Tell me about juicers/juicing

[MongGrel]

 

[dullard]

people who are mixing fruits and vegetables (especially if you use a good percentage of greens to blend in) don't have to worry much unless they are diabetic

Or, as I said above, if you are eating too much overall (which I would say applies to a large percent of people).

If you are already taking in too much, juicing your food makes it easier to consume even more of it.

 

[Crono]

Or, as I said above, if you are eating too much overall (which I would say applies to a large percent of people).

If you are already taking in too much, juicing your food makes it easier to consume even more of it.

When was the last time you juiced, and what type of juicer/blender?

 

[gorcorps]

As someone who has a ninja blender and made smoothies consistently for several months in a row, it's going to just be easier to eat fruit. I don't bother with smoothies anymore, it's just more stuff to clean

Unless you really want to sneak in greens like kale/spinach in your smoothie and don't eat veggies otherwise.

 

[zCypher]

The benefit to juicing is extracting the maximum nutritional value from raw produce with minimal bulk. The whole fiber / pulp thing is a total non-issue. There is still a fair bit of pulp left when juicing, and even if there wasn't, so what? The idea for most people is not to consume solely juice. You're getting the most nutritional value out of the produce that you can hope for in the smallest package. If you're not getting enough fiber in your diet, it's unlikely to be because you're juicing.

So if like most people you aren't getting anywhere near enough fruits and veggies in your diet, it's a pretty good way to get your fill without ruining your appetite for your regularly scheduled meals.

 

[dullard]

When was the last time you juiced, and what type of juicer/blender?

I don't juice because it is cost prohibitive. I often use a ninja blender for smoothies. But it is very easy to be too full to eat solid foods, whereas you can drink more that will just fill the crevices.

 

[SaltyNuts]

"juicing or blending" with a ninja basically renders the fiber in the stuff useless. It also helps upset your blood sugar more.

Natural consumption of fiber with the fruit/vegetable/grain that it comes from is part of the whole balance that keeps things normal. Stripping the fruit/vege/grain from the fiber means all the carbs that would normally digest into the system slower, all hit faster. Putting more load on the pancreas and kidneys(Body uses urine to help flush out to much sugar in the blood).

How is this the case, if you don't separate the pulp? If I have two oranges and a piece of broccoli, I could eat them separately. Or I can put them in a Ninja, along with some water maybe, and it in essence liquifies the WHOLE THING, so that I'm not missing out on any part of the oranges or broccoli, correct?

 

[poofyhairguy]

How is this the case, if you don't separate the pulp? If I have two oranges and a piece of broccoli, I could eat them separately. Or I can put them in a Ninja, along with some water maybe, and it in essence liquifies the WHOLE THING, so that I'm not missing out on any part of the oranges or broccoli, correct?

Sometimes the heat from the blending process can affect heat-sensitive nutrients like pantothenic acid and vitamin C. Frankly fruit just isn't as nutritious as NutriBullet commercials would have you believe- they are mostly sugar. The whole point of the fruit is to make the actual nutritious stuff more palatable without ADDING processed sugar.

For example, I make a Vitamix smoothie every morning (which seems to be close to what you are wanting) and in that smoothie I do add frozen bananas, strawberries and blueberries. But that fruit isn't the healthy part, it is just the tasty part to get down the healthy part. The healthy part is a pile of protein powder, a handful of purple kale, and a quarter cup of chia seeds and ground flax seeds. The main point of my smoothie is to get all that stuff down (mostly the protein powder because I don't like eating a ton of meat). The fruit is the icing on the cake almost literally.

Also I have an Omega masticating juicer (aka a "real" juicer) and often I do add some sort of fruit to whatever juice I make. The trick is since the fruit is just added for taste I try to minimize it (never more than 20% of the juice). The real healthy stuff is all the vegetables/roots that make up most of my Omega-made juices- collard green, celery, spinach, beets, chards, parsley, ginger, kale, etc. The point of these juices are to give me a serving of vegetables I would never actually sit down and eat because like most manchildren I hate eating vegetables. The fruit I add is just to make the juice more palatable.

It drives me nuts when people "get into juicing" and all they do is blend up fruit all day. I mean maybe that is better than the Diet Cokes they were sucking down before they got into juicing, but in reality all that stuff is just sugar water with minimal health benefits compared to a real green juice. When I buy store juices I always check to see what order the ingredients are in, and if the first ingredient is fruit juice I won't buy it because again its just funny colored sugar water. The sad fact is most store bought "green" juices are like this because the average American can't stand a drink without a ton of sugar in it and they are trying to make money.

 

[SaltyNuts]

Thanks Poofy.

 

[SaltyNuts]

So, I ordered the Ninja, and it came last night. Based on the discussion above I thought it would liquefy the fruits/veggies, and keep the pulp. But right on the box it says something to the effect that it "extracts the juice, and leave the fiber behind!". Did I get tricked?!?!

 

[poofyhairguy]

So, I ordered the Ninja, and it came last night. Based on the discussion above I thought it would liquefy the fruits/veggies, and keep the pulp. But right on the box it says something to the effect that it "extracts the juice, and leave the fiber behind!". Did I get tricked?!?!

No, that line "leave the fiber behind" is a dog whistle in the health nut community because some people think by separating the juice from the fiber (which every blender does) makes it easier to digest nutrients. The Ninja is just a good blender, which is what you wanted.

Last piece of advice- look into a farmer's market nearby for good greens and cheaper juicing stuff overall.

Also if you have the freezer space consider freezing some fruit for smoothies (if you don't want to freeze it yourself CostCo has excellent frozen fruit). I think smoothies are BY FAR the most palatable way to take down a nutritious drink.

 

[zinfamous]

Unless you live where there is cheap fresh fruit/veggies, you can't compete on price.

The industrial companies that juice fruit/vegetables are using cheap misshapen, oddly colored, or whatever else grocery stores reject produce. You will be buying the cream of the crop that meets whatever silly standards that people have on their produce (bananas need a curve, but not too much of a curve). The end result is that you can buy V8 or similar juices for far less than you can make it yourself. Unless you can get cheap produce.

As for your specific request, if you don't have time to eat a fruit, what makes you think you have time to get out, use, and clean a juicer?

all of this. I never understood why it was so difficult to just eat fruit. With juicing, you miss out on much of the wonderful fiber, iirc.

OH! Eating whole fruit doesn't "concentrate the nutrients!"

 

[pete6032]

all of this. I never understood why it was so difficult to just eat fruit. With juicing, you miss out on much of the wonderful fiber, iirc.

OH! Eating whole fruit doesn't "concentrate the nutrients!"

Juice is not a replacement to fruits and veggies in one's diet, it is a supplement.

 

[Crono]

all of this. I never understood why it was so difficult to just eat fruit. With juicing, you miss out on much of the wonderful fiber, iirc.

OH! Eating whole fruit doesn't "concentrate the nutrients!"

The people who say stuff like this usually don't eat much fruit or vegetables.

I eat a lot of fruits and vegetables and not only do I juice because I enjoy juicing and drinking fresh juice, but it's also a good way to use fruit that sometimes isn't perfectly good or is overripe but would still make excellent juice. Sometimes I'll see a good deal on fruit like a box of mangoes and whatever I can't eat raw in time - and believe me, I can put away a lot of mangoes - cook or bake into other stuff I'll juice. Also mango juice happens to be delicious.

I have a bigger problem consuming too much fiber (not that it's unhealthy just a bit, uh, gastrically uncomfortable ) than I do not enough.

If you don't like juice, then don't juice. It's that simple. Most of the people arguing against juicing are assuming people who go out and buy juicers are just lazy and can't be bothered to chew food. Some probably are (possibly the OP ), but for most it's either just another way of enjoying fruits and vegetables, not a substitute. You don't see me entering beer threads and telling people to just eat bread, do you?

P.S. if you are lazy, don't buy a juicer. It's just enough work/effort to buy enough fruit and vegetables and prep them that a lot of people end up letting their juicers accumulate dust.