Juicing for Psoriasis and Psoriatic Arthritis

Friends, before discussing the best juicing recipes for psoriasis, I would recommend you to go through my previous blog posts where I have explained the benefits of vegetables and fruits for Psoriasis. Once you understand and accept the tremendous benefits of a clean diet based on vegetables and fruits, you would be able to extract the best possible benefits from this blog post.

Benefits of freshly prepared juices (extracted from permitted vegetables and fruits) cannot be over-emphasized. The juices provide you all the nutrients (vitamins, minerals, chlorophyll, antioxidants and phytonutrients) without putting any burden on the digestive tract because it is all fluid, no solid. It’s a sort of holiday period for the whole digestive system to relax and repair. It enables the cells of the intestinal walls (linings) to repair and rebuild which would eventually lead to gut integrity and reduction of leaky gut syndrome. Drinking vegetable (and fruits) juices mean bathing your intestines with a nutritious, alkaline solution which is going to nourish and rejuvenate the overall gut health.

Overall benefits of juices include:

• Alkalize your body and reduces inflammation
• Aids in digestion
• Supports body metabolism
• Stimulates circulation of the blood and lymphocytes
• Assists in the elimination process
• Treats leaky gut by providing nutrition and environment to the cells that line the gut walls
• Flushes the kidney

Dr John Pagano, author of the famous book Healing Psoriasis: The Natural Alternative also advocated a diet based on vegetables and fruits. He suggested that 80% of your diet should comprise of vegetables (and fruits) and remaining 20% can include grains, legumes and animal proteins.

Juicing recipe for Psoriasis- More vegetables, less fruits

The vegetables would be the major and fruits would be minor components in your juicing recipe for obvious reasons.

• Majority of the vegetables, particularly the green colored vegetables are alkaline in nature. They help to emulsify and eliminate the acidic toxins (undigested food molecules, unhealthy microorganisms, heavy metals and pesticides) from your body.  When our body system is over-burdened with acidic toxins as a result of a diet based on grains, cereals, legumes, animal proteins, added sugar and vegetable oils- a diet rich in vegetables (and fruits), particularly green colored vegetables would help immensely to get rid of the acidic toxins and re-establish the optimum acid-alkaline pH balance in the body.
• Drinking vegetable juices is one of the most effective ways for liver detoxification. To heal liver ailments, many naturopaths rely on vegetable juice fasting. Psoriasis is often linked to a weakened liver- in such a case, consuming vegetable juices in liberal amounts help immensely to get rid of liver congestion and restore its normal functioning.

• Apart from the vital nutrients, the green colored vegetables, particularly the green leafy veggies provide you chlorophyll- it’s a plant nutrient with powerful antioxidant and liver detoxifying properties. Chlorophyll supplements are proven beneficial in Cancer treatment as well.

Fruits are awesome, but, don’t overuse them!

• Fruits are better consumed raw or stewed than juice form. Pure fruit juices would provide a lot of fructose (a type of simple sugar) which can only be metabolized by the liver, that too at a slow speed. Such a sudden, high supply of fructose can overload the liver and congest it. Also, the unutilized fructose would be stored by the liver in the form of fat which can be used in future for energy. Now, if you keep on drinking fruit juice and infusing a lot of fructose in your system, then eventually it can lead to non-alcoholic fatty liver problem and liver congestion. Hence, don’t use fruits in excess in your juice recipe.

• Try to avoid dried fruits like raisins, dried figs and dried apricots because the fructose concentration in these varieties is way too higher than other fruits.
• Many of the psoriatic people are dealing with Candida (yeast overgrowth). In that case, fruits are better avoided or used in small amounts because yeast overgrowth would feed on natural sugar (from the fruits) for growth and proliferation.
• Fruits are better consumed alone or with vegetables only. They have a compatibility issue with grains, legumes, dairy and animal proteins. If you are planning to drink your juice with other food stuffs, then better not to add too many pieces of fruits in your juicer.
• Excess of fruits in your juice recipe can spike up the blood sugar levels which is alarming for people dealing with diabetes and heart issues. It is not healthy for others as well.

Juicing for Psoriasis- Ingredients

• Vegetables– As explained earlier, various vegetables would make the major component of your ingredients. Various vegetables to choose from- beetroot, carrots, cucumber, bottle gourd, bitter gourd, broccoli stems, kale, cabbage, celery, parsley, cilantro, watercress, romaine lettuce, mustard green, turnip green, garlic, spinach and other dark leafy vegetables. Beetroot is a dark horse here; many people just ignore it as they are not aware of its liver detoxifying properties. It is certainly the most effective vegetable as far as liver cleansing is concerned. It stimulates bile flow to clean the congested bile and supports good digestion. Among other vegetables, bitter gourd is quite important. It is a good source of dietary fiber, relieves constipation, regulates the immune system, a natural liver tonic and a powerful blood purifier. Bottle gourd is also highly recommended. It contains both- water soluble and insoluble fibers- to promote smooth bowel movements and provides a feeling of fullness.  Being high in water, more than 90% of bottle gourd is water- it hydrates your body from within to avoid the problem of skin dryness. It is highly alkaline in nature and beneficial in all sorts of digestive issues including hyperacidity and flatulence. Cucumber is another alkaline vegetable which would make a good addition in your juice recipe. People dealing with stomach ulcer and bowel inflammation should use cabbage also.

Avoid nightshade vegetables– tomato, white potato, eggplant, pepper, paprika and capsicum.

• Fruits– Add permitted fruits in limited amounts in your vegetable juice to improve the flavor and make it more interesting. Choose among apples, pears, grapefruits, oranges, grapes, melons and lemons. If you are dealing with psoriatic arthritis or eczema, avoid all kinds of citrus fruits except lemon. Lemon is highly recommended in your juice recipe.
• Lemon– Add juice of half a lemon in your glass of vegetable juice. Lemon is highly alkaline in nature, aids in digestion, promotes liver detox and gently kick start the body metabolism. It improves the taste as well. I always start my day with a glass of homemade alkaline water that contains lemon juice as the chief ingredient.

• Ginger– Add ½ inch of grated ginger in your juice recipe. Ginger is well known for its anti-inflammatory, anti-oxidant and liver-detoxifying properties. Ginger stimulates the secretion of bile for improved liver functioning. It is helpful to alleviate various digestive problems (gas, bloating, constipation) and common cold and cough symptoms. Also, it provides warmth (heat) to the system, hence, improve the flow of blood and lymph for immunity regulation.
• Garlic (optional)– You may include a clove or two of garlic in your juice recipe. Garlic is a natural, broad spectrum anti-microbial agent which can help eliminate various pathogens (disease causing microbes and yeast overgrowth) to reduce inflammation and calm down the immune system. Also, it contains various sulfur compounds and bio-active selenium which would protect liver from toxins and reduces fat accumulation in the liver.
• Turmeric powder (optional)– You may add a teaspoon of pure, organic turmeric powder in your juice to improve the therapeutic benefits. Benefits of turmeric for psoriasis and psoriatic arthritis have been discussed in detail in one of my earlier blog posts. It is one of the most talked about anti-inflammatory herb with potent liver-detoxifying properties. Turmeric stimulates the flow of bile to promote digestion and cleansing of the lower intestinal tract. Turmeric is somewhat poorly absorbed by the gut due to low bio-availability. To improve the absorption rate, add black pepper powder in ratio 1:10- one part of black pepper powder for ten parts of turmeric powder. But, black pepper can prove a turn off for many people due to spicy, bitter taste. So, do try yourself and see if it suits you.
• Himalayan pink salt (optional)– You may add a pinch of Himalayan pink salt in your vegetable juice for taste. Do not add table salt (iodized common salt). Himalayan pink salt is naturally occurring and contain a whole gamut of 84 trace minerals whereas table salt is highly processed and contain only sodium and chloride. In fact, I would recommend you to throw away table salt altogether from your kitchen shelf and use Himalayan pink salt instead. I have discussed the need to reduce the overall salt intake and replace table salt with himalayan pink salt for psoriasis healing in one of my earlier posts.

Juicing for Psoriasis- Important considerations

• Don’t add sugar (refined white sugar), artificial flavors, colors or preservatives in your juice recipe. These stuffs provide nothing but empty calories and toxins. Holistic healing of psoriasis is all about going as natural as possible. Hence, stay away from these culprits.
• Try to include a whole range of permitted vegetables and fruits in your juice recipe. Consuming too much of a particular vegetable or fruit can result in saturation of nutrients provided by that vegetable (or fruit) and deficiency of nutrients missing in that particular vegetable or fruit. So, make your juice recipe more versatile, interesting and nutritious by including several healthy vegetables and fruits.

A Word of Caution

Drinking Bottle gourd or bitter gourd juice in large amounts may cause mild diarrhea, abdominal pain or vomiting. In most cases, these symptoms would be minor and fade away gradually within a few days. If symptoms persist, reduce the quantity of these two vegetables in your juice recipe.

Pregnant ladies, breastfeeding women and people dealing with serious health issues should consult their physician before drinking vegetable juices on a daily basis.

Takeaway message

All of us- the people dealing with psoriasis (and psoriatic arthritis)- should have a juicer at home. It’s awesome; we can extract the fresh juices from various vegetables and fruits and drink whenever we want. I’m telling you- nothing is as healing and nourishing as fresh vegetable juices. Your gut would be thankful to you for this treat.

Among various healthy beverages, fresh vegetable juices come second only to drinking water. Other healthy choices include lemon-ginger tea, green tea, warm lemon water, homemade alkaline water, slippery elm bark tea, American saffron yellow tea, buttermilk, coconut water and aloe vera juice.

References

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/12017203

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/14624951

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5409777/

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16366738

https://www.health.harvard.edu/heart-health/abundance-of-fructose-not-good-for-the-liver-heart

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/43335937