Juicer Reviews: Choosing a Juicer
Congratulations! You've made the decision to eat healthier and
realize the many health benefits of fruit and vegetable juicing.
You're now ready to choose, and perhaps, buy a juicer. The
question now is: with all the many choices out there (centrifugal,
masticating, citrus, wheatgrass, etc.) it's hard to decide which juicer
is the best juicer for you to buy. The information below is meant to
help you navigate the choices out there and buy a juicer that best
fits your needs.
Choosing a Juicer
Author: Jane Thurnell-Read
There are many advantages to eating fruit and vegetables raw.
Water-soluble vitamins (such as vitamin C) are destroyed by
heating, so there will be less vitamin C in a cooked carrot than
in a similar raw carrot.
But for some nutrients, cooking (and juicing) is more
nutritious, because it makes the nutrients more easily
assimilated. Cooking and juicing breaks down tough fibres and
allows the digestive juices to work more effectively on the
vegetable. This is particularly important for someone who is
elderly, ill or who has impaired digestion.
For example, research has shown that we absorb approximately
3-4% of carotenoids from raw carrots and 15-20% from cooked
carrots. Carotenoids are plant pigments that give yellow, orange
and red fruit and vegetables their colour. Carotenoids are
powerful antioxidants, so have a role in helping us fight old
age and cancer.
Juicing fruit and vegetables is an excellent way to combine the
advantages of both raw and cooked. There are a lot of different
juicers out there, so I decided to ask the experts at the
Wholistic Research Company in the UK for more about juicing and
juicers.
What are the benefits of a juicer over just eating fresh fruit
and vegetables?
The use of fresh fruit and vegetable juices in both normal and
therapeutic diets has long been established as a great aid to
natural health, energy and well-being. The high mineral and
nutrient content, combined with the vibrant life-energy of fresh
fruits and vegetables, makes pure, fresh juice a wonderful part
of a healthy person's diet. In no other way can one consume the
nutritional content of, for example, a pound or two of apples
and carrots (in a glass) and then go on to eat a healthy
breakfast.
Fresh juices are an invaluable supplement to any person's diet.
Indeed there are therapies that rely almost entirely on the
power and nutrition available in juices to rid an ailing body of
serious illness, even cancer. The body is stimulated by such
concentrated goodness to throw off negative, pathological
cellular deterioration and regain excellent health.
What are the advantages of a juicer over bought juice?
Making fresh juices from your own juicer provides you with the
same live enzymes that are available in raw fresh fruit and
vegetables. These fresh raw foods give us more energy and
sparkle than cooked, 'dead' foods, and 'dead' juices that have
been sitting in a container on the supermarket shelf for days,
weeks or even months. This energy (from the freshly made juice)
is concentrated, and you feel it as soon as you drink it. It can
clear your head and make you feel light and energetic.
Juicers can vary dramatically in price, so what should you look
for in buying a juicer?
In order to extract juice from fruits and vegetables, it is
necessary first to break down the cell walls and fibres and then
separate out the juice. Ideally, a top quality juicer should
deliver a nutrient-rich juice on the one hand and a dry pulp of
cell walls and fibres, on the other. There are basically two
types of juicers: centrifugal juicers and masticating juicers.
So what is a centrifugal juicer?
This is an inexpensive juicer and is widely available. It merely
grates fruits and vegetables, leaving strings of unbroken cells.
The juice from the cells that have been broken is then spun out
at very high speed (6,000 to 10,000 rpm). Because the juice is
flung out, it mixes with the air and so oxidises (turns brown)
quickly. The pulp usually remains very moist, because the
process has not extracted all the juice. Not only is this more
wasteful, but the juice is paler, more watery, lower in nutrient
value and often quite insipid in flavour.
That doesn't sound very appetising. Are masticating juicers any
better?
Masticating juicers provide richer, more flavourful, nutritious
juices. They are altogether more 'serious', although more
expensive, but should be considered to be an investment in good
health. They more thoroughly break up fruit or vegetables, and
press out the juice from the resulting pulp inside a nose cone
with a narrow opening.
This is far more efficient than centrifugal action. A good
masticating juicer will extract up to five times more nutrients
than centrifugal juicers.
Masticating juicers - like the popular American champion juicer
- use a rugged cutter, spinning at 1425 rpm. This will juice
whole carrots and quartered apples speedily and with ease.
There are also slower masticating juicers that use a single
auger or twin gears, revolving at 80 to 160 rpm, to more gently
crush smaller pieces of fruit and vegetables. They are
especially useful for juicing tough fibrous greens and
wheatgrass (a powerful healing natural tonic).
You can also juice wheatgrass with a manual masticating juicer.
A good one can be relatively inexpensive to buy, and is similar
to an old fashioned table-mounted mincer that is turned with a
handle. Many masticating juicers will also make smoothies,
purees, nut butters, pasta, baby foods and frozen fruit ice
creams.
The price of a good juicer may seem quite high, but the quality
of the juice produced, and the long life of the juicer, far
outweigh the initial outlay when compared to the cheaper, far
less efficient models on the market.
About the author:
Jane Thurnell-Read writes on health, stress and alternative
medicine - unbiased, well-researched articles. Visit
www.healthandgoodness.com because there are more articles
on nutrition, health, happiness, alternative medicine and more.
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