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| Wheat grass with a hand crank juicer |
How to make a great green juice!
My favorite green juice is this:
1 head of celery
2 cucumbers
1 head of kale
1/2" of ginger
snap peas
fennel
4 fuji apples
2 granny smith apples
1 orange (peeled)
This is my favorite juice. It is yummy and healthy.
You can change it up any way you want.
You should start with:
- cucumber and celery, it is a lot of "wet" and you automatically have alkalinity and electrolytes!
- substitute the kale with whatever you have in the fridge that is leafy; spinach, collard greens, cabbage, leftover romaine and if you want something peppery...try some watercress! I don't love cylantro, but it is really good for you and would be a good thing to throw in there.
- add low sugar fruit (I have apples and an orange) you can use pears and lemons or limes
- substitute the ginger with radish
- add sprouts
I drink it in the morning so that I "break my fast" with a cleansing, alkaline juice. We are more acidic in the morning from our night long sleep, so it makes much more sense to down a lovely green juice than a cup of acidic coffee.
Sometimes I get a little tired in the afternoon. This is a good time to juice as well. Juice gives you an instant infusion of energy.
Which juicers juice best?
The ultimate truth about juicers is, whichever juicer you will use is the best one for you. Factors to take into consideration before making your selection;
- time it takes to prepare your juice
- cost
- cleaning
- space it takes up
- shelf life of the juice
- what will you juice? wheat grass or just veggies and fruits?
Juicers can be very expensive. When I first started looking for juicers I looked on Craig's List. There was one type of juicer that was being listed over and over again. I asked why they were selling...the answer was that they were juicing a lot and wanted a better juicer. I decided that I would skip the first level juicer and just buy one, the better one...which ultimately saved me the cost of the first cheaper juicer.
I own the Breville Juice Fountain and a little hand crank for my wheat grass. The Breville probably cost around $400 and the wheat grass juicer was around $50. There is a difference in juicers. My Breville is not the juicer that retains the most nutrients...but it is the juicer that is easier to use. I don't have to chop anything to throw it down the tube...with the exception of some huge fennel bulbs and an occasional big granny smith apple. It takes minutes to clean and put away. I am afraid that I would juice less if it was more time consuming and troublesome to make my juice.
The purchase of a juicer is one step closer to a healthier you. You are going to spend a lot of money on organic fruits and vegetables, so take that into consideration when deciding how much to spend. A good juicer will net you more juice and save you money in the long run. The following are the different kinds of juicers that are available.
Centrifugal Juicers
easiest to clean
easiest to use
Has a wider tube so you don't have to chop veggies and fruits. You push your veggies and fruits through the tube. There are a bunch of blades built into a mesh basket that whirls around, grates up your produce and shoots the juice through to the pitcher and the pulp out the other end into a chute.
The only problem with this type of juicer is that the spinning action oxidizes the juice faster than the other kinds of juicers, so you start losing nutrients quicker.
Masticating Juicers
slower oxidation
These juicers grind instead of spinning, squeezing the juice slowly through a screen. The good thing about this kind of juicer is that the oxidation is slower than the centrifugal juicer and you can keep the juice in the fridge for a day or two and it will still be good. The cons are that they are harder to clean, heavier and take up more space.
Twin Gear Juicers
slower oxication
juices wheatgrass
This is the princess of the juicers! The veggies and fruits are pressed between gears and slowly squeezes out the juice. This type of juicer allows you to not only juice fruits and veggies...but wheatgrass as well! The cons are that they are harder to clean, heavier and take up more space.
Hydraulic Press
twice the juice!
more nutrients
The queen of juicers! It slowly presses the fruits and veggies and provides almost double the juice! It is a commercial juicer and very expensive.
GASPPPPP!!!!! I don't drink all my juice in 15 minutes. I save some and drink it in the afternoon if I am sluggish...it is instant energy! I also freeze mine in individual containers. I pull them out, thaw them and drink them up. I am sorry to all the hard core juicers out there trying to suck every bit out of your green juice...but I would not have any afternoon juice if I had to take the time to juice again. There just isn't enough time.
A word on wheat grass...I love everything about wheat grass. I will do a separate piece on it later. I just want to say...as long as this is huge confession time, I can not grow it. I don't have a green thumb. If you give me a plant, I take it home and love it to death. I am working on someone local growing it for me...but in the meantime, I have this super duper company in San Diego who grows it, cuts it and overnights it to me. 5 bags last me for 2 weeks ...when they send me another box! The moral of my story...where there is a will, there is a way!
I hope this helps you when trying to decide what juicer to purchase! Just remember, you are worth it! Happy Juicing!
~Cathy
http://www.thehealthcoach.nethttps://www.facebook.com/Thehealthcoach.net
cathy@thehealthcoach.net
*copyright Cathy Sykora 2012
Thanks for the info on juicers. I think the centrifugal type is best for me (except for the oxidation).
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