The Big Book of Juices and Smoothies - Natalie Savona

If you’ve read my recent review on ‘Nutrition for Life’ you’ll know that I have a keen interest in nutrition and how the food you eat can help you stay healthy. As a family we’ve always kept a close eye on what we eat as there is a history of heart disease, cancer and diabetes on both sides of the family. When my Dad had his second triple heart bypass a few years back we bought him a juicer for when he came home to recover. The idea was that the fresh juice from fruits and vegetables would give him strength and nutrients he needed to help him recover quickly.

At first we stuck to simple juices, such as apple or carrot, but then tried to be a bit more adventurous. It really was a case of trial and error and some of the concoctions we came up with were really quite nice but others just did not work! I therefore decided to invest in a book on juice recipes and came across ‘The Big Book of Juices and Smoothies’ which I bought from WHSmith. This retails at £12.99 but I picked this up in the sale for around £5. The book is written by nutritionist Natalie Savona and contains 365 different recipes – one for each day of the year. No chance of getting bored then!

The book really is quite big – it is A4 in size and contains spiral bound pages. The first section gives the basics of juicing. It talks through the health benefits of juicing and the difference between a juice and a smoothie. This is followed by a section which goes through various fruits and vegetables, describing their flavours, their health benefits and how to prepare them for making either a juice or a smoothie. This section really is quite interesting and is something that I find myself coming back to read again and again. I find it quite motivating to read about the health benefits of the ingredients and it encourages me to use these to make my own juices.

The next couple of sections contains the recipes for various juices and smoothies. These start off quite simple using just one ingredient but then gain in complexity by mixing various fruits and vegetables. As you can imagine, the recipes are quite short and each page lists about 3 recipes. Each recipe also contains a list of key nutrients that that particular juice provides and also what it is good for (e.g. provides energy, good for detoxing, immunity, digestion or skin).

The recipes are grouped by the main fruits or vegetables in them, so for example all the recipes containing apples as their main ingredient are listed under the apple section. I find that this makes it easier to select recipes based on what I have left in my fridge! That’s not to say that the recipes in the other sections do not have apples as an ingredient, just that it’s not the main component. Some of the recipes have pictures showing the end result and I have to say that they all look mouthwatering and very healthy! I have tried various recipes from the book and they have all come out a treat. One of my favourites is carrot, apple, orange and beetroot juice. I also like the recipe called ‘purple ‘nana’ which is a smoothie containing various berries banana and yoghurt.

There is also a section that contains a group of recipes called ‘quenchers’ which are drinks made of mainly frozen fruit and ice or sparkling mineral water with various fruits. I find that these are great in the summer as they are really quite refreshing and very healthy too.

The final section is called the ‘juicing reference’ and contains four juicing health programs for you to follow. These include the ‘detox week’, the ‘immune power week’ and the ‘juice high weekend’. This is then followed by a nutrient chart which lists each vitamin and mineral, their benefits in the body and food sources where they can be found.

Overall I am really glad I bought this juicing book. Using it, I have created many delicious and healthy concoctions. I still have many more to try though and look forward to doing so in the future. My only gripe with this book is that it is a paperback and as it is used quite often it has started to look a bit tatty - a hard-backed book in my opinion would have been better. However I think this book is one for everyone who is interested in diet and nutrition and comes with a high recommendation from me.