Buyer's Guide

Margaret Hirsch : Juice it up !

Everyone loves juicing – it’s the quickest and easiest way to get all those healthy nutrients into your body. But when you think about setting up the juicer and getting all the fruits and veggies out of the fridge, isn’t it easier to just buy something from the shop? The answer is DEFINITELY NOT!!

The juices in the store have so much sugar in them, along with piles of preservatives and additives – just check the labels if you don’t believe me.

So, although it will take a bit longer and a little more effort, drinking fruit and vegetable juice is a trend that is catching on quickly because it’s the best way to get your daily dose of the essential nutrients you need to ensure a healthy life and keep those cold and flu germs away.

If you don’t already have a juicer, there are many on the market. There are cold press juicers, fast juicers, centrifugal juicers, masticating juicers, and slow juicers, and nowadays, even the hand blender can help you extract juice.

While all types of juicers perform the same task and let you extract juice, it is the method of juicing that sets them apart from each other. So, choosing the right type of juicer can be overwhelming. But to make the right choice, you must be aware of the difference between these juicers.

Regular juicers or fast juicers have a drum inside, and they have a higher RPM (rotation per minute). When you put the ingredients inside the juicer, the drum starts spinning fast, grating and churning the ingredients to extract juice.

On the other hand, slow juicers use cold press technology. In this juicer, the ingredients are crushed gently with the help of a powerful mortar when you put them inside, allowing you to extract more juice gently from the ingredients, thereby preserving the vital substances and vitamins.

If you are using a regular or fast juicer at home, you don’t have to cut the ingredients up. The feed tube on the juicer is usually wide, allowing you to put whole ingredients in at once. Consequently, you don’t have to spend too much time preparing the ingredients to extract juice.

The mouth of a feed tube in a slow juicer is usually narrow. This means you will have to chop the ingredients into smaller pieces before you juice them. Because of the cutting work involved, the juicing time is longer. However, it is worth the time because you get tastier, nutrition-rich, and a higher amount of juice than you get in ordinary juicers with the same amount of ingredients.

When buying a juicer, one of the most important factors you must consider is the type of ingredients you can use in the juicer and whether they suit your needs.

Regular fast juicers extract the same amount of juice from your vegetables and fruits as you may do with a citrus press. After the juicing process, if you check the ingredients, you may notice that there is still some wet pulp left. Hence, fast juicers are not suitable for juicing ingredients with low moisture content, like bananas or nuts.

With a slower juicer, you don’t have to face any such problems. It is specially designed to extract juice from all kinds of ingredients, be it fruits, vegetables, nuts, herbs, or a combination of all. With a slower juicer, you can use any ingredient to make juice and benefit from its health benefits.

The juice extracted from a fast juicer is clear and looks like lemonade. It has a foamy texture and a slightly altered taste from the raw form of the ingredient. Also, because of the high speed and the heat generated during the juicing process, the juice has a shorter shelf life.

Many health experts and nutritionists suggest using a cold press juicer to make juices at home because the quality of the juice is exceptional. The juice is thin and less clear than what you get from a fast juicer.

This is mainly because slow juicers retain high fiber from the ingredients. Since no heat is produced during the juicing process, the juice made from slow juicers has a longer shelf life and tastes better.

Regular juicers are infamous for losing a significant amount of nutrition from the ingredients because of the high-speed extraction process and the high temperature generated inside. This means your juice is not as nutritious as it should be.

With a slower juicer, you can be assured that every glass of juice you extract is rich in nutrition, and you get the full health benefits of the ingredients. The slow crushing process retains the nutrients, resulting in a healthier juice. 🍏🍊🍇🍹