The heart is the one organ in our body we all desire to be healthy. What does it take to maintain heart health? Many of you would answer this question with things like maintaining a healthy weight, exercise, eating healthy, control of fat and cholesterol levels, drinking alcohol in moderation, and managing stress.

All of those things you should strive to do but there is one simple thing you can do every day that is very simple and easy to promote heart health. Drink a combination of these three juices, orange juice, pomegranate juice, and pink grapefruit juice. This juice combo is super healthy for your heart.

Why these three? Pomegranate juice has been found by researchers to reverse plaque build up in arteries and improve other cardiovascular parameters when consumed every day over a period of time.

Fresh orange and grapefruit juices have been found to contain high quantities of antioxidants, and anthocyanins, (they give fruit its color). They have a positive efect on plasma lipid metabolism and plasma antioxidant activity. Anthocyanins have also been found to have a positive effect on vision sharpness, protection of the eyes against macular degeneration and anticancer properties, to name a few.

Grapefruit juice is a natural source of tryptophan, a building block for serotonin, the happy chemical that naturally gives your mood a lift. I need to provide a word of caution here, there are certain medications that have a negative interaction with Grapefruit. I will list them below.

Now, before you run to the store and purchase processed juice in cans and bottles, that have been sitting on a self forever, forget about it! Packaged fruit juices, even those declared to be pure, are low in vitamin C, or have artificial vitamin C added.

Something I have been guilty of is using my high speed blender for juicing. The issue with this is the high speed blades produce a lot of oxygen into the juice which causes the juice to oxidize faster. Think about what happens to apples if you leave them out , they go brown, it’s due to oxidation. Aside from that the blades smash out some of the nutrients.

The best thing to do is to hand squeeze the fruit unless you want to purchase a high quality juicer. These juicers press the fruit to pull out the most nutrients and you may want to invest in one to improve the quality of your life.

For optimal health you may want to prepare this juice daily from all fresh, natural organic fruits. They are higher in antioxidants and anthocyanins and lower in pesticide residue that gets inside the fruit.

In conclusion, unless you are taking the medications I will list below that interact with grapefruit, buy some organic fruit and start juicing daily for heart health! By the way, I ordered a quality juicer from Amazon that I will be using daily.

Avoid grapefruit if you take these medications:

Statins (lower cholesterol): lovastatin (mevacor) atorvastatin (lipitor), simvastatin(Zocor, Vytorin)

Antihistamines: ebastine

Calcium channel blockers (blood pressure drugs): nitrendipine, felodipine,(Plendil), nifedipine (Adalat, Procardia)

Psychiatric drugs: buspirone (Buspar), trazolam (Halcion), carbamazepine (Tegretol), diazepam Valium), midazolam (Versed), serialize (Zoloft)

immunosuppressants: cyclosporine (Neoral), tacrolimus (Prograf)

Pain medications: methadone

Impotence drug: sildenafil (Viagra)

HIV medication: saquinavir (Invirase)

Antiarrhythmics: amiodarone (Cordarone)

Until next time,

Peace, Love, and Blessings 💜

References:

1. Pomegranate juice consumption for 3 years by patients with artery stenosis reduces common caratoid intima-media thickness, blood pressure and LDL oxidation. pubmed.ncbi.nim.nih.gov/1515830
2. Fresh Israeli Jaffa blond (Shamouti) orange and Israeli Jaffa red Star Ruby (Sunrise) grapefruit juices affect plasma lipid metabolism……pubmed.ncbi.nim.nig.gov/15264925
3. Grapefruit Juice: Is It Affecting Your Medication? webmd.com/ hypertension- high blood pressure/guide/grapefruit juice and medication