Cauliflower juice isn’t at the top of most people’s favorite juice recipes. But this not-so-flowery cauliflower is a mainstay on my grocer shopping list. Ever since a neighbor told me that cauliflower protects the lungs, I’ve been obsessed with cauliflower. At first, the only way I knew to eat it was to steam it ever-so-lightly and then dip it in ranch sauce.
That got old fast.
And then I discovered how wonderfully versatile cauliflower is. You can substitute it for potatoes and make a delicious, very low-calorie bowl of mashed cauliflower. You can make an awesome cauliflower puree soup. And shredded, raw cauliflower even makes a tasty, healthy, and infinitely more nutritious stand-in for white rice.
Not to mention that raw cauliflower makes a surprisingly delicious addition to your juice recipes – you’ll hardly even taste it. Plus, it comes packing a whole lot of health perks…
7 Cauliflower Juice Benefits
They don’t really look like it, but cauliflowers are actually a type of cabbage. They are believed to have originated in the regions of the Mediterranean more than 2,000 years ago and are known for their unusual cloud-like appearance.
As a member of the cruciferous family, cauliflowers are cousins to the broccoli, Brussels sprouts, and kale – and packs as strong of a nutritional punch. Its chock full of valuable phytonutrients and antioxidants that gives your body’s natural detox system a boost and its immense versatility makes it an awesome gluten-free, low-carb substitute in a variety of meals and snacks.
And of course, it comes with a wide array of reasons to add this stuff into your daily juice recipes, like…
Protects against cancer
You may have heard by now that cruciferous veggies, like cauliflower, are rich in glucosinolates, which are simply sulfur-containing chemical compounds. When you chew and digest these glucosinolates, they get broken down to form biologically active compounds such as indoles, nitriles, thiocyanates, and isothiocyanates.
The most researched of these are isothiocyanates and indoles, which have been shown in study after study after study to inhibit the growth and development of various cancers including the bladder, colon, breast, liver, lung and stomach.
Researchers aren’t yet sure how these glucosinolates provide protection against cancer but it’s theorized that it may have to do with their antiviral, antibacterial, and anti-inflammatory properties which help to protect cells from DNA damage and inactivate carcinogens.
Boosts the immune system
Cruciferous vegetables like cauliflower aren’t just great for protection against major diseases – they also boost your overall immune system. One study found that giving mice isothiocyanates stimulated their immunological response, increasing their number of disease-fighting cells.
Another study even showed that isothiocyanates were able to delay the progression of immunodeficiency to AIDS in mice, resulting in an increased life span.
And it’s not just the isothiocyanate content of cauliflower – this crunchy veggies is also a surprisingly rich source of Vitamin C, which boosts your body’s immune system and your cell’s ability to ward off free radical damage. Aside from helping cells and tissues pick up the pace on rejuvenation and healing, vitamin C also boosts the system’s resistance against communicable illnesses like coughs and colds.
Oh, and that’s not even the end of it – the variety of important antioxidants found in cauliflower goes on and on and includes beta-carotene, beta-cryptoxanthin, caffeic acid, cinnamic acid, ferulic acid, quercetin, rutin, and kaempferol – all of which fight oxidative damage in the body.
Helps detox your liver
Cauliflowers are one of the richest sources of sulforaphanes and this is great news when it comes to your liver. You see, sulforaphanes are uniquely gifted in their ability to stimulate the liver to work more efficiently when it comes to flushing out toxic substances out of the body. They’re mostly involved in the phase 2 liver detoxification system , which is the final stage for the removal of harmful compounds out of the body.
It’s a crucial phase, especially for maintaining healthy hormone balance since this is when excess hormones (like, estrogen) get moved out of your system.
Improves eye health
Those sulforaphanes don’t just help out your liver – they’ve even been shown to be plenty helpful for the eyes, protecting the vulnerable retinal tissues against oxidative damage.
Great for your gut
You know those glucosinolates we keep going on and on about? Yea, they also boost your gut health by promoting detox and digestion as well as regulating the gut microbiota and preventing the overgrowth of bad bacteria.
They even play a role in protecting that delicate, vulnerable stomach lining, which is great news for keeping painful conditions like ulceritis and leaky gut syndrome at bay.
Lots of nutrients for little calories
Cauliflower is known to be one of the best foods for weight loss, thanks to its very low caloric cost (less than 30 calories per cup) and very high nutrient richness.
Yup, this is one superfood you should reach for when you need a dose of energy-reviving goodness since just one cup of cauliflower provides plenty of potassium, phosphorus, vitamin K, pyridoxine, thiamine, folic acid and riboflavin, as well as a heap of antioxidants.
Great for weight loss
Okay, so you already know that cauliflower is low in calories but did you know that those compounds we talked about earlier – indole glucosinolates – have even shown anti-obesity effects?
In one study, mice who were fed high fat diets showed decreased body weight and fat accumulation when they were also supplement with indole glucosinolates.
4 Cauliflower Juice Recipes
Okay, so you’re ready to start juicing this deliciously beneficial cauliflower…but where do you start? After all, nobody wants to drink straight up cauliflower juice. Well, here’s a roundup of the best cauliflower juice recipes to get you started!
Cauliflower Carrot Juice
Here’s a simple cauliflower juice recipe that’s perfect for beginners:
- 3 medium size carrots, roughly cut
- 1/2 medium size cauliflower, stem and leaves included, separated into florets
- 1 apple
It’s a great juice recipe for those who are new to juicing veggies thanks to the natural sweetness of the apples and carrots. And this makes one perfect immune-boosting juice recipe, thanks to the abundance of glucosinolates from the cauliflower and the huge dose of Vitamin A you get from the carrots.
Cleansing Cauliflower Juice
Want to give your cauliflower juice a dose of green goodness?
- 1 large head cauliflower
- 1/2 bunch spinach
- 1 apple
- 1 pomegranate
- 1 inch ginger
It’s the perfect mix of sweet, spicy, and green-ness. And it’s a very beneficial juice for your overall health, with the chlorophyll in spinach helping to boost detox and cleanse your blood, the sulforaphanes in cauliflower boosting liver detox, pomegranate giving your heart health a helping hand and ginger improving blood flow!
Digestive Cauliflower Juice
When you’re juicing for gut health, here’s a simple yet highly beneficial juice recipe:
- 1 head of cauliflower
- 6 carrots
- 1⁄2 head cabbage
- 1 green apple
As you already know, cauliflower is gut-protective, supporting beneficial gut bacteria as well as protecting the vulnerable stomach lining. But did you know that cabbage is also a gut-healthy superfood? This cruciferous veggie contains the little-known vitamin U which strengthens your stomach lining to make it more resistant to ulcers!
Get the Blood Pumping Cauliflower Juice
Feeling cold? Having circulation problems? Here’s what you should juice:
- 3 carrots
- 1/4 head of cauliflower
- 1 beet
- 1 apple
- 1 inch ginger
Beets are rich in nitrates that boost blood flow and of course, spicy ginger does as well and even goes a step further to improve metabolism while it’s at it!
