Have you been noticing the increased talk about juicing? Maybe you have had a juice bar open local to you? What is going on? Is it all worth it? Lets talk about the truths about juicing and cut through the hype!
Why Juice?
Juicing is the like eating lots of raw vegetables without all the chewing. By juicing you extract the vitamins and enzymes along with the water that is contained in vegetables and fruits. You don’t consume the fiber that is insoluble, which would pass through your digestive tract undigested. In that juice is about 95% of the vitamins and enzymes your body needs daily in a super concentrated form. What is a great plus of juicing is that these highly concentrated vitamins, minerals, and enzymes are very bio-available to the body and are easy to digest. So easy that your body can give your digestive organs a much needed break.
Just think about how much work it would be to eat 2 lbs of carrots or 10-12 apples or even 8 lbs of spinach, but you can drink 16 oz of juice and get it all. I honestly don’t think I could chew 2 lbs of carrots in one sitting and I doubt you would want to either.
Juicing & Illness
There are so many different research reports that show the healing properties of juicing. Juicing can help with weight loss. Increase energy levels. Build beautiful skin. Strengthen the immune system. Add to that it may reduce the chance of heart disease, cancer and strokes, three of the leading causes of death. Fresh juicing delivers natural nature created vitamins and minerals that are correctly identified by the body.
The vitamins and minerals in a juice are delivered to the body in a balanced state and are not over concentrated like vitamin supplements are.
Make Fermented Food At Home – Easily
What Is Real Juicing?
There are some mis-advertising and mis-understanding of just what is real juicing. Lets be sure we are on the right page.
- Real Juicing IS… performed by a special juicer machine that extracts the juice while ejecting the pulp separately. You drink the juice and dispose of the pulp.
- Real Juicing is NOT… blending of the vegetables in a vitamix, blendtech, magic bullet, or other blender. These machines just chop up the food into very small bits, the juice is not extracted separately. These drinks are usually called smoothies or blended drinks.
Don’t be mislead by people who say they are juicing when it is actually a smoothie. I am not saying a smoothie is not a healthy drink, it is just not juicing.
Bottled Store Juice
Fresh Juice
Fresh juice contains a greater nutritional value since it is, alive. It is best to juice the day you are planning to drink it. Cold pressed slow juicers can produce a juice which may be stored for about 3 
days in the fridge without asignificant loss of benefits. Fast centrifugal juicers produce a juice that is of lower quality than slow juicers and the juice is degraded from the start, so it does not store well. Keep fresh juice ina closed container with little air space above the juice if possible. When any juice meets the air it begins to oxidize, lowing its nutritional value. I will often juice more than I need at one time, saving the extra to drink later as another meal. This saves me the time of having to clean the machine twice and allows me to maybe take a juice on the road to act as a great lunch or snack.
It is best to consume your juice on an empty stomach since it will digest quickly and its wonderful nutrients will be readily absorbed.
Slow Juicers Extract The Most Juice
How Often To Juice?
I work with people all over the country coaching them to better heath. I often hear how they tried to do juicing for 100% of their meals and it did not work very well. That is why I suggest when juicing you can see great benefits by just having a fresh juice once a day. Yes, just replacing one meal a day with juice can improve your health. Many of my clients who follow this one meal swap find it easy to lose weight, have better skin, gain energy, see different heath issues improve and are not hungry. If you are interested in replacing more meals in a day it can be much more work not to mention hard on the body if you are not used to all that fruit and vegetables.
Always Organic?
How To Serve
Types Of Juicers
There are two widely known types of juicer machines, centrifugal and slow masticating juicers. These juicers range in price from about $50 to $600. I know this seems like a large price spread, but keep in mind you do get what you pay for.
The cheaper machines (usually centrifugal juicers) don’t extract the juice that well, often harming the enzymes, nutrients, and vitamins, leaving lots of wet waste pulp. Wet pulp means lost juice. These type of juicers are also very loud, like a jet taking off in the kitchen loud. This is the type of juicer often found at discount stores. The warranty on these types of juicers is usually 1 year to a few years.
Slow juicers, also called masticating or auger-style juicers, are machines that can extract a pulp that is almost dry, leaving the most enzymes, nutrients, and vitamins unharmed with very little waste. These juicers can be very quiet, making it possible for others to sleep if you are juicing in the morning hours. Also, the best machines will have a multi-year warranty, like 5 to 10+ years. Juicing can be hard on a machine, so one with a long warranty period is key. The juicer we recommend and love, the Tribest® Slowstar® Vertical Slow Juicer has a 10 year warranty. This means that this juicer costs less than $40 a year over the 10 year life warranty making it very affordable.
- Centrifugal Juicers = fast, loud, harm enzymes, nutrients, vitamins, lots of waste
- Slow Juicers or Masticating Juicers – cold juicing, quiet, extract the most enzymes, nutrients, vitamins, little waste
Is Juicing For You?
Personally I would recommend juicing for 1 meal a day for people that can eat raw vegetables and fruits without issue. I can’t think of any of my client’s that have not experienced a positive health benefit from this level of juicing. If you are interested in juicing, try going to a juice bar and asking for a beginner juice. These will be the juices that have a good mix of fruit and vegetables so you can get a nice experience from your first juice. As you progress in your juicing experience and your tastes expand try more green vegetable juices.
By starting with 1 juice a few times a week you can find the taste you like and best places in town to purchase fresh vegetables and fruits from. Juicing can be a very rewarding addition to your health menu so take a chance and try a juice today. Do you already juice and want to share your favorite mix? Please share your comments below.
About Jeff
Nice article but I would add that we cannot eat ONLY juice. We do need some fiber which has benefits even if “undigestable” as you say. Your once-a-day plan sounds great! Have you ever heard anyone say after they start juicing, they no longer need to take vitamin supplements? If that is true, the savings would soon pay for the machine…..
Elaine, Correct by only juicing one meal a day you get the fiber you need in the other meals. Besides there is no juicer on the market that removes all the pulp. I have had clients that lowered or cut different daily vitamins (supplements) since juicing delivers the vitamins in a better bio-available method than supplements. Yes, by lowing the expensive vitamins and doing juicing they did save money.