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Now, more than ever, your health is important.

It is a scientific fact that what we eat dramatically influences the level of our health. That means we must choose what we eat carefully. This includes choosing foods with the maximum amount of nutrition (vitamins, minerals, etc) while avoiding those foods with unhealthy ingredients.

NOTE: You can download this guide as a PDF file here if you prefer to read offline or print it.

This article is quite long, so if you are in a hurry I recommend you read “What is the best juicer for beginners” as that will help you decide which juicer is best for you by answering a couple of simple questions.

Table of Contents

What is juicing?
What about shop bought fresh juice? – Why not just buy the juice?
10 Hidden Dangers & 26 Additives in Supermarket Juices
Why Not Just Eat Raw Fruits & Veggies

Juicers & Your Budget – Finding the right juicer for you

1. Centrifugal Juicer
2. Masticating Juicers – Single Gear Auger
3. Masticating Juicers – Dual Gear
4. Wheatgrass Juicers
5. Citrus Juicers

A few things to know before you buy

• Pulp Ejection and Storage Systems
• Juicer Warranties
• Juicer Reviews

Tips & Tricks to Juicing

Where to go from here?

• Frequently Asked Questions
• Get our Daily Juicing Tips sent to your inbox

Fresh Juice is an extraordinary way to maximize your nutritional intake every day!

Not only does juicing provide a powerful dose of nutrients, it is also great for those of us constantly on the go. Today, we are all on the go and oh so busy. We make nutritional compromises in order to accommodate our hectic schedules. Regardless of how busy our schedules are, good nutrition is still good nutrition.

There are many ways that we can accommodate our busy schedule without compromising health. One such way is juicing!

What is juicing?

Juicing is the processing of separating the juice in fresh fruit and vegetables from its pulp. Doing so provides your body with a broad spectrum of vital living and raw nutrients.

In order to juice, you must have a juicer.

This guide was created to give you the solid information you need to know about juicers.

You’ll find out about the wonderful health benefits of juicing, the different types of juicers, and juicing tips.

Keep reading to discover the wonderful world of juicing.

What about shop bought fresh juice? Why not just buy the juice?

A good question considered by many is “why not just buy juice or eat raw fruit and vegetables?”

Well this is actually two questions in one so we’ll break it down into the two different questions:

(1)Why not just buy the juice?

(2)Why not just eat raw fruits and veggies?

After all juice IS CREATED equal, right?

“100% Juice” is advertized on the shelves of many stores and by many manufacturers.

With a need to save time, many people reason that the best way to get their juice is to buy it off the shelves.

Let’s look at a few facts to help you determine whether you want to buy juice from shelves or create your own juice with a juicer.

Did you know that heating or cooking foods can actually destroys a large portion of its vitamins and minerals?

What about the natural enzymes in the food? They are also denatured by heat.

100% juice that has been industrially produced generally goes through most or all the following processes:

• Pressing: the entire fruit is pressed to obtain the juice. This includes the chemically treated peel.
• Centrifuging: This is a process that gets rid of the fruit or vegetables pulp.
• Eliminating of enzymes: Enzymes are living elements, which are totally eliminated.
• Boiling: Juice is typically boiled between 110 to 160 degrees for several minutes. Most vitamins are destroyed during the boiling process.
• Vaporizing: During this process, as much as 20% of the juices volume is lost.
• Unnatural Flavoring: Juices are often flavored according to the manufactures wishes.
• Adding Additives: Manufacturer juices contain many additives such as coloring, sweeteners, artificial vitamins and minerals, artificial granules to resemble pieces of fruit.

10 Hidden Dangers & 26 Additives in Supermarket Juices

If you want to read the full expose on supermarket juice, please read my article entitled – 10 Hidden Dangers & 26 Additives in Supermarket Juices.

1. A common low calorie sweetner called Acesulfame-Potassium (E950) can actually make you fatter?
2. An artificial vanilla flavoring is quite addictive.
3. bisphenol-A (BPA) leaks into your juice from the plastic containers when they get warm (like on the long, hot journey from factory to shop). BPA has been blamed for lower sperm counts in men, fatter bottoms and more.
4. Synthetic dyes found in supermarket juices can cause allergic reactions, hives, and possibly trigger auto-immune responses in some people (that’s where your body’s defenses starts attacking YOU).
5. Naturally occurring preservatives that are added to juices can destroy vitamin B1 but also may sensitize your body to dyes in the juices and bring about allergic reactions.
6. A VERY common sweetner can reduce the number of good bacteria in your lower digestive tract by about 80%. At the same time the number of bad bacteria can increase by up to 500%.
7. Another very common sweetner was found by accident when a chemist who had been working with coal tar, happened to lick his finger before he washed his hand. He noticed the sweet flavor.
8. One dye used in juices was banned by several countries in the European Union (associated with possible ADHD, allergies and maybe even colon cancer in rats) but were forced by the European Union to reinstate its use. It’s used in the US in drinks.
9. The governments of Australia, Japan, and the USA ban the use of a certain food dye, but it’s still in many food products sold in the UK.
10. One preservative commonly used can react with vitamin C to produce a toxic chemical called benzene.

Why Not Just Eat Raw Fruits & Veggies

Juicing versus Raw fruits and veggies

The difference between consuming juice versus eating raw fruits or vegetables falls into the following 2 categories:

1. Absorption Time
2. Absorption Percentage

Absorption Time

The absorption time is how long it takes for your body to digest and make use of the fruit, vegetable, or juices nutrition (vitamins, minerals, etc).

Juicing eliminates the need for all of the chewing required to eat raw fruits and vegetables, thus it makes it easier for your body to absorb the nutrients.

The following are the absorption times for juice and actual raw fruits and veggies:

• 15 minutes or less for juice.
• Up to 5 hours for raw fruits & vegetables.

Absorption percentage

The absorption percentage is how much of the fruit, vegetables, or juice’s nutrition is actually absorbed (versus being lost) by your body. The following are the absorption percentages for juice and actual raw fruits and veggies:

• 60 to 68% for juice
• 15 to 17% for raw fruits & vegetables

Many people have discovered the wonders of juicing for themselves with improved health and vigor. Are you ready to join them? Let’s look at the equipment you will need – a juicer.

Juicers & Your Budget – Finding the right juicer for you

When purchasing a juicer you have to consider your budget and also the quality of the juicer.

It’s better to buy a high quality juicer that costs a bit more, than to purchase an inexpensive or cheap juicer of low quality.

A juicer should be viewed as an investment – something you hope to have around for years. You don’t want to find yourself back in the store or browsing online for a replacement juicer after a year or only a few months.

Many customers and shoppers waste a lot of money because they are constantly replacing poor quality juicers that break and no longer serve their purpose.

The following are general price ranges for the more common and popular juicers (don’t worry if you don’t know what each type of juicer is – we’ll cover that in a moment):

· Centrifugal Juicers: $95.00 to $1,300.00

· Masticating – Single Gear Juicers: $230.00 to $500.00

· Masticating – Dual Gear Juicers: $299 to $1000.00

· Wheatgrass Juicer: $40.00 to $1000.00

· Citrus Juicers: $20.00 to $125.00

You don’t necessarily have to opt for the most expensive juicer; however you surely don’t want to buy the cheapest. Quality is what you want, and quality is something you won’t likely find in the cheapest or cheaper models. Quality is what will help you avoid frustrating juicer experiences and disappointments.

We will help you make the best decision. Once you know what type of juicer you want, we’ll direct you to our recommended juicer webpage that shows the top three juicers of that type (covering three different budget ranges) so you can choose the absolute best juicer for your money.

There is a wide variety of juicers available in the marketplace.

Centrifugal, Mastigating Single Gear (Auger), Mastigating Dual Gear, Wheatgrass juicers, and citrus juicers are the most popular types. Not every juicer will be suitable for every person. It all depends on your needs, desires, and of course the specific juicer.

Let’s look at each type of juicer in turn and highlight it’s uses as well as it’s pros and cons.

(1) Centrifugal Juicer

Centrifugal juicers are “high-speed juicers”.

They have a revolving grater that spins at speeds of 10, 000 to 12,000 RPM (revolutions per minute). As its name implies, this type of juicer uses centrifugal force to separate the juice and place it in a receptacle. The pulp is collected in a different container.

Pros

• Large feeding chutes often capable of handling whole apples.
• Considered to be the fastest method of making juice.
• Compact .
• Easy to handle.
• Good juice yields from hard produce or root veggies.

Cons

• Large strainers which can be a little difficult to clean.
• Cleaning the rotating blades may be a bit unsafe to handle.
• The juice might become oxidized due to the high revolutions as well as the centrifugal process .
• A large amount of foam is produced although most juicers have a foam separator.
• Cannot be used to correctly juice wheat grass, herbs, leafy veggies, and wheat sprout.
• Quite noisy.
• Generally limited to operating time of just a couple of minutes.
• The strainer generally experiences pulp build up.

Check out our Top 3 Recommended Centrifugal Juicers

(2) Masticating Juicers – Single Gear Auger

You can think of masticating juicers as slow speed juicers. Masticating simply means “chewing”.

Masticating juicers use an extraction process that is rather slow, typically somewhere in the range of 70 to 160 RPM. The purpose is to prevent the juice from being negatively affected by oxygen.

The nice thing about mastigating juicers is that they allow you to make ice creams, sorbets, smoothies, salsas, and more simply by using a homogenizing screen.

With the singer gear masticating juicer, the fruits and veggies are pushed against a very slow turning screw, also known as the auger. The auger then crushes the produce against the juicing screen or sieve that separates the juice and pulp.

• Generally operates quietly.
• Provides a generous yield.
• Capable of juicing wheatgrass.
• Produces quality juice because there is no heat created by friction.
• Juice can be stored in the refrigerator for 24 to 48 hours without a significant loss of nutrition.
• Many include extra attachments for multiple purposes.

CONS

• The process is slow.
• Requires the fruits and veggies be chopped into smaller pieces to accommodate a smaller feed chute.

Check out our Top 3 Recommended Masticating Single Gear Juicers

(3) Masticating Juicers – Dual Gear Juicers

Dual or twin gear juicers make use of two cylinder gears (rollers). The fruits or vegetables are drawn slowly through the two gears and broken down into juice.

PROS

• Considered to be the juicer that produces the best juice.
• Provides possibly the most generous juice yield.
• Typically comes with diverse screens allowing juicing of a variety of different produce.
• Juice can be stored in the refrigerator for 24 to 48 hours without a significant loss of nutrition.
• Generally great for wheat grass, leafy produce, and herbs

CONS

• Possibly the slowest juicer
• Often requires the user to push the fruits or vegetables through the dual gears
• Assembly and cleaning can be awkward
• The price tends to be a bit higher

Check out our Top 3 Recommended Masticating Twin/Dual Gear Juicers

(4) Wheatgrass Juicers

Have you every heard of wheat grass? Many people have yet to discover it. Wheat grass juice is very nutritious.

It comes from the grass shoots of wheat grain, and today, it’s really easy to just buy the wheatgrass seeds and grow it yourself so you’ll have a plentiful supply for your juicing.

Some single auger and double gear juicers do a good job with wheat grass so, if you are interested in, or like wheatgrass juice, then you can get more bang for your money by simply getting a singer auger or double gear juicer that does a good job juicing wheat grass.

You will also find manual hand powered wheatgrass juicers.

PROS

• Very compact.
• Manual hand powered juicers are considered very efficient.
• Provides possibly the most generous yield.

CONS

• Generally slower processing time .
• Depending on the type, it may require the user to push the fruits or vegetables through the dual gears or manually power the juicer by hand.

Check out our Top 3 Recommended Wheatgrass Juicers

(5) Citrus Juicers

As its name implies, citrus juicers are used solely for citrus fruits. Commonly juiced citrus fruits are oranges and grapefruits. However many people also like to juice pomegranates or other types of citrus fruit.

PROS

• Typically provides a better yield from citrus fruits than other juicers
• Can be operated manually or automatically.

CONS

• Only useful for citrus fruits

A few things to know before you buy …

Pulp Ejection and Storage Systems

Pulp ejection systems can be found with some juicers. This system ejects the pulp into a separate and distinct container. The benefit is that this feature allows you to juice more without having to stop and empty the waste.

Pulp Storage Systems are available with certain juicers. A collection container inside the juicer houses the pulp. Because the container is internal, it takes up space thus increasing the frequency you’ll have to empty the container while juicing.

Juicer Warranties

It’s always nice to have your juicer covered by a manufacturer’s warranty. Many juicers in the $150 and above category come with either a 5 or 10-year warranty.

As indicated below, be sure to check customer reviews before purchasing a juicer. This will provide you with an excellent indication of the juicer’s quality and also whether the manufacturer honors the warranty.

Juicer Reviews

Customer reviews are an excellent way to narrow down your choice of juicers.

You’ll likely get an idea about:

• Whether the juicer is easy to use and convenient
• How easy it is to clean the juicer
• The juicer’s noise level
• Other customer’s satisfaction with the price
• Whether the juicer is capable of juicing leafy greens or wheatgrass
• Whether the juicer can serve any other purposes
• Useful attachments included with the juicer
• Whether the processing is slower or faster
• Clogging issues
• The inclusion of juice recipes
• Experiences returning the product, getting a replacement juicer, and the manufacturer’s commitment to the warranty

Tips & Tricks to Juicing

Once you have your new juicer, be sure to try some or all of following tips and tricks for a more enjoyable juicing experience.

• Only use fresh fruits and veggies.
• Keep in mind that fresh juice will not taste the same as boxed or bottled juice found on store shelves.
• You’ll generally get better results, the slower the processing.
• You can use the pulp to make soups.

TIPS FOR CENTRIFUGAL JUICERS:

• Soaking the strainer, for about 10 minutes each month, should clear away any mineral deposits.
• Slower processing tends to yield more juice.
• Once pulp has dried, it is very difficult to clean. Clean your juicer after each use.
• It’s best to drink your juice immediately after processing it.

TIPS FOR SINGLE & DUAL GEAR JUICERS:

• It is very helpful to use a special made apple cutter when using a juicer with a small feeding tube.
• Hard produce is better cut into small pieces. This will provide better results and make it easier for you to feed them into the juicer.
• To increase the juice yield, soak leafy greens produce in water prior to juicing.
• Soft produce can sometimes cause clogging. Mixing hard produce with your soft produce can be helpful. Additionally, juice soft fleshy produce before any harder produce as this will help clean the machine.

Where to go from here

Hopefully you have found this guide informative and has helped you decide on which juicier you want to buy. We have setup some web pages with our top 3 juicers in each category (the three juicers are in the upper, middle and lower end of the budget scale). That way you can find the perfect juicer for your needs as well as your budget.

Click the links below to see our Top 3 Recommended:

1. Centrifugal Juicer
2. Single Gear Juicer
3. Twin/Dual Gear Juicer
4. Wheatgrass Juicer

Frequently Asked Questions

1. Do normal fruit and vegetable juicers juice wheatgrass?

Not really. Some single and double auger juicers can handle wheatgrass, but for the best results, you’ll need a specialist Wheatgrass.

2. What can I do with all the pulp it creates during a juicing session?

There are a number of different ways you can use the pulp. You can create lovely soups using the pulp of vegetables. The pulp from fruits can be added into cake or muffins to add extra flavor and fiber. Pulp from juicing carrots make good carrot cake. If you cannot find a use for your pulp, consider the compost heap.

3. Are Juicers, Smoothie Makers and Blenders the same thing?

No. Juicers are machines that separate the juice from the pulp of fruits and vegetables. Smoothie makers and blenders cut up the fruit or vegetable and the pulp and juice becomes mixes as one, thicker liquid.

4. Where can I go to find out more about juicing?

You can find out more about juicing on our website Juicing the Rainbow. You’ll not only find out recommendations for juicers, but juice recipes and nutritional information about the fruits & vegetables that you want to juice.

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