On February 13th Grant said:

>It says in Balchs' "Nutritional Healing" that carrot juice helps lower
>cholesterol by flushing out fat from the bile in the liver.

Though I have that book I can't find that quote, can you give me a page
number? What I expect is that this effect is because carrots are very high
in Beta-carotene, as are other yellow vegetables as well as papayas and some
melons. This beta-carotene is the building block of Vitamin A which is
definitely necessary for the liver's ability to produce bile, which is
itself needed for proper fat metabolism. If your liver, which has 500
"known" functions, is not functioning properly you will have problems with
cholesterol among other things.

The problems with carrot juice is that it is going to pack a good dose of
carbs along with the beta-carotene. It takes a rather large amount of
carrots to make a cup of juice. I used to have to dump a lot of carrot pulp,
great if your composting or have pigs and goats, not great if you live in an
appartment. You could cold-slaw some of it thought I'm not sure if there is
going to be a whole lot of nutrients left after juicing.

Another way of optimizing liver function is by including bitter greens in
your daily diet. I'm preparing a piece on bitters for this list based on
research I've done into Traditional Chinese and Ayurvedic medicine.


>Has anyone had success with using carrot juice?

I've used carrot and beet juice with some apple and garlic thrown in. It's
tasty, a gorgeous ruby color and packs a puch that will keep you buzzing for
15 minutes of so, even without the apple. Lots of vitamins and minerals and
lots of sugar. I'm not sure our bodies can process large amount of
micronutrients, we may end up excreeting much of them.

Willow