What to Juice

An important rule of thumb in juicing is to "juice your vegetables and eat your fruits." Vegetable juices are the healers while fruit and fruit juices are the cleansers. Raw vegetables require more time and energy to digest when eaten whole since they break down much slower than fruit.

Vegetables contain the "building blocks" that develop powerful, healthy muscles, tissues, glands and organs. While all fruits and vegetables are important to maintain good health, some are exceptionally beneficial. Carrot juice is the vital key and should be the base of all vegetable juices. Carrot and celery juice are a favorite at Hallelujah Acres. Add an apple and the taste treat is sensational. Apples are the only fruit that can be used with either fruits or vegetables.

Fruit juices are too high in natural sugar to be consumed on a regular basis. However, raw fruit, when thoroughly chewed, digests very rapidly and provides the body with fiber. Fruits that contain pectin, such as apples and pears, contain a digestive aid that helps to regulate the body. Pectin is more easily obtained when the fruit is eaten rather than juiced.

Dark leafy greens - such as spinach, parsley, kale and leaf lettuce - are extremely high in nutrients, and taste great when juiced with carrots. Barleygreen is also a dark, leafy green food, and since the barley has had the fiber removed, Barleygreen is in the same category as vegetable juice.

Melon juices are also extremely beneficial. If the melons are organically grown, the entire melon can be juiced, including the rind and seeds, to provide maximum nutrition. Melons of different varieties can be juiced together, but melons should not be mixed with any other juice.

Juicing Machines

A blender is not a juicer. Blenders are wonderful and a great help in the kitchen; however, they are not designed to make juice as they leave the pulp or fiber in with the juice. (The very purpose of juicing is to remove the fiber.) A blender operates at a high speed, producing only a small amount of liquid that is mixed with the fibers of the plant. In order to drink it as a juice, water must be added, which creates a mushy, grainy and unpleasant beverage that must go through the digestive system in order to be assimilated.

A juicer, on the other hand, is designed to extract the juice from the fibers of the plant, separating the pulp from the juice. It is important to remember that the fiber needed for good health is received by eating fresh fruits and vegetables; however, you do not want any fiber in the juice that you drink. The pulp that is left behind has little nutritional value, it is hard to digest and Dr. N. W. Walker says it contains the toxins that a chemically-grown fruit or vegetable may have contained. Therefore, the pulp is usually discarded into a compost pile for use in the garden.

It is important to remember when using any juicing machine to use the plastic or wooden pusher (tamper) to help push the vegetables through the machine to ensure no harm comes to the fingers. Always follow the manufacturer's directions when assembling, taking down or cleaning your juicer.

Centrifugal Juicers have a spinning basket that rotates at a very high rate of speed (usually 5,000 to 6,000 revolutions per minute), shredding the food and flinging the juice through the air causing oxidation to take place. Dr. Max Gerson, originator of the Gerson Therapy, claimed that juice from centrifugal juicers would not cure cancer. A centrifugal juicer should be used only if it is the sole option available, and it should be replaced with a masticating juicer as soon as possible. Why? Because the shredding action is not very efficient in breaking open the cells to extract the nutrients from the pulp, and then the juice is flung through the air, causing oxidation and nutritional loss. At Hallelujah Acres, we do not recommend centrifugal juicers. Masticating Juicers operate at much slower speeds. We are aware of only three juicers on the market that would fit into this category at the present time. Masticating juicers also have the capability to be used as a grinder for nuts, seeds, sprouted grains or dried fruits. Nut butters, breads, crackers and other tasty treats such as frozen banana ice cream can also be made with this type of juicer. These juicers are:

1. The Champion Juicer sells for approximately $175 - $300 and has hundreds of little teeth that revolve at 1725 revolutions per minute. This juicer, after it has shredded the carrot, presses the pulp against a stainless steel screen, thus forcing out more nutrients. This juicer will yield about the same amount of juice as the centrifugal juicers, but laboratory tests show that this machine will yield three to four times more nutrients than centrifugal juicers. This is a good low-end juicer that has served many people well.

2. The Green Power Juicer currently sells for around $600 and is the only juicer that does not use knife blades to extract the juice. Rather, it uses twin gears that revolve at only 110 rpm. These twin gears draw the food down between the gears and press out the juice in an airtight chamber, without pumping oxygen into the juice. Laboratory reports show that this juicer yields approximately 10 more ounces of juice from a 5 lb. bag of carrots than a centrifugal or Champion juicer while doubling the nutrients of the Champion. Because oxygen is not pumped into the juice, juice made with this juicer will keep for much longer periods without breaking down. The Green Power Juicer is the juicer we recommend here at Hallelujah Acres if a person can afford it.

3. The Norwalk Press sells for around $2,000. It has large, heavy-duty knife blades that run at 3,500 rpm and force the pulp and juice through a fine strainer. The shredded pulp and juice then drops into a cloth bag. The bag is then placed onto a hydraulic press (which is part of the same juicer) and the bag of shredded pulp is pressed under great pressure. This type of processing yields approximately 16 ounces more than juice from a 5 lb. bag of carrots than does the Champion Juicer and about 6 ounces more than the Green Power. This juicer was developed by the father of carrot juice, Dr. N.W. Walker, and is a good machine, but because of the high cost and rapidly spinning knife blades, we prefer the Green Power.

Juicing is very personal and you can adjust any of the juice recipes to suit your taste buds. As you learn more, you will easily develop your own personal favorites.

When purchasing carrots for juicing, look for large California juicing carrots. They are usually much sweeter than those grown in other parts of the country because of the high trace mineral content of the soil. If your first encounter with carrot juice is bitter, you may miss the joy of juicing! It is important to remember that to obtain the optimum nutrients, fresh juice should be consumed as quickly as possible after juicing. Also, all juice should be run through a fine screen strainer before consuming! If any pulp is left in the juice, it will hinder assimilation.

Although some chemical poisons are systemic (stay in the plant), it is important to remove as much of the chemical sprays and pesticides as possible prior to juicing. One of the recommended ways to accomplish this is to fill the sink about half full of cold water, and add soap for cleaning fresh fruits and vegetables that is available in most health food stores. Another option is to peel the fruits and vegetables prior to juicing. We always peel our carrots prior to juicing. We also remove any blemishes or cracks which can contain bacteria.