The benefits behind freshly extracted fruits and vegetable juices are immense and amazing. But, as a beginner in this new world of juicing, there’s a lot under the belt that you need to discover. Although there isn’t any harm in experimenting, your juicing project can sometimes suck if don’t have any juicing tips at your disposal.
According to thousands of scientific studies, there are many health benefits that are linked with drinking juices extracted from a combination of rich fruits and veggies. Other than the obvious weight loss and detoxifying benefits, a glass of healthy juice a day has been proven to reduce the sparks of common lifestyle illnesses such as Type II Diabetes, heart diseases, and even cancer.
So, with that said, this post has compiled some useful beginner tips for juicing that will inspire you to make some healthy juicing recipes that will keep you in optimal health.
Tips For Juicing The Right Way
Now, let’s start with the basics, what’s juicing?
Well, as a matter of fact, this is where everything begins. Juicing is a simple process that involves separating the liquid contents of fruits and vegetables from the pulp. This process is usually accomplished by a juicer.
Although you can juice almost anything, this process has its limitations. What I mean is, you can’t juice fruits with zero liquid content. Fruits like bananas, avocados, and watermelons are soft so no juicer can extract any juice from them.
However, in case you need to add these fruits as part of your delicacy, using a blender to chop them into smooth consistencies will be the best approach.
Why Juice?
Before you start juicing, you need to ask yourself why exactly you want to juice. Now, according to studies, more and more people are turning to organic homemade juices over processed juices.
Why?
The answer is simple!
Commercially made juices contain additives, artificial flavors, and sugars that are turning to be harmful. On the other hand, homemade juices (extracted in natural ways) are loaded with vitamins, minerals, nutrients, antioxidants, and anti-inflammatory compounds which are beneficial to your health in multiple ways.
Back to juicing, most people juice for several reasons among them being losing weight, detoxifying the body, and supplementing their diets. So, before you start juicing, always lay your priorities right before you can commence the process.
Always Make a List of The Fruits and Veggies You need
All fruits and vegetables are great for your health. But, having a grocery list of the ingredients you need is very helpful as it helps you to juice exactly what you need on that particular occasion.
One huge mistake most newbies make when juicing is putting too many fruits in their juice. Although a little fruit is fine, putting too much can expose you to a high risk of suffering from diabetes in the long run. That’s because fruits don’t have any pulp that can slow down the absorption process.
Instead, it’s recommended that you use the 80/20 principle where you combine 80% of leafy greens with 20% of fruits.
With this ratio, your juice will have lots of nutrients, energy, fiber, and at the same time, it will be sweet as fruits will mask the sour taste of the leafy greens.
Always Wash Your Ingredients
Before you precut your produce, it’s a good practice that you first wash them thoroughly especially if they’re not organic. A thorough wash ensures that dirt, pesticides, and any bacteria hiding between the leaves (especially leafy greens) are washed off before consumption.
Additionally, if you’re planning to juice your produce in the morning, prepare them a night before then store them in storage containers or zip bags before refrigerating them.
Always Go Organic If You Can Afford It
Although conventional products are considered to be cheaper, they have high amounts of pesticides that can be harmful to your health. On the other hand, organic products are quite expensive but they give you some peace of mind as they don’t contain any pesticide residues.
So, for your body to get high nutritional value and healthy enzymes from your juice, you need to buy organic produce from local farms as they’re free from harmful pesticides.
Consider Your Timing
The last thing you can attempt to do is drinking your fruit juice on a full stomach. This is a huge mistake that can prevent your body from absorbing all the nutrients, vitamins, and enzymes it needs. So, to avoid wasting these nutrients, it’s highly recommended that you consume your juice early in the morning when your stomach is empty.
On top of that, don’t drink your juice in a hurry. Instead, sit back, relax, and drink your juice slowly to give your digestive enzymes ample time to digest the nutrients and enzymes that are present in your juice.
Store Your Leftover Fruit Juice
The perfect time to juice is in the morning hours. However, there comes a time when you’re too busy to enjoy your usual morning glass of juice. In such situations, storing your juice to drink it later is always the most logical solution.
Now, freshly extracted juices usually take up to 72 hours after they’re juiced. So, to maintain the nutritional content, you need to store your juice in an airtight glass container having filled it to the very top.
Remember, if any space is left out, the oxygen in it will eat away all the delicate micronutrients leaving your juice with zero nutritional value.
Rotate the Ingredients
It’s said that too much of anything is poisonous right? Well, that’s true even with juices. To give your body a balanced nutritional value, you need to rotate your ingredients, especially leafy greens, by juicing something different every day of the week.
By doing so, you not only diversify the flavors, but your body gets the right amounts of nutrients, enzymes, and fiber that are present in the various fruits and vegetables food pyramids.
Get a Quality Juicer
Something else you need to be really careful about as a beginner in the juicing business is investing in a quality juicer. There are many brands and models of juicers today. However, all these juicers fall under two main categories which are the masticating and centrifugal juicers.
Centrifugal juicers on their side are fast, cheap, and very easy to use. These juicers usually rely on a speeding strainer that’s attached to a stainless steel disc blade at the bottom for cutting and shredding produce.
The extracted juice is pushed through a strainer into a glass jar while the pulp is exited through another tube into the pulp collector.
These juicers are usually noisy, and due to their super-fast operation, they tend to oxidize the juice killing some of the nutrients. The resulting juice is less nutritious and it doesn’t last long.
On the other hand, there’s the masticating juicer (also called the cold-press juicer). Now, quite different from the centrifugal juicer, this juicer uses a very slow extracting process where it relies on a screw-like auger to press, chew, and squeeze produce to extract the juice.
Although they do take a little longer, the slow extraction process creates less oxidation which helps your juice to retain its nutritional value for a longer time.
Consider Ingredients With High Water Content
If you’re diabetic, or maybe if you’re looking to detoxify, vegetables such as cucumbers, celery, and zucchini contain a lot of water with very little sugar content.
So, adding such veggies as part of your juicing recipe will increase the juice yield without adding any sugar or calories.
Additionally, these veggies are diuretics meaning they help the liver and the kidneys to flush out excess water.
Clean Your Juicer After Every Juicing Project
This is very helpful as it helps to prevent bacterial build-up inside the juicer. If your juicer is dishwasher safe, simply immerse it inside the dishwasher and scrub all the parts thoroughly. If it’s not, you can simply use a scrubber, warm water, and some mild dish soap to clean the parts.
Always disconnect the juicer from the main power outlet before cleaning and remember to let it dry out naturally before you can commence with the next juicing project.
Final Thoughts
So, if you’re here and you really want to make juicing your new hobby, we believe our juicing tips will give you a head start. Although there are many tips we didn’t mention, the few we added here are some of the most critical. These tips are not only lifesavers, but they also give you a combination of a healthy diet and an energized experience the moment you kick off your juicing journey.
Finally, if there’s anything you’d like to add to what we’ve already discussed, please feel free to share it in our comments section below.