Fresh juice has become the new fashion drink, with cafes and juice bars selling it by the cup for premium prices. Fresh juice is great for you, as you might already know – it fills the hole left in our diets when we eat too much processed food, and don’t get enough fresh raw fiber. Many people swear that juice fasts and juice diets have not only improved, but actually cured diseases that had been diagnosed as degenerative and basically incurable.
Making juice at home is also a popular way to naturally supplement ones diet, and there are many great home juicer machines out there to choose from. While any machine that makes juice is better than none, there are some important differences between machines that you should take into account if you are interested in buying one.
Basically there are two types of juicer – centrifugal, and masticating. Centrifugal juicers are the more common design, they are the ones you are likely to see for about $50-$100 in department stores. They are quite fast, and work by shredding up all the ingredients so the juice drains out. The disadvantage they have is that the high speed incorporates air bubbles, causing the juice to oxidize – or react with oxygen in the air. This makes it go off faster, and lowers the vitamin and nutrient content.
Masticating juicers (masticating is the scientific term for chewing by the way) use a different principle to extract juice, they instead rely on a slowly turning auger or screw to crush juice out of fruits or vegetables. These machines a bigger, and more solidly built and will cost more to buy, but the advantages are many – they make better juice, are more versatile, and are built to last much longer. One really popular, though fairly expensive masticating juicer is the Angel Juicer (built by the company Angel) which actually uses a twin gear design – this just means it uses not one but two slowly turning augers, or gears as they may be referred to, to grind up everything you put through it. This juicer has the versatility to be able to also make nut butters, and even crush seeds to allow you to make cold pressed linseed and flax seed oils at home!
While any juice is better than no juice, the benefits of a masticating juicer are great, and if you can afford it, this type of machine is the best choice for the truly heath conscious.