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Anyone out there juicing but it took them a while "to get into it."
Is juicing 'work.' How much effort does it REALLY take?
I'm in love with the IDEA of juicing fresh veggie juices. But then I read how much of a PITA they are to clean and I know me -- I don't want to deal with that.
Years ago I bought a 'Bullet Blender" and I have an older "regular bender" and don't use either regularly.
I told myself I'd juice, and make smoothies. I bought heads and heads of bok choy, cabbage, lettuce, bunches carrots, all kinds of fruit, etc. I couldn't get anything else in the frig it was so full. By the second day of smoothies I was over it.
But I was trying to 'juice' with a blender -- not a juicer.
I've liked the "idea" of having a juicer...but I don't want to buy yet another appliance I won't use.
Maybe if I really have the right tool for the job I'll stick with it??
I love my juicer - I have an ACME Juicerator. It's easy to clean because you place a paper "filter" in the extractor and just remove it, and the pulp, after juicing. All internal parts are stainless steel.
If you are new to juicing remember to start off slowly (not too much at once) and also remember that beet juice will reveal its deep red color as you drink it and a bit later, so don't be alarmed.
My brother got into juicing for a while. I can't recall what brand he got (knowing him it was something state of the art and stupidly expensive) but I used it several times and it left a small, very dry pile of pulp behind in the reservoir and was easy to clean.
However a single glass of (admittedly delicious), say, carrot-celery juice required an utterly ridiculous amount of carrots and celery. And while the juice was very tasty and nutritious, still you're not getting the fiber. So it seemed like an awful lot of waste just to get a single glass of fiber-free vegetable juice, when cooking something with the whole vegetable would have been every bit as tasty and a lot more nutritious (and less wasteful.)
...the juice was very tasty and nutritious, still you're not getting the fiber...
You can always add some of the fiber back into the drink. My Juicerator makes a very large glass of juice from four carrots, two beets, two celery stalks, and an apple.
However a single glass of (admittedly delicious), say, carrot-celery juice required an utterly ridiculous amount of carrots and celery. And while the juice was very tasty and nutritious, still you're not getting the fiber. So it seemed like an awful lot of waste just to get a single glass of fiber-free vegetable juice, when cooking something with the whole vegetable would have been every bit as tasty and a lot more nutritious (and less wasteful.)
You have to look at it from the other side to "get" what juicing is all about. I could never sit down and eat a pound of raw carrots. Well, maybe once, but not every morning for breakfast. But a glass of juice made from a pound of carrots? No biggie.
How about cabbage? Same deal. And raw cabbage juice has known healing properties. As a matter of fact, juicing in this country started with doctor-prescribed raw cabbage juice used to treat stomach ulcers. The natural sulfur compounds provided relief in the days before the bacterium that causes ulcers was identified and antibiotics were found to cure the infection.
Juicing is about concentrating the nutrition, by removing the largely indigestible cellulose matrix that normally holds the juice.
I started with an Acme Juicerator I found in a thrift store, and after a few test flights I found a nearby produce stand that would sell me 25 pound bags of "juicing carrots" for cheap. These are big ugly carrots used for institutional cooking and juicing. And I could get big boxes of cheap apples from the same place, and fresh ginger root. The three combined made up what became my standard daily juice for the next couple of years.
But eventually I got tired of the tedious cleaning of the strainer basket after I was done, even when using the filter papers. And it would only juice about 2 pounds before I had to stop and break it down to empty the pulp, and sometimes I wanted to make a lot of juice at one time. The Juicerator and its imitators work by grinding up fruits and vegetables on a toothed plate about the size of a CD, then flinging the pulp at high speed against the inside of whirling stainless steel basket with thousands of very fine perforations that only allow the juice to pass through. Once enough pulp builds up you have to stop and clean it out, but this approach is efficient in its use of the produce, and it leaves pretty dry pulp.
So then I looked at the angled basket continuous juicers that are used by juice bars. They're adapted from the Juicerator design, with the straight sides perforated basket turned into an angled basket that only hold the pulp momentarily as it slides up the incline, but the juice still goes through fine holes as the pulp slides up to the top and over the side. Advantage: continuous operation, and slightly faster to clean. Disadvantage: not quite as efficient at extraction, leaves a wetter pulp. After working professionally with several kinds I started out with a Breville Juice Fountain for home use. Still have it, and still use it sometimes for making fresh juices for cocktails when entertaining.
But then I got interested in juicing leafy greens, such as kale and wheatgrass, and centrifuge juicers like the Acme and Juice Fountain are worthless for those. That got me into a different kind of juicer, sometimes called a masticating juicer, that uses one or two spiral augers to "chew" raw food into a pulp and press it under pressure against a small perforated metal conical screen. These were originally developed by Koreans, who have a hundreds year old tradition of juicing very tough herbal materials like pine needles (!!), originally using a mortar and pestle to pulverize the material, then using high leverage squeezing in a hemp bag to extract the juice. Their modern, motorized auger juicers turned out to be perfect for juicing wheatgrass, and kale and other tough greens, as well apples, carrots, and the rest of the usual stuff. Advantages: juices everything, dryer pulp than Juice Fountain. Disadvantages: slower than centrifuge juicers, large, expensive, takes time to clean thoroughly. The Omega 8006 is a current version of what I've been using ever since.
The latest development is the vertical masticating juicer. They basically take the above type and turn it vertical, to make it more compact on the kitchen counter. The Omega Vertical Masticating Heavy Duty Juicer VRT350 is an example. They look good but I haven't used one yet, and my 800X is still working like a champ.
I just watched a very interesting show on which an Australian man who was overweight and had an autoimmune disease, lost weight and went off his medication after about 60 days of juice fasting. He traveled about the US, and one of the folks he met was an obese truck driver who happened to have the same disease. He asks the truck driver to contact him if he wants to try juicing for himself.
By the end of the show, the truck driver had lost 91 lbs., and DH and I were going, "We must get a juicer". Here's the thing I don't get though...why would anyone want to take the fiber out of fruits and vegetables? I thought these things were a major benefit in one's diet?
I just watched a very interesting show on which an Australian man who was overweight and had an autoimmune disease, lost weight and went off his medication after about 60 days of juice fasting. He traveled about the US, and one of the folks he met was an obese truck driver who happened to have the same disease. He asks the truck driver to contact him if he wants to try juicing for himself.
By the end of the show, the truck driver had lost 91 lbs., and DH and I were going, "We must get a juicer". Here's the thing I don't get though...why would anyone want to take the fiber out of fruits and vegetables? I thought these things were a major benefit in one's diet?
The fiber is important. That's why many now buy powerful blenders like Vitamix to make "green" smoothies.
I just watched a very interesting show on which an Australian man who was overweight and had an autoimmune disease, lost weight and went off his medication after about 60 days of juice fasting. He traveled about the US, and one of the folks he met was an obese truck driver who happened to have the same disease. He asks the truck driver to contact him if he wants to try juicing for himself.
By the end of the show, the truck driver had lost 91 lbs., and DH and I were going, "We must get a juicer". Here's the thing I don't get though...why would anyone want to take the fiber out of fruits and vegetables? I thought these things were a major benefit in one's diet?
That would be Joe Cross's "Fat Sick and nearly Dead" Watch the film Fat, Sick, & Nearly Dead for Free. | Reboot With Joe
Very motivating movie but a tough lifestyle to follow.
I bought the Breville juicer and was juicing like crazy for about a year, the actual juice fast i only managed for 12 days but in that 12 days i lost 20lbs which promptly returned when i started eating again Juicing is great for a one meal a day replacement but ingesting only juice for weeks at a time is not something i can do.My Breville Juicer is now collecting dust in the basement.
Basically Blenders make smoothies and juicers make juice.
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Juicing is great for a one meal a day replacement but ingesting only juice for weeks at a time is not something i can do.My Breville Juicer is now collecting dust in the basement.
