I have to start by saying just how much I enjoy these weekly posts from community members, advocates and entrepreneurs promoting health and wellness. Having had the opportunity to meet or collaborate with many of them, I have loved seeing the wealth of knowledge and skill around wellness in our community. We are so lucky to be surrounded by many like-minded individuals who are truly passionate about inner and outer health and wellness. 

A bit about me and my own health journey: I am a 36 year old single mom of twin 3 and ¾ year olds. (Yes, this is how they will introduce themselves!) I am an educator, a health coach, runner, hiker, and a book and cat-lover. I partner with a company whose mission is sharing healthy living around the world. I’ve always been healthy-ISH. I’ve been a runner since high school but never really paid much attention to how many fruits and vegetables I was eating. I’d have a salad every so often. Maybe an apple or banana. Fast forward to when I was pregnant with my girls and I was introduced to JuicePlus+. I knew right away that I wasn’t getting nearly as many whole foods into my body on a DAILY basis as I would have liked, and this seemed like the perfect solution. Now all three of us eat the JP+ products daily. If anyone else out there has lived through the chaos of feeding one or more small children, you know as well as I do how challenging it can be to get ANY fruits and veggies into those mouths some days. 

What I have noticed since starting to eat JP+ is increased energy and recovery from running – especially races (when we used to be able to do that!!). Prior to starting JP+, my typical recovery time was a week or two after running a half-marathon. Now I can be out the next day for a jog and running my usual mileage within a few days. I also used to get sinus infections EVERY winter, multiple times a year. Since starting JP+ I have only had one sinus infection in five years. My girls have not been on any antibiotics since starting the capsules, which is impressive for preemies who have been in childcare since they were six months old!!

So what’s all this about the power of plants? 

The recommended serving size is 7-13 servings of a variety of raw, whole, fruits and vegetables every day (14-19 for people who work out and 20+ for pregnant, breastfeeding or people with illness such as auto-immune disorders, cancer, fibromyalgia, MS, allergies; just to name a few). Imagine going to the grocery store every week and purchasing all of that for EVERY member of your household. Make sure to buy something besides carrots, apples, celery and pears! Maybe also add in some elderberries, bilberries, cabbage, parsley and papayas. You’d spend over $100 on just fruits and vegetables. Then you’d have the hassle of chopping, prepping, and cooking all that produce for the whole WEEK. Sounds exhausting to me. (And ain’t nobody got time for that!) We all try and do the best we can, but sometimes it’s just not possible. We’re supposed to eat the rainbow…and I’m not talking about skittles.

A few facts about that produce we typically buy at the grocery store:

Did you know that the nutritional value of eating one peach in the 1950’s is equivalent to eating 8 peaches today? Or that the iron levels of one bowl of spinach in the 1950’s is equivalent to 43 bowls in the 90’s? Soil depletion, in addition to the use of pesticides and herbicides, has caused this erosion in the nutritional density of our food.

Our food also comes from far away, which means it is picked LONG before it is ripe, which is when the best nutrients are soaked up by the produce – right before it is ripe and picked. We lose nutrition by picking it too early.

Last, do you eat an entire orange? Or just the inside? I don’t know about you, but I am not eating the peels of my orange. And yet most of the nutritional value of an orange IS IN THE PEEL!?! The orange peels are rich in fiber, vitamin C, folate, vitamin B6, calcium and other essential nutrients. The skin of the oranges contains a good amount of polyphenols that protect against several diseases. Peels have anti-cancerous properties, due to the presence of limonene, a naturally occurring chemical. And the essential oil present in the peel has anti-inflammatory properties that boost your immunity power. But most of us are missing out on this and lots of other nutrition in the “yucky” parts of produce.

What if I told you there is an inexpensive, simple, and convenient way to bridge the gap between what we are doing and what we should be doing? Juice Plus+ is just that…One Simple Change that doesn’t break the bank and also nourishes your body from the inside out. Most of us aren’t vitamin deficient, we are whole food nutrition deficient. And what if I told you your kids could get it for free?!? Through our free Healthy Starts for Families program, when an adult orders, one child (ages 4 thru college) can benefit for up to 4 years. Health for the entire family made simple. 

Juice Plus+ has been around for over 25 years. Capsules, Chewables, Protein Shakes, Protein Bars, Omegas and Tower Gardens: our simple, yet complete line of health focused products. Every Juice Plus+ product delivers concentrated plant-based nutrition that is as close to nature as possible. I’d love to chat with you about you and your family’s health! 

becky.wipfler@gmail.com

603.667.8495

If you have a wellness themed topic you would like to share or learn more about, and/or blog/vlog about as an expert in a health/wellness related field, please reach out to shelby@cclyme.org. 

Shelby Wood
Manager of Program Development
CommunityCare of Lyme
Shelby@cclyme.org
802-468-7776