Image Credit: by Edeni Mendes da Rocha Teka via Pixabay

We all love the idea of lots of juicy sex all the time. But, sex, reproduction, and fertility are actually very complicated and nuanced physiologic activities.

Physical and Mental Health Affect Sexual Health

Ayurveda, the 5,000+ year old traditional medical system from India, puts reproductive hormones and organs at the end of the line of all of the tissues produced in the body. Visibility of dysfunction in the systems of sex means that the “upstream” obstacles–think mental stress, poor digestion, trauma, pollution and others–are chronic and entrenched.

Don’t let this be discouraging! It means that every tiny step you take to support your overall health will also support your reproductive and sexual health.

Remember also that food is information as well as the vitamin and mineral nutrients to make the mechanical parts do their thing. Ideally, the information your body prefers in order to prioritize sexiness and/or fertility is that you are safe and clear to connect with yourself and/or a partner. This means addressing inflammation (the alarm bells!), oxidative stress (the grind of life!) as well as the nutrients themselves.

Here is a list of 10 foods — and two recipes! — that can support you wholly and completely, nose to toes, ensuring all systems are ready to GO.

Read Dr. Gillian Ehrlich’s interview about Ayurveda and juicing

1. Pumpkin Seeds

The first food on our list for sexual health is pumpkin seeds. Pumpkin seeds are helpful for benign prostatic hypertrophy (BPH), sperm viability, and hair loss. Pumpkin seeds also have an elevated zinc content compared to other produce, and this extra zinc can support testosterone production.

In this study, restricting zinc in the diet of young healthy men reduced testosterone levels. Conversely, giving zinc to elderly men with mild zinc deficiency increased testosterone levels.

It’s impossible to escape the toxicity of our environment caused by pollution. Another way pumpkin seeds are protective is their ability to increase sperm viability for men exposed to fertility-killing toxins, both in the environment and when encountered in larger doses, such as in chemotherapy.  Pumpkin seeds and ginger kept sperm alive and increased the total antioxidant capacity (TAC) level in rats treated with cyclophosphamide, a chemotherapy drug known for its reproductive and fertility side effects.

Proxelan, a commercially produced European medication used to treat prostate disease, includes pumpkin seeds among other ingredients (including Centella asiatica, Boswellia, Helichrysum, acetate vitamin E, Melaleuca alternifolia and hyaluronic acid).  A small study of 30 men reported subjective pain relief from prostatitis, improved urinary symptoms and of the 5 patients with white blood cells in their sperm had significant decrease or resolution of this symptom. Mean progressive sperm motility increased by 17.3%.

This head-to-head study between Tamsulosin (medication to treat an enlarged prostate) and pumpkin seed oil over 3 months found both products reduced BPH symptoms. While Tamsulosin was more effective, it was associated with side effects that the pumpkin seed oil group didn’t have (dizziness 5.9%, headache 2.9%, retrograde ejaculation 2.9%, redness & itching).

Added bonus: pumpkin seed oil can grow hair! This has been briefly studies in both male-patterned baldness and female hair loss. Now that’s sexy.

2. Fennel

Next on our list is fennel. Fennel, as the bulb or the seeds, is known in Ayurvedic practices to help calm the digestive system (we might say regulate the “digestive fire” or reduce inflammation), which improves the body’s ability to absorb nutrients and helps keep the GI tract healthy and strong.

When you lower inflammation and increase nutritent absorption, your libido has a much greater chance of rising to the occasion.

Check out this crazy study on the ejaculation of 20 rams whose sperm was stressed by freezing then thawing it with various concentrations of fennel extract! It was found that fennel extract at 10mg/ml actually improved semen quality (specifically as measured by sperm motility, viability, mitochondrial activity, lipid peroxidation & apoptotic changes).

One of the highest plant sources of potassium, sodium, phosphorous and calcium, fennel  is often used to blunt the inflammatory TNF, a pathway which contributes to conditions including cancer, heart disease, diabetes, allergy, asthma, arthritis, Crohn’s disease, multiple sclerosis, osteoporosis, psoriasis and Alzheimer’s.

Fennel can also help you with period pain! A combination of fennel, ginger, and cinnamon can significantly reduce period pain, as shown in this metastudy.

Check out a Green Detox Juice recipe featuring fennel

3. Dates

Third on our list is dates. In Ayurveda, there is a concept known as “ojas,” meaning vitality, power, the juiciness of life. Ojas is perfectly represented by the sweet, juicy, heavy, sticky date.

The research supports this too. Dates contain a plethora of vitamins including riboflavin (B2), biotin, thiamine (B1), folic acid (B7), vitamin C, and minerals including potassium, phosphorous, magnesium, calcium, sodium, and iron (an ergogenic energy builder)!

Date palm pollen has demonstrated effect on 40 infertile men for sperm motility, morphology (shape/ size) and “forward progressive motility.”Dates have also been shown to regulate cholesterol profiles and support antioxidant activity with their potassium, iron, polyphenol & flavonoid content in animal studies.

Date palm extract actually instigated “significant recovery and restoration of beta-cells’ structure and function” in diabetic rats showcasing its anti-inflammatory and anti-oxidant effects. This is important for balancing blood sugar which is part of metabolic syndrome, a true erectile dysfunction trigger and libido killer.

4. Beet Juice

Holy cow, the research indicating the health benefits of beets is strong! From improving oxygenation/ oxygen usage and athletic performance to decreasing cell damage, beet root juice is known as an “ergogenic” food, which boosts performance.

Overall, beet juice can support increased nitric oxide production which can increase blood flow, boost mitochondrial energy production, and strengthen muscle contraction and endurance. Additionally:

• Beet juice increased both peak and mean power output in this small group of 15 men.
• In this study, 22 participants ran faster without changed perceived exertion and their bodies produced less creatinine kinase, a marker for muscle damage. They also reported less fatigue in the 24 hours after exercise.
• Beets are an equal opportunity supporter! The benefit on performance in this review was found more effective for inactive to recreationally-active participants over elite athletes.
• Even at a SINGLE DOSE, beetroot juice improved performance for these trained rowers, these cyclists, and increased nitrite levels and lowered oxygen use for these kayakers .
• For these 10 male Division I Collegiate level sprinters, beet root juice attenuated the typical morning power loss.
• A beet root extract increased plasma nitrite and nitrate indicating increased systemic nitric oxide availability and decreased triglycerides in 72% of participants after just 30 days.

Other research and traditional usage indicates that beetroot juice can support healthy blood pressure and offer a big dose of antioxidant activity, which means there is huge potential for beets to help in the fight against cancer.

5. Pomegranate

Fifith on the list is the pomegranate, a fruit long known to symbolize sexuality and fertility. Ayurveda recognizes this antioxidant and its sweet, sour, and astringent tastes which can improve digestion without raising too much heat in the body. Pomegranate has excellent nutritional content with vitamins C & E, selenium and carotenoids.

Importatly, erectile function is all about blood flow, and pomegranates are a wonderful addition to the diet of someone who has erectile concerns. This has been shown in animal studies linking pomegranate juice’s antioxidant capacity with its ability to increase intracavernous blood flow, erectile response, and smooth muscle relaxation. Pomegranate juice can also prevent erectile tissue fibrosis.

Additionally:

• Stress-induced blood restriction was reduced in a test group but increased in a control group after three months of drinking pomegranate juice in 45 patients with heart disease.
• Both vitamin C & pomegranate extract showed positive protective effect again lead-induced injury to sperm number and production in animals.
• There is great potential for pomegranates to improve metabolic syndrome (elevated weight, cholesterol and blood pressure, which also can be associated with increased erectile dysfunction).

Quercetin in apples has been found to have a statistically significant effect on lower blood pressure, which allows for better flow to the reproductive organs. In females, high blood pressure can lead to a lower libido and less interest in sex, particularly if it causes fatigue. Lower blood flow to the vagina can affect how their body responds to sexual activity.

And bonus: apples can help with allergy control! This study of 33 volunteers found reduced swelling in the nasal turbinates as well as reduced sneezing attacks and runny nose. We forget that allergy is a form of innate immune system inflammation. Apples can support reduced allergic symptoms via polypheols.

7. Watermelon

Watermelon, seventh on the list, is well-known for its hydrating and performance-enhancing qualities. So perhaps it’s unsurprising that l-citrulline, an amino acid found in watermelon, has been shown to improve blood flow.

In this 2014 scientific study, watermelon given to rats functioned like an aphrodisiac, significantly increasing mounting behavior, intromission (copulation) frequency, and ejaculatory latency (meaning longer time to ejaculation).
Watermelon contains l-citrulline, which metabolizes to l-arginine, which support nitric oxide production which supports blood flow and combats erectile dysfunction.

When taking l-argnine directly, it can metabolize out before its effectiveness, but taking this as l-citrulline (like in watermelon) allows the metabolism to happen over time, potentially being more effective in the long run.

8. Saffron

Next up is saffron. Saffron (a spice made of crocus flower reproductive parts), may be the most expensive spice in the world, but only a tiny bit of saffron is needed to reap the benefits. Like the brilliant yellow gold color of the flower its from, saffron is known to brighten the mood and counteract depression – the number one reason to add saffron to your diet and support a happy sex life.

Fluoxetene (Prozac), an SSRI prescribed for depresseion, is known to cause potential sexual side effects such as decrease in libido and increase in sexual discomfort. In a study following 34 women taking fluoxetine  who also developed sexual-side effects, a daily dose of saffron improved their Female Sexual Function Index (FSFI) with significant results including total FSFI, arousal, lubrication and pain reduction.

Even after just 10 days of daily dosing, 20 male patients with erectile dysfunction found statistically significant improvements in morning erections (tip and base rigidity and tumescence).

Additionally, daily saffron dosing helps with PMS and can potentially act as an aphrodisiac (just ask these rats).

affron in the lab was effective as an aphrodisiac for rats (ew?). https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/17962007/

Yield depends on the size. Please refer to the Periodic Table of Juicing for yield percentage by weight.

Download Our Updated Periodic Table of Juicing

Dr. Gillian Ehrlich is a family nurse practitioner certified in functional medicine and Ayurveda. Her approach to patient care is deeply informed by almost a decade of leadership with Outward Bound voyages as an outdoor educator, working at a domestic violence shelter on the Yankton Sioux Reservation, and ten years of caring for homeless adults needing acute medical care.

Through the culmination of her experiences, she firmly believes we are built for transformation and healing, and are able to start that journey in whatever shoes we currently stand.

Dr. Ehrlich is the host of the Podcast for Healing Neurology.

www.neurovedahealth.com

Sources

Zinc status and serum testosterone levels of healthy adults

Protective effect of combined pumpkin seed and ginger extracts on sperm characteristics, biochemical parameters and epididymal histology in adult male rats treated with cyclophosphamide

Pumpkin seed oil (Cucurbita pepo) versus tamsulosin for benign prostatic hyperplasia symptom relief: a single-blind randomized clinical trial

Effect of pumpkin seed oil on hair growth in men with androgenetic alopecia: a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial

Pumpkin seed oil vs. minoxidil 5% topical foam for the treatment of female pattern hair loss: A randomized comparative trial

Does fennel extract ameliorate oxidative stress frozen-thawed ram sperm?

Foeniculum vulgare Mill: A Review of Its Botany, Phytochemistry, Pharmacology, Contemporary Application, and Toxicology

Suppression of the Nuclear Factor-KB Activation Pathway by Spice-Derived Phytochemicals

Efficacy of herbal medicine (cinnamon/fennel/ginger) for primary dysmenorrhea: a systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials

Fennel (Foeniculum vulgare) and Fenugreek (Trigonella foenum-graecum) Tea Drinking Suppresses Subjective Short-term Appetite in Overweight Women

Effect of Foeniculum Vulgare Seed Extract On Mammary Glandsand Oviducts of Ovariectomised Rats

Effect of Palm Pollen on Sperm Parameters of Infertile Man

Antioxidant and antihyperlipidemic effects of Ajwa date (Phoenix dactylifera L.) extracts in rats fed a cholesterol-rich diet

Date palm fruit extract ameliorated pancreatic apoptosis, endocrine dysfunction and regulatory inflammatory cytokines in Streptozotocin-induced diabetes in rats

Effects of Beetroot Juice Supplementation on Cardiorespiratory Endurance in Athletes. A Systematic Review

Effects of Beetroot Juice Supplementation on Performance and Fatigue in a 30-s All-Out Sprint Exercise: A Randomized, Double-Blind Cross-Over Study

Betalain-rich concentrate supplementation improves exercise performance and recovery in competitive triathletes

The effect of nitrate supplementation on exercise performance in healthy individuals: a systematic review and meta-analysis

The effect of variable doses of inorganic nitrate-rich beetroot juice on simulated 2,000-m rowing performance in trained athletes

A single dose of beetroot juice enhances cycling performance in simulated altitude

The effects of a single dose of concentrated beetroot juice on performance in trained flatwater kayakers

Acute Beetroot Juice Supplementation Attenuates Morning-Associated Decrements in Supramaximal Exercise Performance in Trained Sprinters

All-natural nitrite and nitrate containing dietary supplement promotes nitric oxide production and reduces triglycerides in human

Nutritional and functional potential of Beta vulgaris cicla and rubra

Therapeutic Effects of Punica granatum (Pomegranate): An Updated Review of Clinical Trials

Effects of pomegranate juice consumption on myocardial perfusion in patients with coronary heart disease

Effect of Punica granatum (pomegranate) on sperm production in male rats treated with lead acetate

Therapeutic Potential of Pomegranate in Metabolic Disorders

Ursolic acid increases skeletal muscle and brown fat and decreases diet-induced obesity, glucose intolerance and fatty liver disease

Clinical effects of apple polyphenols on persistent allergic rhinitis: A randomized double-blind placebo-controlled parallel arm study

Effects of Quercetin on Blood Pressure: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Randomized Controlled Trials

Effects of L-citrulline supplementation and watermelon consumption on longer-term and postprandial vascular function and cardiometabolic risk markers: a meta-analysis of randomised controlled trials in adults

Effect of Watermelon (Citrullus lanatus) Flesh Extract on Sexual Behavior of Male Rats

Transforming growth factor-beta bound to soluble derivatives of the beta amyloid precursor protein of Alzheimer’s disease

Saffron for treatment of fluoxetine-induced sexual dysfunction in women: randomized double-blind placebo-controlled study

Crocus sativus L. (saffron) in the treatment of premenstrual syndrome: a double-blind, randomised and placebo-controlled trial

Evaluation of Crocus sativus L. (saffron) on male erectile dysfunction: a pilot study

Chili Pepper Carotenoids: Nutraceutical Properties and Mechanisms of Action

Antioxidant, Anti-Obesity, Nutritional and Other Beneficial Effects of Different Chili Pepper: A Review

The Association of Hot Red Chili Pepper Consumption and Mortality: A Large Population-Based Cohort Study

Dietary flavonoid intake and incidence of erectile dysfunction

Immunomodulatory Role of Urolithin A on Metabolic Diseases

Medical Disclaimer

PURE Juicer is a juicing company. We are not doctors or medical experts. All content and information on this blog and website is for informational and educational purposes only, does not constitute medical advice, and does not establish any patient-client relationship by using this website.

Although we strive to provide accurate general information, the information presented here is not a substitute for professional advice. You should not rely solely on this information. Always consult a professional in your area for your health questions and concerns before making any professional, legal, medical, financial, or tax-related decisions.

In response to this piece about juicing on Today.com, we reached out to Dr. Gillian Ehrlich, who brings to the table a medical perspective and a large dose of common sense. We appreciate her thoughtful response, and we hope you’ll read it and share a comment at the end.

– Jen, Chief Juicing Officer 

Kudos to the writer of this article for explicitly qualifying that juicing is not right for everybody, at every time, at any dose- this is true! 

Let’s unpack how to think, generally, about healthy therapies like juicing in the broader context of the state of our national health, fad diets, and define what a “detox” actually is. We’ll finish with the wider picture about oxalates.  

How Do We Know When Too Much is Too Much?

A quick story: In the mid-90’s, I participated in a month-long sea kayaking course amongst the islands of southeast Alaska. It was an incredible adventure. Our coursework focused on exploration- both personal as well as environmental. During a tides and currents lesson one sunny afternoon, four of our pals decided to take the ‘water challenge’: drinking a gallon of water in one hour. Hydration is good, right? If some is good, more is better, right? After their 3rd quart in 45 minutes, each of them was spending less time finishing their final quart and more time vomiting water into the sand next to our beachy classroom. We laughed and laughed at them but it wasn’t until years later that I learned too much water can damage your kidneys, electrolyte balance, brain–and ultimately can be fatal.

While this article may have caused some readers to worry about their own juicing habits, we could replace the word “juice” with the word “water’” and offer a similarly misleading cautionary tale. And no one would ever tell you to stop drinking water.

The Solution: We Need to Listen to Our Bodies

The real health tragedy in our nation is that we are not encouraged to listen to our body’s signals, trained to interpret their meaning, or even allowed to follow their instructions. 

We often are required to wake up before our sleep is done (aka detox and reset), eat a mandated lunch at noon despite when hunger cues arise (or don’t), and exercise at odd hours or not at all in unforgiving routines that can span years. 

In the midst of this, we are running to the supermarket that has all of the foods all of the time, furthering our disconnection from any natural rhythms or sources for our foods. I would say this disconnection is at the root of our current health statistics: 50% of all adults have at least one chronic health condition as of 2012 and 25% of all adults have at least TWO chronic conditions. 

Chronic conditions accounted for 86% of all healthcare expenditures prior to the COVID-19 pandemic. We are becoming more and more chronically ill as a population. We have to do something. When we read an article warning caution around juicing, it’s important to recognize that people are searching for change for very good reasons! 

Fad Diets Fade for Good Reason

Herein, however, is the drive for a “fad diet.” Born out of curiosity, ego to look a certain way, or desperation to feel better, heal or live longer, fad diets have become their own epidemic. The term “fad” indicates something that everybody of a certain period tries for the moment and then fades, usually because it was never elemental to the human condition anyway. Hula hoops are a great example. Various types of bicycles. The problem with a fad is that it is never customized to the individual but marketed to the masses and your health will always be personal to you.

Certainly there are people who treat juicing like a fad, but the truth is that squeezing liquid out of fruits and vegetables is a practice as old as our species and these foods themselves. 

On that same Alaskan trip, we would fill our Nalgene water bottles with huge juicy blueberries and huckleberries and shake them until these all exploded to drink the sweet mixed juice. Part of what makes us human is how we “process” our food through grinding, fermenting, and cooking to increase the availability of nutrients, for preservation, or for flavor. 

Getting Nourishment from Fruits and Vegetables is Not a Fad

It’s elemental to separate the “fad” part from the healthy, stable, generally safe, and beneficial part of juicing. Juice can allow for a higher gradient of micronutrients to be absorbed which can be elemental with GI issues associated with malabsorption or provide the electrolyte supportive of conditions like dysautonomia (specifically POTS- Postural Orthostatic Tachycardia Syndrome) that we are seeing flare up in Long-COVID patients. What do we call a nutritional therapy when it can be effective and efficient for driving mental clarity and physical health? 

Nourishment from fresh fruits and vegetables can never be “a fad.”  It’s how we evolved to live on the planet. 

Detox According to Traditional Medicine

“Detox” is another of these fad words that is unfortunately ever more relevant as our animal bodies encounter a burden of pollution the planet has never seen before. 80,000 novel chemicals have been released into the environment since World War II. 

It behooves all of us to attend to our metabolic waste baskets to ensure we’re continually eliminating what we might be eating, drinking or inhaling (like the microplastics sampled from the pristine air over Yellowstone in August 2019.

Ayurveda, the 5,000 year old traditional medical system of India, has an entire branch (one of eight!) dedicated to detoxification and rejuvenation. It’s been recommended for millennia now to include attention to daily and seasonal elimination to prevent disease formation as well as treat some diseases after they have arisen. Ayurveda also recognizes that the DNA that you carry has been custom mixed just for you. There has never been a ‘you’ before and will never be a ‘you’ again. Your unique constitution deserves unique diet and lifestyle supports. No food or therapy is recommended for all people at all times. Juicing can be a natural and healthy part of a dietary program for most people. 

Resources abound online to help you figure out if/ when and how juicing might be right for you and just about anybody can get started with daily juices. If you have a medical condition, please discuss juicing with your medical provider. If your medical provider isn’t nutrition-savvy (medical school has not historically taught much nutrition but that is changing!), consider seeing a nutritionist or dietitian, a practitioner trained in Functional Medicine (https://www.ifm.org/find-a-practitioner/), a  Naturopath Doctor, or a medical practitioner trained in Ayurveda for Traditional Chinese Medicine. 

A NOTE ABOUT OXALATES:

It is absolutely true that many fresh fruits and veggies contain oxalates, and short of stopping all fruits and vegetables in your diet, you’re never going to rid yourself of oxalates.

The problem with oxalates is mostly around kidney stone formation, which results from a complex collaboration between an individual’s metabolism, their diet (including how they cook/prepare their foods), hydration status, certain medications, and current weight. The conversation about oxalates would not be complete without talking about how the body produces its own oxalates and that the microbiome plays a considerable role in the total body burden of oxalates. 

Antibiotics that interrupt established microbial communities and diminish gut diversity are known to contribute to calcium oxalate kidney stone formation. Pointing to juice as a risk factor for oxalate burden is too narrow a lens; the broader context of microbiotic diversity, antibiotic use, other food intake, etc, matters tremendously when we discuss the risks/benefits of a plant-based diet.

We should mention that some kidney stones form more in acidic urinary environments; many fresh fruits and vegetables are more alkaline and might actually counteract this total acidity in the body. This review noted ‘oxalate restriction is minimally effective and applies primarily to those with genetic mutations in the oxalate transporters. The same article quotes this article: Update on Nephrolithiasis Management  which says “For prevention of calcium oxalate, cystine, and uric acid stones, urine should be alkalinized. 45,46 Western diets are characteristically high in acid-producing foods, such as grains, dairy products, legumes, and meat. Alkalinizing urine involves eating a diet high in fruits and vegetables, taking supplemental or prescription citrate, or drinking alkaline mineral waters.1”

Gillian Ehrlich, DNP, ARNP

Family Nurse Practitioner

Certified in Functional Medicine 2014

Certified in Ayurvedic Medicine 2001

Watch and listen to our interview with Gillian Ehrlich, ARNP, DNP to learn how to incorporate Ayurvedic practices into juicing for a nourished and well-balanced constitution.

Transcript:

JL: Hi everybody, this is Jen here from PURE Juicer. It is such an honor to have Dr. Gillian Ehrlich here with us today. We are here to talk about Ayurveda. Dr. Gillian has a number of different experiences and trainings in her background, but today we want to focus on Ayurveda and juicing and then weave in the other areas of her expertise. She is a doctor in nursing practitioner. She’s also a functional medical doctor as well as an expert in Ayurveda.

I’ll let her talk a little bit more about those pieces, but we’re really fascinated about Ayurveda and juicing, because Ayurveda is quite an old, traditional medicine and practice, and juicing really wasn’t part of Ayurveda because there was no juicing necessarily at the time. But we do believe that there are ways that they can compliment each other really well. And I’m just going to go ahead and dive in.

Gillian, welcome.

GE: Thank you.

Can Juicing Be a Part of Your Ayurveda Practice?

JL: Question number one, can juicing be a part of someone’s Ayurveda practice?

GE: It’s such a good question and there’s like a crazy amount of controversy, like, “Should it be? Should it not be?” And I think what’s most important are the two principles that we have going on, which is number one, that Ayurveda is all about you. So it’s all about what you need, the foods you need, how you need them in the way and the time and the place and the season that you need them. So knowing your system from an Ayurvedic perspective is the first thing that can help you decide if juice is appropriate for you now and what that juice might look like.

And the second piece is really knowing that juice itself is actually food in a very easily digestible form. And Ayurveda is actually all about that. So when we talk about the classic… Like when you go to the mall and you get a juice, it’s often not real vegetables. There’s often a bunch of other junk in there. It’s often over crushed ice.

And that type of juicing typically is not really supported by Ayurveda. But when we’re talking about the kind of juicing that PURE Juicer really recommends and talks about, and the ways that you can use your PURE Juicer, making your food easily digestible and appropriate for your specific constitution in this moment, in this time, then everything including juicing can absolutely be part of a healthy Ayurvedic regimen.

JL: So I would love to know what your practice is, and if you’re comfortable maybe sharing sort of your Doshas, and we’ll get into Doshas a little bit more as we go further into this conversation.

How do you use juicing to supplement and support your personal health?

A Healthy Constitution

GE: Okay, so here’s the craziest part of… One of the nutshells that I think is most critical to understanding your health from an Ayurvedic perspective in today’s world, we talk about health like, “Salad’s healthier, greens are healthier, this is healthier, that’s healthy.” But the truth is that everything has qualities to it. And your constitution, including you, including your own body, your own mind, your own spirit, and these qualities, what we’re trying to do is essentially match the qualities. And so all of us at the moment of our conception, all the forces acting in the universe at one time made our unique constitution. And so we come out with this constitution and then all the epigenetic influences, if anybody knows that word, is really like the seasons and the foods we eat and the things that we encounter, and whether we play trombone or play football, all the different things in our world change because they influence our constitution.

Understanding Your Own Constitution

And so then, our qualities are changed. And health for each of us is really getting our current constitution to match that inherent constitution. There’s three constitutional groups of qualities. They’re called Vata, Pitta, Kapha, and each of these Vata, Pitta, Kapha is called a dosha. And what that means is it’s essentially the basket of qualities that kind of define us. And they are both strengths and weaknesses.

So for example, a quality of Vata can be cold, and so cold can be helpful to understand. People can have a cold heart, people can have cold hands and feet. But if you’re a Vata person and you have this cold hands, cold feet, then you know that icy juice is not the thing for you. Then you need the equivalent instead of muddled lime and tonic with your vodka, then you need the hot toddy. So even with alcoholic drinks, which are another way that our culture uses a lot of liquids and drinks, we know that there’s such a variety.

And so, the equivalent of a hot toddy in juice would be using room temperature juices, or even using broth or adding warming spices like cinnamon or cardamom or cumin or fennel. Adding some of those digestive spices, which you can actually mix up in your PURE Juicer, which is why I really love this machine. And so you can really make it a — for you at any time. And so what I use for my dosha is… Oh, actually, let me go back one step.

Sorry, I’m getting ahead of myself… Excited about these doshas. So that kernel of knowledge that can be so critical for us is that food… When you eat food, whether it’s 10,000 years ago or 10,000 years from now, when you eat, when a human being, when an animal eats food, the food needs to transition into well-formed bodily tissue. Needs to transition into energy and heat and enzymatic reactions. Needs to transition into immunity and intelligence. And then needs to transition into consciousness.

So we want to eat for the consciousness that we seek. Oh God, no pressure. I don’t know if my Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup really turns into my consciousness.

JL:  (laughs) Or maybe it does.

GE: (laughs) Or maybe… Maybe that’s part of what I’ve got going on. Maybe that’s part it. But when these transitions don’t happen cleanly and clearly, when our Agni, our digestive fire isn’t strong enough, instead of those transitions, we get junk. And that junk is called Ama. And Ama can be seen in the body. You all know if you have Ama, it can be a coating on the tongue, pain in the joints, stiffness and aching like if you sit down for a half an hour and then you get up and you’re like, “Ugh, I got to warm up.” That’s because there’s Ama in your tissues, irritability in the mind, impatience, poor sleep. Sometimes it’s perseverating thinking. So these things can all be represented by Ama. And if Ama gets too far down the road in the tissues, like there’s too much Ama for too long, that’s what produces autoimmune disease.

JL: Okay. Let’s get you back to what your juices are, and let’s get into those because there’s so much more that I want to fill in for people to understand who you are and how this all fits together. What juices do you like to have based on your Doshas?

GE: My constitution.

JL: Yeah.

Dr. Ehrlich’s Favorite Juices

GE: So my favorite juices are… I like fruit and vegetable juices, and I really like the clarifying ones. So I love things with beet, with celery, with lime or lemon with ginger. I love cilantro. And my constitution, at this point, I have been… I sit at my desk, I exercise, but then I’m sedentary. And so I want things that essentially squeeze my liver. And here at the beginning of the spring season, what the earth is giving us is these fresh little greens. And so things like kale, things like spinach, things that are newly coming out of the ground, even arugula-

JL: Dandelion greens.

GE: Dandelion greens, all of those are excellent for stimulating the liver and getting things moving. So as I’m sitting thinking about patients, I want things that… I actually crave bitter greens plus lemon and ginger and lime.

JL: Those are some of my favorite.

GE: Yeah.

JL: I love a little bit of green apple in there too, just because it gives you a little more juice. And it also… I just love how it softens everything. It brings it all together.

GE: Yeah. And apple is actually a really good balancing. So even stewed or baked apples is often what we recommend for an easy morning digestive component. There’s a reason that we give apple juice to kids. It’s just a nice digestive.

JL: Yeah. The malic acid. And I’ve also read that when you mix the apple mash, if you mix it with the carrot mash, it actually stimulates and creates more nutrition from the carrot too, just because the way that the enzymes interact with each other.

GE: Yeah, absolutely.

JL: Well, what I love about you too is you have this Ayurvedic foundation, which I know enough about you.

Gillian has this amazing Ayurvedic foundation, but she also has an extensive training in Western medicine. And so I thought maybe what we could do next is share a little bit more about who you are and tell us why you took the road of doctor and in nurse practitioning.

Why did you take that road and how have you incorporated all of your different areas of training to do what you do today?

Dr. Ehrlich’s Path to Ayurvedic Medicine

GE: Yes, absolutely. I’m happy to chat about that. So when I was growing up as a kid in Cleveland in the eighties, I will openly admit that I looked around and I was like, “What am I going to do with my life?” I didn’t see a lot of things that kind of called naturally to me. And I was always known as a kid who marched to the beat of her own drum, like I was a weirdo. My dad still says, “When the aliens come to take you home to your home planet, I’ll be very, very sad to see you go.” And so I had one teacher, Jane Esselstyn, who was my high school health teacher, who’s the daughter of Caldwell Esselstyn, who’s in the Forks Over Knives movie. Yes.

And so she was an Outward Bound instructor at the time, and she was 25-years-old then, and I was 17. So she introduced me to being outside, and that’s where I kind of fell in love. And being outside really felt like health to me. And so I spent seven years as an outdoor educator, mostly with Pacific Crest Outward Bound School, sailing in the San Juan and the Canadian Gulf Islands out here in the Pacific Northwest. I say that way because they’re up north that way.

JL: Yeah. Yeah.

GE: And I love that. And a dear friend of mine from elementary school, actually, Anisha Durve, who has written the book on marma points, Ayurvedic acupressure points, who’s traditional Chinese medicine doctor, as well as an Ayurvedic clinician, brought me to a class with Dr. Vasant Lad in the late nineties. And I sat there and listened to him talk about the Vata, Pitta, Kapha and I was like, “What? Wait, what?” And so the next summer when I went back to my Outward Bound career, I remember picking out and trying, and I remember picking out a Vata kid and saying, “Do these 12 things.” And she was on it, because Vata learns quickly, but then forgets quickly. So she did it beautifully, and I never expected her to remember it ever after 10 minutes. And she didn’t. And I remember working with a Kapha kid, a slow, stable, always looks like he was a sleeper, bored.

I spent an hour teaching him how to anchor the boat. And a week later I was like, “Anchor the boat.” And he just got up and did it because Kapha learns slowly, but then remembers forever.

JL: Amazing.

GE: And I remember thinking, “If this is what I got out of two hours with Dr. Lad, it revolutionized my teaching.” I felt like I have to know more. So I spent a year with him in 2000, 2001, and by the time I left, I knew that I wanted to help make Ayurveda our common ground in medicine. And that’s really what his mission is also, which is why I keep doing it. It’s been such a light in my life. And so I looked at going to medical school and I still felt like it was too much time inside. I had just spent seven years living outside. I just didn’t feel like I could go that much inside. And so I was like, “Oh, I’ll be a nurse and I’ll see what western medicine feels like.” And I did bedside nursing for about eight years at Harborview, our mission driven hospital here. And I watched people code, I watched people die on cardiac monitors.

We had dialysis on our floor. I worked with a lot of patients with a lot of different mental illnesses. And it was an incredible experience to see people who were newly paralyzed, people who had C2 fractures and where quadriplegics, people on ventilators, just very intense… People with intense wounds. You’re gloving up to your armpit to pack their wounds to try and get them better. And it was just incredible to watch the edges of what it looks like to be alive or when you cross that edge, what it looks like to pass away. And so I fell in love then with medicine, and I just thought, “I have to keep doing this.” And I wanted to do this from an Ayurvedic perspective.

And so I went back for my doctorate of nursing practice at the University of Washington as a family nurse practitioner. And so my degree is… I have a doctorate of nursing practice. My specialty is family nurse practitioner. And then my license is from the State of Washington is advanced registered nurse practitioner, ARMP. So I am technically a doctor, but I am a doctor nurse, which I always want to be called a “noctor” or a “durse.” I’m not trying to pretend I’m a medical doctor. I am proud of being a nursing doctor.

JL: Yeah. Yeah.

GE: Someday maybe that’ll take hold.

JL: Yes, I love it. Noctor. I might call you that from now on.

GE: Thank you. I would love that.

JL: Noctor Gillian. Noctor Gillian. Well, I love that too, because it kind of takes the best of so many worlds and it really allows you… I think what I love… And I did an Outward Bound, actually.

GE: Oh, you did?

JL: At the North Cascades. Yeah. When I graduated from college, that was what I wanted to do. And it was so hard for me because I went and I was expect… I was just ready to get just thrown into the ground, just miserable and pain and crying because it was so hard. And the weather was perfect, the people were great. Nothing was hard. We had all this extra time. And that was the thing that killed me. It was all this extra time of just having to sit still. It was the hardest thing I had to do on that-

GE: Interesting.

JL: … trip. Give me as heavy of a pack as you want. Make me as dirty and stinky for a short period of time, can totally take it, but give me all of this downtime. It was brutal. So yeah.

GE: Wow.

JL: Yeah.

GE: Wow. What a fun experience.

JL: Yeah. We haven’t talked about functional medicine, but let’s just kind of weave that in if we find-

GE: Oh.

JL: Have a few other questions I want to get through into that too. But you spoke a little bit about doshas. Let me just ask it again though.

The Three Doshas: Vata, Pitta, Kapha

JL: What is a dosha, and how can people use it to benefit their health? Even if you have an example of someone, and you know me well enough, if you want to use me too as an example, feel free to do that because I feel like that oftentimes helps break down those words-

GE: Absolutely.

JL: … that don’t always necessarily make sense to us because–yeah.

GE: So we think about them in qualities, and I’ll just list them out because it’s a helpful foundation. So Vata dosha. Vata is made of the elements of air and space, and it’s the principle of movement.

So Vata people, the qualities are a cold, light, dry, rough, mobile, subtle.

And Vata people like to jump dance, sing, play. When you think about the Vata body, you think about Twiggy, if anybody knows that model from the sixties. But I think of Nicole Richie or Paris Hilton, or I think of Audrey Hepburn, just women who are… Not women, actually. Anybody. But people who are light and thin. Even Fred Astaire has some of those Vata skinny mini… Likes to move, likes to dance, likes to sing.

The Vata person goes to a party and just wants to play and laugh and talk. The Vata person, when they’re out of balance… That’s when they’re in balance.

And when they’re in balance, their mind can make connections that others can’t. Vata can be artistic and incredibly creative and involved in the arts. When Vata goes sideways, when Vata gets imbalanced–because there’s pluses and minuses to each of these doshas–when Vata gets imbalanced, people can get constipated, gas and bloating, their memory can wane, and they can get really afraid. Their reaction can often be fear, insomnia. You’re not sleeping at night, your bowels don’t move, you’re anxious. That’s Vata.

You can have… The Pitta person… And remember, we’re all a mix of all three of these.

The Pitta person is… It’s the elements of fire and water. It’s the principle of transformation. And the qualities are hot, light, sharp, oily, liquid, spreading. And these qualities, the Pitta, the person tends to be a medium build and very intense. So I have a lot of Pitta, which makes me want to organize this information and spread the love of Ayurveda. And you have a lot of Pitta, right?

JL: Yeah.

GE: That’s why we have a really good time together because we’re both sharp and funny. So-

JL: Yes, we are.

GE: And then when Pitta gets a little off balance, but they can get… We go from sharp and funny to spicy. And so sometimes the Pitta person can get too critical, over critical, or kind of even mean. And then the Pitta things that happen in the body are loose stools, heartburn, inflammation, things that are red and hot.

And then the Kapha dosha. The Kapha person is… Kapha is water and earth, and it’s the principle of structure. So Kapha people are stout, solid, live forever, kind of slow, really stable. And the qualities are heavy, slow, cold, oily, dense, soft, cloudy, liquid, stable. And so I think of Marlon Brando, Arnold Schwarzenegger, these people who are stout like Earth. That’s the Kapha constitution. And Kapha can be really stable, but Kapha can also hold onto things. So Kapha can hold onto to clothes, like… They’re collectors and they won’t let go of things.

Or Kapha can really hold onto relationships and get really emotional because they’re so watery. So they can cry a lot. And they miss people. Even when the relationship is over and they don’t want to date the person anymore, they still miss them because they’re Kapha. So we say that… There’s a door slams in another room, Vata goes, “What’s that?” Pitta says, “Who slammed that door?” And Kapha just shrugs and eats a candy bar and sits on the couch. So we all have a mix. Like some-

JL: I have a whole family of each one of them.

GE: It’s so great. It’s so great.

JL: Yeah.

GE: So when we know ourselves, it’s like we can really figure out how to make our entire world medicine. And so perfect about juicing is that we want that transition in our food to our consciousness. And you can only eat for the amount that you can digest. And so Pitta people should… As we were talking about like I’m a Pitta person. My Pitta up because I’m working hard and I’m doing a lot of talking lately, which is actually Vata. But lots of detective work lately with patients. And so the good juices for me are those fresh, bitter greens. And the spiciness of the ginger can actually help with the Vata component because Vata digestion can be slow and you need to be very gentle.

So for a person who’s got a Vata imbalance, you want to give them warmer juices, more of the spices for warming it up. You want to do room temperature or even a little warm, that’s like the hot toddy type of juice. You can even add a little bit of broth in your juice, which I guess makes your juice a soup. But the line between juice and soup is so slim.

JL: You know what I’ve done? Is I’ve made green juice and then I’ve actually taken the pulp and I’ve turned it into vegetable stock.

GE: Oh, it’s amazing.

JL: Yeah. So I do… That way, I get my juice. And it is typically room temperature. I tend to like my juices room temperature, but I have to put it in the fridge for my son and husband because they like everything as cold as possible. But I’m very different. But I love the soup stock that you can make with the greens.

GE: Yes.

JL: So it’s another fun sort of zero waste way to maximize your fruits and vegetables too.

GE: That is awesome. That is awesome. Yep. Perfect.

JL: Yeah. So that’s the next perfect segue into digestion. And you did talk about Ayurveda and the definition of health is digestion.

Ayurveda and Definition of Health: Your Digestion

GE: So the definition of Ayurveda has a couple different digestions of health, but… I mean definitions of health. But the one I like the best is this whole long Sanskrit thing, which I don’t need to say, but it’s basically balanced constitution, like your current constitution matches your original constitution. Balanced digestive fire. It’s not too hot and it’s not too cool. You need to cook your food in the right temperature of water in the pot of your stomach. Well-formed bodily tissues. I’m like saying the Sanskrit in my head. Completely eliminated wastes.

JL: Yeah.

GE: It says bliss and clarity, and the sense is the soul and the mind and the person who is well-situated in self. So you really… You’re not healthy in Ayurveda until you actually feel like you belong in your body. And if you don’t feel like you belong here on earth or belong here in your body, then we’ve got work to do.

JL: Yeah.

GE: So all of that is relevant and pertinent. And Ayurveda has a huge emphasis on the clarity of the senses. And when you think about it, those are the ways that we really get to have our spirit and body in our body and participate in the world, is through our senses. That’s what gives us our information. So we want them to be clear.

JL: Yeah. Are there good tips, I mean, for people? I am guessing that there’s a little Ama and a little off balance in everybody at some point, but are there ones… Are there spices or anything that you recommend or juices that are good for almost all of the doshas?

GE: So the only thing that’s really good… So there are some things which we call tridoshic.

JL: Okay.

GE: So there’s… Triphala is one of the things that’s tridoshic. Triphala. Tri means three, and phala means fruits. And those are Amalaki, Bibhitaki, and Haritaki.

JL: Okay.

GE: And Triphala is an amazing little spice blend. You can get it in a powder or in a tablet, like a press tablet or capsule. And Triphala is said to contain five of the six tastes in Ayurveda, everything except salty. And you typically taste the taste that you need, the one that you’re lacking. So for me, it’s always been… Over the last 20 some years, it’s typically bitter, and sometimes it’s stringent, if I’m really off. But you know your digestion is perfect when your Triphala tastes sweet.

JL: Oh, that’s interesting. And not to be confused with Triphala which is what I called it first.

GE: I know. Everybody wants to call it Triphala.

JL: That’s what it looks like. It sounds a little bit like an adaptogen too, where adaptogens can change based on what your body needs. So is it kind of an adaptogen too?

GE: So adaptogens, I would think of more about in terms of your adrenal support, whether they kind of calm you down or ramp you up. That’s the adjustment that gets made. And it does do that in your digestion. And so it does, it adjusts for… These are the… I mean, herbs have prana, they have energy in them. Right? And that’s part of why we like them so much. So we have a relationship with our food. We know that if you eat too much five star chili, it’s going to hurt because we have a relationship between our body and our food. And so herbs are very much like that. The idea of medicinal herbs is that they’re really concentrated and that’s actually part of what we’re doing when we’re making juice.

JL: I am… And Kim always teases me. I love parsley so much. Like the more parsley, the better. What is that? That’s bitter, right?

GE: It is, but it’s not as strongly bitter. Parsley has a little bit of sweetness to it. So it’s actually good for Pitta. I wonder if parsley is tridosha. I actually don’t know. I could look it up, but I can look it up and get back to you.

JL: I bet it is. Okay. So you spent a lot of time in the hospital and then you had a practice where you were seeing people as a family nurse practitioner, and you were also including some of your Ayurveda. So what were some of the tips or go-tos that you used? And we’ve gone through these before, but let’s just do one at a time.

Ayurvedic Tricks for Sleep

Let’s say someone comes in and they’re having issues with sleep. What were some of the tricks… And spices. Because anyone listening here and interested in juicing and spices, as you can absolutely put juice and spice together. And we’re really excited. We’re going to come out with a lot more examples of that. But we grind our own spices, cinnamon, allspice, black pepper, obviously ginger and turmeric. You can grind using the stage one of the juicer. And then you can just mix those into a tea. You can mix those into juices. So that said… Okay, sleep. Someone is not getting good sleep, they just can’t either fall asleep or they wake up at two in the morning and they can’t go back to sleep. What are you doing?

Golden Milk and Other Tonics

GE: So for not being able to fall asleep, there’s two things… So often it’s our cortisol that is going to… Either our cortisol or our blood sugar or our mind that is preventing us from sleeping, either from falling asleep, getting over that hump and letting go, or that’s going to be waking us up at that 2:00 to 6:00 AM time, or that middle of the nighttime.

And so things that we’re trying to do are using those adaptogens to support the body to be able to feel safe enough to let go and let rejuvenation happen without our conscious mind trying to protect us. So for sleep, I’ll often recommend golden milk. So golden milk is any type of milk, so this can be coconut milk, oat milk, hemp milk, Rice DREAM… Or rice milk. I’m not a huge fan of soy milk. And one thing I’ll say about cow milk or animal milk from the Ayurvedic perspective is that it needs to have full-fat.

So in Ayurveda, if you separate the fat from the protein, then it becomes poison and it doesn’t digest well. So that full-fat. And especially before bed, that fat is going to help anchor the mind. So full-fat milks, and then we add spices like turmeric and ginger and black pepper, and… What else can go in there? You can… And ghee. A little bit of warm ghee can be so nice for anchoring the mind. And then that can help the mind. And you can even add a little bit of sweetness with either some honey or some… You never want to cook your honey. That’s another thing in Ayurveda, you always want to do fresh honey, never cook it. Or you can use the sweetener of your choice. Something like stevia.

JL: Yeah.

GE: And so golden milk is perfect for a nightcap before bed. If you’re waking up in the middle of the night, then we think about that cortisol and then some more adaptogens before bed. Things like… These are herbs like ashwagandha-

JL: Love it.

GE: … brahmi, bacopa. There are supplements and tinctures that you can add. And even things that you can add into juice. Tinctures you can even add into juice. Like I Sleep Soundly, Banyan Botanicals has one. You can find that on our website. So tonics like that, that can help with sleep before bed.

But if you’re going to stabilize the mind and stabilize the system, then you may be able to sleep more completely. Another supplement that I use a lot is actually called phosphatidylserine.

JL: Ooh.

GE: It has nothing to do with juicing. But phosphatidylserine is a really nice… It helps. What it is said to do is it helps with cellular communication. So if the cells can communicate better, then they all relax. It’s kind of like if they feel like their network is reachable, then they can stop yelling and then the mind can go to sleep.

JL: I have heard that exercise does a good job with that too, which that doesn’t really help with sleep because when you exercise, that wakes you up, so you want to… Yeah, that’s-

GE: Exercise earlier in the day. Absolutely.

JL: Yeah.

Visualization and Breath Work

GE: A good dog’s a tired dog. So exercise earlier in the day. And then there’s all these kind of mental things for getting to sleep. So using breath work is a huge component of being able to fall asleep. Visualization, so…

JL: Yeah.

GE: And sometimes people will actually visualize the thoughts that come up that feel like, “Oh, I have to solve this problem right now.” Just envision yourself with a chest, the chest of your choice, like a big old steamer trunk, and you can put them in those thoughts and ideas and then close that lid so that those thoughts are safe. You don’t have to let them go. You can keep them safe, but that you’re not actively working on them at the time your body needs to rest.

JL: I’ve done… I always love the body scan. And I swear, by the time I get to my ears, I’m gone. But it takes time to actually really get yourself focused on the top and it feels so good. And then… Yeah, by the time I get here, I’m gone.

GE: Because it’s like we have to… If we disengage our thinking from all of the stuff in the world and put it onto our body, then our body’s like, “Oh great. Now we’ll just let it go. Now we’ll go to sleep.”

JL: Go ahead.

Rub Oil on Your Feet

GE: Okay. One last one. Last one for sleep is actually rubbing oil on your feet. And that’s actually how I got interested in Ayurveda was because my friend had taken me to this class and I got kind of curious about it, but she had also… I had insomnia since childhood. I fell asleep once when I was nine, I remember it like it was yesterday because I couldn’t believe I was falling asleep. But other than that, it was until I was about 24 years old. And she was like, “Rub oil, rub oil, rub oil on your feet.” And I was like, “That’s the stupidest thing ever.”

But one night I was like, “What else am I doing besides thinking I’m not going to rub oil on my feet?” What a Pitta thing to do. And so I got up and rubbed oil on my feet, like kitchen oil. I just use olive oil from the kitchen. You can get sleep oil, you can get Vata digest oil, you can get all these other medicated oils. I just used kitchen olive oil, rubbed it on my feet and my knees, and then I remember falling asleep and thinking, “No effing way.” I was out.

JL: That’s amazing. I’m going to do that. I mean, I love sleep. I just love my sleep. There’s rarely ever anything gets in the way of that whole dance to my sleep time.

GE: Good. Good.

Energy Boosters

JL: So let’s look at the opposite. So let’s say sleep is fine. What about energy? All right, people need energy. If they’re just sluggish… I mean, we live in Seattle, it’s dark and gray a lot of the year, so sometimes we have that against us. But what are some tricks that you used or that you would share with your patients that worked for them?

GE: So it’s always good to know your dosha. So in the morning for getting out of bed, Vata actually needs to have a little luxurious, slow, gentle wake up.

Pitta should wake up at a routine time and then have a morning routine that makes sense that they have thought about.

And then Kapha needs to kind of roll out of bed at 5:00 AM and do pushups. But that’s not for everybody. But the Kapha person, if you’re strong, stout like ox, then you probably need some pretty heavy big muscle movement in the mornings to get you going. Then we think about warm drinks, just warm water and lemon to get the digestion going. And then think about what juice you want to add to slowly ease your digestion into the day is actually a really good thing to do. And then where you put your exercise and how you think about your day.

But when we talk about energy for the day, we have to think about the night of sleep before. So then that’s that sleep piece. And when we think about chronic energy drain, we have to think about what is chronically draining energy. So for example, sometimes it’s just the daily… Like you have so many things going on in your day that you’re exhausted and then you can never catch up. So if this is a matter of your children are waking you up at night, but then you’re working all day long, it’s pretty obvious sometimes why there’s a drain. And sometimes those are not things that any kind of medicine can fix, but we want to support that with taking some time for self-care, taking some time to bring yourself back to your body, and listen to your body, doing breath work, doing a little meditation, or a little rhythmic movement.

And then for people who have chronic energy issues like chronic fatigue syndrome, myalgic encephalomyelitis is the technical word for CFS, chronic fatigue syndrome. Or you’ve got complex or chronic disease, and that can be diabetes, high blood pressure, that can be high… Excuse me, hypermobility. Something that is constantly kind of just taking you a little bit more energy to deal with in the day, or chronic stress, or old trauma. When we’re haunted by old trauma, it’s a lot of work for us to maintain that. And so then we want to think about what do we want to do about that? So supporting your mitochondria, which are the organelles that make your energy, make your ATP, and we can do that with getting in easily digestible nutrients. So again, their juice has a role to play. And those are B vitamins. That’s Co Q10, that’s carnitine, that’s NAD, nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide.

JL: Oh, yeah.

GE: Helpful.

JL: Yeah. What’s foods have NAD in it? Are there foods that have NAD in it?

GE: I’m sure that there are, and I don’t actually know them offhand. That would be a good thing.

JL: So this stuff on the periodic table from Ilene, for mitochondria, is red apple, carrots, goji berries, green grapes, limes, mulberries, nettles, and watermelon.

GE: Oh, yeah. Yep. Yep. Perfect.

JL: Yeah.

GE: Perfect. All those are perfect.

JL: Can’t wait for watermelon season.

GE: I know, I just… As soon as you said that I was like, “Oh, watermelon.” And watermelon has great selenium in it too, which is also really helpful for thyroid.

JL: Ooh. Yeah. Especially when you do the outside too, because I believe there is three times the amount of nutrients in the rind, and so do the rind and the meat and it’s delicious.

GE: Yep. Yep.

How to Choose the Right Foods

JL: We talked about those pieces. Let’s talk about some basic concepts around food choices. I love the concept that you talked about when I first met you, so I’ll let you say it, but let’s talk about that because as we’re juicing, as we’re choosing foods because at PURE Juicer we believe that juicing is a compliment to a healthy diet as well. So we’re not in all or nothing. And that we love fiber. We love our regularity. We love that part of health very much every morning, almost on the dot, because I’m very Pitta, so I have it all planned out. But I love the whole concept around that. And it makes food and the experience so beautiful. So what are some basic concepts around food choices in Ayurveda?

GE: So in food, one of the things that we think about with food is that we want food as close to the sun. We want that good juju, that good prana from the sun to come into the foods. And then we want to take those as unadulterated as possible into our bodies. If we have poor digestion, then we have to have the pot as the first stomach, but we want the food itself as fresh and as alive and as close to the sun as possible. And that’s part of why when you think about… Ayurveda really comes out of Hinduism, which is a vegetarian culture. Milk and honey are the non-vegan elements in Ayurveda. And those are thought to be given of those animals as love for their community, which is why Ayurveda feels okay eating them. Bees make honey for their community, animals make milk for their babies.

So this is all kind of out of love. But for the most part, we want to take food as close to the sun as possible. And so that’s why don’t… It’s not recommended to eat the flesh of animals because the energy from the sun gets transformed into the plants and then the plants are eaten by the animals and then it’s transformed into their tissues. And then if we’re eating their tissues, it’s actually… There’s a heaviness which can create heaviness in the consciousness or cloudiness in the consciousness. And so Ayurveda does use meat for medicine, like there is a whole medical reason to use meat broth enemas if you are so sick that you can’t digest. But for the-

JL: Oh, really?

GE: Yes. But for the most part, we’re really trying to stay as close to the sun as possible.

JL: What do you use a meat-broth enema for?

GE: So if you were an HIV/AIDS patient who was fully cachectic and could not digest any food, then that would be one way to try to pull in some nutrients into your body. You make them as digestible as possible, and then you essentially get them into the GI tract.

JL: Wow.

GE: So again, not very common, but just to say that our whole world can be medicine. And our job as human beings is to listen to ourselves, listen to our bodies, which can be so hard because so many of us get gaslit by the medical community, like, “You’re fine, your labs look fine, you’re fine.” And we know that we’re not fine. And so really listening to our bodies and listening to what we need and how we need to digest is a huge piece of understanding what it is we’re supposed to be eating.

JL: And from our community, raw is really important from the Gerson community, the enzymes, the potassium, all of the things that you get before something is heated, and those are often destroyed. I mean, I’m not just about raw versus… I respect all of it, but I love the concepts. And I love juice even in the wintertime because it is so hard to eat a salad in the wintertime. It’s just not really what my body wants. But I can do a juice. And that seems… Especially at room temperature, seems to be something that my body likes versus the other. And I also doing ginger turmeric shots or having that in the morning with something warmer. It doesn’t have to be hot, hot, but I love that idea of eating close to the sun. And then our bodies use all of those enzymes. It’s just the building blocks to everything that makes our body do what it does, hopefully.

GE: Yep. Yep. 70% of our immune system is actually contained inside our GI tract. So when we are eating, we’re not only feeding our ourselves, we’re not only feeding our bodies, we’re feeding the billions and trillions of organisms that live there also. So you got to take care of your people. You got to take care of your community.

JL: That’s right. That’s right. All of them. All of them. I talked about the milk too. And I remember when I had leaky gut, they were saying leaky gut. And so they were like, “If you are going to have milk, you can only have a half-and-half. Make sure it has all the fat in it. Don’t ever do a non-fat because it just rips.” I like oat milk now, but I did. There wasn’t oat milk at the time. And so I did the half-and-half, and that did help make a big difference.

Dr. Gillian Erlich’s Favorite Juicer-Made Treats

Okay. So let’s do some fun things. What are your go-to juices? We talked about that. And why? So beets, you said you like beets, you like leafy greens.

GE: Yeah.

JL: I’ve made some things for you. What have I made for you? I made you that chai. Did you ever try the chai?

GE: Oh, I love that chai. Yeah, that chai was amazing. And again, those winter juices are a great time to put spices in. And then summer juices are really good with hibiscus. So you can even do a hibiscus tea and then add that to your… Those things that are bright green and things that are even bright red, like hibiscus, pomegranate, cilantro, mints, those are awesome summer juices. And so those are… And cucumber. I mean, even simply cucumber can be such a refreshing summer juice. Right now in Seattle it’s like raining and we have wind advisories and it is so gray.

JL: Yes. So gray. So gray. But I made some pineapple, lemon-lime, orange juice, and then I put in ginger and turmeric too. So it was just yum. It tasted like sunshine to me. So good. So good. And then you can freeze anything you don’t want and then you can just let it melt and then you can have it as cold or as warm as you want it. So yeah. Yeah. And I love this time of year because it’s pomegranate season, so I get a ton of pomegranates and you can just freeze them easily. I have a ton of cranberries that I purchased over cranberry season because once they’re gone, they are gone. They’re not even frozen. You can’t find them anywhere, learned that the hard way. So now I have a whole section of my freezer devoted to cranberries because I love cranberries. I love them.

GE: Yes.

JL: Yes. Yeah.

GE: And berries have so many… Berries have a lower glycemic index and a higher amount of antioxidants and flavonoids. So that is excellent.

JL: I love making ice cream from the juicer too, although in the summer, right? In the summer when we’re not so cold. Okay.

GE: Yep.

What to Look for in a Cold Press Juicer

JL: Any thoughts about the PURE as a juicer and the cold press method versus other juicers? I think you’ve used some other juicers, and I would just love to get your opinion on why… You have a PURE, but why do you use it and why you like it?

GE: Yeah. So when I first was introduced to juicing, so I came to juicing late, partly because Ayurveda… There is this kind of pall over it like, “You should not be eating cold juice when the season is not appropriate or when it’s not that appropriate season in your body.” And so I kind of resisted for a long time. And then when I started hearing more and more about it, and I got a inexpensive juicer actually off of Craigslist, so that does make it accessible. And I kind of used it, but I found that it was hard to clean and I found that… It felt like I had a lot of pulp left over that I couldn’t really squeeze juice out of, even though I could see it was so moist. And so I felt like I was throwing food away.

And I felt like the food was… The food had a feeling of being ripped apart. And so as opposed to being more cleanly grinded. And so I actually kind of put juicing down for a while and then obviously picked it back up with PURE Juicer. And I find that the PURE Juicer really does… I get a cleaner, clear more see-through juice. I don’t know… Like celery juice and the previous juicers I’ve used was a much more cloudy juice and the celery juice from the PURE Juicer is more see-through. And so just to say that it feels clear and it feels like there’s more grinding as opposed to ripping.

JL: It’s interesting you say that, there’s actually a study on centrifugal juicers and how it whips the produce around and how it breaks it apart, and it actually does destroy the enzymes. And so when we do studies between them, it’s clearly not as good as using what we call a trituration process where you’re just kind of chewing it, but it goes through so fast that it’s very thorough grind, but it keeps everything really cool. And I love that I can put spices through it. And you really introduced me to spices and you got me even on that whole kick. And so we’ve made turmeric milk with it, we’ve done chai with it. And then we did a whole series with Tracy Anderson and you were part of that where we added spice to every single one as we transitioned from fall… Or I’m sorry, from summer to fall. We added spice to each juice and it was delicious.

We made some elixirs, actually, beet, ginger, carrot, turmeric. We did a kale, apple and then a red cabbage with something else, and then we took the pulp and we turned it into pasta. But I owe so much of that… And that that’s why we’re so grateful to have you as a medical advisor, because it helps us think outside the box of what health is and how it can be. And so I just so appreciate your perspective on health and then how juicing can make it better, how we can help people beyond just, like I said, what we thought we knew. Because I… And I love the spices. I’m crazy in love the spices. And even when I sneak in coffee, I can put in some cinnamon, or I can grind in something else with it. And I’m obsessed with black pepper these days. I’m like… It’s so fun to just grind those little stinkers through stage one. And so it’s really… I’m really beginning to love spices. So thank you for that.

GE: Oh, absolutely. And spices really should be fresh ground. They do lose their prana over time. So spices really should… You should not use spices over, at the outside, six months old, six months ground. And so being able to grind them fresh… And they’re super easy to clean because it’s just powder.

JL: Yeah.

GE: In fact, I was just thinking you could probably do it with those little air things that come in your computer.

JL: Totally.

GE: You could just blow it out. So that… Cardamom and coffee is very well known in the Ayurveda community. And the chai that you made was… I didn’t mean to skip over that. I got excited about all the things you were talking about, but the chai that you made was phenomenal. And I mean, I love chai. I am a… I should not… I am… Anyway. I love chai.

JL: I love chai. I love it so much. I’ll make you more. I’ll make you spices and then you can just put all the yummy stuff together.

GE: I love it.

JL: And I see all these people with their ginger teas and their slices of oranges, and it makes me crazy because I’m like, “Oh, I just want to grind that stuff because then it’s just going to get everything out of there.” It may not look as pretty as this one, but-

GE: Yep.

Cleanses: Pancha Karma, Ayurvedic Detox

JL: I want the flavor of all of them. Okay, one last piece, which is the fun stuff. And we were talking about Panchakarma and cleanses. Obviously, the juice community loves cleanses. And there’s a lot of controversy around cleanses. And then Panchakarma came up and Kim Kardashian was talking about Panchakarma. And then there was someone else that chimed in and said, “Your liver and your kidneys are in charge of that. You should never have to cleanse.” And what do you think?

GE: Take it away?

JL: Take it away.

GE: That was an interesting… I mean, it’s making my job a lot easier because now people are like… And I think it’s actually… I think it was Kourtney Kardashian was doing this as pregnancy preparation, which is an excellent, excellent, highly recommended thing.

JL: Okay.

GE: The way that she came out with it was to say, “My Panchakarma cleanse was no alcohol, no cold drinks, and I couldn’t have sex.” So that’s like… That is like so the teeny, teeny tiny parts of Panchakarma. So Pancha in Ayurveda. So there’s nothing that hits the reset button in western medicine. There’s no way to really restore and rejuvenate yourself in western medicine. You just wait. And in that respect, like the liver and the kidneys, they should do their general job. But we have so much to process. Think about all the EMFs, think about all the pollution, think about the a hundred thousand toxic chemicals released into the environment since 1940s. Think about how sedentary we are. Think about how little fresh air we get. So just to say that what we need to process through and completely eliminate as waste in our body, our liver and kidneys might not be enough for a hundred years of a lifespan. And so Ayurveda really does-

JL: Can I jump in there? It’s sort of the… And Ilene Ruhoy, Dr. Ruhoy also said just the toxins in the air are enough, even if you ate the perfect diet. And then you think about our fruits and vegetables, and you have to eat three to five carrots to make up for the nutrition of what one carrot was a hundred years ago. So there’s a lot of things-

GE: Yes.

JL: … that are different that maybe our liver and kidney may not have caught up. Okay, sorry, back to you now.

GE: No, that’s very true. That’s very true. And Dr. Ruhoy has her PhD environmental toxicology, so she knows what she’s talking about. So yeah. So-

JL: Filtered water.

GE: Yep, exactly. Exactly. And so in Ayurveda they say, as part, you should do great prevention, you need to treat disease, and then you should plan for detox across the lifespan. And typically, what that looks like is some sort of cleanse at the changing of every season. So you can finish what the qualities of the season before and let yourself kind of come correct to the new season. And so that might be a three-day juice cleanse. That might be three days of massage and oil. That might be a type of fasting.

So there’s lots of different ways to do this. And the kind of queen treatment is the Panchakarma. Pancha means five, karma means actions. It’s the five typical actions of detoxification and Panchakarma really is a process in which you work with closely with an Ayurvedic practitioner, and you get yourself set up by internally alienating your body, oiling yourself on the inside with ghee or with fats, coconut oil for about a week before.

And then you have some amount between three and 10 days of daily treatments, three and a half hours of massage and Shirodhara, which is a warm stream of oil over the forehead for half an hour, and steam, and special treatments, like they can make a dough ring around your eye, and then actually pour in warm ghee, and you open up your eye underneath the ghee and move it around to detox our eyes that stare at lights and screens 24/7. And so there’s all these things, and then at the end, you really try to eliminate from your GI track, which nobody likes to talk about. But the truth is that a really good healthy Panchakarma is going to help you eliminate all the crap that you accumulate over the course of the Oleation. And so you’re going to do some kind of drinking of castor oil or sesame oil, warm herbal, medicated enemas or something like that where you actually clean out the GI tract.

JL: Yeah.

GE: So that treatment I recommend for everybody once a year as a way to keep clear through across the span of your life. I’ve done it yearly since 2006.

JL: Wow.

GE: And except for the years that I was pregnant and breastfeeding. So again, if you’re preparing like Kourtney Kardashian was for trying to get pregnant, then often women who struggle with pregnancy and infertility will end up getting pregnant after a Panchakarma, after you clear the decks and you kind of correct the nervous system, the immune system, and the GI track. If you can kind of come correct, then the body’s like, “Oh, we’re not freaking out anymore. Okay, now it’s time to make a baby. We got this.”

JL: Yeah.

GE: And then you can’t do Panchakarma when you’re pregnant or breastfeeding. So you got to put all that on pause. If you’re somebody like Gwyneth Paltrow who just did Panchakarma recently without really planning for pregnancy… I’m going to make a leap here and assume that. Then you’re just doing it so that you correct your cravings and you clear your cells so that you can make good choices. So that cleanse can be a really elemental part of both longevity and healthy living, clearing the mind, clearing the cravings, but also can be really helpful for chronic disease. So I’ve had an MS patient get off the table and say, “I haven’t been pain free like this in 20 years.” So there are some pretty incredible things that can happen with Panchakarma.

And what I’ll say about the community who loves cleanses, what we have to be careful about is you need to have enough gas in the tank. You need to have enough strength to cleanse because cleansing is actually an action that is taxing to the body, which is why I like the Panchakarma because we actually envelop you in a womb of warm oil. We take care of your every need, the diet during Panchakarma is warm kitchari, very easily digestible foods. And so the idea is that your gut is not doing a lot of work so that you can do all this deep metabolic shifting.

JL: Yeah.

GE: So sometimes people who… When the Pitta mind can get attached to something, like a cleanse is a good idea. Sometimes people want to try a cleanse when they’re really not ready for it and they really need to stabilize before they start eliminating. So in fact, I talked to a newly Long COVID patient this morning, she had COVID just in October, and as of December was like, “Oh my God, what’s happening to me?” So now we’re just… She’s two months into Long COVID and she was saying, “Should I be doing a cleanse?” And I said, “No.” I said, “We’re not trying to prepare you for a marathon right now. We’re trying to get you to walk to the mailbox.” She said, “I did do that yesterday. It was exhausting.”

So just kind of like… We need to be thinking about, “What are we doing as our cleanse? What are we doing as our detox?” And even for the… So for a patient like that with Long COVID, she could absolutely come in for treatments. Our goal for those same Ayurvedic treatments… Our goal though is not going to be complete elimination of all toxins. It’s going to be building up and supporting in place.

JL: Yeah, when I started juicing, I noticed right away that my energy changed for the better, and my joints, running, for the better.

GE: Yep.

JL: And all of those things. But I do think that that it’s just the nourishment that you can get from so many different ways. Right? And the spices and the ghee, and just things that are easy to digest, and things that just nourish ourselves. I think that needs to be my word for 2023, is nourishment.

GE: Yes, it is an awesome word. And we totally underestimate the power of nourishment. And when I say power intentionally, because we’re all trying to get shit done, and so we can actually get way more done when we’re stable, when we’re grounded, and when we’re thinking clearly. We waste a lot of time being so exhausted and trying to do stuff. How many times do I have to run from my car back into the house for one more thing I’ve forgotten? But if I nourish myself so that I actually move slower, then I am remembering everything that I need to do.

JL: Well, thank you so much for your time. I am so excited because I feel like this is the beginning of many things that we will do together. I’m committed to doing a lot more juices with spices. I have this amazing book that you got that I’m just going to start to incorporate more and more spices into our juices, as well as the recipes that we use with the pulp, because I really love to use the pulp as well. So whether it’s baked goods or soups or sweet treats or whatever it is, there’s just a million things on my mind that I want to do. So I will make sure and give you some to taste test and to approve and or-

GE: Anytime.

JL: We all at PURE Juicer are so grateful for you and we appreciate everything that you’ve done to bring yourself to where you are today so that you can share it with all of us.

GE: Oh, thank you, Jen. I’m so happy to be here and so happy to be a part of PURE Juicer. It’s a really wonderful gift in my life. Thank you.

Dr. Gillian Ehrlich is a family nurse practitioner certified in functional medicine and Ayurveda. Her approach to patient care is deeply informed by almost a decade of leadership with Outward Bound voyages as an outdoor educator, working at a domestic violence shelter on the Yankton Sioux Reservation, and ten years of caring for homeless adults needing acute medical care.

Through the culmination of her experiences, she firmly believes we are built for transformation and healing, and are able to start that journey in whatever shoes we currently stand.

Dr. Ehrlich is the host of the Podcast for Healing Neurology.

www.neurovedahealth.com