Aloe vera juice or aloe vera drink has huge health benefits, supporting clear skin, constipation relief, fights gum disease and is rich in disease-fighting antioxidants. Easy homemade recipe using just 2 ingredients, plus three extra refreshing aloe vera drinks to make. View step by step video below!
Aloe Vera Juice
The popularity of drinking aloe vera juice has ebbed and flowed in social media this year but the consistent fact is that aloe vera has been used for centuries as a medicinal plant. It provides a variety of benefits from both drinking it and applying it topically. You can buy the juice bottled, but it is easy to make in your blender from the pulp found in the giant leaf of an aloe vera plant.
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You can grow an aloe vera plant in your home, or pick up the leaves at your produce department of some grocery stores. I found mine at a mainstream grocery chain in Washington DC. Gourmet grocers also often have the leaves.
You can then drink your fresh aloe vera juice - or aloe vera water as it is sometimes called - straight or flavor it with juice, or add it to a smoothie to boost nutrition. The benefits of aloe vera can be had by drinking it and by applying it topically, so it's very useful to have a bottle of homemade or store bought juice on hand in the refrigerator.
What is Aloe Vera?
Aloe vera is a gel-like substance obtained from the leaf of an aloe vera plant. The plant is a succulent that typically grows in hot, dry climates and is from the genus Aloe. It grows abundantly in tropical climates. Its distinctive by its long spiky and thorned leaves. [source]
The substance you need is the gooey gel found inside the leaves.
6 Benefits of Drinking Aloe Vera Juice
Aloe vera has long been considered to be medicinally valuable by ancient cultures and by the modern natural health community. As it turns out there is scientific support to many of the benefits applied to this plant juice. [source]
The gel inside the leaf is rich in many vitamins, minerals, enzymes and amino acids in a way that provide some useful and unusual support to the body. Here are six ways the juice is beneficial.
1. Disease & Germ Fighter: Aloe vera has long been known to fight disease and infection. It has strong antiseptic and antimicrobial agents that give it the ability to attack, reduce, control, or even eliminate certain diseases and infections and can even improve oral health. [source]
2. Skin Benefits: Aloe vera is useful to the skin when both applied externally and taken internally. When aloe vera is applied externally to skin, its humectants (components that attract water) help moisturize skin, heal sunburns and bug bites and stings. The juice is may also heal psoriasis, acne scars and other skin condition via 200 different vitamins, minerals and other substances, say scientists. [source] [source]. The evidence that drinking aloe vera supports skin is thinner, but still supported here. [source]
3. Relieves Constipation: Aloe vera contains substances called anthraquinones and these perform as a laxative. Because of this reaction, begin drinking only a few ounces of aloe vera juice a day and work up to 4 or 8 ounces, the recommended daily dose for constipation. [source]
4. Relieves Heartburn: Drinking aloe vera immediately calms the fire of heartburn, which occurs when acid from your stomach move up your esophagus. [source]
5. Relieves joint pain: Aloe vera is rif with vitamins and amino acids that support joints, as well as vitamin C, calcium and magnesium, all needed for healthy joints. [source]
6. Balances blood sugar: There is some early research supporting that drinking aloe vera can increase sensitivity of insulin and thereby lower blood sugar but scientists suggest more tests are needed to depend on this reaction. [source]
Ingredients for Aloe Vera Juice
aloe vera gel - either bought or extracted from a fresh leaf.
lime juice or lemon juice - for flavor and to increase the juice's shelf life.
water - for dilution.
orange juice (optional) - an optional sweetener. Some recipes request that you add maple syrup or even sugar to sweeten, but given you are taking this juice for health benefits, I hesitate to recommend adding straight sweeteners. The flavor is rather green or watery so it's easy to get an acquired taste if you intend to take it daily. If not, orange juice or my juice recipes below make the flavor more pleasant.
How to Make Aloe Vera Juice
Aloe vera juice can be bought in a bottle online or in Whole Foods or health food stores. I have a recipe for you to make your own homemade aloe vera juice below. My recipe begins with the raw leaf and moves on through cutting it and making a basic or flavored aloe vera juice.
If you want to skip buying your own leaf but still want the resulting gel, you can buy aloe vera gel here and use that to make the drink recipes I provide below.
However, if you want to make homemade aloe vera juice straight from a fresh leaf, follow the steps below.
The exact recipe and steps are below in the video and recipe card, but here is a general sense of how to make the juice.
1. Prepare the leaf: Put on latex gloves before cutting into a fresh aloe vera leaf as parts of the inside such as a yellow paste and the inside of the green leaf is toxic and can be a skin irritant.
Then wash the outside of the leaf, being careful of sharp sides. Cut off the sides and ends. Over a bowl, cut or peel off the top of the flat leaf. Use your fingers, knife or a spoon to pry off the clear gel and drop it into the bowl.
Add two cups of water and 2 tbsp of white vinegar to the bowl, and slosh the gel around with a fork. Rinse the gel strip to remove the toxins. The same toxins that can irritate your skin can also cause internal upset if ingested. [source] So rinse the strip in the vinegar water and then rinse thoroughly with clear water. Now you can remove your gloves.
2. Blend the ingredients: Add the gel strip you extracted from the leaf, lime juice, water and possibly orange juice to a blender and blend. It will be foamy at first and eventually turn clear.
3. Store your juice: Refrigerate for up to a week. For long term storage, pour into ice cubes and preserve frozen for two months.
How to Use the Juice
Drink Internally:
You can drink up to 8 ounces a day straight, or you can add it to juices and smoothies.
To add to smoothies, freeze aloe vera juice into ice cube trays and add a few cubes to a smoothie.
Make aloe vera juice drinks. I provide three flavor recipes below, including Mango, Pineapple and Cherry.
How to Use the Raw Gel
The rinsed raw gel, before you blend with lime and water is actually the best form to use topically. You might want to set aside a snippet of the gel before making the juice. Store the raw aloe vera gel in a sealed container in the refrigerator for two weeks, or freeze for three months in small portions and thaw when needed.
Use Externally:
Run on sunburn skin to heal and relieve pain.
Run on body skin to moisturize; you can dab it on spots on your face but don't use it as a replacement for a facial moisturizer.
Spot rub on face to help in the healing of acne.
Run on bug bites or stings to reduce swelling.
How to Store
Aloe vera juice can be refrigerated for a week, and it freezes quite well. Pour into ice cube trays and store frozen up to two months.
Three Additional Aloe Vera Drinks to Make
Mango Aloe Vera Juice: Blend ½ cup of aloe vera juice, 1 cup water, and ½ cup fresh or frozen mango chunks. Serve over ice.
Pineapple Aloe Vera Juice: Blend ½ cup of aloe vera juice, 1 cup water, and ½ cup fresh or frozen pineapple chunks. Serve over ice.
Cherry Aloe Vera Juice: Blend ½ cup of aloe vera juice, 1 cup water, and ½ cup fresh or frozen pitted cherries. Serve over ice.
Downside of Drinking the Juice
It is widely considered safe to drink a cup of aloe vera a day but it is recommended that you start off slow, drink maybe a few ounces to start and see how your body reacts.
Because the juice contains a laxitive, drinking too much or drinking too much too fast may cause cramping or diarrhea, and this can trigger an electrolyte imbalance. [source]
Young children should not ingest aloe vera juice for fear of stomach upset and other possibly more serious issues. [source]
Frequently Asked Questions
When Should I Drink Aloe Vera Juice?
Drink the juice between meals to help benefits be bio available to your body. If using the juice for digestive help or constipation issues, drink it at least 30 minutes before a meal.
What is the difference between aloe vera juice and aloe vera gel?
The gel is the raw form of aloe vera that you use to make the juice by blending it with water and juice. They have the same benefits, but you drink aloe vera juice whereas aloe vera gel can also be used topically.
What is the difference between aloe vera juice and aloe vera water?
Aloe vera water or aloe water is simply aloe vera gel blended with water. You can use the gel you extra yourself as I demonstrate on this post, or buy it bottled. Aloe vera juice is aloe vera gel blended with a juice. Both are healthy, hydrate and provide the benefits described.
How much of this aloe vera juice recipe should you drink daily?
Drink no more than eight ounces of aloe vera juice a day to achieve optimum health benefits, according to experts. [source]
Is it good to drink aloe vera juice recipe everyday?
Aloe vera juice has many nutrients and is hydrating so drinking no more than a cup a day is beneficial.[source]
What is drinking aloe vera juice good for?
Drinking aloe vera in water or juice everyday is good for hydrating, energizing, fighting disease, boosting immunity, relieving constipation, upset stomach, IBS and other digestive issues, heartburn, joint pain and possibly helps with balancing blood sugar among many other benefits.
Who should not drink aloe vera juice?
Aloe vera juice many cause adverse stomach effects in young children, under 12 years of age. [source]
What parts of aloe vera leaf are toxic?
The skin of an aloe leaf contains toxins that can be a skin irritant and cause stomach upset and even kidney disease in the extreme. [source] You can avoid these toxins by using bottled aloe vera juice, making drinks from bottled aloe vera gel, or by thoroughly rinsing the extracted gel from a leaf.
More Detox Drinks to Try
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Aloe Vera Juice
Ingredients
- 1 cup aloe vera gel (gel extracted from 1 leaf or store-bought)
- ½ cup lime juice
- 11/2 cup water
Optional Sweetener
- ½ cup orange juice (if you want to sweeten your aloe vera juice)
Needed To Clean Aloe Vera Leaf
- 2 tbsp white vinegar
- 2 cups water
Instructions
Prep
- Prepare the leaf or measure out aloe vera gel from a bottle.
To Extract Gel from a Fresh Leaf
- PRO TIP: Put on latex gloves before cutting into a fresh aloe vera leaf as the inside has a skin irritant.
- To extract gel from a fresh aloe vera leaf, first wash the leaf, being careful of sharp sides. Put on gloves, and cut the sides and ends. Over a bowl, cut or peel off the top of the flat leaf. Use your fingers, knife or a spoon to pry off the clear gel and drop it into the bowl.
- Add two cups of water and 2 tbsp of white vinegar to the bowl, and slosh the gel around with a fork. Rinse the gel strip and now you can remove your gloves.
Make Aloe Vera Juice
- Add the fresh gel strip to a blender or pour in gel from a bottle.
- Add in lime juice, water, and a sweetener juice if needed.
- Blend until foamy
Store
- Pour the aloe vera juice into a bottle and refrigerate for a week. Adding the lime juice increases its nutritional shelf life.For long term storage, pour into ice cubes and preserve frozen for two months. Add an ice cube to a smoothie a day, or thaw a cube overnight for the next day's aloe vera shot.
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