Many were introduced to juicing back in the late 1980's through natural food stores. This type of juicing isn't the same as the abuse of steroids that you hear bodybuilders doing. Juicing, in this case, is using the juice from fresh fruits and vegetables to compliment your diet. Juicing can be fun and it also has many health benefits.
The theory behind juicing is a simple one. By extracting the juice from a fruit or vegetable, you are taking in the valuable nutrients without all the work of having your body break down the fibers (although preparing the produce can be quite a bit of work!). When you take the juice in this state, you are not losing any vitamins or minerals that might otherwise be lost through a pasteurization process or from having the juice sit on the shelf and deteriorating. Another benefit is you can consume far more fruits and vegetables in one sitting than you ever could by eating them whole. Have you ever tried to eat five carrots, two apples, a pear and a bit of ginger? It is not easy, however if you were to put those same items through a juicer you could fill a glass with the juice and consume them all at once! This is definitely a plus for those of us that do not enjoy eating fruits or vegetables.
To start with, you will need a good juice machine. The ones you see in the health food juice bars are massive and the bars need those to handle the large amounts of produce they juice on a daily basis. You will not need something quite that industrial. Prices range anywhere from $100 to $1,000, you can find one that suits your budget. Try not to get a cheap one you will regret it. A low-end juicer won't have enough power and will get clogged easily and you will end up frustrated with it. Get good quality; a juicer in the $150 to $200 range is usually sufficient. When the Juiceman juicer first came out this was a good, solid machine, capable of handling daily use, and since the late 80's they have no doubt improved.
Preparing your produce for juicing is probably the most time consuming part of the whole process. Fill your sink with cold water, squeeze half a lemon into the water and add some salt (a couple of tablespoons). Let your produce soak for about ten minutes. There are also some products in the health food stores designed specifically for washing produce should you decide to try that. One way of dealing with removing the wax from fruits like apples, one source suggests that you dip the fruit or vegetable into boiling water for approximately five seconds. While organic produce is expensive, you might want to get your apples from a natural market where they do not wax produce such as apples or cucumbers.
Coming up with new combinations of juices can be fun. You want to choose produce that has high water content to begin with. Produce such as apples, oranges, carrots, celery, cucumbers and pears are a few of the popular choices. You can juice melons, but they tend to be mushy and clog the filter and you have to make sure that you cut the rinds off. Garlic and fresh ginger also work well, but treat them as you would when using them as spices in cooking. Use garlic and ginger sparingly, they have great nutritional value, but they can easily overpower the flavor of your juice. There is also what is called "green" juice made from such produce as kale or wheat grass. These green juices have a very strong flavor and you don't need to make them in large servings.
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