Prevent Disease with Nutrition

Juice Plus is ‪‎30 plants‬ that are proven to be absorbed by the human body instead of excreted like multi‬-vitamins.  It protects your ‎DNA‬ against ‪disease‬, supports your ‪cardiovascular‬ wellness, supports a healthy ‪‎immune‬ system, healthy ‎skin‬ and ‎gums‬, reduced oxidative stress on your body from life's everyday activities (stresses/exercise), reduced key ‪biomarkers‬ of systemic ‪‎inflammation‬ in your body, supports the quality of life in ‪‎cancer‬ survivors, supports ‪‎lung‬ health in ‪‎smokers‬ even if they continue to smoke. Would you want to know more about it? IF it was backed by over 30+ peer reviewed, double blind, placebo based, scientific research by some of the most prestigious research universities in the world, would that spark an interest? IF I told you one existed, would you want to take it? Change your health on a cellular level. ‎Its just food‬!

Eat Great to Hydrate

As glorious as summer can be, it can also be hard on your skin. Not only do you need to protect yourself against sunburn, but the risk of dehydration is higher in this hot weather. And like the rest of your body, your skin needs sufficient hydration to stay healthy.

Staying Hydrated, the Fruit and Veggie WayDrinking an adequate amount of water is the common-sense approach to avoiding dehydration, but did you know eating certain fruits and vegetables can also count toward your daily water needs? Actually, roughly 20% of our water intake is from foods. In the summer months, make sure to eat a lot of these hydrating fruits and veggies:

• Zucchini is 96% water. This member of the squash family is the best source of dietary fiber, which will have you feeling full for longer. Shake up your salad and try this refreshing zucchini salad with pine nuts!
• Tomatoes are 94% water. These Eggs Florentine in tomato cups are perfect for those perfectly ripe farmer’s market tomatoes you can only find this time of year. This recipe contains a healthy serving of spinach as well! Take note that grilling tomatoes will reduce the water content, but still offer a hydrating amount!
• Watermelon and strawberries are 92% water. If you need an incentive to drink more, these tasty strawberry-watermelon coolers should do the trick! You can probably omit the sugar, as both these fruits are plenty sweet.

Getting your D, While Blocking the SunFor most people, sun block is the first line of defense against sunburn and damaging UV-exposure. But sunblock (and other methods of avoiding excess sun exposure, such as staying in the shade or wearing long sleeves and long pants) can reduce your body’s production of vitamin D, which is crucial for bone health, immunity, cardiovascular health, and ironically, skin health.
Not many fruits and vegetables contain vitamin D, but there is one exception: mushrooms. Even so, they don’t have much. One cup of sliced, raw, white button mushrooms has 3% of the Daily Value (DV) for vitamin D. However, you can dramatically boost the vitamin D content of mushrooms by exposing them to sunlight. That’s right, just like your skin, mushrooms can make vitamin D from the sun!
How do you ensure you’re keeping your skin healthy?

The Lowdown on Hydrating: 7 Tips

So this month seems like the perfect time to talk about making sure you stay hydrated, especially during summer. You don't need to change everything you do: just make #OneSimpleChange! Choose 1 of these 7 hydration tips to get started:

1. Replace 1 caffeinated drink each day with 1 glass of water of equal size. 2. Carry a reusable water bottle with you. When your bottle starts feeling too heavy, drink a little bit. That keeps you hydrated and lightens your load. 3. Drink a glass of water when you first get up, or drink an extra glass at lunchtime. 4. Set regular "Water break!" reminders on your phone or other device. 5. Eat plenty of dense vegetables and fruits for their water content. Some good choices: cucumbers, tomatoes, carrots, watermelon, cantaloupe, and strawberries. 6. Slice some lemon or lime into a glass of water to add flavor and scent without reaching for a soda or other sugary drink. 7. Sometimes you want a switch from plain water. A little sweetness, a little color—a little something different. A glass of any of these can cool you through and through. Don't be afraid to experiment with fruit-to-water ratios. Drink up, and enjoy! Sip. Enjoy. Repeat at your leisure. Watermelon Strawberry Water 1 cup cubed watermelon        4-6 frozen strawberries 2 cups water Combine all ingredients in blender until smooth. Pour into a glass, straining through a sieve if you wish to eliminate seeds and watermelon pulp before drinking. Mango Mint Infused Water 32oz Ball jar 2 sprigs of fresh organic mint (or about 8 small leaves) 1/2 mango, with the skin cut off and divided into pieces (about 6) Combine the mint and mango with water and let the infusion sit for 3-4 hours at room temperature. The warmer temperature helps the ingredients’ flavors intensify more quickly. You can also infuse in your refrigerator for up to 12 hours. Add your straw right into the jar and enjoy! Cucumber Lemonade 1 pound cucumber(s), peeled or unpeeled, cut into large chunks, plus a few extra thin cucumber slices for garnish 1 cup lemon juice (from about 7 to 8 lemons, although juiciness will vary) 1/3 cup granulated sugar 2 cups cold water Run cucumber through a blender or food processor until pureed, then run it for a full extra minute to ensure that it’s as processed as possible. Set a fine-mesh strainer or a regular strainer lined with a couple layers of cheesecloth or a coffee filter over a pitcher and pour cucumber puree through it, stirring to help it move along faster. Discard solids. In the pitcher, you should have about 1 cup cucumber juice.* Add lemon juice and sugar to it, then water. Give it a good stir or shake, and let it sit in the fridge (to get it started chilling) for 15 minutes, after which a couple more stirs or shakes should leave the sugar fully dissolved. Taste lemonade, adding more sugar or water if desired. (See Notes up top about concentration and sweetness.) Serve chilled over ice, with or without a splash of seltzer on top. You can fancy up the glass with a garnish of cucumber slice, if desired. Makes just over 1 quart (4 cups).