Intro
There are quite a number of different styles of juice extractors
on the market these days, and it is often hard to know which
is the best way to go when buying a juicer! It would be easy to think
that any juicer is a good juicer as long as it gets a good amount of
juice from whatever you are juicing (sounds like a tongue twister!).
But BEWARE…… there is a BIG difference between one juicer and another.
It took me lots of research, trials and testing, and it wasn’t the late 90’s, when I really wanted to grow and juice wheatgrass, that I found out the real ‘goss’* on juicers.
Finally,…after many months, and a couple of expensive mistakes, I found a ‘type’ of juicer that not only can extract juice from wheatgrass, but I also learnt many other interesting facts about juicers in the process of my investigations.
*Goss – gossip, chitchat, tittle-tattle!
Juicing has been very popular for many years now and there is overall agreement that it has many health benefits, but there is much more to getting these health benefits from your juice than you might think and the type of juicer that you use makes all the difference.
Dr. Gabriel Cousens, M.D. says in the book “Power Juices Super Drinks” by Steve Meyerowitz, “The Advantages of juices is that they focus and concentrate the energy of enzymes, minerals, vitamins, and phytonutrients. The nice thing about juices is that they make it very simple and easy to take in the nutrition and the healing powers of nature.”(1)
During my investigations, I learnt that centrifugal juicers not only destroy nutrients and enzymes, but they extract very little, if any juice from leafy greens like wheatgrass. There are also many more benefits to cold press juicers such as ease of cleaning and a tastier juice.
Here is what I have learnt about juicers.
The difference between centrifugal, masticating and cold press juicersLet’s start at the beginning.
There are 3 different general categories of juice extractors.
Centrifugal Juicers: Probably the most common, these juicers grind/cut the fruit and vegetables by pushing them against a strainer at a very high speed. They are available in most of the large home goods retailers and are often very cheap. (In quality as well). Warranties on household centrifugal juicers rarely exceed 2 years.
Pic.1 Breville Centrifugal juicer – big and loud.
Pic.2 A typical sieve from a centrifugal juicer. Quick to juice, but lots to clean!
Masticating Juicers: These juicers are a little slower than centrifugal juicers but still quite fast. These types of juicers chew the pulp and then push it through a sieve. They are similar to cold press juicers in that they have an auger which pushes the pulp through a tight end cap, but they also have teeth (blades) on the auger which makes them unsuitable for leafy greens such as wheatgrass.
Generally they are a made of better quality materials than the average centrifugal juicer and have longer warranty periods. The Champion juicer is the only example of a masticating juicer that I know of.
The Champion – an example of a masticating juicer.
Slow turning/cold press Juicers: These juicers extract
juice using an auger that pushes the pulp through a tight end-cap leaving
the pulp to come out of the end-cap, and the juice to filter through
a sieve into a juice collection bowl. These machines turn at a lot slower
speed and can do basically everything that a centrifugal and masticating
juicer can do and more (including making nut butters, desserts, soups
and baby food), as well as extracting juice from wheatgrass.
 
The stylish Oscar VitalMax 900 – our most popular cold press juicer.
Why I gave away the old Breville
For those who haven’t seen one, when I refer to a ‘Breville’, I am talking about a typical centrifugal juicer that is quite popular here in Australia. Loud, fast spinning and big!
Yes, I used to own a Breville! I’ve forgotten the model number but I haven’t forgotten that it didn’t last long before I gave up on it. I don’t even remember the warranty period for it but it only lasted around 6 months I reckon. Two or three of the teeth/blades became bent and that was the end of it.
It came to the point where I would press start, and because it had a
couple of broken blades, it sounded like a jet airplane taking off.
I thought that it was loud enough when it was running smoothly but after
the blades were bent it would rattle the windows and wake up anyone
within 100 metres of our household.
The other reason I abandoned the Breville was the cleaning issue. With such large parts, and such a large sieve, it always took ages to clean and even though I persisted for quite a while I soon got sick of it.
The Breville eventually went to the opp-shop. I pity the person who bought it!
As mentioned before, I really wanted to juice wheatgrass. I’d learnt about the amazing health benefits of wheatgrass but my Breville just didn’t do the job.
Why destroy the very thing that you are after?
Let’s talk about nutrients.
Why do we juice?
Why do we take the time every morning, and for many people twice a day or more to prepare a juice?
The answer goes back to what Dr. Gabriel Cousens, M.D. says earlier on in my introduction, and that so many other Doctors, Naturopaths and researchers talk about as well. The reason why we juice is to obtain all of those wonderful nutrients and enzymes from fruit and vegetables (and wheatgrass) in an easy to digest way.
Drinking freshly squeezed juice is good for us, not to mention that it tastes great.
Not many people know that ‘our friend’ the centrifugal juicer (my old Breville) destroys these wonderful nutrients and live enzymes.
Centrifugal juicers can spin from anywhere between 1500 rpm (revolutions per minute) up to a whopping 7,000 rpm as do the big commercial centrifugal juicers in many of the juice bars. This high speed spinning and cutting is a very aggressive, destructive action which not only heats up the juice, thus destroying nutrients and live enzymes, but also puts a lot of oxygen into your juice which causes oxidation.
Oxidation is a chemical reaction that takes place when juice is subjected to oxygen in the air. It can damage flavour, nutrients, enzymes, colour and aroma over time.
So in other words, centrifugal juicers are actually destroying the very thing that you are after.
Here’s where cold press juicers are leaders of the pack. Running at a slow rpm of 76 up to around 160 rpm, these juicers are much more ‘gentle’ on your juice. Rather than an aggressive cutting action, the cold press juicer uses an auger to squeeze the juice from the pulp. There are a range of manual juicers and electric juicers depending on your budget and needs, all of which retain the maximum amounts of nutrients and enzymes that you should expect from your juice.
For more information about how to choose a juicer go to
http://www.sprout.net.au/jcr_selection.html
The squeeze test
When it comes to efficiency, cold press juicers are
equivalent to, or better than thier centrifugal counterparts, depending
on the juicer that you purchase.
The Hippocrates Greenpower (our top of the range) is a twin gear, cold press juicer which can squeeze a huge amount of juice, generally far more than the average centrifugal juicer. The pulp from wheatgrass comes out almost paper-dry.
The gears are very finely tuned to approx. 1/1000 of an inch to obtain the maximum amount of juice. This also breaks open the cellulose wall allowing the enzymes and nutrients to be suspended in colloidal form, making them more accessible to the body.
Look what I can do!! Bet you can’t do that!
Another bonus with the cold press juicer is the extra
functions that they have. Here is a list of functions that cold press
juicers have which centrifugal juicers don’t.
- They can juice wheatgrass and leafy greens
- Most cold press juicers include pasta attachments to make different shaped pasta
- They can make nut butters, purees, minces, frozen fruit desserts.
Try this recipe (can only be done with a cold press juicer)
Sprout’s Blue Mango-nana ice-cream
- 1 medium to large mango
- 1 large banana
- handful of blueberries
- ½ cup Yoghurt (optional)
Cut up your mango and banana in bits that will fit down your juicer's feeding
chute. Store overnight in a container in the freezer. Puree using your
cold press juicer using the solid screen. Stir in yoghurt.
Mmmmmm, fruit ice-cream!! Fantastic for those hot days, or any day really. My little 3 year old daughter Klara absolutely loves it.
Much healthier than dairy ice cream, and scrumptious* to boot.
(Scrumptious – delicious, delectable, tasty, lip-smacking)
Don’t you love doing dishes? (An unused juicer does nothing for your health!!)
Oh yes, I’m always first in line to do the dishes. There are always arguments in our family about who gets to do the dishes………………….NOT!
I’m sure there are many of you out there like me who lead busy lives and would agree with me in believing the fewer dishes there are to wash in life - the better. I would love to know the statistics about how much time we spend over a lifetime standing in front of the sink washing the dishes. My guess is that it would work out to be many months of your life.
I have had a lot of feedback from customers who have told me that they have simply abandoned their centrifugal juicer just because it was too much of a hassle to clean. It feels good to know that I am not the only one.
Convenience and ease of cleaning is an important factor when choosing a juicer.
Generally, the hardest part of a juicer to clean is the sieve, as the sieve can become clogged with pulp, especially when you are juicing softer fruit n veg such as oranges, watermelon or pineapple.
Centrifugal juicers usually have very large sieves which need to be scrubbed with a hard bristled brush to remove the pulp that is stuck.
Cold press juicers generally have very small sieves compared to centrifugal juicers. The Oscar Vitalmax 900 is the juicer that we use every day for this very reason (amongst many other reasons).
There are even differences between cold press juicers. Notice the difference in how big the sieve is for the Samson/Matstone juicer (Left) compared to the Oscar Vitalmax 900 juicer (Right).
Matstone/Samson sieve (Left) compared to the Oscar
Vitalmax 900 sieve (Right) The Oscars sieve is much smaller
allowing for much easier cleaning.
Cold press juicers usually have parts that are smaller and fewer in number
than centrifugal juicers which make them much easier to clean.
Yes, for my mind, ease of cleaning is an important aspect of choosing a juicer.
After all, an unused juicer does nothing for your health!!
The Grand Prix in your kitchen
I love the peace and serenity of the mornings as I climb out of bed and go through my daily routine. I usually like to make my a juice for my partner and toddler of 3 years nice and early so that it is ready waiting for them on the table when they awake.
I have heard people describe the sound of a centrifugal juicer as “a grand prix in your kitchen” when the beautiful calm of the morning is thrust into a hectic, ear shattering din more likened to hearing a jet engine take off at an air show, or a formula one car taking off up the straight.
The cold press juicer however is super quiet compared to these noise makers, and will allow your loved ones, neighbours, pets and people living in your surrounding suburb to carry on sleeping happily until they awake naturally.
Taste the difference
If you made 2 glasses of apple and carrot juice, one in a centrifugal juicer and one in a cold press juicer, you will be able to taste the difference. The reason for this goes back to how the juice is treated by your juicer. The gentle action of a cold press juicer preserves the live enzymes and nutrients allowing for the fullest flavour of your produce (which you should be getting). Juice from a cold press juicer will also last a lot longer than juice from a centrifugal juicer, and can stand in the fridge in an airtight container for up to 2 days before nutrients and enzymes start to degrade.
Warranties
With most centrifugal juicers, warranty periods are limited and usually range between 6 months to 3 years.
To me, this makes a pretty big statement about the quality of the juicer and how long the manufacturer thinks it will last (before they have to start forking out more cash for repairs).
For a company to put longer warranty periods on a product, they must be sure that it is going to last that long.
Even the cheapest cold press manual juicer in our range, the MK3 Healthy manual Juicer, has a warranty period of 3 years.
Most of our electric cold press juicers have a warranty of 12 years on the motors and 5 years on parts/labour.
The Oscar VitalMax900 has a whopping 20 years warranty on the motor with 5 years parts/labour.
Cold press juicers generally have a much longer warranty period than the average centrifugal juicer giving you even more confidence that they are going to last a lot longer.
My conclusion – the decision is easy!
If you are looking for a juicer, it is quite easy to see that the cold press varieties reign supreme.
When compared to centrifugal juicers, cold press juicers are generally of much better quality, easier to clean, have more functions and give you a juice which is nutritionally superior and tastes better.
And in my mind - this is what you should expect from your juicer!
Richie Coutts,
Sprout Organic Wheatgrass
www.sprout.net.au
For more interesting newsletters about Wheatgrass & Sprouts, click here.
Sources
1. Our own experiences with testing dozens of juicers both centrifugal and cold press.
2. Power Juices Super Drinks by Steve Meyerowitz,
3. FRESH VEGETABLE AND FRUIT JUICES -
What's missing in your body? By Norman. W. Walker D. Sc.
4. http://www.ethicaljuicers.co.uk/
5. Juicing for health – Julie Stafford
|
Products
