Tag: Chef V Cleanse

Chef V’s List of Top Foods that Cause Migraines and Headaches

carl@pedestalsearch.com

Migraines and headaches suck. There’s no dancing around the topic. And what really sucks about them is how hard they can be to get rid of permanently. There are many sources of headaches and migraines. But one of the most overlooked causes of these conditions is diet. It could be that your chronic head pain is because of foods that cause migraines. 

What causes headaches and migraines?

To understand why diet could cause headaches and migraines, it’s essential to understand why these bad things happen to good people like us. The terms are used interchangeably, though they’re actually entirely different. 

We won’t get into all the nitty gritty, but headaches tend to have a physical cause behind them. This could be because of an injury. But it could also be because you have tense muscles or pressure in your sinuses. Migraines, on the other hand, are caused by an issue with the nerves or chemicals in your brain.

So this means there are many ways your diet could end up giving you a migraine. Chemicals in the food you eat could mess with your brain chemistry. Foods that dehydrate you could cause the muscles in your head to lose moisture and tighten. Indeed, hydration is a crucial step to staving off head pain. With that in mind, here are a few of the top foods and drinks that will start your head throbbing. 

Kinds of foods that cause migraines and headaches

Alcohol headaches 

Overconsumption of alcohol is one of the top causes of headaches for many people. The hangover headache is real. The science beyond this is simple. Alcohol causes dehydration. This then leads to muscle-related headaches. So take it easy on the alcoholic drinks, and mix them with plenty of water. 

Caffeine headaches

Caffeine is a drug. And like any drug, it can come with a lot of withdrawal symptoms if you get hooked on it, then stop. Our recommendation is to swap your morning drink for something a bit healthier, like our green drink. 

Celery juice headaches

Celery juice is a bit specific to be on this list, no? Well, since celery juice is often touted as a cure-all, we thought it was worth a closer examination. So can celery juice cause headaches? Most of the negative side effects of celery juice that people report tend to be related to bloating and gas. 

However, celery juice side effects can often include headaches when consumed in large amounts. What’s probably also going on here is the fact that celery juice is relatively low in nutrition. Celery juice headaches are caused by relying too heavily on it, rather than more nutritious drinks. 

Salty food headaches

Food too high in sodium? Then you better believe you’ll experience a spike in blood pressure. And what comes with higher blood pressure? Migraines. Stay away from the salty stuff, especially if it comes with preservatives. 

Sugary food headaches

There are many potential foods we could list here, so we’re going to lump all the sweets and treats into one category. Can sugar cause headaches? You bet. Eating too many sugary foods can cause a rapid swing in blood sugar level and then, before you know it, you have a sugar headache. We recommend a low sugar cleanse to detox your blood sugar back to normal. 

Get relief with a low sugar cleanse

When it comes to hydrating and getting everything you need, there’s nothing better than a low sugar cleanse. And when it comes to low sugar cleanses, Chef V is a real winner. Our green drink is filled with everything you need to stay hydrated and healthy, and it even makes a great meal accompaniment on its own. 

The Healthiest Oil to Cook With for Weight Loss

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When it comes to our food choices, there’s enough complexity to deal with given the basic ingredients. Trying to sort out the healthiest fruits and vegetables to best promote weight loss can be difficult. There’s a reason so many people come to Chef V for the best juice cleanse for weight loss, after all!

But there’s often an element of cooking that gets forgotten amidst all the other ingredients—cooking oil. What you cook your food in can affect your health like any other ingredient. But exactly how much of a health consideration are cooking oils? And which are the healthiest?

Why cooking oil choice matters

Before we can get down into the nitty-gritty of canola versus vegetable oil, it’s important to establish precisely why cooking oil choice matters. After all, it’s just what we use to cook our actual food, right?

Well, there ain’t no such thing as a free lunch, and that applies to the chemistry of cooking as well. You might have heard of something called a “smoke point” in oil. This is where oil starts to burn and smoke rather than just simmer. This “burning” also can release potentially harmful materials, such as free radicals or acrolein. These substances can damage your cells and organs. So the smoke point is something to consider as far as health goes.

But, on the flip side, many oils contain valuable vitamins and minerals. The right oil can add in useful, healthful substances to a meal that wasn’t there to begin with. Oils often contain a mixture of different fats, which can be good or bad depending on the particular type. 

As a last note, it’s also essential to consider the origin of your cooking oils, beyond simply the type. Just like with any food, cooking oils can be filled with additives. It pays to read the labels, and find organic options if possible. 

Cooking oils, measured up

Avocado oil

Avocados are a delicious, nutritious addition to a variety of great recipes. But did you know you can use avocado oil for cooking? It’s noted for its high smoke point, making it an excellent choice for high-heat cooking, such as deep frying. Avocado oil comes with all the benefits of avocado as well, including helping you address blood pressure and cholesterol issues, and generally benefit heart health. 

Avocado oil has been linked to helping reduce inflammation in your joints. More relevant for this specific article, avocado oil has also been linked to helping boost your metabolism and aid weight loss, due to it containing substances, such as oleic acid, which promotes fat burning. 

Avocado oil tastes can sometimes have a distinct taste of avocados, unless you make sure to use the lighter versions. A good rule of thumb when avocado oil cooking is to treat it roughly like olive oil. Overall, it’s a great addition to your kitchen! 

Canola oil

Canola oil comes from the canola plant, naturally enough. It’s a type of oil that’s gotten quite a lot of buzz due to its high monounsaturated fat content. Using shorter words, it has mostly good fat content. 

It’s also full of phytosterols, which are amazing in helping manage cholesterol levels. Canola oil has been associated with the burning of belly fat, good news for anyone interested in losing some weight. When it comes down to canola versus vegetable oil and health, canola oil is a clear winner. 

Canola oil is also great in how versatile it is as a cooking oil. From stir-frying to grilling, it’s always a good idea to have some canola oil on hand. 

Coconut oil

We absolutely love coconut and coconut water at Chef V. So that should mean we’re into coconut oil cooking as well, right? Well, cooking with coconut oil is a bit of a complicated topic. 

Coconut oil does have a high smoke point, so that’s a plus. It also has plenty of the same health benefits of coconuts themselves, possibly working as an anti-inflammatory. However, coconut oil is also wildly high in saturated fats. At room temperature, most coconut oils will take a solid form—that’s how high their fat content is. Higher levels of saturated fats are associated with a higher risk of heart issues. 

So coconut oil gets, at most, only a mild recommendation. That coconut flavor is going to make a great addition to particular meals, especially in baking. Just don’t overdo it. The high fat content might not make it the best option for weight loss. 

Olive oil

For many out there, olive oil has already replaced vegetable oil as a kitchen staple. So there’s certainly a lot to unpack when it comes to olive oil cooking. There are many health reasons to enjoy olive oil. One of the most widely known is that olive oil is high in vitamin E, an important antioxidant. 

In fact, if you love antioxidants, olive oil has plenty of them. And like a lot of other oils on this list, olive oil has monounsaturated fats that help you fight the “bad” cholesterols. This not only lowers your risk of heart disease, but can also help you avoid obesity. The real power of olive oil is more holistic, however. It has all this good stuff in it, so it makes you feel better. Subsequently, you’re more likely to engage in healthy activities, such as exercise. 

One of the most fun parts of olive oil is how well it pairs with healthy dishes, such as those found in Mediterranean cooking. Just make sure you’re picking up organic variants! 

Vegetable oil 

Many people turn to vegetable oil out of health concerns. Once they go vegan, they figure they need more vegan and vegetarian products. And vegetable oil has often been heralded as another low-cholesterol cooking oil opinion. But now we get into the tricky territory of terminology. 

The thing is, what is vegetable oil? Olive is a vegetable, right? And so is canola. So what is in those bottles of “vegetable oil” on the shelf? Well, you’re going to have to check the label. Too often, vegetable oil is a term used for more artificial versions of the product, which aren’t necessarily the healthiest. Always check the label and the nutritional information. 

Enjoy your meals with Chef V’s green drink

No matter the oil you use, or what you’re cooking up, Chef V always has your back when it comes to promoting health. There’s a reason we provide one of the best juice cleanses for weight loss. However, our green drink works great on its own as a companion to any meal. So, here’s to all your future healthy cooking! 

Why Weight Loss Matters

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Why Weight Loss Matters

If you are interested in low sugar juice cleanses, there is a good chance it’s because you want to lose weight. There’s no reason to be embarrassed by this fact. Let’s be blunt – obesity and weight issues are an epidemic in America. And it’s been a long standing national issue for so long that many of us simply take it as the way things are. However, being overweight isn’t something that should be ignored. Here, we’ll go in-depth over the dangers of being overweight, ways you can address this issue, and Chef V Cleanse weight loss tips. Whether you want to just lose a few pounds, or go for a serious 21 day juice fast for weight loss, Chef V is here to help with your weight loss goals.

Dangers of Weight Gain
We won’t go too much into the definitions of being overweight or obese. As a rule of thumb, you can use Body Mass Index as a way to calculate the appropriate weight for your height and age.

When it comes to the danger of being overweight, there are some a few factors you should be aware of. Many people know that being overweight is extremely dangerous for our hearts and arteries, and increases the chance of high blood pressure, heart diseases, and stroke. Many are also aware that being overweight is linked with the development of type 2 diabetes.

However, there’s a lot more risk to being overweight than that. Being overweight can damage organs beyond the heart, such as leading to gallbladder issues. Carrying the extra weight can also end up doing damage to the cartilage within your joints, leading to arthritis – which can start a dangerous spiral of making exercise painful to partake in.

Being overweight or obese can also increase the chance of developing sleep disorders such as sleep apnea, leading to a lack of sleep that can create further health issues. More subtly, weight loss can lead to imbalances in the brain, creating issues such as depression or anxiety. It’s no wonder that there are many people out there who try maintain a healthy body weight range.

Is it Possible to Lose Weight?

We hear about weight loss success stories all the time. We see them online, on the front cover of magazines or on tv commericals. The truth is, there’s no magic product that can make you lose all your excess weight. Plenty of people out there do their best to try and lose weight and still fail.

The most important thing to keep in mind is that just because you tried to lose weight and it didn’t work, doesn’t mean that it’s entirely out of reach for you; It just requires good planning. One of the most common ways that weight loss plans fail is because it’s not permanent – the weight just comes back. Permanent weight loss requires a permanent shift, a plan and a lifestyle change, though that could be difficult to get started.

How to Lose Weight

When it comes to losing weight, most of you probably already understand the basics. If there’s one rule to take away, it’s that there is no magic potion or formula that will just get you losing weight. The more exercise you partake in, the easier it will be to lose weight. The healthier you eat, the easier it will be to lose weight. The fewer calories you intake, the more weight you will see being dropped on the scale. Here at Chef V, we are not suggesting that you stop eating to lose weight. We believe in making healthy choices to achieve your weight loss goals.

The basics are easy, but as in everything, execution can often be much harder. Just trying to “eat less food” or fast for a period of time will often just end up causing the proverbial pendulum to swing the other way, as you start to overeat and binge eat in accordance with your new hunger cravings.

It’s important, then, not just to try to cut back on calories and carbs, but to try to get your blood sugar levels under control. Spiking and crashing blood sugar levels can leave us lethargic, or craving food. This can make it hard to get the exercise we need and to keep up with our healthy eating.

Losing Weight With Low Sugar Juice Cleanses

So it’s pretty easy to get a grasp on the idea that if you want to lose weight, you need to cut down on foods that are high in fats and sugars. In particular, sugar is a significant cause of a lot of weight gain out there. Getting a handle on your sugar cravings is key to getting a handle on your weight loss.

This is one reason why low sugar juice cleanses are such an effective tool in helping with weight loss, and why so many people have found success through Chef V Cleanse weight loss green drinks. But how exactly does a low sugar juice cleanse help?

Firstly, while you’re undergoing a blended juice cleanse, whether a short-term one or a 21-day juice fast for weight loss, you are dramatically cutting back on carbs and calories. However, you’re also lowering your sugar intake, which stops blood sugar spikes. On top of this, you are detoxing your gut, and promoting more effective digestion.

All this means that a low sugar juice cleanse won’t only help you lose weight, but can help you cut the cravings that would cause you to put that weight right back on again.

Of course, just moving on to a juice cleanse after unhealthy eating can be difficult. And just trying to starve yourself isn’t particularly healthy either. This is where Chef V’s juice cleanses really have the chance to shine.

We don’t just provide bottled juice and expect you to make it through a 21-day juice fast for weight loss. Rather, we make sure to provide a mix of healthy green drinks as well as protein-providing detox shakes, and fiber-providing detox soups.

This means that Chef V provides low sugar juice cleanses that you can actually, you know, finish. And if you can gain the confidence from completing them, you can have the confidence to tackle any and all of your weight loss goals.

Why Plant Based Pea Protein Rocks

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Why Plant-Based Pea Protein Rocks

A good 21 day juice cleanse will ensure that you’re getting all the nutrients you need to carry you through to the end. Many of these nutrients are pretty easy to include – fruits and vegetables tend to be heavily packed with all the good stuff.

Protein is generally the more difficult nutrient to get efficiently through your juices during a juice cleanse. However, there are some options for those willing to do the research. A great way to get protein during a 21 day juice cleanse is through protein smoothie recipes for intermittent fasting. And the best way to put protein in those shakes is through pea protein.

Why Protein Matters

So what’s the big deal with getting protein during a juice cleanse? Isn’t the point of a juice cleanse to drop high-protein and high-fat foods like meats and other animal products?

The thing is, protein is about as essential as nutrients get. Pretty much everything in your body consists of protein to some degree. In order for your body to build and maintain energy and repair itself, you’re going to need a source of protein in your diet.

This is especial during a blended juice cleanse. If you aren’t getting protein, you will feel terribly uncomfortable as a 21 day cleanse progresses. You’ll be very low energy and lathargic which will lead to irritability, lack of focus and dizziness. You’re also much more likely to simply give up on it halfway through. And yet, a lot of high-protein foods are also high in fats or carbs?

Here’s where pea protein comes in.

Why Pea Protein?

As the name suggests, pea protein is a protein source that has been isolated or concentrated out of peas, generally yellow peas. This pea protein can then be added to things like detox smoothie recipes for intermittent fasting. So why not just toss whole, raw peas in there?

Well, firstly, peas, as much as we love them, don’t necessarily blend well taste-wise into juices or smoothies. The creamy texture of pea protein powder is also much easier to work into a detox smoothie. More importantly, you can get more bang for your buck by extracting the protein from the pea vegetable. Pea protein powder will have double or triple the protein of the same amount of peas.

So pea protein powder brings its A-game to protein, sure. But why use it over other protein options? Well, there are plenty of reasons, including some of the following:

#1 Vegan
If you want a vegan option for getting your protein, pea protein is a great way to go. There’s no need to get your protein from any animal product, making it one of the most widely associated forms of protein.

#2 Hypoallergenic
Some of you are probably naming some other plant-based protein sources right now. Some of these are great, sure, but can also be allergenic. Take, for instance, protein gained from nuts. Pea protein is hypoallergenic, meaning it’s safe for everyone. No gluten, lactose, or anything else allergenic.

#3 Easily Digestible
Measured against other options, pea protein is very gentle on your stomach. This means that more protein actually gets into your body, and you don’t have to worry about your detox smoothies giving you any digestive issues.

#4 High in Iron
Do you know what else your body needs apart from protein? Iron. Do you know what has a ton of iron and protein? Pea protein powder. This means pea protein won’t just keep you full and healthy, but energetic as well.

Check Out our Detox Smoothies

At Chef V, we want to create the healthiest blended juice cleanse products possible that are also achievable by anyone. No starving out and giving up with us. That’s why we include detox smoothies full of pea protein in our 21 day juice cleanses. Make sure to check them out today!

What to Eat After a Juice Cleanse

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What to Eat After a 21 Day Juice Cleanse

You did it! You finished that juice cleanse. Whether a 3 day detox or an impressive 21 day cleanse, you should be rightfully proud of your accomplishments. After a 21 day juice fast, you’re surely going to be eager to get back to a regular meal schedule. Before you put down that green drink and pick up a burger, you might want to consider planning out your post-juice cleanse meals. We’ll provide a guide here.

General Guide to Eating After a Juice Cleanse

You are going to want to go big after a juice cleanse. We get it. However, you want to make the most out of your 21 day cleanse. This means that you will have to be thoughtful and strategic as you come out of your juice cleanse. Your digestive system is going to be used to taking in a lot of green drinks, detox soups, and detox smoothies. This means that it’s not the best idea to leap right into big heavy meals. Here are some things consider during your meal planning in the days post-cleanse.

Be Mindful of Eating: You can easily make yourself sick by binge eating or eating too quickly after a long 21 day juice cleanse. Eat slowly and steadily as well as paying attention to your hunger levels. The simplest and best idea is to start with small meals and reduced portion sizes. This keeps your digestive system happy by gently reintroducing foods into your diet again and prevents suddenly regaining your lost weight.

Avoid Alcohol and Caffeine: Cut back on alcoholic drinks and caffeinated beverages for the moment. Your digestive system isn’t going to be quite ready for them yet. If you’re out with friends, try a fun mocktail made with club soda and fruit juice (in moderation of course – they can be packed with sugar!). There are also a great array of decaf teas and coffee’s you can try instead of your morning cup of joe.

Keep Sugar Intake Low: Your 21 day cleanse should have done a good job at helping you beat your sugar cravings. Lean into this. Try to go for foods that are low in sugar, and don’t give in and binge on the sweet stuff. If you really feel yourself about to cave, try drinking some water. Most times, we are just thirsty and we get our bodily cues mixed up. Or reach for a piece of fruit!

Eat Whole Foods: Eating whole foods will give you more of the nutrients you need, without adding in anything that could be damaging to your health. This includes unprocessed and fresh produce. Whole grains, seasonal vegetables, fish, meats, meat alternatives, legumes and beans are just a few really great options to start with.

Drink Plenty of Water: This one is huge. Drinking water will keep your health and let you better manage your appetite.

Ideas for Post 21 Day Cleanse Meals

All those tips are well and good. But what should you actually be eating within those rules? It’s a good idea to develop a meal plan with some healthy options. You can use the meal plan format to slowly increase your meals’ size after your 12 day cleanse. Take these ideas to get you started.

* Soups: Soups are known for being easy on the digestive system. They can also be super healthy! Ingredients like pumpkins, squashes, and leafy greens are good places to start.

* Salads: After plenty of green drinks, salads are a natural way to return to a regular diet after a 21 day cleanse. You want to make sure to prioritize salads that feature plenty of leafy greens.

* Fruit Dishes: If you’re looking for snacks after your 21 day cleanse, fruit is the way to go. This is a safe way to satisfy your sweet tooth without overloading with sugar. Fruit salads and fruit parfaits with yogurt are the way to go here.

* Healthy Fats: Once you’ve started to move back to regular eating with salads and soups, you’ll want to start upping your intake of more substantial foods. Try to keep it to healthy fats – dishes with avocados and nuts will be winners here.

Of course, no matter what you eat after your 21 day juice cleanse, you can always boost your nutritional value with Chef V’s Green Drink. You can get it delivered fresh, right to your doorstep.

Chef V’s Guide to Why Meal Timing Matters

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Sometimes it’s not what you eat, but when you eat. Our bodies are more than simple biological machines. We’re creatures of nature, and like everything in nature, timing is everything. Animals sleep and eat on a schedule and with the seasons. However, modern conveniences have broken the human need for timing. 

We can eat whatever we want, when we want. But this convenience comes with some consequences when it comes to maintaining weight. And we’re not just talking about how easy food access can make it challenging to maintain a diet. 

Meals and timing

To understand how humans go with the natural flow, it’s essential to understand the concept of circadian rhythms. These are physical, mental, and behavioral changes that follow a twenty-four-hour cycle, and affect most living things, from plants to humans. Circadian rhythms are influenced by the changing light, as day goes to night, and determines things like sleep schedule and even metabolism. 

This means your body is absolutely affected by the time of day. It has meaningful consequences for your eating habits as well. For example, your body tends to increase its metabolism for eight hours or so while asleep. It’s a good idea to restrict all meals to roughly a twelve-hour block during the day. Leave all the time outside that block for your body to handle digestion. 

When you have meals within that time period also matters. While it’s different for every person, in general, it seems that eating meals earlier in the day, and putting more focus on those earlier meals, is better for overall health and weight control. So get a healthy breakfast and lunch! Too often people skimp on these crucial meals, and then gorge themselves at dinner. 

Obviously, there are some extra considerations to take into account when it comes to planning mealtimes. For example, your doctor may recommend you adjust eating times if you have particular conditions, such as diabetes. 

Intermittent fasting

If you think nutritionists would be interested in how mealtimes affect weight gain and loss, you’d be absolutely correct. Many nutritionists have expanded the idea of more strictly dividing our eating and resting-from-eating times. This is why the idea of intermittent fasting has emerged. This is the concept that planning meal times is just as important as planning what to eat. 

One of the most interesting (to us) forms of time-restricted eating is “time restricted feeding.” This refers to a program by which you start restricting yourself to that twelve-hour eating window mentioned earlier but then gradually close that window. In essence, the idea behind intermittent fasting is that you’re increasing the amount of time in a day your body spends on digestion and metabolism. 

So while you might start out by restricting all your eating to a twelve-hour window, with time-restricted feeding, you can start organizing meal timing to shrink that window down to ten or even eight hours. This means the time to metabolize your meals is only going up. Even if you keep your caloric intake roughly the same as usual, by restricting that caloric intake to a specific time period, you can start to see weight-loss results. 

Benefits of intermittent fasting 

What’s really intriguing about intermittent fasting is the benefits it offers beyond simply weight loss. Intermittent fasting has been linked to better control of critical bodily functions, such as blood sugar, blood pressure, insulin sensitivity, and inflammation management. It turns out that humans, biologically, probably aren’t used to being able to grab midnight snacks from a fridge! Embracing intermittent fasting can help you fight back against a host of health issues beyond letting you take better control of your weight. 

Green juice and intermittent fasting

When looking up time-restricted eating, you’re sure to hear a lot of discussion about intermittent fasting drinks. It’s no surprise, given that juice cleanses and intermittent fasting are somewhat related. Both harness your body’s own metabolism to enter a “fasting mode” where fat gets burned at an accelerated rate. Both use the health benefits of fasting periods to tackle issues, such as blood sugar management. 

But there’s no reason to keep the two separate. Intermittent fasting and green drinks can be one of the best nutrition crossover events out there! Firstly, a green drink is a great way to go about breaking your fast. Too many people look at intermittent fasting as a “free ticket” to eat whatever during the non-fasting period. While the idea is to focus on timing, it should be noted that what you eat could have significant effects. If you break your fast with a fatty or sugary meal, you could be in for some headaches.

What your body really needs after the fasting period is a ton of nutrients. This is where the concept of intermittent fasting drinks comes in. With green juice for intermittent fasting, you can get all the vitamins and minerals you need to get back in action and ready for the day.

Get the best in green drink with Chef V

When it comes to green juice for intermittent fasting, you can’t get much better than Chef V’s signature green drink. Always blended for maximum nutritional impact, our green drink will give you everything you need to recharge when undertaking intermittent fasting, or one of our juice cleanses. 

We have plenty of other great products for time-restricted eating as well. Need detox smoothie recipes for intermittent fasting? How about some detox soups? Both are available in our cleanses. No matter how you want to tackle your weight loss goals, Chef V is here to back you up.

Best Countries to Go Vegan

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From green drink to urab, there are plenty of great vegan meals around the world.

Best Countries to Go Vegan

It might be presumption to say that going vegan is the way of the future. Still, finding vegan food options is much easier in some places compared to twenty, or even ten years ago. That said, the vegan revolution has hit different parts of the globe at different levels. Some places its easy to get a green drink delivery. Other places it can be quite difficult to find people who know what a good green drink should contain! As a quick guide to hungry world travelers, here’s some countries that are considered great places for vegans to live, travel and eat.

The United States

Of course, we have to put the USA on here. After all, its the one place in the world (as of now) that you can get a delicious Chef V green drink delivery, right to your door!

We are being serious here. The US has a bad reputation as a difficult place for vegans among many foreigners, due to the slow start that the vegan movement had here. The US is also associated heavily with high fat and calorically dense foods that aren’t the best for our overall and long term health..

However, current stats show that 6% of Americans are vegan, and that number is steadily growing. More impressively, many Americans are looking to cut back on the meat they eat in their diet. As a caveat, the vegan love in America is somewhat unequally shared. If you want great vegan eating, then make sure to join us on the west coast!

Canada

If we’re going to mention the United States, it’s unfair to not mention Canada as well. The two countries have many places that have similar cultures, and that holds true for their attitudes towards veganism as well. The best places to get vegan food in Canada are going to be the larger cities, which mix together vegan options from all over the world.

Over the last few years, many restaurants have opened their eyes to the vegan community. Chains, dine in restaurants and mom and pop restaurants are offering at least a few vegan friendly options. Making their menus more accessible to a broader audience.

The United Kingdom

This one might seem surprising to many. England is best known for fish and chips and sausages, right? Traditionally, you might be right, but something big is stirring in the British Isles. Veganism has taken off in a big way over there. Especially notable hotspots are cities like Bristol and Brighton. It seems like concerns about health are fueling this sudden takeoff in vegan options in the UK.

Germany

If there’s a country more associated with sausages than Britain, it has to be Germany. Continental Europe is known for its love of meat and dairy dishes after all. However, Germany might surprise you in this regard. German’s secret vegan power is its innovation. More new vegan products are launched in Germany than even in the United States! With an estimated 1 in 10 German youths being vegan, it seems that green drinks and the like are very trendy here.

Indonesia

Many people aren’t aware that some of the best countries to go vegan can be found in the Muslim world. With foods like hummus and falafel being staples, however, you’ll certainly find lots of tasty options in this country.

And in the Muslim World, Indonesia shines as the crown jewel of vegan cuisine. Dishes like Balinese Urab have captured the imaginations of vegans around the globe. If you’re looking for new vegan dishes to try out, Indonesia is the place to look.

Israel

If a country can hope to lay claim to the vegan crown, we might have to award it to Israel. This country manages to mix together the vegan cuisine of Arabic countries, the vegan ingenuity of Europe, and the plant-based zeal of the most vegan-friendly cities in America. Over 5% of Israelis are fully vegan. When new vegan products are created, there’s a good chance that they came from Israel.

No matter what country you go to, Chef V wishes you the best of eating on your vegan journeys. And if you return to one of the states where we deliver, we have our green drink delivery waiting just for you!

What Fasting Does To Your Body

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What Fasting Does To Your Body

Fasting is a practice that has ancient roots in many cultures. However, there’s a good reason that it’s stuck around so long. This blog will give you a complete look at where fasting comes from and what exactly it does to your body. We’ll also measure up traditional fasting against juice cleansing (like our famous 21 day juice cleanse) and give tips for things like using green juice during intermittent fasting.

Where is Fasting From?

To many people, fasting is just not eating food. However, fasting is a lot more complex than that. It can involve the giving up of any substance. Most often, this is concerning specific kinds of food or drink. Fasting can be for health reasons, but also religious reasons as well. What’s important to understand right off the bat is that fasting is deliberate and controlled – it’s not starvation.

Prehistoric times, fasting was often times the key to better health. This makes it impossible to put a hard date on when the practice started. One of the earliest records of fasting that we have record of is from the Hippocrates. Yep, that’s the father of medicine, he of the Hippocratic oath. He was also a big fan of fasting, as were other ancient Greek writers like Plutarch. The ancient Greeks, in general, believed that fasting was just as necessary as bed rest when it came to fighting and preventing illnesses.

However, fasting was also becoming a crucial part of many religions worldwide. Christianity, Islam, and Buddhism are just a few examples of religions that have fasting as part of their heritage and culture. This has helped fasting spread to plenty of countries around the globe.

These early recommendations for fasting were based mainly on, pardon the pun, gut feelings. People in older periods understood that fasting made them feel better but didn’t understand why.

In the 19th century, people started to get curious about the actual mechanisms of fasting. Scientists began to link specific dietary choices to particular illnesses, and the sciences of nutrition and dieting started to emerge. People also started to try some of the first nutritional fasts for themselves, experimenting with foods, drinks, and lengths of time.

By the 20th century, nutritionists had managed to hone in on what exactly fasting was doing to the body.

Fasting and You

Before we talk about what fasting does to the body, it’s important to understand that fasting refers to limited and controlled periods of reduced or no food or liquid consumption. There’s a big difference between controlled fasting and starving. It’s never a good idea to put your body into starvation mode. Specifically, starving refers to the point where your body starts to burn muscle mass for energy.

But what happens between being full and starvation? That’s where fasting comes in.

The main difference between your body in “fasting mode” and your body in “regular mode” is how your body handles its blood sugar. If you are using green juice during intermittent fasting or other fasting methods, your carbohydrate intake will be lower. If they’re available, your body will automatically use carbs to produce glucose, which is where you get your blood sugar from.

During a period of lower carb intake, like a 21 day cleanse, your body will switch from using carbohydrates to make glucose to using fat. This is why 21 day detoxes are so effective for weight loss. During fasting, you’re making the most efficient use of your body’s energy reserves.

Benefits of Fasting

Does it actually matter how your body creates glucose? Studies and signs point to a real benefit to practices like intermittent fasting and 21 day juice cleanses. Here are some of the changes that fasting can make in your body.

* Controls Blood Sugar Levels: Intermittent fasting is one of the most effective ways to get your blood sugar levels under control, as it helps regulate the production of glucose in your body. Not only can this cut the risk of conditions like diabetes, but it can also help you get control of sugar cravings.
* Decreases Inflammation: Intermittent fasting has been shown to help reduce inflammation in the body. This can help promote better health of the heart and lungs and potentially reduce your risk of cancer.
* Losing Weight: Remember how we mentioned that fasting switches your body onto using fat for glucose instead of carbs? If your body is consuming its fat reserves, that can help a ton with your weight loss goals
* Improves Your Brain Health: Intriguing studies suggest that fasting can help sharpen your brain and prevent diseases that might affect your neurological symptoms. This could be why many religions promoted fasting for clarity of thought and periods of contemplation.
* Help You Live Longer: The studies are still preliminary on this one, but fasting in animals has been shown to help prolong life and health. Fasting may be the key to aging gracefully.

Importance of Juice Cleanses

Simply giving up food is a type of fasting that walks a fragile line. On one side, you could potentially hurt yourself by denying your body nutrients. On the other hand, you’re going to get incredible cravings from this kind of deprivation. This can then lead to binge eating after the fast is over.

A 21 day juice cleanse is a way to get the weight loss and health benefits of fasting in a controlled and feasible manner. You get every nutrient your body needs, letting your fast in a safe and healthy manner. Using green juice during intermittent fasting is also a great way to regular your blood sugar levels, meaning you can save yourself from binge eating.

If you’re interested in our own famous 21 day detox, make sure to check out our package options here. Our 21 day cleanses come with not just delicious green drinks but detox smoothies and detox soups to give you the most achievable and most effective 21 day juice cleanse out there.

How Pets Boost Your Mood and Health

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There are so many human enthusiasts of our Chef V green drink that we sometimes forget all our four-legged fans. However, animals love our green drink, proving that pets can be just as intelligent as their owners. While you’re giving your pet some of your delicious green juice delivery, did you ever realize that they’re giving you just as much of a health benefit? Pets are one of the best secrets to a healthy life. We’ll explain here.

Pets and Physical Health

You might figure that pets are good for you since they’re fun to have around. And being able to relax and have fun is always good for you, right? But did you know pets have physical benefits as well?

Firstly, pets like dogs will require that you get out and walk them every once in a while. This means that just by owning a dog, you’re automatically getting more exercise than you usually would. (Low impact exercise like dog walking, by the way, pairs great with a 3 day juice cleanse!)

Owning pets also has been linked with a reduction in allergies, particularly if you start interacting with pets at a young age. Humans are animals, after all, and living too sterile a life can leave us unprepared for the more infectious parts of nature. Having plants and animals around helps us keep our immune system ready to roll at any time.

And if you have a health condition, having pets around is excellent insurance. Some pets can smell the effects of things like diabetes. There are even trained diabetic alert dogs and seizure alert dogs that can help save lives. When they said dogs were man’s best friend, they weren’t joking.

Pets and Mental Health

The idea that pets benefit your mental health is a no-brainer. Everyone wants to be loved, and pets give love unconditionally. Staving off loneliness is worth getting a pet on its own, helping you battle conditions like acute anxiety or depression. (Pet’s are also a great excuse to get out and meet with other pet owners, strengthening your social circles). Some of the different ways pets improve your mental wellness might surprise you.

For example, did you know that owning pets can reduce your blood pressure? Petting animals seems to reduce a hormone that helps regulate stress levels in humans.

The happiness that pets bring can also cause your body to release more endorphins. These hormones are some of the most potent pain relievers humans can naturally produce. This means that having pets around is a way to combat chronic pain.

Pet’s Love Chef V!

Pet’s and Chef V products are a natural pairing. Both help you with your physical health, and both make you feel great at the same time. If you’re taking a break to enjoy a 3-day juice cleanse, there’s no better way to spend it than chilling out with your pet.

What’s great about Chef V is that it’s made from entirely organic, natural ingredients. This means that it’s perfectly safe to share with most pets. So if you have cats or dogs, pour them out a little bit of green drink. From our experience, they’ll love it just as much as you do – so make sure to save some of that green drink for yourself.

Of course, our green drink is always best enjoyed fresh. So make sure to order your Chef V green juice delivery today!

Can a Green Drink Increase Your Libido?

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If you’ve been browsing the online health space for a while, you might have heard about the supposed link between green drink and the female sex drive. But do these spicy rumors have anything to them? Is the secret to a steamy sex life found in detox juice recipes? This blog explores the liaisons between nutrition and sex drive in women.

What affects sex drive in women?

Before we can learn if there’s any truth to the sex-drive boosting quality of a green drink, it’s essential to understand precisely what helps fuel or foil a sex drive. It’s more complex than it sounds. The sex drive involves a series of interactions between the mind and body. 

Your overall physical health is a significant factor in your sex drive. For example, certain illnesses can put a big dent in your libido. On the flip side, certain medications can also have the unintended side effect of ruining the bedroom mood. 

The sex drive in women is managed by a variety of hormones and chemicals, including estrogen, progesterone, and testosterone. Hormones are the chemical messengers in your body, triggering various reactions, including the reactions that inform you it’s time for some love. 

Like love, however, hormones are fickle things. They can be quickly thrown out of whack. For example, if you aren’t getting enough exercise, this can significantly impact your production of hormones. Getting an elevated heart rate through activity is essential for proper hormone production. 

It’s not just the physical, of course. The mood for love is intrinsically linked to your overall mood. This makes logical sense at a base level. If you’re depressed or lacking in confidence, it’s going to be hard to get into a sexy frame of mind. 

There’s a chemical side to this as well. Constant stress in your life can throw hormones out of balance. This means that even if you think you’ve set a romantic mood in the evening, your stress earlier in the day could be sabotaging your libido.   

Nutrition and sex hormones 

Now it’s time to talk about the part of libido that has the most to do with juice diet— nutrition. This is absolutely one of the most essential parts of balancing hormones. Hormones are supposed to act as the messengers of your body. However, if you have a diet high in processed fats and sugars, those messages can get confused, or simply never come through. 

But what kinds of foods help boost your hormones in a way that improves your sex drive? You should look for a few things. Anything high in antioxidants will be good, both for hormone production and for ensuring you can get that blood flow to your most sensitive areas. 

Your hormones also need vitamins and minerals to function—vitamin A, vitamin B, potassium, and zinc are some of the most important of these. And, of course, we can’t forget the sexiest ingredient, plain old water. Yep, before things get hot and sweaty, it’s essential you maintain good hydration.

Libido and detox juice 

Your hormones probably sound pretty demanding right about now, huh? You have to give them plenty of water and all these vitamins and minerals so they’ll all work perfectly in sync. But just like it takes at least two to tango, your hormones and you need to learn to work together.

One of the best tools you have to patch up your relationship with your hormones is certainly a green drink. Chef V’s green drink recipe, for example, is packed with leafy greens and all sorts of good stuff. This gives you the vitamins and minerals you need to keep your hormones working in good order, and keep hydrated at the same time. 

If you’re worried that chronic weight gain, sugar cravings, and stress have done your love-mood hormones a severe blow, a Chef V cleanse, from a 3 to a 21 day cleanse, will help this out. Your hormones will love you, and you’ll be ready to love whoever you want, however you want.   

Romantic Vegan Snacks for Valentines

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The holidays never stop with the sweet stuff, do they? We go from Halloween candy right to Thanksgiving pies. Then there are more sweets for Christmas, maybe some sugary snacks at New Year, and right when we’re recovering from that, it’s Valentines and chocolates everywhere. Even after Valentine’s is over, there’s cheap chocolate on sale everywhere, all ready for Easter.

We get it. February has Valentines, and spring is the time to be romantic. We want to bring out something sweet and special to show the ones that we love that we care.

But is it really caring to try to put your loved ones into a sugar coma?

There are plenty of fun snacks for the loving seasons that don’t need to involve tons of sugar and the other gross stuff that comes with processed foods. In fact, it’s entirely possible to make up sweet treats that are completely vegan. If you need ideas to get you warmed up, then read on!

Sweet Treats

Vegan Cupcakes

Let’s say that you or a loved one is coming off of a low sugar juice cleanse. You’re probably going to be looking for something sweet, right? Well, why not go for some vegan cupcakes? You can get plenty of recipes online.

Note that a lot of Vegan Cupcakes call for soy milk – if you’re allergenic or not big on soy, you can swap in other vegan products.

Vegan Cakes

You can use the same concept for vegan cupcakes to whip up a full-on delicious vegan cake as well if you’re feeling ambitious. Vegan cakes are a great chance to get your creativity on and whip up a fanciful creation for someone you care about.

Make sure to get some bright berries on there, like in this vegan cheesecake recipe!

Vegan Pie

Pie might not have the instant romantic connotations of cakes or cupcakes. However, making dessert-themed pies is relatively easy based on savory vegan chocolate or sweet berries. That’s one of the best parts about making pies -you can put whatever you like into the crust.

Vegan Mousses

Did you know that you can get creamy vegan chocolate mousse through the use of avocados? It seems like a crazy combo, but it actually works amazingly. You can serve this on its own, with berries or even with other sweet dishes. These are the perfect rewards for someone (or yourself!) coming off of a low sugar juice cleanse.

Dipped Fruits

Once you get yourself down a solid recipe for vegan chocolate that you like, the sky is the limit for the cute little snacks you can make with it. Berries dipped in fruits are as romantic a snack as you can get and super easy to prep once you have your vegan chocolate down.

Romantic Meals

Fresh Salads

What’s a better way to kick off a romantic spring than some fresh salads as a meal? Of course, not just any old salad will do for a romantic lunch or dinner.

The best romantic vegan salads will be those that feature some kind of sweet twist, ideally from vivid red berries to give that passionate feeling. We recommend something like our own perfectly named Love Salad.

If you and your loved ones are coming off a low sugar juice cleanse, you might be eager to try out some different. In this case, why not make it a special occasion with a more exotic salad? (We heartily recommend something like Balinese urab)

Ratatouille

Anything French is automatically more romantic. That’s just a fact. French cuisine isn’t often associated with vegan options – but that’s not to say it’s lacking them entirely. If you want a dish that is vegan, delicious, and eyecatching, then you can’t go wrong with a Ratatouille. You can find plenty of excellent vegan versions of this classic dish online!

Mushroom Steaks

For many, a romantic dinner needs a steak, full stop. Of course, unless you’re going for some sort of plant-based meat steak, then there’s no way that you can have a steak dinner and keep it vegan.

However, thinking outside the box can certainly help here. Mushroom steaks are a perfect vegan option, but you can do pretty much anything with them that you could with a regular steak. Grill them, barbeque them, fry them – you name it!

Vegan Eggplant Parmesan

Got a partner that’s not a big fan of mushrooms? Maybe you want something that pairs with vegan pasta options well? Eggplant parm is always the perfect mix of class and comfort. It’s also pretty easy to get some ideas for vegan versions online.

Vegan Pasta

A candlelit dinner with pasta is perfectly romantic. Of course, you can also make a casual lunch with something like vegan macaroni if you want to keep things chill. Going for something like a vegan fettuccine or linguine is excellent as a romantic meal with a touch of Italy. Just swap in mushrooms and cauliflower where you might have otherwise put meat.

Give the Gift of Green Drink!

What’s a better way to tell someone that you care than looking out for their health? If you want a way to help wash down all your tasty, healthy winter and spring snacks, then look no further than Chef V’s green drink. Whether as part of a low sugar juice cleanses, or as a companion to delicious vegan snacks, Chef V has everything you need to show you care about others and yourself. Check out our products, like our 3 day juice cleanse today!

Winter Weight Loss Tips

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Weight loss is a challenge no matter the time of year. Whether you’re working out or trying low sugar juice cleanses, staying fit is a lifelong commitment. And yet, some times of the year are more challenging than others. Some of our readers may be in places where winter is just a distant worry, while others are still having to shovel the snow.

These can be some of the most challenging times to stay fit for those who have to deal with months of ice and darkness. In this blog, we’ll take a look at some ways that you can beat the winter woes and keep that healthy edge – with a bit of help from Chef V cleanse for weight loss, of course.

What Makes Winter So Tough on Weight Control?

There are quite a few challenges that winter poses to a healthy living regime. Just how much of a roadblock winter can be to your health goals very much depends on where you are in the world.

For many, the weather will absolutely prevent you from leaving your home. If you live in the Mid West, you know exactly what we’re talking about. This means that your regular exercise options such as an outdoor way are limited. If you don’t have easy access to a gym or workout equipment at home, you’re going to have to rethink your exercise plans.

People have always realized that winter is a miserable slog. This is why our ancestors decided that this would be the perfect time to put as many holidays as possible to try and cheer us all up. While a nice thought, big holiday meals tend not to be the best for your waistline. From huge Christmas dinners to New Years Eve snacks to Valentine’s Day chocolate, the cold months are associated with tons and tons of fatty and sweet food.

Despite all that festive cheer, many of us still feel pretty down during the winter. A lack of sunlight and Vitamin D can cause a downturn in the brightest person’s mood. This can then cause a lack of motivation and energy to get active and eat right. Once you fall off the healthy lifestyle wagon, getting back on board can be pretty tricky.

Of course, all these worries pale in comparison to the fact that winter tends to be the season of health bugs, bacteria, and viruses. This is the time when flu, colds, and other diseases tend to spread the furthest and the fastest. If you’re not feeling well or bedridden, you’re not going to be getting activities.

So what are you to do during those chilly months?

Exercising in Winter

At some point, you have to get some exercise. Even if you’re in the middle of a low sugar juice cleanse or a long 21-day detox, you should be moving your body around a little bit. While winter can be brutal to be active, it doesn’t need to be.

Firstly, have you considered picking up some winter sports? Depending on where you live, skiing or skating could be an option. You might need to pack on some extra clothes, but winter hiking can be just as enjoyable as walks in warmer weather. If you get outside, you’ll also maximize what little sunlight you get, which is good for keeping up your Vitamin D.

Some days, Mother Nature will decide on there being a snowstorm. You’re going to need a plan to get active even as you’re stuck inside. If you have home workout equipment, that’s great, but not all of us are that lucky.

Thankfully, there are ways to stay active even while stuck inside. With the help of an online fitness video, aerobic exercises are one method. Yoga is also an option to keep active if you have no other equipment to use. Plus, yoga is a great low impact exercise to do if you’re on, say, a low sugar juice cleanse.

Mindful Winter Eating

The temptation is natural to go into hibernation mode in the winter. Eat a whole lot of food, then sleep the darker months away. However, people aren’t bears. Hibernation or dormancy aren’t going to work for your health. You need to do your best to make sure that you stick to healthy eating habits. Go for a regular meal schedule, and avoid holiday binging or excessive snacking.

You’re going to be especially tempted to load up on sweet treats during the holiday season. This might be enjoyable at first, but we both know you’re going to suffer from a severe sugar crash later on. This is why it’s a good idea to search for some vegan, low-sugar options this holiday season.

Enjoy a Blended Juice Cleanse

When it comes to handling your weight in the winter, a blended juice cleanse is going to be your secret weapon. In fact, winter can be one of the best times to tackle something like a 21-day detox.

There are a few reasons for this. Firstly, you’re more likely to have time off or time at home during the winter. This is the best time to do a blended juice cleanse, as you don’t need to worry about focusing on anything else. You can relax, chill out, and enjoy your cleanse.

Being stuck inside isn’t as bad when you’re on a blended juice cleanse. You don’t want to be doing intense exercise in the middle of a 21-day detox, so having your exercise routine limited to low-impact activities is perfect.

A low sugar juice cleanse is the perfect way to help get your body sugar under control after some holiday binging. Better yet, it’s a way to help quickly shed a lot of that winter weight. So relax, pick your favorite cleanse, and let Chef V help you make it through the winter!

Which Chef V Cleanse is Right For You?

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At Chef V, we want to make sure that everyone is getting the right product for their weight loss and detox goals. We also don’t want you to have to do all the hard work of trying to figure out how much green drink you need to meet those goals.

This is why we offer a wide variety of products, from Green Drink Plans, 3 Day Cleanses, or our impressive 21 Day Detox. We’re proud of all of the products, cleanses, and plans that we produce here at Chef V. However, for a newbie, it can be sometimes difficult to understand the differences between all these types of products. For those who are new around here, here is a quick introductory guide to what you know about cleanses – from a 3, 7 to 21 day juice cleanse.

The Basics

What you need to understand first is that every Chef V product you can purchase is actually a package of products. Most famous is, of course, our iconic green drink. This green drink is filled with all the healthiest and organic greens you need to detox your body and promote weight loss.

What makes Chef V special is that we understand how a blended green juice cleanse focused solely on greens may be difficult for some people to finish. Green drinks are incredibly healthy but tend to be a bit lower in protein and fiber. These are factors you need to keep energetic during a cleanse, and not succumb to your hunger cravings.

This is why Chef V blended juice cleanses come with not just green drinks, but also a collection of delicious and healthy soups (to give you fiber) and smoothies (to get you your protein). This means that not only is the Chef V blended juice cleanse a great way to lose weight and detox, but is an actually achievable cleanse.

So now that you know the pieces, here are the ways that you can enjoy them.

The Cleanses

One of the best places to get started with Chef V are our short-term cleanses. These are the easiest cleanses to commit to short term. Firstly, you pick how many days you want your short cleanse to go for: a 1 day cleanse, 3 day cleanse, or 5 day cleanse. This can include the soups, green drinks, and cleanse smoothies you need to go through a cleanse for that many days.

Each day of a cleanse features 4 green drinks, 2 protein shakes a 1 detox soup (with fresh ginger, no less!) It’s important to note that when you purchase a cleanse, to follow the pre-cleanse instructions for the 2 days prior to the cleanse. If you’re new to cleanses, a 1 or 3 day cleanse is a perfect way to give it a spin and get used to following these pre-cleanse instructions.

21 Day Detox

Let’s say that you’ve gotten and loved our short-term juice cleanses and want more of those great leafy greens in your diet. Or maybe you’re ready to start pumping up your weight loss goals for the new year. In this case, you’ll want to bring out the big guns – the famous 21 Day Detox.

In other detox programs, trying to go for nearly a whole month on a blended juice cleanse would be nearly impossible – basically putting yourself on a liquid diet. However, with the Chef V Blended Juice Cleanse, you can still get all the minerals and nutrients you need, as well as keep your immune system healthy for the entire cleanse.

If you are going for a 21 Day Cleanse, you may see references to different “schedules”. No need to be alarmed – this doesn’t involve any complex time blocking by you. It simply means that you can get different “intensities” of a 21-Day Cleanse. Chef V isn’t just going to throw you out into the juice cleanses wilds and tell you to hope for the best! We want to make blended juice cleanses that people can actually complete, that work with realistic eating habits, and that give you reasonable energy levels.

For example, our 21 Day Detox Starter Schedule includes 21 days of a healthy routine, with an intense 3 Day Cleanse placed in the middle, letting you work up to, and cool off from, the cleanse. The Classic Schedules features two juice cleanses across the 21 days, and the 21 Day Detox Obsessive schedule backs in three blended juice cleanse. This lets you choose just how hard you want to go.

Green Drink Plans

Whether you’ve taken a Chef V juice cleanse before, or have just taken a sip of our green drink, there are plenty of people out there who can’t get enough of our green juice recipe. With leafy greens, apple juice, other great stuff – and no processed foods – it’s no wonder more people wish they could put our Chef V Green Drink on their shopping lists. For those who want to get the health benefits of the fruits and veggies in our green drink every day, we’ve developed our Green Drink Plans.

Basically, this is a way to get Chef V Green Drink delivered right to you, so you can enjoy it any day that you want. The best part about the green drink plans are their flexibility. You can choose different flavors of green drink, the size of the bottles, how often they are delivered – you can even get multiple orders to make sure that everyone in your home can enjoy these delicious beverages.

So there you have it – that’s everything that Chef V has to offer. As we mentioned before, if you really don’t know where to start, we’d recommend beginning with a 1 or 3 Day Cleanse. This is a great way to get a taste of all the products that have been cooked up in the Chef V kitchen. Just give our delivery map a look, then order today!

Why Low Sugar Juice Cleanses Matter

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At Chef V, we’re very proud of our Chef V low sugar cleanses. But what exactly is the problem with sugar? Why is a low sugar juice cleanse particularly special and unique? While not all sugars are bad, and its okay to indulge once in a while, there can be major consequences if you OD on the sweet stuff too often. This piece explores why.

Why We Need Sugar

Have you ever sat down and really thought about what sugar is, beyond being the stuff that makes your food taste sweet? Sugar is actually the final form of carbohydrates – your body breaks them down into sugars. Specifically, the sugar that ends up in your bloodstream is known as glucose. This is why you hear so much about “blood sugar levels” – keeping that level balanced is key to good health and energy.

We’re all trained to be scared of carbohydrates, but they are an important source of energy for our bodies. While we need carbs as a source of energy, there’s always too much of a good thing. If we take in more carbs than we can use, then we can end up overdosing on that glucose.

Sugar intake is also complicated by the fact that there are many kinds of sugars and many different ways of getting them. Plenty of foods and drinks have natural sugars, such as glucose, fructose, and lactose, that give them a naturally sweet taste. Without these, we wouldn’t have some of our favorite flavors in fruits like apples.

In this day and age, a lot of foods contain artificial sugars, often high fructose corn syrup. Foods that have a lot of artificial sweeteners tend to play hell with diets and eating habits – they give a rush of energy, without actually providing you with real nutrients and minerals.

Why Too Much Sugar Is Bad For You

If you end up snacking on too much of the sweet stuff, you can expect to pay the price for that momentary enjoyment. Perhaps the best-known consequence of too much sugar is the associated weight gain. All those extra carbohydrates have to go somewhere after all. However, there’s actually more to this weight gain than you might realize. Overdosing on sugar can give you further food cravings, and throw your entire diet out of whack.

There are other consequences to having an overdose of sugar in your diet, both long-term and short-term. Sugar overloads have been linked to issues with maintaining a good mood and energy level, as well as difficulty in maintaining a clear complexion. Continuously consuming too much sugar can lead to much more severe issues, such as diabetes, where your body starts to lose its ability to regulate blood sugar. In the longest terms, a diet consistently too high in sugar can lead to health problems with the heart and liver.

How To Sugar Detox

Making a commitment to lower the sugar in your diet in the long term is one thing. But what do you do if you’ve already binged, and are feeling the energy drain, the upset stomach and the headaches?

There are a few emergency tactics you can deploy right away. First things first, you have to get some protein and fiber into you. These will make you feel full and cut future sugar cravings (if you want some great healthy ways to get protein and fiber, make sure to check out our detox soups and detox smoothies!)

Now you’ll want to detox, letting your body get those blood sugar levels out of control. The key to making a detox work is to stay super hydrated and not try to go totally cold turkey. A little bit of fruit will give your body the healthy amounts of sugars it needs.

This is where low-sugar juice cleanses come in. Not only will they help you lose weight by being low carb, but they will help you manage any weight gain by getting those sugar cravings back under control.

The key to getting a low sugar juice cleanse to work is to make sure it includes protein and fiber as well, so those cravings don’t get too out of control. This is why Chef V low sugar cleanses are so great – they have the soups and smoothies you need to make it all the way through and beat your sugar cravings permanently.

Pressed versus Blended Juice Cleanse Diet: Which Helps With Weight Management Better?

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There are plenty of reasons to start a detox juice cleanse for migraines and headaches. Migraines are one of the most common neurological conditions, with over 1 billion patients globally. They come in many forms and have a variety of triggers. Whether you have rampant infrequent cluster headaches or tension headaches, chances are your diet might be a primary reason for your headaches. 

We know how exhausting it is to look for ways to alleviate headaches. Especially If you’ve tried everything from supplements, essential oils, and DIYs. At Chef V, we’re here to help you reach all your fitness goals with detox juice cleanses. This blog dives into potential reasons for your migraines and pain management with the right detox juice. The solution to your headaches comes from diving deeper into your diet and eating habits. As no one approach fits all for migraine prevention, this blog guides you in the right direction. Throughout this blog, you can find some of our favorite tips, like Celery juice headache cures, fiber-rich detox juice, and diets rich in magnesium. 

What Causes Headaches and Migraines?

A study found that 57.3% of migraine sufferers lack the consumption of a nutritious diet. Although, a variety of triggers come into play at the onset of a migraine attack. According to research, 3 out of 4 people diagnosed with migraines are women. Studies also suggest women are prone to more prolonged and painful headaches than men. Identifying your triggers can help you alter your habits and prepare you for pain management. 

Migraines often feel like throbbing on one side of the head, back of the head, or temples. Often accompanied by nausea, e sound, light and smell sensitivity, brain fog, and blurred vision. Depending on the person’s family history, age, and genetic deposition, other factors that come into play are:

  • Hormonal Imbalance.
  • Weather conditions.
  • Poor Sleep Cycles.
  • Stress.
  • Lack of exercise. 
  • Strong Scents.
  • Chronic Dehydration.
  • Lack of Oxygen in Blood.

Tips For Your 21 Day Cleanse

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Alright, ladies and gents. This is the big one. The 21 Day Cleanse. You’re a real legend for taking this one on – so we’re going to do our best to help you out as best as we can. A 21 Day Detox might seem like a huge undertaking, but it doesn’t need to be intimidating – especially if you are using the V Cleanse program. No matter if you are doing a juice cleanse in San Diego or juice cleanse in New York, Chef V can make this an obtainable goal.

Why Go for a 21 Day Cleanse?

For some, a 3 or 5-day juice cleanse seems like a hassle all on its own. To maintain a 21-day cleanse seems even crazier. However, it’s important to actually put this in perspective. A 21 day detox doesn’t necessarily mean only having green drink for sustenance for nearly a month.

For example, our 21 Day Cleanses come in a variety of “schedule options”, that let you mix together days of healthy eating with periods of 3 day juice cleanses. This makes it a totally manageable endeavor – especially if you go for the Chef V Cleanse, which provides the protein and fiber you need with detox soups and detox smoothies.

And the benefits of a 21 day cleanse go beyond just losing weight. At three weeks, a 21-day detox is a full reset on your diet. This makes it perfect for resetting your metabolism, helping improve your digestive system, and cutting those sugar cravings. So not only will you lose weight (and get beautiful-looking skin and lips), but you’ll be in a better place going forwards to maintaining healthy eating.

Start Strong

The key to a successful 21 day cleanse is to start it off strong. This is why any 21 day detox you undertake, including the Chef V cleanse, is going to start with a pre-cleanse. Your specific 21 day cleanse will have its own specific pre-cleanse instructions. Generally, during the pre-cleanse, you make some adjustments to your diet – not as extreme as during the 21 day detox itself, but enough to “warm up” to it.

While you might look at a 21 day detox and think that the last stretch will be the hardest, it’s often in the first few days that people start to doubt if they can make it, as their body starts to detox from all that sugar. If you can arrange to have these days fall during a vacation or a long weekend, you can take the time to ride out your detoxing in comfort. Another great tip is to try to plan your detox at the same time as a close friend or family member – that way you can can give each other the encouragement to keep going to achieve success.

Stay Positive, Active, and Safe

After a while, you should get into the swing of your juice cleanse. One of the most common questions about juice cleanses is if you can, and should exercise while partaking in a cleanse (of any length). Generally, you want to aim for some light exercise – don’t go all out during a juice cleanse, but try and stay active.

Perhaps the best possible advice we can give is this – just relax! After a few days of a juice cleanse you’ll start to feel great, so go ahead and enjoy that feeling. Most importantly, if anything does feel weird, make sure that you reach out for guidance. This is one of the things that makes Chef V different – we’ll be in contact and with you every step of your 21 day cleanse journey. Don’t ever hesitate to contact us!

What Are Amino Acids, and Why Should I Care?

Chef V

You might have heard of the importance of amino acids, or even of the “nine essential amino acids”. But do you know what they are, and why they are important? Do you know what foods contain them? We’ll explain all in this piece. This includes the connection between amino acids and our blended juice cleanses, like our 21 day juice cleanse and 7 day juice cleanse. We'll also touch on the importance of detox smoothies when it comes to amino acids.

Intro to Amino Acids

To understand amino acids, you first need to understand proteins. We tend to think of protein as just another nutrient that we need to add to our diet. Proteins are perhaps one of the most foundational nutrients. Every living thing in nature is made up of proteins – they are the building blocks of life. Amino acids, meanwhile, are the molecules that build proteins.

You might hear about amino acids being defined as either “essential” or “non-essential”. You do need all kinds of amino acids. The difference between the two is how you get them. “Non-essential” amino acids are made inside our bodies. You don’t need to worry about getting them – your own body has you covered.

The “Essential” amino acids are those that you can’t naturally get in your body. Instead, you’ll have to get these from your food and drinks. (If you’re curious, the nine essential amino acids are histidine, isoleucine, leucine, lysine, methionine, phenylalanine, threonine, tryptophan, and valine.)

Why Essential Amino Acids Matter

So we know that you can’t get those essential amino acids anywhere but in food. But why does getting them matter? Not getting amino acids can lead to amino acid deficiencies. The exact effects of the deficiencies differ depending on the deficiency in question. None of them are pleasant, however. Our body needs all the amino acids to have all the materials to make the proteins we use for life.

Common symptoms of amino acid deficiencies include any or all of the following:

* Weakened Immune System

* Digestive Issues

* Depression

* Unhealthy Weight Loss

* Skin Issues

* Hair Issues

* Muscle Weaknesses

Getting Essential Amino Acids

The nature of amino acids includes a clue to getting more of them in your diet. We know now that amino acids are the molecules that makeup proteins. However, the relationship between amino acids and proteins also works in reverse.

This means if eat foods that are high in proteins, your body can break them down into amino acids. They can then use these to create the different kinds of proteins that your body might need.

Many people have a misconception that you can only get amino acids through animal products. Certain animal products do indeed contain some of the nine amino acids listed.

However, nutritionists have found a lot of alternatives for the vegetarian and vegan. For example, the amino acid histidine is found in meat, poultry, and fish – but you can also get it in nuts, seeds, and whole grains. Leucine, meanwhile, is traditionally associated with dairy products, but can also be found in soy, beans, and legume.

Your best bet for making sure you are getting your amino acids is simply to eat a varied diet, with a lot of different protein-rich foods.

Amino Acids and Juice Cleanses

Some people are wary of taking on an ambitious juice cleanse such as the 21 day juice cleanse. These people worry that they won’t be able to get all their amino acids during it. Some juice cleanses tend to skimp on some or all the amino acids.

At Chef V, we don’t want to leave you lacking anything. That’s why we’ve added delicious detox smoothies to our juice cleanses. These detox smoothies contain pea protein and all the amino acids you need. This means that you can even go for our 21 day juice cleanse in total confidence.

The Dangers of Inflammation

Chef V

It’s one of the most talked-about health issues today, but not everyone is aware of what inflammation is, or why it's a risk to your health. This piece explains the ins and outs of inflammation, including the foods that cause inflammation – and the foods that fight it. This, of course, includes all the great things you’ll find in a low sugar juice cleanse.

What is Inflammation?

If you ever had an injury that got even mildly infected, you might have remembered the vivid redness. Inflammation is a result of your body trying to protect itself. Whenever your body has to deal with infection or injury, it releases chemicals to try to kill off bacteria. These chemicals are called cytokines.

Cytokines can be considered your body’s weapons against infection. However, like any weapon, they are best used responsibly. Think of them like firearms. You want the military and maybe the police to mainly have access to them. If you start giving everyone in a city a handgun, that’s not automatically leading to safer neighborhoods – especially if you have a lot of irresponsible owners.

In this metaphor, you can think of your white blood cells as your body’s army. The “problem owners?” Those would be your fat cells. Yep, your fat cells can make cytokines too. Excess fat cells in your body can start “firing off” cytokines even if there isn’t a real emergency. And they’ll start to do a lot of damage in their reckless use of cytokines.

Dangers Of Inflammation

If you undergo too much inflammation, eventually it’s going to start affecting even your perfectly healthy tissues. This turns your body into a warzone, even if there are no enemy bacteria inside to fight. And the effects can be severely harmful to your body.

Acute inflammation, where the inflammation briefly appears to deal with an issue and then abates, is normal. Chronic inflammation (where the inflammation persists) has been linked to conditions such as diabetes, heart disease, arthritis, and even cancer.

What’s worrying is that plenty of chronic inflammation can be happening inside your body, without you noticing. Many of the symptoms of inflammation are also easy to mistake for other issues. These include joint pain, fatigue, and headaches.

How to Beat Inflammation

Chronic inflammation is serious, but there are ways to combat it. Doing so should involve a two-part approach. Firstly, you want to try to alleviate the inflammation itself. Secondly, you want to reduce your number of fat cells, such as through a juice detox diet.

Alleviating the inflammation can be done with medication, but it’s also achievable with choices in diet. Some foods are considered to be “anti-inflammatory” – which includes a lot of fruits and vegetables.

On the flip side, foods that are high in processed sugar or fats tend to promote inflammation. If you have a craving for sugary or fatty foods, you might want to look into a low sugar juice cleanse detox to help you cut back.

To prevent more inflammation, one of the best things you can do is try to lose weight. Making sure that you are getting enough exercise is very important. As is developing a diet that is low in fats, carbs, and processed sugars.

If you want to try and cut down on your weight faster, you should look into a juice cleanse detox, like our 21 day detox. A juice cleanse detox is a great way to quickly shed the fat cells that could be causing inflammation in your body. A low sugar juice cleanse is also a great way to help kick sugar cravings, leaving you ready for an inflammation-free future.

Our Top 4 Favorite Tropical Fruits

Chef V

As of writing, it may be the depths of winter in many parts of America. We’re certain you’re dreaming of sunnier climates, especially if you’re buried in snow. One of the best ways to lift your spirits during these times is to enjoy some tropical fruits. Not only does this add a tropical flair to your diet in dark times, but it can also help you stay healthy while you’re cooped up indoors. With that in mind, we’ll go over some of our favorite tropical fruits here.

Why Fruits Matter

Fruits tend to be packed full of all sorts of great vitamins, just like vegetables. In particular, fruit is often noted for high levels of Vitamin C and potassium. This means that fruit is great for your immune system. Fruit is also very low in carbs and fat, while still keeping a sweet taste through natural sugars. This means that fruit is a great way to indulge your sugar cravings without having to worry about gaining weight or suffering sugar crashes.

Of course, every fruit brings its special benefits as well. The following are some of our favorites.

#1 Papayas

As makers of detox juice cleanses, we’re always looking for ways to help promote healthier guts and digestion. In many places around the world, papaya is considered the staple after-dinner dessert. This is because of the enzyme appropriately called “papain”, which makes proteins much easier to digest. And, of course, papaya is wonderful for your immune system. So if you’re looking for the perfect post-dinner snack, the papaya might be just what you need.

#2 Banana

Okay, the banana is a really obvious choice. We get it. But there’s no list of our favorite tropical fruits that couldn’t include a mention. There’s just so much in every banana. They include Vitamin C for your immune system, dietary fiber for your digestive system, and vitamin B6 for energy and making red blood cells. If you need it, bananas probably have it in a conveniently portable package.

#3 Mangos

There’s a good reason many people have dubbed the mango the “king of fruits”. First off, mangos are just plain delicious. They’re incredibly flexible as well, fitting into a wide variety of dishes. Yet, mango’s nutritional profile is where its real magic shines. Mangoes are full of vitamin C, making them amazing for your immune system. They are also packed with substances that promote the creation of Vitamin A, leading to good eye health. (Oh, and Vitamin A and C together help give you clearer skin – a total win!)

Mango is also popular in many juice cleanse plans for its benefits for indigestion. Mangoes contain enzymes that help you break down fiber and protein, making them great for your gut.

#4 Pineapples

Pineapples are thought by many to be just a garnish – something you might (controversially, perhaps) toss on a pizza to make it seem more “Hawaiian”. Yet, pineapples are a secret nutritional powerhouse.

Beyond having tons of Vitamin C, pineapple also contains manganese, good for building healthy bones. It also includes antioxidants that help boost your immune system even further. And it tastes great without featuring too many fats or sugars, making it the perfect fruit to combat sugar cravings.

Enjoy A Tropical Green Drink

At Chef V, we’re famous for our juice cleanse plans filled with leafy greens. But did you know that you can get detox juice cleanse green drinks that have a tropical flair to them as well? Our tropical green drink features mango and pineapple along with all the greens. This makes it one of the most delicious detox juice cleanses out there. Make sure to start building your detox juice cleanse plan today, to get this tropical green drink as soon as possible!

Are Juice Cleanse Powders Worth It?

Chef V

Are Juice Cleanse Powders Worth It?

If you’ve gotten into juicing or juice cleanses before, you know that there is nothing quite like the good feeling you get from enjoying the best in green drinks. They are a great way to cut down on your caloric intake and help promote weight loss. However, for many of us, making the juices we want can be a bit of a hassle. Many of the best juices are also perishable, making them difficult to store for later.

Juice cleanse powders appear to be the perfect solution to this, and there are plenty of people out there who will swear by them. The idea seems pretty perfect – you get your juice in a powdered form that will stay good pretty much indefinitely. However, when you compare green juice vs. green powder, fasting with green powder isn’t such a great choice.

What are Green Powders?

So what exactly is a juice cleanse powder, or “green powder” as they are more often known? Basically, a green powder is a supplement that takes the form of a (you guessed it) powder. Generally, this will be made by grinding down all the desired ingredients and then drying them out, just leaving a powdered substance behind. While this basic process is used for most green powders, there are many manufacturers who will also add in extra supplemental ingredients beyond the fruits and vegetables they’ve dried.

Powders Pros and Cons

As mentioned, the main “pro” of green powders is that they are convenient. All you have to do is scoop some green powder into some water, and voila – you’ve got a green drink seemingly checking all of your health requirement boxes. The fact that the ingredients are dried also allows more of them to be packed into a smaller package, so to speak. Many manufacturers of green powders will add in vitamins and minerals. Green powders can also manage to be fairly low calorie, since it’s just a powder added to water.

However, there are distinct downsides to going for green powders. First off, it can sometimes be difficult to track all the things that are actually in a green powder. In fact, many of them have been found to contain excess sugar (what’s the point of a blended juice cleanse then?) and poisonous materials. There’s also the problem that drying out the ingredients can in many cases take away the nutritional value – much more than can be gained by adding extra in. If you sacrifice freshness, you sacrifice goodness.

Green Juice vs. Green Powder

While juice cleanse powders are certainly convenient, they do have significant downsides when measured up against the freshest green drinks. Even if you can get past the possibility of poisonous or toxic materials that may have been added into them, they simply aren’t going to give you the same nutrients that a green drink would. This is crucial for staying healthy during a blended juice cleanse. The low-calorie intake during fasting with green powder can actually be a downside – if you go too low on the calorie intake you’ll end up feeling starved and extremely low energy. This may cause you to give up on your otherwise successful juice cleanse experience.

Of course, there is that wonderful convenience. Can you really get green drinks faster than by using a powder? If you get a delivery from Chef V, it’s entirely possible. We deliver absolutely fresh green drinks right to your doorstep. All you have to do, is enjoy them. Check our delivery areas today to see if you can start getting Chef V’s delicious, nutritions and convenient green drinks.

Why Veggies? A Look at the Benefits of Vegetarian and Vegan Meals

Chef V

Why Veggies? A Look at the Benefits of Vegetarian and Vegan Meals

It would be an understatement to say that, at Chef V, we love veggies. Sourcing great organic vegetable ingredients for our green drinks, and everything else in our 21 day cleanse, is our passion. Of course, we’re not alone in our veggie love. From your parents when you were young, up to your nutritionist, you’ve probably been informed plenty of times about the health benefits of vegetables.

But what exactly makes vegetables so great? Is going full vegetarian the right idea? What role do vegetables play in the Chef V Cleanse? All these questions will be answered here!

What’s the Hype With Vegetables?

Understanding what makes vegetables so great involves understanding both what they contain, and what they don’t contain. Every food out there has at least some sort of nutritional value to it. At the very least, it won’t let you starve. However, a lot of foods also come with more sugar, fat, or carbs than our body doesn’t really need.

Vegetables are so great because so many of them are naturally low in fat or calories and contain fiber that keeps us fuller longer. There also hasn’t been a single vegetable discovered out there yet that contains cholesterol. This means that you can snack on veggies pretty much guilt-free.

And when it comes to what Vitamins do contain, well… a full list would be too long for this article! Exactly what nutrients, vitamins, and minerals you are getting depending on the veggies in question. However, overall, vegetables are an important source of…

  •  Vitamin A
  •  Vitamin C
  •  Potassium
  •  Fiber
  •  Folic Acid
  •  Phytonutrients

If you’re not a nutritionist, that might just be a list of long words, but that set of nutrients is vital for your overall health. Vitamins and phytonutrients are important for keeping your immune system healthy, and for maintaining cell health – slowing the damage to cells that comes naturally with aging, and help prevent diseases caused by inflammation and the breakdown of cells, such as heart disease. There is even some evidence that it can reduce the risk of cancers!

Meanwhile, veggies that contain fiber are excellent for your digestive health and can help you manage your cholesterol levels. Folic acid helps promote the creation of healthy blood cells, and potassium helps keep your blood pressure under control. Basically, if there is a system in your body, vegetables are going to help you maintain it at healthy levels.

Is Going Vegan Worth It?

If veggies are so great, then clearly the best option is to simply go fully vegetarian, or better yet vegan, right? Well, the short answer is that it depends. Everyone has their own special dietary needs, and it’s a good idea to do your research (and consult a doctor or nutritionist) before you do any major changes to your diet or lifestyle.

By the same token, however, you shouldn’t be afraid to embrace a vegan lifestyle out of fear that you are not getting all the nutrients you need. One major concern that keeps people from adopting a fully vegan diet is the worry that they won’t be getting enough of certain nutrients, such a protein. However, nutritional information has come a long way – we now have a pretty good idea of which vegetables can be used as a great source of protein, or of any other kind of nutrient. (Even our own 21 day cleanse features protein-filled smoothies to complement our green drink!)

So, in the end, going vegan is a personal choice – but one with plenty of great reasons behind it. For some, it can be a moral or ethical choice. Nonetheless, you shouldn’t ignore the many health benefits of going vegan as well. It’s an excellent way to cut back on the sugars, carbs, fats, and calories, allowing you get a better handle on your weight, energy levels, and overall health – and what’s better than that?

How to Get More Vegetables In Your Life

Even if you’re uncertain about going full vegan, it’s absolutely true that many of us can stand to get some more fresh leafy greens in our diet. Whether to lose weight or just feel great, more fruits and veggies are always a great idea. And it doesn’t require a big shakeup in your lifestyle either.

For one, including more vegan dishes in your diet is easier than you might think. While writing this, it’s a very cold winter in many parts of the world. Since you probably would be wanting soup anyways, why not go for some delicious vegan soups?

With a little creativity, it’s also easy enough to readapt your favorite meat-based recipes into healthy and delicious vegan versions with beans, lentils and greens. You can get the same delicious meals that you enjoy, but also get a good heaping of your favorite veggies along with the mix as well.

It’s also important not to underestimate one of the best vegetable eating strategies out there – snacking. With minimal prep work, you can whip up some tasty vegan snacks that will be ready for the rest of your day. Even if you have a sweet tooth and aren’t sure about veggies, there are plenty of foods that let the natural sweetness of vegetables and fruits shine through.

Of course one of the best ways to boost your veggie levels is to undergo a 21 day cleanse, or get our green drink plan. By focusing your diet for a few days across it on the most nutritious (and low sugar and low-fat vegetables), our Chef V cleanse can supercharge your weight loss goals. It can also help cut sugar cravings, leading to healthier future eating habits. Just check out these success stories of those who have tried our Chef V cleanses and green juice recipes!

Fasting with Green Powder Versus Green Drinks

Chef V

There’s a lot to like about the idea behind green powders. They let you get the benefits of a green drink, but one you can store for your leisure. But how do green powders measure up head-to-head against fresh green drinks? Can a green powder supplement stand up in a juice detox diet? Let’s see how they compare when it comes to boosting your digestive system, improving energy levels, and promoting weight loss. 

What are green powders? 

Green powders are a form of dietary supplement that comes in the form of, well, a green powder. Green powders often feature highly nutritious leafy greens, such as spinach and spirulina, hence the color. 

The idea behind green powder is that the goodness of those same leafy greens can be stored for later, letting you get some essential fruits and vegetables regardless of your eating habits. It’s important to note that green powders can have a wide range of different ingredients. These ingredients are ground, pulped, or pressed, then dried out at low temperatures to retain their nutritional value. Afterward, binding and processing agents are added to ensure the product keeps its “powder” form.

Once you get the green powder at home, it’s up to you how you enjoy it. You can sprinkle it into drinks or on top of yogurt. You can even mix it directly into water to make an impromptu vegetable juice, though you may want to add some lemon or other flavor. Plenty of green powders don’t have the greatest taste when taken in a pure form. Ideally, green powders are a way to add some extra vitamins and minerals to your diet.

Green powders versus green drink

Let’s start off by saying there are certainly many benefits to greens powder. Getting more fruits and vegetables into your diet, no matter the form will always be a good thing in the long-term. The leafy greens often found in green powders are great for many health concerns, from lowering blood pressure to boosting the immune system. Another point in favor of green powders is that they tend to be extremely low in calories, even more than most juices. 

But once we put green powder supplements right in the ring against green drinks, we start to notice some issues with performance. Obviously, how seriously these issues matter will depend on the specific green powder, and how much it contains things like processed foods and added sugars. 

Actually, let’s stop there and talk about adding sugar. It’s an unfortunate fact, but a lot of green powders don’t taste that great. When it comes to green cocktails, fresh is best. This means a lot of consumers end up adding sweeteners back into the product to make it palatable. Sort of ruins the whole point, doesn’t it?

And that’s not all when it comes to additives. We touched on this before, but a lot of green powders aren’t as organic as they might appear to be at first glance. Plenty of green powder supplements are filled with gums or other additives to get the best consistency. Some of these additives could have unknown health consequences or even be allergenic. Allergens to watch out for when fasting with green powder include lecithin, pectin, and/or flax.

The balance of vitamins and minerals in green powder supplements can also often be tricky to get right. Even necessary vitamins can have nasty side effects if you cram too much of them into your diet. On the flip side, the process by which green powder supplements are made often involves losing out on a lot of things as well. For example, many green powder supplements tend not to have all the great fiber of their original vegetables, losing it during processing. 

Meet your weight-loss goals with Chef V

With Chef V’s green drink, you can be confident knowing you’re getting every last drop of goodness out of the fruits and vegetables going into your juice detox diet. Our green drink comes packed with the nutrients and minerals you need (including fiber!) to boost your every day routine, or help you through our famous juice detox diets. Just check out our success stories!

 

What Organic Really Means (To Chef V)

Chef V

Veronica working from home

The Christmas Season is fast approaching. While this is a well-deserved rest period for all of us, there is also the question of if our various weight loss programs can possibly survive the gauntlet of holiday meals and treats. Generally, the holidays are the time when we relax, enjoy our favorite foods – and then have to come up with some New Year’s Resolutions about going to the gym more to shed all that new holiday weight.

Not gaining all that weight in the first place is much easier than losing weight. But to many of us, the extra holiday pounds are simply an accepted part of life. If you’re undergoing a Chef V Cleanse weight loss program, this can put a real damper on your holiday mood, making it feel like all your green drink efforts have been undone. However, with a little bit of planning and discipline, you can reduce the impact of those Christmas Dinners.

Mind Over Meatloaf

Your state of mind matters a lot when it comes to maintaining good health. No, we’re not saying that you can just wish yourself skinny. However, how you approach the holidays mentally can have a significant effect on how healthy you remain throughout it.

It’s important to make sure that you are eating to enjoy the food, not just because everyone else is eating. Make sure to take it slow, and pay attention to what your body is saying about how full you are. It’s really easy to carry around a plate of snacks and let those sugary treats sneak up on you.

This doesn’t mean you should approach your favorite holiday foods with dread. You should be doing the opposite, in fact! Take the time to slow down and really enjoy your favorite foods. Eat them because you love them, not just because it’s part of the holiday. If you try to deny yourself now, this could lead to binge eating later on. At the same time, it can be useful to make some informed decisions about food – especially if you’re the one cooking.

Reinvent Your Christmas Classics

Of course, what you eat matters just as much as how you eat it. It seems inevitable that your Christmas dinner is going to be filled with carb and fat heavy entrees. However, with just a little bit of imagination, you can improve the health profile of any Christmas classic.

For example, take the heavy potato products that inevitably find their way into most Christmas dinner rosters. Why not swap the cream and butter heavy mashed potatoes for some equally creamy (but less fattening) cauliflower? Instead of topping your sweet potatoes with marshmallows and sugar, why not try out some oatmeal instead?

Still determined to have some meat products at Christmas dinner? For those not ready to go full vegan yet, the devil is in the details. Often, Christmas hams and turkeys get most of their sugar and fat from their glazes. Looking for some glazes that use more natural sweetness can help cut down on calories.

Also, make sure to try and keep your Christmas dinner balanced. There can always be a place at the Christmas table for leafy greens, and other fruits and veggies, if you’re creative. Brussel sprouts make an excellent Christmas dish, and an easy one to cook as well, for example. Broccoli, with a little extra love and attention, can turn into an exciting side dish all its own.

No Green Drink? No Worry

Christmas time isn’t just about the special foods. For many families, it’s time to break out the special drinks as well. Many of these drinks tend to be high in alcohol, fat, or sugar – or, in the case of eggnog, all three at once! These drinks can often be a sneaky source of weight gain that you don’t notice. (They’re certainly a far cry from Chef V’s healthy green drinks!)

Replacing high fat or alcoholic drinks with things like tea, cider or water can be a good way to cut down on the holiday pounds. However, if you don’t want to give up your favorite warm beverages, there are plenty of ways to make healthier versions, especially if you look into milk alternatives.

Keeping Healthy is Sweet

Another staple of Christmas time is the wide array of desserts. This army of delectable treats is also what tends to lead to us feeling rather gross when the whole Christmas binging is over. However, you can still enjoy your Christmas sweets without ruining your whole diet.

For example, there are plenty of baked dessert recipes that cut down on flour or fat. You can also look into adding more fruits and veggies to the desert menu, through additions such as sweet fruit bowls. All of your favorite Christmas staples probably have a low fat, low carb, or low sugar variant if you look it up.

Remain Active

The Christmas season tends to be a colder one, and our instinct is to spend it inside safe and snug with our family. However, there are plenty of ways that you can still keep active, depending on where you are. The key is to turn staying active into a fun family event, rather than a chore. Why not take advantage of the winter landscape to go ice skating, sledding, or take a winter hike through the woods? If you’re not a very outdoorsy family, there are often plenty of Christmas Markets or other special events to peruse.

Relax, and Let Chef V Help

Our best tip for holiday health? Don’t let it worry you. Anxiety is only going to prompt you to stress it. With Chef V Cleanse weight loss as an option, you never need to worry that Christmas means the end of your weight loss goals. Our green drink blended juice cleanses are the perfect way to bring in the new year.

No matter how much you splurged during Christmas, you can rely on Chef V’s blended juice cleanse to detox your body and leave you feeling great. Best of all, they are delivered right to your front door – so no need to worry about venturing out into the cold every day during your detox programs. So sit back, relax, enjoy your break, and know that Chef V is ready to help you out with your weight loss goals – from the modest, up to our 21 day detox.

Chef V’s Guide to Surviving Christmas Dinner

Chef V

Veronica working from home

The Christmas Season is fast approaching. While this is a well-deserved rest period for all of us, there is also the question of if our various weight loss programs can possibly survive the gauntlet of holiday meals and treats. Generally, the holidays are the time when we relax, enjoy our favorite foods – and then have to come up with some New Year’s Resolutions about going to the gym more to shed all that new holiday weight.

Not gaining all that weight in the first place is much easier than losing weight. But to many of us, the extra holiday pounds are simply an accepted part of life. If you’re undergoing a Chef V Cleanse weight loss program, this can put a real damper on your holiday mood, making it feel like all your green drink efforts have been undone. However, with a little bit of planning and discipline, you can reduce the impact of those Christmas Dinners.

Mind Over Meatloaf

Your state of mind matters a lot when it comes to maintaining good health. No, we’re not saying that you can just wish yourself skinny. However, how you approach the holidays mentally can have a significant effect on how healthy you remain throughout it.

It’s important to make sure that you are eating to enjoy the food, not just because everyone else is eating. Make sure to take it slow, and pay attention to what your body is saying about how full you are. It’s really easy to carry around a plate of snacks and let those sugary treats sneak up on you.

This doesn’t mean you should approach your favorite holiday foods with dread. You should be doing the opposite, in fact! Take the time to slow down and really enjoy your favorite foods. Eat them because you love them, not just because it’s part of the holiday. If you try to deny yourself now, this could lead to binge eating later on. At the same time, it can be useful to make some informed decisions about food – especially if you’re the one cooking.

Reinvent Your Christmas Classics

Of course, what you eat matters just as much as how you eat it. It seems inevitable that your Christmas dinner is going to be filled with carb and fat heavy entrees. However, with just a little bit of imagination, you can improve the health profile of any Christmas classic.

For example, take the heavy potato products that inevitably find their way into most Christmas dinner rosters. Why not swap the cream and butter heavy mashed potatoes for some equally creamy (but less fattening) cauliflower? Instead of topping your sweet potatoes with marshmallows and sugar, why not try out some oatmeal instead?

Still determined to have some meat products at Christmas dinner? For those not ready to go full vegan yet, the devil is in the details. Often, Christmas hams and turkeys get most of their sugar and fat from their glazes. Looking for some glazes that use more natural sweetness can help cut down on calories.

Also, make sure to try and keep your Christmas dinner balanced. There can always be a place at the Christmas table for leafy greens, and other fruits and veggies, if you’re creative. Brussel sprouts make an excellent Christmas dish, and an easy one to cook as well, for example. Broccoli, with a little extra love and attention, can turn into an exciting side dish all its own.

No Green Drink? No Worry

Christmas time isn’t just about the special foods. For many families, it’s time to break out the special drinks as well. Many of these drinks tend to be high in alcohol, fat, or sugar – or, in the case of eggnog, all three at once! These drinks can often be a sneaky source of weight gain that you don’t notice. (They’re certainly a far cry from Chef V’s healthy green drinks!)

Replacing high fat or alcoholic drinks with things like tea, cider or water can be a good way to cut down on the holiday pounds. However, if you don’t want to give up your favorite warm beverages, there are plenty of ways to make healthier versions, especially if you look into milk alternatives.

Keeping Healthy is Sweet

Another staple of Christmas time is the wide array of desserts. This army of delectable treats is also what tends to lead to us feeling rather gross when the whole Christmas binging is over. However, you can still enjoy your Christmas sweets without ruining your whole diet.

For example, there are plenty of baked dessert recipes that cut down on flour or fat. You can also look into adding more fruits and veggies to the desert menu, through additions such as sweet fruit bowls. All of your favorite Christmas staples probably have a low fat, low carb, or low sugar variant if you look it up.

Remain Active

The Christmas season tends to be a colder one, and our instinct is to spend it inside safe and snug with our family. However, there are plenty of ways that you can still keep active, depending on where you are. The key is to turn staying active into a fun family event, rather than a chore. Why not take advantage of the winter landscape to go ice skating, sledding, or take a winter hike through the woods? If you’re not a very outdoorsy family, there are often plenty of Christmas Markets or other special events to peruse.

Relax, and Let Chef V Help

Our best tip for holiday health? Don’t let it worry you. Anxiety is only going to prompt you to stress it. With Chef V Cleanse weight loss as an option, you never need to worry that Christmas means the end of your weight loss goals. Our green drink blended juice cleanses are the perfect way to bring in the new year.

No matter how much you splurged during Christmas, you can rely on Chef V’s blended juice cleanse to detox your body and leave you feeling great. Best of all, they are delivered right to your front door – so no need to worry about venturing out into the cold every day during your detox programs. So sit back, relax, enjoy your break, and know that Chef V is ready to help you out with your weight loss goals – from the modest, up to our 21 day detox.

Why Raw Veggies Matters

Chef V

Veronica working from home

Not everyone is aware of the nutritional changes that affect vegetables when they are cooked – there’s a lot of benefits involved in keeping it raw. This blog will dig into the reasons why raw vegetables are better for you, and explain why raw and unpasteurized is the way to go for blended juice cleanses.

Why Eat Raw Vegetables?

When it comes down to the question of are raw vegetables better than cooked, there’s a lot to unpack in terms of nutrition and taste. What is very clear, however, is that when you cook vegetables, there is always something that is going to be lost in the process. Cooking vegetables, especially overcooking them, can start to rob them of nutritional value.

The major benefits of raw vegetables come down to getting the most out of those nutrients, especially the kind that are prone to break down under heat or leech into the water if you’re boiling them. The two most common vitamins that are lost in this process are Vitamin B and Vitamin C.

The Raw Vegetable Vitamins

Vitamin B is important in promoting good digestion, eyesight, energy levels, brain and nerve function, and the growth of red blood cells. Vitamin C, meanwhile, helps in the repair of all bodily tissues (like cartilage, bone, teeth, and collagen) as well as helping your body absorb iron and fight off disease.

This means that altogether, eating raw vegetables can help improve everything from your cardiovascular health to your digestion, to even the youthful appearance of your skin! It will also give you the energy you need to maintain an active and healthy lifestyle.

Going for raw vegetables also gives you a benefit in what you’re missing out on, not just what you’re adding. A lot of recipes call the addition of a lot of fat to veggie dishes – think oil and hydrogenated butters. By cutting down on these, you’re cutting down on overall fat, and improving your overall health.
Should Everything Be Raw?
With so many benefits, you might be wondering if you can throw out all your kitchen appliances entirely. Why cook veggies at all if you can get the most out of them while raw? There are a few reasons you shouldn’t go tossing out your frying pan just yet.

Firstly, some vegetables may be better for you cooked – or at least don’t change too much nutritionally when cooked. For example, tomatoes release antioxidants when cooked, and carrots can release Vitamin A if you give them some heat, like roasted in the oven. Raw and cooked vegetables should be thought of as complementary to each other, both serving their own purposes.

That said, a lot of us aren’t getting nearly enough raw vegetables into our diet – so think about some ways that you can add them into meals as slaws or salads, or enjoy them as snacks. And, of course, raw vegetables are a key part of blended juice cleanses as well – just like in Chef V’s juice cleanses

Chef V’s Blended Juice Cleanse

Our Blended juice cleanse uses raw vegetables that are unpasteurized. You can’t get any fresher than this! Our blended juice cleanse uses these raw veggies to help you lose weight, improve your digestion, and keep focused. Thanks to all the packed-in vitamins, you’ll also look great, with glowing skin.

Our cleanses come with protein shakes and detox soups as well, to help you power through to your cleansing goals, no matter what those goals are. This means that you have the power to build your own cleanse to best suit your needs. Check it out, today, right here.

Why Hydration Matters

Chef V

Veronica working from home

One of the great benefits of a blended juice cleanse is that it’s a great way to keep yourself hydrated. You’ve probably heard tons of doctors, medical professionals, and health-conscious family members point out the importance of getting enough water every day. But why exactly is that? Today we’ll go over everything you need to know about hydration and the benefits of water to the human body, and what you need to know about hydration and juice cleanses. If you’ve ever wondered “why do I need to stay hydrated” – then read on!

So, Why Do I Need to Stay Hydrated?

If aliens were to land on Earth tomorrow, you can bet that their first impression of our planet would be “wet”. Between oceans, rivers, and rain, water is everywhere – and that’s before you even get into all the water in plants and animals. The human body itself is roughly 60% water. Because water is such an integral “ingredient” to making “you”, it makes sense that you would get a lot of benefits out of keeping “topped up” on this vital fuel. Some of these benefits include…

Aiding Digestion

At Chef V, we’re all about promoting healthy digestive systems. And one of the best ways to keep a healthy digestive system is to drink plenty of water. Water is needed for your body to properly absorb food and get the most nutrients out of it. Not drinking enough water can lead to issues such as constipation, and trouble digesting certain nutrients such as fiber. If you’re having issues with bowel movements, or want to prevent constipation your relief could be as simple as upping your daily water intake.

Promoting Weight Loss

Weight Loss is also something that we’re big on at Chef V – and what do you know, water helps out with that as well. Partially this is just because water helps make you feel full, without adding on a lot of extra calories. However, water also helps you lose weight in other ways. It can help flush fat faster out of your body, and also boosts your metabolism, keeping your body’s natural fat-burning on track.

Protecting Tissues and Joints

Water isn’t just fuel for your body. It’s a lubricant as well. Getting the right amounts of water will help keep the tissues and joints in your body moist. This helps these parts of your body function better and provides more cushioning for you when you’re physically active. Being able to exercise with less discomfort can also help out that weight loss we talked about!

Boosts Your Cardiovascular System?

Do you know what’s mostly made of water? Blood – up to 90% of it is water. Do you know what blood is important for in your body? If you answered “pretty much everything”, you’re right. Just like your digestive system needs water running through it to work properly, your heart and blood system needs plenty of water to remain healthy and help regulate blood pressure.

Purifying Your System

Here’s another thing we love at Chef V – detoxing. And when it comes to the best detoxing substance on earth, you can’t get much better than the old classic of water. Your kidneys, liver, and other purifying organs need plenty of water to flush out those toxins. Without enough water, these systems are prone to developing nasty issues such as Kidney Stones.

Boosts Energy

Lastly, water just leaves you feeling all-around great. Not only does it provide the energy your body needs to move, but it provides fuel for your brain. With enough water, you’ll have the energy to kick butt throughout the day, no matter what it is you’re doing.

The Dangers of Dehydration

Getting water into you isn’t just about the benefits. If you don’t make sure that you regularly drink water and keep up a steady fluid intake, you could start to suffer from dehydration. The longer you go without enough water, the more severe symptoms can get. To start, you’ll have to deal with greater fatigue and dizziness as well as headaches. This can then progress into a feeling of overheating, muscle cramps, and even constipation. Prolonged dehydration can also lead to issues with the healthiness of your skin – not getting enough water can literally dry you out and age you!

So if you don’t want to turn into a walking mummy, it’s a good idea to keep those hydration levels up. Beyond the symptoms listed above, there are a few other good signs that can tell you that you aren’t getting enough daily water into you. Urine that is more yellow-ish than usual, dry lips and tongue, and even bad breath can all be signs of dehydration.

Avoiding dehydration can be trickier than it sounds. We assume that we just drink enough water and we’re good. But there are a lot of factors that can sneakily increase our body’s need for water. For example, if you’re exercising more, you’ll need more water to balance out all your sweating. If you’re sick, you might be vomiting out water from your body, or your medication might be messing with your hydration levels.

It could even be an issue with diet – fruits and vegetables are actually a good source of water on their own. If you aren’t getting enough in your diet, that could be leading to mild dehydration all on its own.

Blended Juice Cleanses and Hydration

So now that we know all the amazing benefits of hydration, how do juice cleanses play into this? Blended juice cleanses are actually a great way to stay hydrated. Not only are you getting most of your nutrition in liquid form, but you’re also getting plenty of those fruits and veggies we mentioned as important to hydration. The liquid focus of a cleanse is what makes it so good at detoxing your body.

Of course, this doesn’t mean that you should stop drinking water during a juice cleanse. Making sure to stay hydrated with glasses of water is a great way to help your body detox during a juice cleanse. Since water makes you feel more full, it also is a great way to help you if you have trouble handling your appetite during a juice cleanse.

So that’s the deal with hydration! If you have any other questions, don’t hesitate to contact us!

Do Vegetables Have Protein? – Your Guide to Protein and Veggies

Chef V

Veronica working from home

Do Vegetables Have Protein? – Your Guide to Protein and Veggies

There are plenty of reasons to go vegan, from those relating to health to those relating to ethical concerns. However, arrayed against all these good reasons are all the reasons that people are skeptical about veganism, from the absurd to the legitimate. These concerns about going vegan are often transferred over to concerns about blended juice cleanses.

One of the most common concerns we hear at Chef V is about the lack of protein in vegetables. When we think of “high protein” foods, we tend to think of animal products. So how much protein can you find in vegetables? And are there ways to get protein during the midst of a blended juice cleanse? Read on and find out!

Why Protein is Important

Every vitamin, mineral, and nutrient that can be found in our bodies has an important purpose. However, protein has a particularly important role to play in keeping your body healthy. This is because protein can be thought of as a “building block” nutrient – it’s an important component of many cells in your body.

This means if you want to develop strong and healthy bones and muscles and stay fit, protein is key. Protein also has the added benefit of being super beneficial for weight loss. Compared to fat and carbs, protein fills you up with relatively little weight gain.

So protein can not only help you lose weight, but it can give you the energy and body repair needed to exercise – and lose more weight! This is why it’s important to try and get a good amount of protein in your diet. Normally this isn’t a major concern, but it is true that it’s easier to get protein out of animal products than vegetable products. However, this isn’t a hard rule. There are plenty of veggies that are actually great sources of protein -including some of the following:

#1 Beans
Lima beans, Fava Beans, Garbanzo Beans, Pinto Beans – whatever bean you can name, there’s a good chance that they’re a high source of protein. Beans are great because of how easy they are to slot into any recipe as a replacement for meat-based proteins. From burritos to soups, beans have you covered.

#2 Quinoa
There’s a reason that Quinoa has become such a popular vegan health food. Beyond being high in fiber and antioxidants, it’s also a good source of protein. Plus, it cooks conveniently quickly, making it great for whipping up protein-filled snacks.

#3 Nuts
If you are looking for that extra protein, feel free to go nuts on nuts. From almonds to pistachios, nuts are often a great way to get protein – and make a wonderful appetite-satisfying snack. Nuts are also great to toss into any recipe, from healthy salads to delicious vegan desserts.

#4 Broccoli
Kids might turn up their noses at broccoli, but they don’t know what they’re missing. Whether you’re looking for Vitamin C and K, or just want that great veggie-based protein, you can never go wrong with this classic green.

#5 Asparagus
Asparagus is so great to cook with. Roast them, grill them, steam them – they always come out tasting great and make a wonderful side dish to whatever you’re cooking, year-round. Oh, and did we mention that they’re packed with protein as well?

#6 Brussel Sprouts
Speaking of great to cook with, have you ever tried Brussel Sprouts with maple syrup? If not, you’ve never really experienced this leafy green in its full glory. And, of course, you get a ton of health benefits as well, including a wonderful dose of protein.

#7 Corn
Looking for something a little bit sweeter in your vegetables? Not only is corn a tasty vegetable treat, it’s also a great source of protein. And like beans, it’s very easy to mix into a variety of other dishes.

#8 Potatoes
Potatoes aren’t often thought of as a “healthy” veggie, likely due to the fact that we very often eat them without their skins, and are drowned in butter. However, potatoes can be an excellent source of protein if you eat them with the skins still on. Keep an eye out for particularly protein-packed variants such as russet and red potatoes.

#9 Lentils
If you’re looking for another vegetable that makes a nice “base” for meals, there are other options beyond the potato. One of the most overlooked is the humble Lentil. This legume really punches above its weight – with a ton of protein and even iron, lentils can do just as much as any animal product for giving you energy. Better yet, they’re also filled with other important vitamins and minerals such as magnesium, zinc, and potassium

#10 Peas
There’s a reason that you were always supposed to finish off your green peas as a kid! Not only are they easy to add into plenty of recipes, but this versatile vegetable is also a great source of protein to boot.

Chef V Juice Cleanse and Protein
If you’re worried about your protein levels while undergoing a blended juice cleanse – don’t. Chef V has you covered on the protein content side, mainly through our incredibly nutritious (and tasty) protein shakes. Just like we make sure you don’t lose out on fiber through our tasty soups, we make sure you’re getting enough protein during your blended juice cleanse through our shakes.

What’s the secret? The answer lies in the humble pea. We use protein extract from peas in our shakes to give them that extra boost of protein goodness. This means that you can enjoy your blended juice cleanse without any worry of a lack of protein. So feel free to check out our blended juice cleanses and start planning your detox experience today!

What in the World are Phytonutrients?

Chef V

There’s being interest in living a healthy lifestyle, and then there’s being a real nutritional nut. One of the biggest hurdles to reaching true nutritional mastery is understanding all the terms being tossed around. One term you might hear thrown around a lot is “phytonutrients”. This is actually a very important term for those interested in green drinks and low sugar juice cleanse – we’ll explain why here.

What Are Phytonutrients?

Those of you who understand a little bit of Latin probably recognize the term “Phyto” as referring to plant matter. This is a pretty good clue for what phytonutrients are. Also known as phytochemicals, there is not a single “phytonutrient”. Rather, they refer to a variety of important nutrients that you will tend to find within plant matter, from fruits to vegetables. Common kinds of phytonutrients include lutein, flavonoids, coumarins, indoles, isoflavones, lignans, organosulfures, and plant sterols.

Okay, so that’s a lot of new terms to look up, we get it. There won’t be a quiz on this, we promise! Long story short, phytonutrients are chemicals that plants create to keep themselves healthy. What’s very cool, is that phytonutrients can be used to keep humans healthy as well!

Why Phytonutrients Matter

Going through every benefit of phytonutrients would take forever. There are some major benefits they provide that have caught the attention of many nutritionists. These include some of the following:

Antioxidants: Many phytonutrients are antioxidants – this means that they can help prevent damage to your cells, which can then cut down the risk of cancers, heart diseases, and aging-related diseases such as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s.

Immune System Boosting: Many phytonutrients are used to help protect plants against infections and diseases. It’s appropriate then that a lot of them can help boost the human immune system as well, giving you better resistance to harmful bacteria and viruses.

Eye Health: If you are getting your phytonutrients from leafy greens in a green drink, you can also get the benefit of improved eye health, and resistance to degenerative eye diseases.

Getting Your Phytonutrients

Many of you are probably very ready to start enjoying phytonutrients right away. Before you start messing around with celery juice (and celery juice side effects) it’s important to understand that not all fruits and vegetables are high in phytochemicals. By the same token, not all phytochemicals are in all of those fruits and vegetables.

A lot of the brightest colored fruits, such as tomatoes, avocados, and blueberries, tend to be high in phytochemicals. One of the best ways to get phytochemicals is through dark and leafy greens, such as spinach and kale.

One of the best ways to get all those phytochemicals is from your dark leafy greens in the form of green drinks. This lets you pack as many phytochemicals as possible into a single easily digestible green drink. However, not all green drinks are made equal – you can’t get a lot of phytochemicals just from celery juice.

Chef V’s Green Drink is full of leafy green vegetables like black kale, green kale, and chard. This makes it not only a great part of a low sugar juice cleanse for weight loss, but also a great way to help repair your cells and boost your immune system.

Best of all, getting as much green drink as you want, when you want, has never been easier thanks to Chef V’s Green Drink Plans. Make sure to check it out and start building your personalized plan today.

Celery Juice Headaches and Green Powder: Wellness Fads to Be Skeptical Of

carl@pedestalsearch.com

At Chef V, we’re all about proven results when it comes to promoting health. With some hard work and patience, (and great Chef V green drinks!) anyone can achieve their personal health goals. However, in a world of instant gratification, everyone is looking for shortcuts. This isn’t something to be ashamed of, but it does mean that there is going to be a lot of misinformation out there about various health fads and fakes. We’ve heard some of the worst, and today, we’ll share some that we’ve heard, from the plausible-sounding to the plain wacky.

#1 Celery Juice Cures Everything

Now, we’re not trying to knock celery here. The crunchy veggie is a great part of many meals and makes a healthy low-calorie snack. However, we’ve seen plenty of people treating celery juice as equal to or even as a replacement for green drinks. People say that just drinking this veggie liquidated on its own is a magical potion for everything that ails you.

However, there doesn’t seem to be any real hard proof of any of that. Celery is low in calories, sure, but being low in calories doesn’t add up to being high in minerals and nutrients. Just drinking celery juice on its own is never going to be a replacement for an actually specially prepared green drink recipe as it lacks many vitamins, minerals and nutrients.

If you try and do a juice cleansed based entirely around blended celery stalks you’re going to run into some problems right away. The side effects of celery juice generally revolve around it playing havoc with your digestive system, leading to intense hunger (ruining a cleanse) and diarrhea (which can lead to dehydration and other problems.) While low in carbs, celery juice is actually pretty high in sodium – too much of it could lead to a variety of health issues.

#2 Green Powders are a Cleansing Shortcut

We’ve actually tackled this one before but it’s worthwhile to provide another reminder. Green powders are often touted as a convenient replacement to green drinks, one that you can store and use at your leisure.

Nonetheless, that convenience comes with a cost. Fresh veggies are always going to be easier to digest for your body than powders. However, the real problem lies with many of the powders themselves. They often include an excess of other additives used to modify the taste – and adding too much sugar to the blend sort of defeats the purpose of a blended juice cleanse.

Worst of all, many brands of powder actually contain ingredients that are actively harmful to you. So when it comes to green juice vs. green powder, it’s always best to reach for the green drink.

#3 Inserting… Things

Warning, but this one is gonna get pretty gross.

At Chef V we’re all about putting good stuff into your body. However, an alarming health trend intended to flush out ones body starting from the inside out is not the way to go. Some of these are older fads, such as the ever Hollywood popular colonics.

We get it. People want good digestive health and they want a clean colon. But is a strong stream of water down south the way to do it? It might sound like a quick but painful shortcut – why not get the cleansing started from the inside out (literally)? But if there’s a theme to this piece, it’s that shortcuts aren’t always what they’re cracked up to be.

The problem is, the cleansing process simply doesn’t work backward like that. Developing a healthy digestive system involves eating the right foods for your liver, kidneys, stomach, and guts.

We’d like to say colonics are the weirdest option that people opting for in the name of health… but that wouldn’t be true. Just remember – no shortcuts! You want good health results, you should adopt a healthy diet or a cleanse. It just doesn’t work in reverse.

#4 Eating Charcoal (No, Really)

A lot of bad wellness fads can be traced back to someone taking a single fact or idea, and then extrapolating it out to its craziest level. It is true that charcoal is often used as a filter. And it is also true that activated charcoal is used in certain medical applications.

That does not mean that you should be chowing down on charcoal. It is true that charcoal tends to bind things to it. But this doesn’t mean it’s a good idea to drink or eat it. The charcoal will bind to absolutely everything. That means that it can interfere with the operation of healthy bacteria in your gut. Worst case scenario? It creates a blockage (ouch!).

We get the desire to take any sort of supplement that will help reduce toxins and flush out the bad stuff. But putting things that aren’t food into your body is rarely a good idea (which we just covered above). The best detox aids are natural ones, that let your body flush toxins on its own terms, without ruining your gut flora or blocking your intestines.

#5 Mainlining Vitamins

Want to try to get the vitamins from stuff like green drink, but without getting to enjoy that green drink? Some people who think this way have taken to not drinking their vitamins, but injecting them directly into their bloodstream with an IV drip.

We suppose to those worried about time and efficiency, this could make sense. You’re skipping out on the digestion part and getting right to the vitamin intake. The problem is, there’s no real basis for assuming that this works. This may come as a shock to many, but human beings were designed to ingest their nutrients… by eating and drinking. Crazy, we know! But there are actually establishments you can go to and receive a vitamin IV drip.

Beyond being a silly way to try and get your vitamins, this can be potentially dangerous, leading to bloodstream infections or clogged capillaries. Trust us – just get your vitamins the old-fashioned way. Thankfully, with Chef V’s green drink, getting your fruits and veggies doesn’t have to be a pain in your butt… or your arm. So check out our Green Drink plan today!

Your Guide to Chef V’s Greens

Chef V

Veronica working from home

At Chef V, we make a wide range of products designed to help you through to your juice cleanse diet success. However, if there is one product that is a signature of ours, it’s our green drink. Every green drink is expertly designed and blended in such a way to give you a wide array of green goodness, from veggies such as chard and dandelion greens.

However, an impressively green ingredient list might not mean much to you unless you are fully aware of all the nutritional and health benefits they bring. With that in mind, let’s dive into everything that makes our green drink, well… green!

The Kales

Our first ingredient needs no introduction. Kale is a well-regarded superfood. You’ve had it in salads, you’ve grilled it as a side – maybe you’ve even put it on your pizzas and burgers. This flexible veggie is perfect for those looking to get some of the ultimate leafy greens into their diet.

So what exactly makes Kale so great? Quite frankly, it’s got a nutritional profile that kicks butt. A single serving of kale will give you more than enough of your daily dose of Vitamin A, K, and C, along with a little touch of B6 for added effect. Vitamin A helps with your immune system and eyesight. Vitamin K, meanwhile, helps you make the proteins that your body needs to clot blood and build up bones, protecting you from injury. Vitamin C helps create collagen (what you need to get firm skin and full lips) and helps promote your immune system and your resistance to damage to your cells. Vitamin C is especially important because it’s linked to lowered risk for cardiovascular diseases and cancers, but it isn’t easy for humans to naturally produce in their bodies.

Kale also includes some other important nutrients and minerals, such as manganese, calcium, copper, potassium, and iron. That calcium is of particular note since it’s not always easy to find it outside of animal products like dairy.

Fun fact – Chef V’s green drink actually contains two kinds of Kale, Green Kale, and Black Kale. Green Kale is also known as Curly Kale, and is probably the vegetable you are thinking of when you think of “kale”. However, Black Kale (also known as Lacinato Kale or Tuscan Kale), also needed some extra love. This leafy veggie gets its name from the darker color of its flatter leaves. It’s nutritionally similar to curly kale, but really brings its A-Game to the amount of Vitamin A, thanks to its high levels of Beta Carotene. The two kales also have different but complementary tastes that help define the taste of our green drink.

Collard Greens

To our readers from the south, collard greens are a home cooking staple. To the rest of us, they might be a little less familiar. This leafy green features dark green, fanlike leaves with strong stems. They’re actually a relative of the kales we mentioned above, with a very similar nutritional profile. If you ever cook with kale, feel free to try swapping in the collard greens once in a while.

That explains why collard greens are filled with so much of the A, C, and K Vitamins, as well as many of the same minerals. Collard greens are, in particular, a good source of antioxidants. These compounds are great for helping reduce inflammation and repair cells, being the secret ingredient that allows so many leafy greens to be such great cancer fighters.

Green Leaf Lettuce

When it comes to lettuce, it can be difficult to differentiate the wide variety of types. For clarification, green leaf lettuce is a medium to large variety. The leaves tend to be tender, smooth and broad, with lots of curls and frills. Like the greens we mentioned before, it’s a great way to get that holy trinity of A, C, K vitamins.

Green Leaf Lettuce is also a great source of folate, which is the naturally occurring form of Vitamin B9 – you’ll often hear Vitamin B9 referred to as “folic acid”. All of the B vitamins are important for creating healthy fats and proteins in your body, to enable you to maintain great-looking skin, hair, and nails. B9 in particular is good at creating the proteins you need in your brain, leading to better mental and emotional health. Pretty good for some lettuce, huh?

Curly Parsley

Often, when you garnish your food with parsley, you’ll be using flat-leaf parsley, also known as Italian parsley. At Chef V, we’ve added Curly Parsley into our green drink recipe as part of our juice cleanse diet. Curly Parsley is easily recognizable by its ruffled (curly) leaves and brighter shade of green.

However, you shouldn’t think of this parsley as just a garnish. Like its bigger green cousins above, Curly Parsley is an amazing source of Vitamin K and A, which as you’ve learned means that it’s great for pretty much every part of your body. Parsley has a special power all its own, however. It’s particularly good at promoting the health of your kidneys, making them work better at filtering toxins from your body. This helps keep things like bloating and blood pressure under control. In a juice cleanse diet, parsley is often an unsung detox hero.

Green Chard

Green Chard is often known as “Swiss Chard” – but this is a bit of a misleading nickname, given the plant is native to the sunny shores of Sicily, not the snowy slopes of Switzerland. The Swiss do love to cook with it though, which is probably where the name comes from.

We followed Switzerland’s lead here by making Green Chard part of our Green Juice recipe. This leafy green is a veritable Swiss Army Knife of nutrition. You have the expected set of Vitamins A, C, and K. But you can toss Vitamin E in there as well, as well as calcium, copper, magnesium, phosphorus, sodium, and zinc – all without much in the way of calories.

Green chard is loaded with fiber as well, which makes it great for your digestive system. It’s also been linked to helping regulate blood sugar levels. Combined with its immune-boosting antioxidant properties, Green Chard is a great green to have on board when it comes to losing weight.

Dandelion Greens

Today, many of us think of dandelions simply as weeds. However, historically, dandelions were considered to have the much more noble title of “herb”. In fact, dandelions used to be considered medicinal, before the garden care industry set out to ruin the poor little plant’s reputation.

However, considering that it’s a great source of Vitamins A, C, K, and B2, as well as iron, protein and calcium, we feel that dandelion greens deserve to stand proud along with the rest of the fruits and vegetables in our juice cleanse diet. You just need to look at dandelions in a different light. For example, there’s an old wives’ tale that eating dandelions make you wet the bed. However, there is a grain of truth here – like parsley, dandelion greens are super good for your kidneys, keeping your bathroom breaks regular and helping remove toxins from your body.

Leafy Greens, Assemble!

And there you have it, a tour of all the leafy greens that make our green drink such an awesome part of our juice cleanse diet. As you can see, we didn’t just select these greens to help out with weight loss – rather, they’re there to give you the full nutritional package while you’re on your juice fast.

Of course, our green drink is just one part of our juice cleanse diet, all designed to help protect you against weight gain. If you’re interested in how to do a juice cleanse, or more information on our products, just shoot us a message. We’re always happy to talk shop on juice cleanse diets and green drinks!

Why is Kale Such a Big Deal?

Chef V

Veronica working from home

Kale is considered a real leafy green superhero in the food pyramid – and the juice cleansing world as well. However, this wasn’t always the case. Roughly 10 years ago or so, Kale went from being an obscure secret of the nutritionally-minded to one of the poster children of nutritious eating and green drinks. But what makes Kale so great? This piece will go over the nutritional value of kale, and the health benefits you can get from kale juice cleanse.

Where Did Kale Come From?

Our older (but who really feels old on kale juice cleanses?) might remember a time when mentioning kale would only cause confused stares. It’s certainly boomed in popularity mainly within the last 10 years. So where did this super-veggie end up coming from?

The truth is, kale has been with us all along. In fact, people have been growing Kale since the era of Ancient Greece and Rome! Back then, the nutritional theory hadn’t been invented yet. What attracted people to kale was its impressive resistance to frost. This made it a staple in countries like Scotland and Russia and made it a popular veggie to bring to the colder parts of North America as well.

What Makes Kale So Great?

While kale has always been a staple crop, particularly in Europe, in North America it mainly toiled in obscurity for many years until exploding in popularity. As modern eaters started to be more discerning with what they put on their plates, they started to demand food that had a more well-rounded nutritional profile.

And boy but did they find it in kale. Just like other leafy greens, kale is filled with vitamins C and K, iron, potassium, and fiber. However, it also manages to be a great source of antioxidants and calcium as well.

Antioxidants are basically a requirement to being called a superfood. These useful compounds help reduce the creation of the free radicals that can damage your cells. This means that they are great for literally every part of your body, serving functions from preventing inflammation and heart disease, to lowering the chance of cancer.

Calcium, meanwhile, is important for the building of healthy bones and muscles. Generally, you get your calcium from dairy products, but kale opens up a way for even the most die-hard vegan to get their calcium from green drinks and fresh juice.

Why Kale Juice Cleanses Are Awesome

If you’re familiar with Chef V’s blended juice cleanses, then you know that kale is a central ingredient. In fact, kale is what makes our green drinks so, well, green! In fact, we use two variants of kale, Black Kale and Green Kale, in order to get the widest nutritional spread and anti-oxidant combo.

There are plenty of green drink recipes out there, but we’re very committed to producing the best in kale juice cleanse kits. If not carefully prepared, detox diets can often be difficult to maintain for the whole duration. You just end up feeling hungry and listless.

Kale is our secret ingredient to preventing this. Not only is it giving you all the nutrients you expect from fruits and veggies, but it is also making sure that you get some protein, iron, and calcium – things that you normally expect to get from animal products.

Add in our detox smoothies and detox soups, and you have a blended juice cleanse that your average person can actually finish, and stay healthy and energized the entire way through. While this takes a team of carefully selected ingredients, it’s important to recognize the big role that kale plays in this team. If you want to learn more about our green drinks and other products, make sure to check out the information here!

When to Put the Brakes on Juice Cleansing

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Veronica working from home

When To Put The Brakes On Juice Cleansing

When it comes to any kind of undertaking for exercise or diet, safety always comes first. A blended juice cleanse is a great way to help with weight loss, improve the digestive system and remove toxins from the body. However, very few things come for free. A juice cleanse is a challenge, but one with amazing health benefits and payoff. Like any detox diet, they may not be appropriate for every person, at any time.

This piece will help give advice on when is the best time to perform a juice cleanse, who should and shouldn’t do juice cleanses, and what are the signs that you should take a break or slow down. When people ask “is juice cleansing bad”, the question they should be asking is – is it right for me?

When is the Best Time for a Juice Cleanse?

During a blended juice cleanse, you really want to be in a headspace where you can be focusing entirely on the juice cleanse. You also want to make sure that you start your juice cleanse at a time when you aren’t going to be doing a lot of physical activity since you will be consuming a lower calorie intake. If you have a job that involves a lot of moving around, it’s best to plan your juice cleanse for a weekend or vacation time.

It’s also not the best idea to do a juice cleanse if you are feeling ill. The juice cleanse may make you feel better, but you might also be depriving your body of the resources it needs to battle whatever bug you have.

Should I Do a Juice Cleanse?

Most importantly, if your doctor recommends that you don’t do juice cleanses due to some sort of underlying medical condition – then don’t do a juice cleanse. Your long-term health always comes first, and your doctor is probably the one best equipped to make calls on that front.

Children generally shouldn’t be doing intense detox programs either. As a child, getting enough solid foods is important. Of course, children should be drinking juice and getting plenty of fruits and veggies. By getting them a taste for healthy eating at a younger age you can prepare them to enjoy fruit and vegetable juices at an older age.

By the same token, the elderly should be cautious around trying out intensive juice fasts. If your doctor says you’re up for it, go right ahead, but watch carefully for potential side effects. Most importantly, it’s key that anyone who is pregnant not try cleansing with juice. This is something that all health professionals will agree on. If you are pregnant, wait until after childbirth and for your doctor to give you the “okay” before you consider getting back on the cleansing wagon.

How Do I Know When to Take a Break?

If you aren’t feeling well during a detox session, listen to your body and consider taking a break. Your body is pretty good at telling you when something isn’t going well. If you feel ill or are in pain, it’s time to slow down your detoxing. While cleansing, it’s important to try and relax. Make sure that you stick to only low-intensity exercises and to not push yourself too hard. Think yoga, not lifting weights.

One of the best ways to make it through cleansing is practice – try starting off small. If you’re cleansing with Chef V, you get the option of 1 Day and 3 Day Cleanses to get you used to the world of detoxing. As long as you’re cleansing at your level of expertise, you’re sure to have a great time!

Vitamin D and You

Chef V

Veronica working from home

What is Vitamin D?

Vitamin D is a nutrient that our body needs to function properly. Vitamin D is special since it’s a nutrient that our body can make, but also one that we can get through the food we eat. Vitamin D, along with calcium, is a key component in making healthy bones. Beyond healthy bones, the benefits of Vitamin D also includes combating infections and helping reduce inflammation?

However, Vitamin D is also unique in that it is relatively difficult compared to other vitamins to get through food. Thankfully, your body can make its own Vitamin D. The production of this home-grown Vitamin is boosted by exposure to sunlight. The more sun you get, the more Vitamin D your body starts to make. This helps stave off the dangers of a Vitamin D deficiency.

What is Vitamin D Deficiency?

If you aren’t getting enough Vitamin D in your diet, you may start to develop symptoms of deficiency. However, unlike some vitamin deficiencies, lacking in Vitamin D can cause more subtle effects, mainly manifesting as a greater risk of other medical conditions, such as cardiovascular disease, or asthma in children. The most surefire sign of Vitamin D deficiency is the weakness of bones and muscles – the condition known as rickets is often associated with this vitamin deficiency.

The Tricky Part of Vitamin D

Vitamin D has always been a bit tricky when it comes to adopting healthy practices like going vegan, or partaking in vegan juice cleanses. This is because unlike a majority of vitamins, Vitamin D is somewhat rare in fruits and veggies. The best place to find Vitamin D in nature is actually in certain fish and surprisingly in animal products such as milk and egg yolks.

Some medical professionals have used this as a reason to warn people off of going vegan, even for short periods of time. However, this is pretty alarmist, for a few reasons. For one thing, while Vitamin D may not be naturally common in many fruits and vegetables, it is often added to orange juice and cereals.

You shouldn’t underestimate your body’s ability to maintain Vitamin D levels with sunshine. Making sure to get a safe level of sunlight is a good way to keep your Vitamin D levels up – this is why it’s unhealthy to shut yourself indoors too much. Understandably, this naturally can be more difficult if you are in a part of the world where some seasons have long sunless stretches.

Vitamin D and Blended Juice Cleanses

So should you be worried about suffering from a Vitamin D deficiency if you decide to take on a blended juice cleanse during the less sunny months? Short answer – most likely not. Blended juice cleanses don’t often last long enough for there to be any notable side effects from deficiencies in particular vitamins. The benefits you’ll get from the blended juice cleanse, in detoxing your system, will generally outweigh any risks.

The one exception is if your doctor or other medical professional has warned you specifically about an existing Vitamin D deficiency. In this case, this is an obstacle that can easily be overcome through the incorporation of Vitamin D supplements into your diet.

In short, maintaining Vitamin D levels is important. And it’s also important to listen to your body if you aren’t feeling well. But this shouldn’t turn into a major concern blocking your detox plans. From healthy foods, oral vitamins and other supplements you can reach healthy Vitamin D levels. So go ahead and enjoy your cleanse and the weight loss it brings!

Immune System Boosting

Chef V

Veronica working from home

Immune System Boosting

If worrying about COVID wasn’t bad enough, we’re heading into the months also known for being flu season – and let’s not forget the regular set of sniffles and colds that tend to go around this time of year. If you feel that you just plain don’t have time to get sick, we hear you. This piece will give advice on how to boost your immune system through healthy practices this fall and winter, and the considerations you need to make when undergoing a juice cleanse.

The Don’ts of the Immune System

Sometimes it’s not so much about what you do, but about what you don’t do. Before you can start in building up a strong immune system, it’s important that you make sure that you’re not sabotaging yourself from the get-go.

So first things first – no smoking. If you drink alcohol, try to do it in moderation. Try to avoid foods that will cause you to put on weight like fast foods and empty carbs – higher body weights are linked to weaker immune systems.

Also, be wary of “shortcuts” to immune boosters. You’ll see a lot of products on store shelves that say they’ll give you a supercharged immune system – but no “vitamin” gummy can beat a diet of healthy fruits and veggies.

Immune System Boosters

One of the most powerful weapons in your immune-boosting arsenal has to be one of the easiest – sleep! Not getting enough sleep can ruin your immune system. (If you have difficulty sleeping, a blended juice cleanse might be just what you need!)

Exercise, even in small amounts, is also great for keeping your immune system ready to go. Not only will exercise support a stronger immune system, but it can help you keep your weight low – and as we mentioned, high weight is an immune system risk.

One of the most important things is, of course, to simply not stress out too much about it. It might seem counterintuitive, but worrying too much about your immune system can… weaken your immune system. The mind and body are connected, so stress on one will affect the other. It sounds crazy, but stress is never good for your health in any way.

Most importantly – put good stuff in your body! Fruits and vegetables are the way to go. Not only will they keep your body strong and ready to fight off season diseases or otherwise, but many of them are full of amazing immune boosters like Vitamin C.

Do Cleanses Help the Immune System?

Making sure that you have a healthy diet is key to keeping up your immune system and overall health. Many are worried that a blended juice cleanse can present an immunity risk since it represents a sudden change in diet. However, this is generally not a major concern. In fact, it’s the flat-out opposite!

Blended juice cleanses are all about packing as many vital nutrients, vitamins, and minerals into a single drink. Some of the most effective foods for boosting the immune system include ginger, turmeric, and carrots – which you’ll find in our detox soups.

However, blended juice cleanses help build a healthy immune system in a lot of indirect ways too. The cleansing process is great for helping you lose weight, get more sleep, and feel more relaxed. As we mentioned, all of these are key points to check off if you’re trying to fight off infections.

So if you’re looking to fight the common cold and flu this winter season, a blended juice cleanse could be just the ticket. You’ll eliminate toxins from your body, get ready for some weight loss to counteract those Thanksgiving and Christmas dinners, and just feel all-around great, no matter the weather. Make sure to check out all our great blended juice cleanse kits to get started!

Getting Started with Yoga While Cleansing

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Veronica working from home

Getting Started With Yoga While Cleansing

For many, a juice cleanse is part of a wider move towards improving health. Lots of our clients are interested in other ways to improve their body’s health – and beat stress. Yoga is especially important as a way to do some low impact, high reward workouts while on a juice cleanse. If you aren’t already a guru – don’t worry. This blog will give some beginners tips on how to get into yoga, to get some safe exercise while cleansing.

Should You Work Out on a Juice Cleanse?

It’s common knowledge to many that it isn’t recommended to workout too strenuously while on a juice cleanse. After all, if you aren’t consuming as many calories so you shouldn’t need to be burning as many. From being in a natural calorie deficit you’ll be losing weight naturally.

However, it can be beneficial to exercise lightly during a juice cleanse. Firstly, this will help you gently move into and out of a juice cleanse, rather than upsetting your entire workout routine. Secondly, light exercise can help increase weight loss, increase blood flow, keep you flexible and limber, and make you feel good during your blended juice cleanse.

Of course, the emphasis here is on light exercise. You don’t want to overdo it when your digestive system is going through a cleanse. This is why cleansing and yoga go together so well – yoga is a great way to stay limber and flexible, get some exercise, and feel great while cleansing. But how do you get into yoga if you’re a total newbie?

Getting Started With Yoga

The best way to get into yoga is, of course, to ask for help! If there is a yoga studio or somewhere else to take yoga classes nearby, go find the yoga instructor and ask them to give you the down-low.

You’ll also want to make sure that you have all of the things you need for beginner yoga. First and foremost, you need some comfortable clothes that you can be flexible in. Secondly, you’ll want a yoga mat – though a yoga studio should be able to provide this for you.

While yoga is easily accessible for everyone, you should never push yourself to do anything that is uncomfortable or painful. This sort of self-care is extra important while you are undergoing a juice cleanse. Relax, focus on your breathing and have fun!

Types of Yoga to Avoid

If you find a good yoga instructor to help you out, they should be able to walk you through the best starting positions and kinds of yoga. Generally, you want to be trying regular “hatha yoga” – the kind of yoga that is most often practiced in the west. Vinyasa yoga and flow yoga are also relatively low impact types.

However, you should do your best to avoid Ashtanga yoga, Bikram yoga, and “hot” yoga while you are on a juice cleanse. These types tend to demand yoga poses that require greater strength and endurance and may not be the best idea to tackle while on a juice cleanse.

Double Your Detox

Now that we’ve discussed the general types of yoga, did you know that there are certain kinds of yoga poses that can actually boost detoxification of the body? You can use these to get exercise while on your juice cleanse and increase the rate of detox in your body!

The Cat/Cow pose and Standing Forward Bend are particularly noted for health benefits relating to the digestive system. Both of these let you gently stretch your abdominal organs, letting you relax your body. Nothing goes together quite like relaxing yoga, and delicious juice made from fruits and vegetables.

Still uncertain about your cleansing routine? Why not start small? At Chef V we offer flexible packages for cleanses of a variety of lengths. From 1, to 3 to 5 day cleanses, up to our legendary 21-day detox, we have a blended juice cleanse for everyone.

Juice Cleansing the Easy Way: Fiber and Juice Cleanse Diets

carl@pedestalsearch.com

Veronica working from home

There are, sadly, many people who will turn their nose up at the very idea of a juice cleanse. Very often, this group consists of those who tried a juice cleanse and couldn’t make it through. There’s nothing to be embarrassed about, however, if you can get through a juice cleanse, especially if you are just starting out. Plenty of people report feeling too hungry, exhausted, and low energy to make it through. However, this is rarely a problem for those taking a Chef V cleanse, especially our more modest goal versions like the 3 day juice cleanse.

So what’s our secret? Chef V’s cleanse program is designed to give you all the nutrients you need while cleansing. And one of the most overlooked, but impactful nutrients when it comes to juice cleanse diets has to be fiber. Here, we’ll give you everything you need to know about fiber, and why it’s so important to even a simple 3 juice cleanse.

So What is Fiber Anyways?

Alright – so, fiber is a carbohydrate. Wait, don’t run away! Not all carbs are always bad for you. And fiber is a very unique carbohydrate indeed. Often, the problem with carbs is that they tend to dump a lot of sugar into our blood, causing blood sugar spikes. fiber, on the other hand, simply passes through our digestive tracts, not overstaying its welcome. This isn’t to say, however, that fiber passes through you without any long-term health benefits.

The fiber that we eat tends to come in two forms, soluble and insoluble, each with its own purpose and benefits. Soluble fiber helps keep your digestion working at a regular place. It’s not just digestion that soluble fiber helps you manage, however – it also helps you lower cholesterol levels, and manage blood pressure and blood sugar. Insoluble fiber, on the other hand, simply passes through your body and is vital to preventing bowel syndromes like constipation.

What’s important to note about fiber is that while it’s super important to our health, it’s only found in plant-based foods, like fruits and veggies. In particular, dark leafy greens, squashes, carrots, and some fruits (like apples) are great sources of fiber.

Fiber and Juice Cleanse Diets

You’ll find that some juice cleanses (even short 3 day juice cleanses) will play havoc with your bowels. This is because, very often, those juice cleanses focus on the sexier nutrients like antioxidants, and don’t give poor humble fiber a second thought. Or, if they do consider fiber, they only want to chase the cholesterol-busting soluble fiber, while not giving enough attention to the bowel-helping insoluble fiber. This means that people often suffer intense intestinal distress when undergoing a juice cleanse diet.

Thankfully, if you’re on a Chef V detox diet, whether a 3 day juice cleanse or a 21 day juice cleanse, you don’t need to worry about running to the toilet every half hour. This is because we specifically designed our detox diet to be something that people could actually, you know, finish.

How do we do it? Well, first of all, we don’t just toss you a crate of juice and call it a day. Our Chef V cleanses come with protein shakes and detox soups as well, to make sure that you are getting a well-rounded amount of nutrients and fiber into you – especially through our detox soup’s sweet potato and carrots. Plus, our fresh juice is filled with tons of fiber-packed leafy greens. This means that our juice cleanses are great for losing weight by cutting down on carbs, not because of all the exercise you’re getting doing sprints to the bathroom. If that sounds great to you, make sure to check out the ingredients in our cleanse.

Sweet Victory: How to Win the War Against Sugar Cravings with Low Sugar Juice Cleanses

Chef V

Veronica working from home

Halloween might be long gone, but many of us still feel haunted by the ghosts of sugar cravings. It can be really hard to kick sugar cravings once we’re started to make a habit of indulging them and working excess sugar into our diets. Here, we’ll go over how to combat sugar cravings, including by using detox juice in low sugar juice cleanses.

What Causes Sugar Cravings?

As the eminent scholar Sun Tzu once said, “If you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the results of a hundred battles.” In your constant struggle against sugar cravings, it’s therefore important to understand just why your body keeps demanding the sweet stuff, and why your mind keeps giving in.

There are actually a few reasons that we end up craving sugar – no two people’s battle against sugar cravings is the same. Some of the main reasons for sugar cravings are generally the following:

1. Blood Sugar Issues
Not all sugar is bad, of course. The trick is trying to regulate the right amount. Your body is trying to run a constant balancing act between your blood sugar levels, and your natural insulin levels. Get too much sugar and your insulin levels spike – thus making you think you need even more sugar. You can easily end up trapped on a sugary roller coaster with no way off.

2. Stress
Sometimes it’s not that your body’s sweetness cravings are too powerful. Sometimes it’s that your mind is in a particularly vulnerable state. If you are under constant stress, or not sleeping well, your body can start to release hormones that mess with your blood sugar level, leading to you rushing for the sugary foods for comfort.

3. Addiction
Some studies have suggested that sugar might have addictive properties. This means that some people are just going to be wired to crave sugar more than others, especially if they have a history of binging.

4. “Empty Sugars”
A lot of refined sugars in processed foods (such as high-fructose corn syrup) provide the taste of sweetness while not actually giving you much in the way of real sugar or nutrition. This means that you are left unsatisfied and more desire to eat sugar.

5. Dehydration
Not getting enough to drink during the day can cause an increase in appetite, particularly for sweet things. Without enough water, our body struggles to perform many of its basic functions – including converting existing sugars into energy. So if we’re low on water, our body gets confused by the lack of sugar conversion and assumes that we need more.

6. Digestive Issues
As we can see, sugar processing in the body is a delicate process, and there are plenty of stages where it can either get messed up, or your body can’t recognize that it’s getting the sugar you need. One of the most important steps is digestion. If you have issues with the flora in your gut (not enough good bacteria, or too much bad bacteria), you may not be getting enough sugar from your stomach into the rest of your body.

7. Carbohydrate Overload
Often, it’s pretty obvious if what we’re eating is a sweet treat that will add glucose to our bodies. But did you know that many kinds of carbohydrates will break down into glucose as well? Too many carbs can actually cause your body to spike its insulin levels so severely that you may become somewhat insulin immune.

How Do I Beat These Sugar Cravings?

As you can see, sugar cravings aren’t a simple matter. Rather they are the result of your body demanding more of the things it needs to function prosperity, or your mind panicking and misunderstanding what you need right now. Of course, knowing is only half the battle. The other half of the battle is going to need some good tactics in order to beat those sugar cravings.

1. Moderate Indulgence
Sometimes the best strategy is to stage a temporary retreat. What’s most important is that you avoid those devastating sugar binges. Eat one cookie to avoid going through the whole box. Get a bar of dark chocolate to avoid binging on higher-sugar chocolate. Better yet, try mixing your sweet indulgence with something a bit healthier. Go for a chocolate-dipped banana rather than a processed candy bar. Make sure to eat slowly, and savor the flavor.

2. Get a Healthy Alternative
Sure, your body might be telling you that you need junk food right now. However, if you grab some healthy and slightly sweet fruit, you may find that it manages to curb your sugar cravings, giving you the glucose you need. You can even find some sweet gum to chew on to help give at least the sensation of eating sweets, without adding any new calories or carbs into your diet. Most importantly – drink plenty of water with your snack!

3. Get Moving
Sun Tzu wrote an entire chapter of his famous “Art of War” on the subject of maneuvering. Moving around is very helpful for fighting sugar cravings as well. If you have a sugar addiction, exercise can give you those feel-good chemicals in your brain – without the subsequent crash in mood that comes after realizing you ate the whole tub of ice cream.

4. Maintain a Healthy, Regular Diet
If you end up often skipping meals, or eating meals low in nutritional value, your body and mind are going to go into full panic mode trying to figure out what is going wrong. And often, their solution is going to be to try to get you to eat sugary foods in order to bump up your blood sugar levels.

5. Low Sugar Juice Cleanse
Sometimes all this maneuvering around and accommodating your sugar cravings isn’t enough. Sometimes you need to attack the problem head-on. Sugar cravings can be such an insidious enemy because of their tendency to create cycles. You crave sugar, so you load up on sugary foods. Then your body is thrown out of whack and overproduces on insulin. Then your blood sugar drops, and you are back to square one, craving sweets desperately.

A low sugar juice cleanse is the perfect way to help fight those sugar cravings directly. Detox juice helps serve as a “reset button” on your blood sugar levels, helping you break that deadly cycle. However, it can help in other ways as well. A low sugar juice cleanse is great for the health of your gut. The promotion of better gut health means that you’ll have a better time extracting natural sugars in the future.

Low sugar juice cleanses are also a great way to lose weight. This can help reduce your stress, as well as the issue of all that extra fat slowly breaking down into new sugars. In fact, when it comes to defeating sugar cravings in open battle, a blended juice cleanse is one of your most powerful weapons. So why not go check out our cleanse options, and ready yourself for your victory over sugar cravings?

Your Guide to Nutrition and Sleep

Chef V

Veronica working from home

Sleep and Nutrition have a bigger connection than you may realize. If you’re suffering from insomnia, the issue might lie in your diet. This piece will explain why sleep is so important and how nutrition and sleep relate to each other – and how a blended juice cleanse detox can help you out if you’re not getting as much shuteye as you should.

Dangers of Sleepless Nights

There are a host of issues that come with not getting enough sleep. No matter how healthy you eat and how much you exercise (and how much you juice cleanse), you can still ruin your health by not getting that needed shuteye. Sleep is so important because this is the time when your body and mind can regenerate and recover from being active all day long. This means that sleep isn’t just important for physical health, but for mental health and cognitive abilities as well.

The most obvious symptom of lack of sleep will be, well, sleepiness. That sounds benign, but trying to get anything done during a day when you haven’t had enough sleep is a real chore. This sleepiness can conceal some more severe effects, such as lack of alertness, problems with memory, increased stress, and difficulty concentrating and exercising. Lack of sleep can also severely impact your immune system.

And that’s just the issues you’ll run into during the short term! Poor sleep patterns over an extended period can lead to some significant health issues. The stress caused by lack of sleep can lead to conditions such as hypertension and stress eating, which can lead to greater weight. Lack of sleep can even mess with the hormones that help regulate your cardiovascular system – this means even more weight being put on, as well as an increased risk of heart attacks, strokes, and diabetes. Lack of sleep can also lead to severe or worsening depression or anxiety over time.

Tips for Better Sleep

Human society has been doing its best to ruin our ability to sleep in a variety of ways. Too much light in the evenings, and too many glowing screens, tend to confuse our body’s ability to slow down functions in preparation for sleep. The best schedule for sleep involves at least an hour of “downtime” before bed – nothing beats a good book for this. Not only does this relax you, but it also starts to train your brain to associate the time before bed with winding down.

Scheduling is also important. It can be all about when you get up in the morning, as much as when you get to bed. If you can get up at a consistent hour, you’ll start to train your body to go to sleep at a proper time to wake up at that hour.

It’s also important to have a sleeping space free from distractions. For many of us this can be difficult, but cutting down on sound and light is important. If your bed isn’t giving you the comfort you need, you may want to look into a change of mattress or pillows.

And then there’s the very interesting link between sleep and nutrients, which we’ll get into here next. As they say, you are what you eat – and you want to be someone with a body ready for sleep!

Nutrition and Sleep

As you can see, there are plenty of methods to achieve better sleeping habits. One of the most potent methods is actually nutritional. A healthy diet can mean the difference between peaceful slumber and sleepless nights.

We mentioned earlier that lack of sleep can prompt you to start making bad dietary decisions. This relationship works in reverse. Having a proper intake of a wide variety of vitamins and minerals has been shown to improve sleep quality. If you’re missing a key vitamin or other nutrients, you may start to have issues sleeping.

Why is this? Studies are still being done on this, but we do know that sleep is closely related to the complex chemistry in our brain. We also know that getting the right vitamins and minerals improves the function of that brain chemistry – this is why a bad diet can lead to you feeling gross not just physically, but mentally. Our brain releases certain chemicals when it’s time to sleep to help us drift off. If we’re missing the important components of those chemicals, our brain is going to struggle to properly turn itself off and rest. And a brain without rest is going to be an unhappy brain.

Conversely, diets that are too high in carbs may make you feel drowsy during the day but can ruin your sleep when night rolls around. And we all know what diets that are too heavy in sugar and caffeine can do to you – these substances are some of the worst offenders when it comes to ruining sleep schedules.

This is why blended juice cleanses tend to be so great for helping sleep. Firstly, the best diets for sleep are those that are filled with fruits and vegetables (and all those amazing vitamins contained within). Not only does a blended juice cleanse make sure you’re getting a wide range of veggies, but the fact that they are raw means that fewer of those key sleep vitamins have been removed in the prep process. This means your brain is getting everything it needs for a proper shutdown.

Blended juice cleanses are also a great way to give your body a break from carbs, sugar, and caffeine, so you don’t need to worry about any of these substances playing havoc with your ability to get some shuteye. Blended juice cleanses are a great way to feel energetic and focused during the day, and still get plenty of sleep at night.

Want to start to improve your sleep duration and feel amazing during the day? Then give our Chef V blended juice cleanses a spin. With even just a few days you’ll be feeling significantly better – rocking your days, and sleeping sounding during your nights.

You, Your Liver, and Chef V

Chef V

Veronica working from home

Do you ever stop and think “where would I be without my liver?”. If you answered yes- well, you certainly have some weird thoughts! However, you also have a train of thought that is very relevant to this blog. Liver health is super important, but it often gets overlooked in favor of organs with better public relations, such as the heart, brain, and stomach. Understanding good liver health is key to good health overall. And good liver health can be improved through detox juice – as we’ll explain here.

What Does the Liver Do?

You’ve probably heard people joke about their livers when referring to their ability to take in alcohol. That’s actually pretty close to the mark on what livers do – but only the start. Did you know that scientists have identified over 500 vital functions that a liver performs? Some of the most important functions include:
* Regulating the breakdown of fats into useful forms
* Storing and managing excess glucose
* Regulating and producing proteins
* Storing iron for the blood
* Handling Blood clotting
* Removing bacteria from the bloodstream
* Filtering out toxins and drugs
* Processing waste out of the body

Quite a lot, huh? Basically, your liver is your body’s most powerful filter. However, far too many people take their liver for granted. Even the most powerful filter can get overwhelmed, clogged, or damaged. If you want your liver to take good care of you, you need to make sure you are taking good care of your liver.

How to Take Care Of Your Liver

Just like your liver has a ton of different functions, there are also a myriad of risks that it can face if you’re not careful. The following is just a brief list of the ways that you can make sure that you have a healthy, happy liver that is busy doing its job of flushing out toxins.

Eat a Balanced Diet: When it comes to good liver health, nothing is better than getting a variety of fruits and veggies. The green veggies (like you’ll find in our green drink) are particularly good at promoting good liver health.

Exercise: Getting enough exercise is good for pretty much every part of your body, including your liver. Exercising helps burn not just the fat on your body, but the fat in your blood as well, leading to a healthier liver.

Maintain a Healthy Weight: Maintaining levels of fat in the body is one of your liver’s key jobs. If you are over your healthy body weight, it can start to damage your liver. Exercise and healthy eating, mentioned above, are good ways to maintain a healthy weight, as are Chef V’s cleanse programs, like our 21 day detox.

Moderate Your Alcohol Intake: One of the things your liver is most famed for is helping your body process alcohol. It’s only good manners that you try not to overload the poor organ with too much of the stuff. Drinking more than one or two glasses of alcohol a day can start to have serious impacts on your organs.

Be Careful of Medication…: If you’ve looked closely, you’ve probably noticed that some medications come with warnings about liver damage if you take too much. Always do your best to heed these warnings. Your liver is what helps spread drugs throughout your body, both useful and harmful, and you don’t want to overload it.

…. and Supplements: Nutritional supplements seem like a great way to “cheat the system”. You get nutrition, but without having to bother trying to meal plan for it. However, getting your supplements in an inorganic way can often be dangerous for your liver, putting too much of certain vitamins and minerals through it. If you’re looking for a nutritional boost, it’s better to look into food products that pack a lot in – like our detox juices and green drinks, of course.

If you’re interested in giving your liver some extra love, why not look into our 21 day detox? You’ll flush those toxins out of your body, let your liver get ahead on its own toxin-filtering, and give it the nutrients it needs to be in fighting form.

Cholesterol Management With Chef V’s Detox Juice Diet

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Veronica working from home

We know that Cholesterol is bad from countless pieces of dieting advice – but what actually is cholesterol? Is there any way to save ourselves from it? What are the foundations of cholesterol management? With all these pressing questions, Cholesterol can seem like a real nutritional boogeyman. Chef V is here to help give a simple explanation of what Cholesterol is, and how you can deal with it.

What Is Cholesterol?

Here’s a fact. You have cholesterol right now in your body – and that’s not something you should be panicking over. Everyone has cholesterol and it’s an important substance (if you want to get technical, a “lipid”) inside your body. In fact, all animals have cholesterol, and it’s important in helping your cells make hormones, vitamin D, and substances that help you digest food. So why all the worry?

As is usual, there is such a thing as too much of a good thing. In particular, cholesterol can be dangerous if too much of it ends up in your blood. Cholesterol can start to combine with other substances in arteries, creating a plaque-like substance. This can end up making your arteries difficult for your blood to get through. At worst, it can cause heart attacks, heart disease, and stroke.

Maybe a bit confusingly, not all cholesterol has this effect. “Good Cholesterol” (also known as HDL Cholesterol) is referred to as the kind of cholesterol that helps move other cholesterol through to your liver (where it can be safely filtered). Bad cholesterol is the kind that hangs around in your arteries instead of moving on its way. You can consider it somewhat like an unwanted houseguest.

What Makes Bad Cholesterol Hang Around?

There are a few things that can cause that bad cholesterol to start to build up. Lack of exercise and smoking, for example, will lower the “good cholesterol” that is supposed to shuffle that bad cholesterol off to your liver. This makes it harder to get rid of that bad cholesterol.

However, the real key factor in the buildup of bad cholesterol is certainly diet, particularly saturated and trans fats. Eating foods high in these kinds of fats will start to cause a buildup in cholesterol. High-fat foods can include meats and chocolates, as well as foods that are heavily deep-fried or processed. What’s worse is that these high-fat foods tend to make you put on weight – which also increases the dangers of bad cholesterol.

There are, of course, some other risk factors at play here. Men tend to have a more difficult time handling their bad cholesterol than pre-menopause women do. Your genetics can also have an effect on how well your body manifests bad cholesterol. Regardless, making sure to monitor your fat intake is one of the most impactful ways that you can get a handle on cholesterol management.

Fight Bad Cholesterol With a Detox Juice Diet

Diet and weight management are the keys to managing your cholesterol levels in the long term. You want to make sure that you are getting plenty of fruits and veggies, watching your calorie intake, and doing your best to lose weight. Especially useful to look out for are antioxidants, foods that help boost heart health.

If you are looking to kickstart your blood cholesterol management, Chef V’s detox juice diet is here to help. Undergoing blended juice cleanses is a great way to improve your health, and manage high blood pressure. Firstly, our green juice recipe is great for encouraging weight loss, which helps lower your risk of building up high cholesterol.

Secondly, our fresh juices are filled with great antioxidant substances, such as our black and green kale. Our detox juice recipes move you out of the cholesterol risk zone of higher weight and boost your heart health with their great and nutritional ingredients. Want proof of this weight loss? Check out some of our success stories here!

Your Guide to Nutrition and Sleep

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Veronica working from home

Sleep and Nutrition have a bigger connection than you may realize. If you’re suffering from insomnia, the issue might lie in your diet. This piece will explain why sleep is so important and how nutrition and sleep relate to each other – and how a blended juice cleanse detox can help you out if you’re not getting as much shuteye as you should.

Dangers of Sleepless Nights

There are a host of issues that come with not getting enough sleep. No matter how healthy you eat and how much you exercise (and how much you juice cleanse), you can still ruin your health by not getting that needed shuteye. Sleep is so important because this is the time when your body and mind can regenerate and recover from being active all day long. This means that sleep isn’t just important for physical health, but for mental health and cognitive abilities as well.

The most obvious symptom of lack of sleep will be, well, sleepiness. That sounds benign, but trying to get anything done during a day when you haven’t had enough sleep is a real chore. This sleepiness can conceal some more severe effects, such as lack of alertness, problems with memory, increased stress, and difficulty concentrating and exercising. Lack of sleep can also severely impact your immune system.

And that’s just the issues you’ll run into during the short term! Poor sleep patterns over an extended period can lead to some significant health issues. The stress caused by lack of sleep can lead to conditions such as hypertension and stress eating, which can lead to greater weight. Lack of sleep can even mess with the hormones that help regulate your cardiovascular system – this means even more weight being put on, as well as an increased risk of heart attacks, strokes, and diabetes. Lack of sleep can also lead to severe or worsening depression or anxiety over time.

Tips for Better Sleep

Human society has been doing its best to ruin our ability to sleep in a variety of ways. Too much light in the evenings, and too many glowing screens, tend to confuse our body’s ability to slow down functions in preparation for sleep. The best schedule for sleep involves at least an hour of “downtime” before bed – nothing beats a good book for this. Not only does this relax you, but it also starts to train your brain to associate the time before bed with winding down.

Scheduling is also important. It can be all about when you get up in the morning, as much as when you get to bed. If you can get up at a consistent hour, you’ll start to train your body to go to sleep at a proper time to wake up at that hour.

It’s also important to have a sleeping space free from distractions. For many of us this can be difficult, but cutting down on sound and light is important. If your bed isn’t giving you the comfort you need, you may want to look into a change of mattress or pillows.

And then there’s the very interesting link between sleep and nutrients, which we’ll get into here next. As they say, you are what you eat – and you want to be someone with a body ready for sleep!

Nutrition and Sleep

As you can see, there are plenty of methods to achieve better sleeping habits. One of the most potent methods is actually nutritional. A healthy diet can mean the difference between peaceful slumber and sleepless nights.

We mentioned earlier that lack of sleep can prompt you to start making bad dietary decisions. This relationship works in reverse. Having a proper intake of a wide variety of vitamins and minerals has been shown to improve sleep quality. If you’re missing a key vitamin or other nutrients, you may start to have issues sleeping.

Why is this? Studies are still being done on this, but we do know that sleep is closely related to the complex chemistry in our brain. We also know that getting the right vitamins and minerals improves the function of that brain chemistry – this is why a bad diet can lead to you feeling gross not just physically, but mentally. Our brain releases certain chemicals when it’s time to sleep to help us drift off. If we’re missing the important components of those chemicals, our brain is going to struggle to properly turn itself off and rest. And a brain without rest is going to be an unhappy brain.

Conversely, diets that are too high in carbs may make you feel drowsy during the day but can ruin your sleep when night rolls around. And we all know what diets that are too heavy in sugar and caffeine can do to you – these substances are some of the worst offenders when it comes to ruining sleep schedules.

This is why blended juice cleanses tend to be so great for helping sleep. Firstly, the best diets for sleep are those that are filled with fruits and vegetables (and all those amazing vitamins contained within). Not only does a blended juice cleanse ensure you’re getting a wide range of veggies, but the fact that they are raw means that fewer of those key sleep vitamins have been removed in the prep process. This means your brain is getting everything it needs for a proper shutdown.

Blended juice cleanses are also a great way to give your body a break from carbs, sugar, and caffeine, so you don’t need to worry about any of these substances playing havoc with your ability to get some shuteye. Blended juice cleanses are a great way to feel energetic and focused during the day, and still, get plenty of sleep at night.

Want to start to improve your sleep duration and feel amazing during the day? Then give our Chef V blended juice cleanses a spin. With even just a few days you’ll be feeling significantly better – rocking your days, and sleeping sounding during your nights.

Your Guide to Gluten

Chef V

If you’ve been buying Chef V detox juice products, you may have noticed that we mention all our products are gluten-free. You’ve probably also seen gluten-free options appearing in more and more places over the past years. If you’re someone with a gluten allergy or intolerance, buying gluten-free has probably become second nature to you. However, the whole gluten-free diet is somewhat perplexing for many of us. Since we offer gluten-free products, it makes sense that we give a brief overview of what exactly this means for you!

What is Gluten?

Okay, basics first. Before you figure out if there’s gluten in your 3 day juice cleanse or 7 day juice cleanse, you’ll need to know what it is. Gluten is, in simplest terms, a protein. Of course, since proteins make up a ton of food and a good portion of our body, that doesn’t exactly narrow it down.

More specifically, gluten is a protein found in wheat products, like rye and barley. Beyond being naturally found in some foods, gluten is also a very popular food additive. This is because gluten works just like glue. It’s perfect for helping food products stick together and maintain their shape and consistency.

So gluten shows up in plenty of products you’d expect, such as bread, cereals, and pasta. However, it can also sneak into things like sauces and dressings, used as a binding agent.

What’s the Issue?

The primary issue with gluten is that many people have a severe intolerance for it, known as celiac disease.

It’s essential to note that celiac disease is not strictly a wheat allergy. A wheat allergy is a specific, separate, and often severe condition.

Celiac disease is a bit more of a complicated topic. Essentially, the small intestine of someone with celiac disease triggers an immune response whenever it detects gluten, believing that the gluten is harmful. The response has a lot of nasty side effects – lack of nutritional absorption, diarrhea, anemia, bloating, the works.

So you can understand why clearly marking gluten-free products is super important to people with this condition. Providing gluten-free products is a way to be more inclusive in who can enjoy those products.

Other Benefits of Gluten-Free

As you can guess, the general “schtick” of a gluten-free diet involves cutting back on wheat products and avoiding non-organic foods. Hey – that sounds a little bit like an organic diet that’s also low carb!

For this reason, gluten-free or gluten-reduced diets are also taking off among people who are generally health-conscious. Obviously, just because something is gluten-free doesn’t mean that it’s necessarily healthy. You could eat a diet of only red meat and technically be gluten-free.

Still, a standard gluten-free diet will involve lots of fruits and vegetables, leaner meats, and low-fat dairy products. This isn’t just an excellent diet for people worried about gluten – it’s also an ideal diet for losing weight. If you’re between taking our detox juice cleanses, you may want to keep an eye out for gluten-free options.

Proudly Gluten Free

At Chef V, all our products, from 3-day juice cleanses to 7-day juice cleanses to our green drink, are gluten-free. So no matter if you’re protecting your digestive health or simply looking to lose weight, we have a safe and effective product for you. So check out our detox juice, and get your delivery booked today!

© 2021 Chef V, LLC.