Best Juicers: Journey To Clean Eating
p[Juicing has always been popular in the United States, but it saw a massive surge in popularity starting in 2015. Part of this came from effective marketing. Dieting is a great advertiser, but many diets rely on eating bland, unappealing food. Juicing offered a delicious alternative. You got all the benefits of fruits and vegetables in a better tasting, easy to stomach meal.
Another one of the big appeals of juicing is how easy it was to prepare the juice. Traditional dieting often involves culinary talent to make the food palatable. With juicing, you can either go to a juice bar and get a delicious drink in a few minutes, or you can purchase a juicer and easily make your own drinks at home. Even before juicing took off, there were many high quality on the juicers on the market. Listed below are some of the top benefits of juicing, as well as a selection of top juicers for 2021.
Juicing vs. Blending
Juicing and blending are similar, since both focus on liquid diets. There are some subtle differences with the diets. With juicing, your juicer removes all the fibrous materials from your fruits and vegetables. This means blended drinks are easier to digest, but there are fewer nutritional benefits. Juicing significantly increases the number of vitamins and nutrients you get compared to blending. Because the fruits and vegetables are more concentrated it is easier to absorb, which negates the lack of fiber.
Blenders are also less specialized than juicers, since they are used for more than making smoothies. While this may seem like a disadvantage, it means juicers are much more efficient, since they are designed specifically to create the best possible juices. For example, juicers use a special heating process to process micronutrients in vegetables, providing the most nutritional value.
Omega NC900HDC Juicer Extractor
The Omega NC900HDC is one of the newest juicers released as of writing. Despite being one of the newest models, it is one of the slowest juicers on the market, going at roughly 80 revolutions per minute (RPM). In comparison, fast juicers are on average 10,000 RPM. While it may seem like the Omega is underperforming, slow juicers are much healthier. It may take longer to prepare the juice, but going slower minimizes air exposure to fruits and vegetables.
Lowering the air exposure prevents oxidation, which damages the nutrients. Another benefit of the slower speed is it is easier to control the temperature, reducing the chance of enzymic molecules being burned up by sudden temperature increases. Slower juicers also produce less foam and froth.
The Omega was designed with both thick and thin produce in mind. It can handle apples and carrots with ease, as well as the thin leaves of kale and celery, even handling spinach and dandelion with no issues. It has a wide range of pressure options, which is adjustable by twisting a knob, allowing you to easily combine different ingredients.
As a new juicer, the Omega is one of the more expensive juicers on the market, typically costing between $350 to $450, depending where you shop.
Breville’s Juice Fountain Cold Plus and Fountain Compact
The Juice Fountain is the opposite of the Omega, focusing largely on speed. It uses a centrifugal system to quickly grind fruits and vegetables. The fountain is built with unique rivets towards the top. This helps break down even larger, thicker fruits. The fountain has an especially good reputation juicing apples, which many other juicers challenge with. In addition to making juices within seconds, it has a large pitcher, holding 70-ounces worth of juice. This makes it an excellent juicer if you want to make bigger batches, or are serving multiple people. While it primarily focuses on fast speeds, there are slower options as well, but you do not have as much control over the speed as other juicers. The fountain is a reasonably priced juicer, typically costing between $200 and $250.
If the price seems too high, there is a smaller version available, the Juice Fountain Compact. The compact version is not lacking in power, having a 700-watt motor, easily able to operate at 14,000 RPM. The main difference is it has a smaller container, so you cannot generate as much juice. However, it is only $100 to $120, making it an excellent juicer if you are on a budget. The smaller size also makes it easier to clean, or bring with you on trips.
Novis Vita Juicer
The Novis Vita Juicer is a unique juicer because of the number of available attachments and automated features. One of the most helpful attachments is for citrus fruits, which normally requires a specialized juicer. With state-of-the-art technology, it is one of the quietest juicers currently on the market. It also uses an automatic sensor, adjusting speeds based on whether you want pulpy juices. All the parts easily come apart, making the Vita Juicer easy to clean. With a larger feed tube, you also do not have to cut up fruits and vegetables as much as other juicers. The price for the Novis Vita Juicer varies greatly. In some instances, it goes for as much as $300 to $400, but other locations carry it for a more reasonable $130 to $180.
Tribest GSE-5050 Greenstar Elite Cold Press
The Greenstar Elite is one of the more advanced juicers on the market, using a three-stage system to break down fruits and vegetables. First, it crushes and slices the ingredients, automatically using different settings for larger or smaller items. Next, it mixes up the ingredients. The final step is squeezing out the pulp. The Greenstar Elite is primarily intended for juicing fruit, but the efficient cutting system also makes it good for leafier greens, like kale, spinach and cabbage.
