Unencumbered by fiber or the need to go through the digestive system, invaluable micronutrients and phytochemicals are mainlined straight to the bloodstream for quick absorption. Hence the reason we recommend avoiding fruits such as apple or minimizing sweeter veggies like carrots and beets. Without the fiber to slow absorption the fruit sugars create a spike in blood sugar. However, vegetables such as celery, cucumber, leafy greens, parsley, cilantro paired with just a hint of carrot or coconut water offer a medicinally potent toddy that your body will appreciate.
We encourage everyone to get into the habit of juicing. Think that to make a good juice, you have to spend 30 minutes cleaning the juicer? Advances in juicing technology have made toiling prep and clean up a thing of the past.
Here are two of our favorite (and easy to clean) juicers:
Breville: Juice Fountain Plus
PRICE: $150-$200
Who is this for? The person that says, “Give me the juice, if and only if, it’s quick and easy.”
The Breville is a centrifuge juicer with a special design that makes the juicing process fast. No need to chop your produce: Throw in whole carrots, entire cucumbers and in seconds you have liquid goodness. This is the quickest, most efficient juicer on the market. And the price tag isn’t bad either.
The Downside? Though the quality of the juice is decent, it certainly isn’t winning any awards. The pulp comes out wet, which would cause any juicing aficionado to flinch knowing how much more goodness is contained in that pulp. The Breville does a fine job with most produce, however, it's extremely inefficient when it comes to greens. An entire head of kale yielded only a drizzle of juice. In fairness, greens are notoriously difficult for most juicers but there are machines on the market better suited, Breville’s Juice Fountain Plus just isn’t one of them.
All in all, this juicer is a good buy for the money and for time efficiency.
Hurom Slow Juicer
PRICE: $350-$400
Who is this for? The person that says, “Give me the high quality juice and I’ll spend a little more time.”
Enter the Hurom:
Equal in size to the petite Breville, fairly easy to assemble and clean, it’s “slow juicing” technology uses a pressing and extraction process similar to the process of the Norwalk. The yield of juices is phenomenal as evidenced by the bone dry pulp. And the best news - it extracts every drop available from greens! This is a robust nutrient dense juice which is noticeably richer than juice produced by the Breville. The time commitment is about 3-5 minutes longer than the Breville, but the quality is light years ahead.
The Downside? Produce needs to be chopped into pieces no larger than 2”, which increases prep time. The Hurom produces a “pulpy” juice, which can be unpleasant for some palettes. Though some of the nutrients reside in the pulp, these can easily be filtered out with a fine sieve strainer or with cheesecloth.
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