Fresh juices are undoubtedly beneficial to your health. They can increase your nutrient levels, they can cleanse and detoxify your body, they are delicious. They are an excellent part of any and every person’s diet, whether you are trying to lose weight or not. But there is a lot more to juicing than meets the eye.
Whole fresh produce is much healthier for you than juice because the fibre is an important part of your diet. Without fibre, there would be little elimination. Without proper functioning bowels, your health suffers badly and the weight stacks on.
But there does come a point when you can’t face another piece of fruit or when the vegetable is not wildly palatable as it is. If this is a juicy fruit or vegetable, then by juicing it, you can still obtain most of the nutrients. Most of us would baulk at eating a kilo of carrots in a sitting. But drinking the juice from a kilo of carrots is no problem.
My juicer was not a good one, and I was quite glad when it died recently and I needed to replace it. But, instead of racing off to the nearest store, I did some research.
I discovered quite a lot that was of great interest.
I always thought that the Champion juicer was one of the best ones to buy. but this isn’t the case.
The best juicers are the ones that don’t heat up the food while it is being juiced, as this kills off many of the valuable nutrients. These are invariably the slower ones. So don’t look for super fast juicers.
The cheaper centrifugal ones are those you find in the normal electrical stores. Not only do they generate heat, they contain the pulp inside. For a large family, you would have to keep stopping to remove the pump. This doesn’t promote eagerness to use the juicer.
The best juicers have an auger. They can have a single gear or twin gears. They operate by crushing and squeezing the food
Good juicing machines should:
- dump the pulp outside the juicer as they juice
- not heat the food in any way
- be easy to use – otherwise you may not want to use it
- be easy to clean – if not, this factor may make you reluctant to use them
- juice a variety of foods – makes you more adventurous
I came across this very helpful comparison chart. It compares 10 popular brands, listing how they perform. Don’t buy another juicer until you have checked it out.
While most of the best juicers are quite expensive, you can get a good manual one for less than $100. This may be slow and hard going, but you will get better quality juice that an electrical one for the same price. There is little point juicing if you don’t reap the benefits.
This is an Aussie site, so the prices are in Australian dollars.
You can find a wide variety of delicious juicing recipes at Healthy Eating For Weight Loss.
