Change Your Life with A Juicer

It's no understatement to say a juicer can revolutionize your life. The benefits are plenty. Give yourself a ritual you love to make mornings easier. Fit more fresh produce into your diet. Care for your digestion or your skin or offer guests something special (even if mixed into a cocktail). As you begin to get more creative with your juicing, you can use your juice for cooking or baking or upgrade your machine to make your own vegan milks. Juicing may seem like a trend to some, but once you start, you'll realize it's a trend that isn't going anywhere.

How Does Juicing Work?

When most people think of juicing, they imagine what is actually fast or centrifugal juicing. This is the technique that has been made popular by upscale, yet accessible countertop electrics, like the Breville juicer styles.

• Select a medley of fresh fruit and vegetables. Chop them up just enough to remove seeds. Stalks and stems are mostly OK when juicing, since they all become liquid, anyway.
• Turn the juicer on and let it warm up as needed. Place your produce into the chute at the top of the machine.
• From there, the mechanics of your device take over and run the produce through a grater or filter.
• Juice comes out of a spout or fountain into a pitcher or similar container.

Which Juicer Is Right for You?

Treat yourself to a new way of juicing. There are actually a few methods of producing juice at home. Neither is better than the other. It's just a matter of personal preference.

• Slow or cold press juicing is great for greens or herbs, like spinach or mint. The centrifugal juicer tends to shred these leaves without getting any juice from them. Slow juicers produce more pulp and less foam, so you may have to clean your filter or grater out more regularly.
• Citrus juicing is a form of slow juicing that can be mechanized or manual. Depending on how you filter this juice, you may or may not have pulp or foam.
• Fast or centrifugal is probably the most popular style. You get a large quantity of juice with the natural elimination of pulp as the juice pours through the fountain. Fast juicing sometimes results in a lot of foam. Some choose to skim the foam. Other choose to stir into the rest of the juice with a spoon or chopstick.
• Whole food juicers, like a Vitamix juicer, are similar to a food processor or blender, but more powerful. They liquify your produce into shakes or smoothies.

Making Your Own Milks

Once you're ready to enter advanced levels of juicing, try a style like the Omega juicer. This high-powered machine crushes almonds to make almond milk, slushes fruit into sorbet and produces nutritious baby food or tasty nut butters.

As you fall more in love with juicing, make sure your machines keep up with your healthy habits. Replace yours for newer, stronger models whenever you need or want.