Juice, Juice, Baby

Juicing is becoming a lifestyle choice. Well, at least, it is in Los Angeles.

I discovered juicing when my husband was treated for colorectal cancer. I knew about juicing before, but I did not practice it myself. I watched Sick, Fat and Nearly Dead and knew it had to be a good thing. To clarify, we never replaced our food with juice, but we added it our diet. Since my husband is cancer free, our juicing has dropped dramatically. Oops.

So, there are two methods of juicing. Well, there’s actually three machine types: Juicers that are either centrifugal extractors or cold press, or a blender. I prefer cold press and blenders because centrifugal extractors destroys enzymes in the fruits and vegetables and kills some of the nutrients.

Hurom juicer

Juicing, done properly, is amazing. But don’t assume all juices sold at retails stores are the same. Don’t buy the Odwalla juice if you’re really looking for nutritional value. It doesn’t compare to the real thing. I bought all my juicers at Costco, because of their awesome “try and still return-if-you-don’t like it” policy. I bought my Hurom cold press juicer there, and I literally love that thing.

You can pretty much juice anything. You can even juice the orange rind. Even though juicing requires you to go to the farmer’s market or Costco for proper supplies, I love it.

So do my kids, who are 18 months and almost 4 years old. They love drinking green juice – lots of spinach or kale, pineapple, apple, and carrots. I tried the organic carrot juice at Costco, and it’s disgusting. But fresh made carrot juice is a lot better! Ideally, I’d get a stainless steel juicer, but it’s over $1,000. Hmm – Louis Vuitton, one month of daycare, or a juicer?  Hard choice.

The “downside” of a juicer vs. a blender is that a juicer takes out the fiber. It will take out the skin and seeds as well. For the blender, you don’t actually have to take out the pineapple core. It’s just more fiber that is good for you. And, if you’re lazy, it’s less work.

Vitamix blender

I bought my Vitamix blender at Costco (and returned it). It’s an amazing machine, but it’s $450, so I decided to return it since I wasn’t using it enough to justify the space on my counter or the $ spent.

Even though the benefit of a blender like Vitamix is that it keeps all the fiber of the fruits and veggies, I remember several concoctions I made that were basically pretty disgusting.  Like celery fiber and watermelon. But there are so many other recipes that are less so.

Ninja blender

My choice for a blender was the Ninja blender which is close enough to the Vitamix. If you’re trying to pulverize raw almonds to make almond milk, the Vitamix is a better choice. But the Ninja is definitely good enough to make juices or smoothies easily, at less than half the cost.

So, why juice? Cause it’s easy, tasty, and good for you. Get the equipment, and then it’s all trial and error from there. Experiment away!

Oh, yes, one last note. Don’t forget the airtight juicing containers. You have to store your juice properly! You can get glass ones or plastic, but make sure it’s airtight.

Good luck!  Save me a glass.