We’ve already talked about the more common leafy greens, like spinach and kale, but there are many other options when you’re looking to change up your green juice routine. What about collard greens? They might make you think of black-eyed peas or ham hocks, since they are a popular veggie side dish down South. Now is the time to see collard greens in a new light, as a fresh green juice.
Vitamins and Minerals
Let’s start off with the usual suspects in the vitamin and mineral arena. Collard green juice will have sizable quantities of:
- Vitamin A (beta-carotene)
- Vitamin C
- Riboflavin (B2)
- Folic Acid (B9)
- Vitamin K
- Calcium
- Manganese
You’ll also get smaller doses of Vitamin E, iron, and magnesium. If all these mineral names are starting to blur together for you, let’s lay out the health benefits of these compounds a little more clearly.
The folic acid and the iron will both keep your blood healthy and fend off any anemia, and you’re probably already familiar with how calcium is a big part of keeping healthy bones strong. Actually, the high levels of manganese in collard greens will also go a long way in keeping your bones strong too.
And the mysterious vitamin K is vital for healthy blood too, particularly for clotting and tissue healing. You’ll get more than your RDA for K in every ounce of collard green juice.
More Collard Goodness
Antioxidants are next up on our list of healthy benefits in collard greens. Though vitamins A and C both act as antioxidants in your body, you’ll also get chlorophyll with collards. It’s a potent antioxidant that will help clean up those free radicals you get in your body from exposure to pollutants and it also helps keep your blood well oxygenated.
One of the best features of adding leafy greens to your juicing recipes is that you can add vegetable-based protein that can be tough to find with just fruit. Collard greens will bring about 1 g of protein in every ounce of juice.
Collard green juice won’t add many calories to your favorite green juice blends either. A one ounce shot will only add about 10 calories. I’d like to say it’s fat-free as well, but it’s not quite. That same 1 oz serving of juice will contain about 1/4 g of fat. Nothing to worry about.
Juicing Collard Greens
Like with all the other great leafy veggies, you don’t need to worry about trimming out the stems when you juice collard greens. Older leaves may give a little more bitter tasting juice, so you should try to use the tender young leaves as often as you can.
You can either whip up a batch or two of collard green juice on its own, to be added to your other juice blends later, or add a few handfuls of raw leaves into your recipes as you go. It’s not as easy to measure up precisely one or two ounces of juice this way, but it definitely still works. Remember that you should use a cold-press juicer! The Healthy Juicer is a super affordable option and keeps all those precious nutrients alive! Your “old school” type juicer (the kind that spins around) truly kills nutrients as it juices do to oxidation and heat build-up..something to think about!