The use of juices and whole food is an integral part of the Sirtfood Diet. Juices give maximum bang for your buck by packing in a super-concentrated amount of Sirtfoods into an ultra-easy and convenient way to consume them. Having some of your Sirtfoods in the form of a juice can also have big advantages when it comes to absorbing their goodness. For example, one of the ingredients we include in the green juice is matcha green tea. When we consume the sirtuin activator EGCG, found in high levels in green tea, in drink form without food its absorption is more than 65 per cent higher85. Yet eating whole food has definite advantages too. Many Sirtfoods contain significant amounts of what are called non-extractable polyphenols (or NEPPs). These are polyphenols, including sirtuin activators, which are attached to the fibrous part of the food, and are only released when broken down by our friendly gut bacteria. As juicing removes the fibre from our food, if we relied on it alone, we would lose out on all those valuable NEPPs. The key is to get the best of both worlds by combining the two. Vegetables like leafy greens have low levels of NEPPs so are much more suitable for concentrating through juicing, whereas other higher fibre Sirtfoods are more appropriate for eating whole and enjoying as part of your meals. There are few rules for when you have to consume the juices and meals. Ultimately their consumption needs to fit in with your day-to-day life, however, a few simple rules of thumb for the best outcome are: •It’s better to spread the juices out throughout the day, rather than having them too close together. •The green juices should be consumed at least an hour before or two hours after meals. •Meals or juices should not be consumed later than 7pm.