank you! I guess your right. And I can’t cut out everything…
You’re welcome
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