The two main juices for the Gerson Therapy, the Gerson green juice and carrot-apple juice, share a common ingredient: granny smith apples. But at this time of year, they’re out of season, and can be particularly hard to find organic.

Coincidentally, it’s also around this time of year that our Education Team starts to get lots of frantic phone calls and emails from Gerson patients, who can’t find green apples anywhere and don’t know what to put in their juices.

So what does a Gerson person do?

1. Stock up early

If your supplier still has green apples in stock, get them while you can! Keep them refrigerated so that they’ll last longer.

We’ve also heard from some patients who shared a great tip. Pay in advance for a few boxes of apples from your produce supplier, and ask then to store the apples in refrigeration until you need them. So, if you have a good relationship with your local produce supplier (which you should definitely develop when you’re on the Gerson Therapy and buying truckloads of organic veggies) you could talk with them and see if that would be an option.

If you’ve already exhausted your supply of green apples, or your supplier is plumb out, you’ll have to find alternatives.

2. Choose tart apples over sweet apples

Tart apples contain more malic acid, which is responsible for their distinctive “sour” taste. Malic acid is very beneficial, as it stimulates the metabolism and helps to detox heavy metals.

Katheryn Alexander, a Gerson practitioner in Australia, also explains how tart apples enhance the other ingredients in the juices:

“Sour apples are higher in potassium malate and higher in pectin (good for chelating heavy metals), they can also extract higher amounts of nutrients from the pulped vegetables due to their higher acidity, so you end up with a more nutrient-rich juice.

Dr Gerson added three potassium salts* to the juices: potassium acetate, potassium gluconate and potassium mono-phosphate. He did not add potassium malate as the green apples delivered sufficient amounts of this potassium salt. The combination of these four specific potassium salts encouraged a faster elimination of sodium and toxins from the cells and sped up the detoxification and healing process. In colder climates cooking apples may by used, such as the Bramley apple.”

When granny smiths are out of stock, try to buy the next-most tart apple. We recommend Rome apples, cooking apples and pippins. You want to avoid sweet varieties, like golden delicious and red delicious. They can make the juice gel, and have less of the qualities listed above that make green apples so beneficial in juicing. If you can only find sweeter varieties, then just use about 1/2 the amount of apple in your juices, and add a bit more of the greens or carrots to compensate.

3. Don’t substitute with non-organic apples

DO NOT substitute with non-organic apples. Juicing non-organic produce is a big no-no for the Gerson Therapy, as juicing fruits and vegetables grown using pesticides and chemical fertilizers just concentrates those unwanted chemicals in the juice, and can cause you to absorb even more pesticides than you would by simply eating them.

Make sure that all produce that passes through your juicer and into your glass is organic, always. This applies not just for apples, but for any ingredient for the Gerson juices that may be out of season or unavailable. If you can’t obtain an organic ingredient, simply leave it out for the time being.

With different apple varieties, you will definitely notice that your juices take on a different flavor and are less tangy than with your usual granny smiths. By late summer, green apples should be back on store shelves, and we’ll be back to our lovely tart juices that we love so much.

* Potassium compound salts are a supplement used on the Gerson Therapy, which is added to juices throughout the day. For more information on potassium compound salts, please refer to page 175-176 in Healing the Gerson Way

Happy juicing!

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