Read these 12 Basics of Juicing Tips tips to make your life smarter, better, faster and wiser. Each tip is approved by our Editors and created by expert writers so great we call them Gurus. LifeTips is the place to go when you need to know about Juicer tips and hundreds of other topics.
To maximize the benefits of juicing vegetables and fruits, choose your juicer wisely.
* Centrifugal juicers create oxidation that degrades nutrients over time.
* Masticating juicers are low-speed units that produce a higher quality juice because they produce less oxidation.
* High speed fruit and vegetable juicers can produce too much heat that can destroy nutrients.
* Hydraulic press juicers produce very little oxidation and are said to make the highest nutrient juice.
Choose your application and then choose your juicer accordingly.
Fruit and vegetable juices are important for diet and nutrition.
For instance, if you are 40 or younger and lead a somewhat sedentary lifestyle, you might drink 12 to 16 ounces of fresh fruit juices midway through the afternoon as an energy supplement.
If you're over 40 (with slower metabolism), drink 8 to 12 ounces of homemade juice. Follow your energy drink up with an equal amount of water. It will fill you up, quiet your appetite and extend the benefits of fruit juicing.
Fresh juice tastes best and is most nutritious when the juice is at its peak: poured right from your juicer.
Since modern home juicers are easy to assemble and clean, it's not a chore to make a fresh glass of homemade apple juice or carrot juice in your own multipurpose juicer.
If you must store your fresh juice, do so immediately in a small, tightly closed glass jar in the refrigerator. Carrot juice stores reasonably well for a couple days, while cabbage juice turns foul within 24 hours. Don't store cabbage juice for more than an hour or two.
The benefits of juicing vegetables and fruits can be reaped early in the morning with glasses of fresh juices made in quality fruit & vegetable juicers. Starting your day with vitamins and the natural sugars is ideal.
Have something solid with your apple juice or carrot juice. A small piece of dry, whole-grain toast will help absorb stomach acids that are produced when your stomach activates.
An abundance of pulp in your juice, or as a byproduct, is among the benefits of juicing vegetables and fruits.
Why, you may ask, is pulp a benefit?
Pulp is what you have left after the juice has been squeezed from fresh vegetables and fruits in your home juicer. You can use pulp from your juicing machine in cakes, sauces, meat loafs, muffins, dessert toppings and whole grain breads.
If you are ready to get started juicing and you are a beginner, you should remember some basic juicing tips to get the best results possible.
* Use your fruit and vegetable juicer on a hard, flat surface. The plastic or rubber legs of your fruit and vegetable juicer should be planted firmly on the counter. This will reduce vibration and extend your juicer's life.
* Before starting up your juicing machine, make sure all parts fit together snugly and you haven't left anything out. If this is not the case, you may have a mess on your hands.
* As with all electric kitchen appliances, keep your vegetable juicer unplugged until you're ready to juice, especially if you have children at home.
When you are shopping for a juicer, there are several factors to take into consideration.
* A home juicing machine with a motor rating of 450 watts or greater is recommended. The heat from a more powerful juicer motor will destroy the nutrients in the juice by oxidation.
* A less powerful juicer will strain the motor and your vegetable juicer will eventually break down.
* Buy a home juicer, as opposed to a commercial juicer, with a well known brand name. You want a reputable company behind your juicing machine and finding replacement parts for lesser known brands of juicers can be difficult, even impossible. You do not want to be juiceless for a prolonged period awaiting delivery of replacement parts.
Figuring out how to clean out your juicer the first time can be daunting. All those moving parts - what do you do first?
Start by cleaning the blades of you fruit & vegetable juicer under running water. Use a vegetable brush to remove fruit and vegetable particles from the juicer basket holes.
If your citrus juicer manual approves, wash the removable parts in the dishwasher's upper rack. Dry the parts before putting your juicer back together.
When researching the best quality juicing machines, check the product specification for the percentage of juice vs. pulp the juicer yields.
You want a fruit and vegetable juicer that gives the maximum amount of juice. Juicers that eject the pulp outside the juicing machine yield less juice than juicers that keep the pulp in the basket. Having pulp-free juice is more important to some people than others so this can be a matter of preference.
One of the benefits of juicing vegetables and fruits at home is that the juices are made without additives or preservatives. Additionally, you don't have to worry about all the added sugars that make some juices incredibly high in calories.
You are making 100% juices within minutes. Efficient fruit and vegetable juicers get as much as 40% more juice, extracting much more juice per pound of produce.
Whether you make your own freshly squeezed juice just to enjoy it or as a part of a juice fast, you want it to stay fresh for as long as possible. After all, eventually juices can lose their nutrients and benefits, so storing them in a place where they can stay fresh benefits your health and your diet efforts. The best means of storing juices depends on their ingredients, so be sure to remember exactly which fruits and vegetables that you mixed together.
For example, if you made orange juice, this will only last for about three days before it begins to go bad and loses its beneficial nutrients. You can keep apple cider for about 10 days. When you store your freshly squeezed juices, place them in freezer boxes. Make sure that these boxes are bigger than the juice box itself, for the juice can and will grow larger once it's frozen. If you decide to freeze juice, it should last for about three months. In the case of canned juice it can last even longer, at least a year.
However, when storing your juice, you must beware. Freshly squeezed juices can become a home to many different types of bacteria like salmonella or E. coli. This could easily make you sick or even be fatal depending on how much bacteria is present. In order to be on the safe side, always follow the guidelines above. Always keep juice stored in a fridge as well.
Even if your juice doesn't seem like it has gone bad, you can sometimes tell if it's rancid with a sniff test. The juice will normally smell sour or strange. Sometimes you'll even notice visible mold. In both of those cases, do not drink the juice. Instead, throw it away immediately and make some more.
As long as you follow these guidelines, you should be able to enjoy your juice for days.
Do you want to experiment with juicing without investing in a juicer? Juicing can help you add a lot of extra nutrients to your diet, but you might not be ready to invest in an expensive machine or use up limited counter space. You can enjoy the health benefits of juicing without using an expensive gadget that takes up more space on your kitchen counter. Your results should be identical to the nutrient-rich drink that all juicers enjoy, and it will not take up a lot of extra time.
Supplies to Juice Without a Juicer
You can replace a special juicer with these common kitchen supplies:
Simply add your fruit and vegetables to the blender and blend them until they are smooth. You can experiment with different settings, but many inexpensive blenders have a "Liquify" or "Puree" setting that works very well. Depending upon the type of fruit and vegetables in your concoction, you might need to add a little bit of water to help your blender work efficiently.
Set the strainer over the top of the bowl. Slowly pour the mixture into the strainer, so you can filter the pure juice into the bowl. You can press the pulp down with a large spoon or your clean hand to speed up the process a little.
Pour the juice into a glass and enjoy. Some folks also save the leftover pulp for recipes, and these include cakes, smoothies, and even dog treats.