Juicing is a smaller part of this way of eating than the internet suggests, for one structural reason: the approved list is short on things that juice well. No pineapple, no regular oranges, no lemons, no carrots, no beets, no celery on the guide. What's left is a narrower set than most juice recipes assume.
It's still a good set. Here are six that work, with what you actually get from each.
What juices well on the list
High-yield: cucumber, apple, watermelon and other seeded melons, chayote.
Good in smaller amounts: kale, watercress, dandelion greens, wild arugula, ginger, key lime, Seville orange.
Doesn't juice — blend it instead: avocado, burro banana, mango, papaya, soursop, dates. These are pulp rather than liquid, and a juicer will just throw them away. They belong in a smoothie.
Juice or smoothie?
Worth deciding deliberately rather than by which machine you own.
Juicing removes the fibre. That's the whole difference. You get a larger volume of fruit and vegetable than you could chew, absorbed quickly, with the pulp discarded — which means more sugar hitting you faster and less to keep you full.
Blending keeps it. Slower, more filling, and nothing thrown away.
The practical upshot: juice is a drink, not a meal, and it works best built mostly from vegetables with fruit as the sweetener rather than the body. A juice that's four apples deep is closer to a soft drink than people like to admit. If you want something to replace a meal, blend it.
The recipes
Each makes roughly one large glass. Wash everything; peel anything waxed.
1. The green base
The one to build everything else from.
- 1 large cucumber
- 2 large handfuls kale
- 1 green apple
- Thumb of ginger
- 1 key lime, peeled
Cucumber carries the volume, the apple makes it drinkable, the lime stops it tasting like a lawn. Adjust the apple down as you get used to it.
2. Cucumber, apple, key lime
The easiest and the one most people actually keep making.
- 2 cucumbers
- 2 apples
- 1 key lime, peeled
Light, clean, faintly sweet. Good at the end of a hot day.
3. Watermelon and key lime
Barely juicing — seeded watermelon is most of the way to juice already.
- 4 cups seeded watermelon, rind trimmed
- 1 key lime, peeled
- Pinch of sea salt
You can blend this and strain it through a sieve instead of using a juicer. The salt makes it taste twice as sweet, which sounds wrong and isn't.
4. The bitter green
For when you want the actual vegetable rather than fruit juice with kale in it.
- 1 large handful dandelion greens
- 1 large handful watercress
- 1 cucumber
- 1 chayote, quartered
- 1 apple
- Thumb of ginger
Genuinely bitter. Drink it in a smaller glass and don't sip it slowly.
5. Ginger and Seville orange
Sharp and warming. Seville oranges are the sour ones — the marmalade orange — and they're the orange on the guide.
- 3 Seville oranges, peeled
- Large thumb of ginger
- 1 apple
- 1 cucumber
Seville oranges are seasonal, roughly January to March in the northern hemisphere. Out of season, key lime and extra ginger gets you close.
6. Chayote and cucumber
The mildest on the list, and a good one if green juice has put you off before.
- 2 chayote, quartered
- 1 cucumber
- 1 pear
- Squeeze of key lime
Chayote is on the approved list, cheap in Latin American and Caribbean grocers, and almost flavourless — which makes it useful as a volume ingredient.
Getting them right
- Greens before hard produce. Feed kale and watercress in, then push them through with an apple or a length of cucumber. Greens alone tend to wrap around the auger and yield almost nothing.
- Peel the citrus. Key lime and Seville orange peel is bitter and oily enough to ruin a glass.
- Drink it within twenty minutes. Juice oxidises fast — it dulls in colour and flavour. If you're making it ahead, fill the container to the brim so there's no air, and keep it cold.
- Dilute if it's fruit-heavy. Half juice, half spring water is a perfectly good drink and halves the sugar.
- No juicer? Blend with a little water and strain through a nut milk bag or a clean tea towel. Works for everything here except the leafy greens, which need real pressure.
- Keep the pulp from vegetable juices for a stew base or a soup. It's mostly fibre and it's a waste otherwise.
- Cost. Juicing is expensive — a glass can take a kilo of produce. Cucumber, chayote and apple are the cheap bulk; use greens as the accent, not the volume.
What to leave out
These show up in nearly every alkaline juice recipe and none are on the guide:
- Celery. Celery juice is the single most common recommendation in this space and celery is not on the list.
- Carrots and beetroot. Not named.
- Lemons. Key lime is the citrus on the guide; lemon isn't.
- Pineapple and regular oranges. Not on the list. Seville oranges are.
- Spinach. Kale, watercress and dandelion greens instead.
- Turmeric. Not on the guide — ginger is.
- Wheatgrass. Not named.
A note on juice cleanses
If you're planning several days on juice alone, a few practical things are worth knowing.
Juice is low in protein and low in fat, and days of it leaves most people underfed rather than cleansed. Fatigue, dizziness, headache and feeling cold are the usual result, and they're signs of not eating enough rather than signs of progress.
Stop and reassess if you get dizziness on standing, palpitations, confusion or persistent nausea. A juice-only regime is not appropriate if you are pregnant or breastfeeding, diabetic, underweight, have a history of disordered eating, take medication that depends on consistent food intake, or have kidney or heart disease — not without talking to your doctor first.
A day of juice alongside normal eating is a different and much gentler proposition. The 7-day structure here is built around eating rather than fasting on liquid, which is the easier place to start.
Common questions
Is celery juice Dr. Sebi approved?
Celery is not on the nutritional guide. Cucumber does a similar job in a glass and is listed.
Cold press or centrifugal?
Cold press gets more out of leafy greens and keeps better. Centrifugal is faster and cheaper. Either is fine for everything on this page.
Can I juice on a fast?
Dr. Sebi's guidance names spring water, herbal teas and juices from approved ingredients. The full position is here. A green juice is a smaller interruption than a fruit-heavy one.
How much juice a day?
One glass is a sensible habit. Several fruit-heavy glasses a day is a lot of sugar with none of the fibre that would normally come with it.
Should I add sea moss gel?
It won't dissolve cleanly into juice — it belongs in a blended drink. The sea moss and mango smoothie is the better route.
Next
- Eight approved smoothie recipes
- Alkaline breakfast ideas
- The alkaline grocery list, aisle by aisle
- The complete approved food list
The full collection, structured as a week. The Alkaline Healing Smoothie & Juices Book sets out what to drink each day across a 7-day reset, with the shopping done for you. And the Ackaline app scores anything you log. Free to start.
For education, not medical advice. This is not a treatment for any condition. Talk to your doctor before a restrictive or liquid-only regime, particularly if you are pregnant, take medication, or have a diagnosed condition.
