An excerpt from the forthcoming book The Reasonable Body: A Christian Guide to Juicing.
There’s a moment in the book of Genesis that is easy for most readers to pass over. God looks at everything He has made: the land, the sea, the plants, the animals, the human beings He formed from the dust, and He calls it good. He did not say this is sufficient; He said, “Good.” His creation is not a temporary holding environment while something better is being prepared. It is the absolute deliberate work of a Sovereign God who makes things with divine intention, builds nature into them, and expects that nature to be honored and obeyed. More importantly, His creation is good because it is the stage on which God Himself would enter. The Word became flesh (John 1:14). God put on a human body. He did not borrow from humanity. The human body is the form God considered worthy of Himself.
As His image bearers, our bodies belong to that same created purpose and share in its nature.
Before I explain what juicing can do for the human body, we need to remember what the body is. It is not a machine; it is a created thing with a God-given nature, and honoring that nature is necessary to its flourishing. To act against a thing’s nature is to act against the conditions by which that thing flourishes. This is not a medical claim; it is a metaphysical one.
Juicing is not just a Hollywood trend or some wellness-industry product trying to get you to spend money. The body was designed to receive nutrition from the plants God put on the earth. Juicing simply gives us a concentrated way to get more of it. No dude in a lab coat invented the carrot. We are blessed because the earth grows what our bodies need. God knows what He is doing.
As for me, I’ve been juicing for thirty years. I did not begin with a sophisticated understanding of enzymes, phytonutrients, or cold-press technology. I began with a used Juiceman Jr, a countertop centrifugal juicer that shook the kitchen when it ran and produced a reasonable glass of juice before eventually burning out its motor. I went through three of them. Each time one died, I replaced it with the same model because I did not yet understand that the machine mattered as much as the produce going into it. Eventually, I learned, invested in a quality juicer, and understood why it made a huge difference. But I had to start somewhere. We will cover all of that in a later chapter. I put thirty years of experience into this little book. I pray that it blesses you and your family.
What I know from three decades of practice is this: juicing works. It is not some miracle cure or a replacement for a life rightly ordered in Christ. But as a wonderful practice that delivers concentrated plant nutrition to a body that is often starved of it despite appearing well fed, it works consistently and predictably. The results show up in the eyes first, then the skin. Then in energy. Then in digestion. Then in inflammation, that slow, systemic fire that underlies most of the chronic conditions that define modern illness. Metabolic disease is only the most visible expression of illness.
More excerpts from The Reasonable Body: A Christian Guide to Juicing are coming soon, along with practical pieces on juicing, nourishment, and caring for the body as a created thing.
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