Juicing

My father-in-law is interested in taking up juicing for health, so I did some Internet research for him on the best juicer to buy if you're going to be juicing a lot of vegetables in addition to fruits, including leafy greens and wheatgrass, and if you want your juice to be of the highest nutritional quality. (Caveat: I myself have not test driven the juicers, but rather combed through juice lifestyle-oriented sites that compared a number of different kinds of juicers alongside one another and included dozens of reviews of each, and also compared models within a single brand.)

Based on my research, I recommended that he buy either the Omega Model 8006 Juicer / Nutrition Center (the latest Omega model) or the Omega Model 8003 Single-Gear Juicer.

Omega makes single gear (masticating) juicers that literally chew fruit and vegetable fibers and break up the plant cells, resulting in more fiber, enzymes, vitamins and trace minerals. Masticating juicers are more efficient than the cheaper centrifugal juicers because they extract more juice (so, the pulp comes out drier). Masticating juicers can juice virtually any fruit and vegetable, and single gear juicers can juice leaves and grasses, like wheatgrass, spinach, lettuce, parsley, and other leafy greens and herbs. Masticating juicers also operate at slower speeds (RPMs), resulting in less foam, heat, and noise, 

which means the juice comes out with its enzymes not degraded by heat and not as oxidated, so you can keep it in the fridge for 1-3 days. In addition to extracting juices, these juicers can also make purees, patés, sauces, nut butters, frozen yogurt, and fruit sorbets. Some also come with attachments for making pasta.

Their disadvantages compared with centrifugal juices are that they are slower to use because they have smaller feeding chambers, slower feeding times, and take slightly longer to clean, but these are small inconveniences if your goal is drinking very high-nutrient juice.

Juicing is not a substitute for eating fruits and vegetables; when you juice, you don't get the benefit of helpful fiber. But juicing helps you to access the beneficial vitamins, enzymes, and antioxidant phytochemicals that are stored in fruits and vegetables and can neutralize carcinogenic free radicals and protect our cells' DNA from breakdown. Fiber is not broken down well by the body, so when you eat whole fruits and vegetables, the body expels the fiber along with much of the goodness fruits and vegetables contain. Juicing at home is also a lot more potent than buying bottled juice, because processing, bottling, and time break down the helpful nutrients. When you juice at home, you consume the juice right away or within a day or two, so you get the most nutrients.

Juicing sites recommend that you wash your fruits and vegetables thoroughly before juicing to remove any pesticides, to try and buy organic produce for juicing if possible, which is free from pesticides, herbicides, etc., and to shop at local produce markets where the produce will be fresher than if it has been shipped halfway around the world. In-season produce is also at its pick in terms of nutrition. Pick the fruits and vegetables with the deepest colors and strongest fragrances. The sites also recommend that you peel citrus fruits and leave in the white pith, as it contains high levels of vitamin C and bioflavinoids. Some fruits with a low water content are not as suitable for juicing and are better being broken down in a blender and then combined with the juice output of the juicer, like bananas and avocadoes.

One tip I loved: leave your juicer set up on your kitchen countertop to remind you to juice.

I also loved the recipes with healthy fats mixed into juices for a creamier treat, like olive oil; soaked cashews or almonds; pumpkin, sunflower, or flax seeds; seed oils like flaxseed oil; or vegetables like avocadoes. The oils help the body take in fat soluble vitamins that fruit and vegetable juices contain.

Also recommended was adding a tablespoon or two of soaked raisins, soaked dates, or chopped figs for sweetness.

A lot of people juice one vegetable or fruit at a time (for instance, carrot juice, apple juice, or tomato juice), but it's much more fun to make interesting juice blends, such as these ideas:

Pear-fennel-watercress

Apple-strawberry

Apple-carrot-celery-parsley

Carrot-fennel-celery-apple

Carrot-apple

Apple-beet-ginger

Lemon-melon ("melonade")

Tomato-apple-garlic-parsley

Red bell pepper and lemon

Spinach-mango

Basil-parsley-soaked pine nuts-garlic-olive oil (presto, it's pesto juice!)

Pumpkin with soaked cashews, nutmeg, and soaked dates (which I think will taste like pumpkin pie)

Green mango and pineapple with chaat masala

Apple-raspberry-brewed black tea

Mint-lime-cucumber

Apple and red grapes with some soaked peanuts (which I think will taste like PB&J)

Add-ons like ginger for zing, red chillies or hot sauce for heat, cinnamon, vanilla, rose water, tamarind, coffee, tea, saffron and many other kinds of flavorings would be fun to experiment with.

Another good point made on the juicing sites is that you will have dry pulp left over after juicing. Instead of throwing it away, you can add the left over pulp to foods (like baked goods) to increase your dietary fiber intake. If you don't have time to make dishes with the pulp on the day of juicing then you can simply put the pulp in a bag and freeze it until you are ready to use it. While the nutrients in freshly made juice break down quickly due to oxidation of enzymes, the benefits you get from fiber do not decline if it's stored frozen. You can also use the left over pulp and peelings for garden compost, or for artistic uses like to make your own paper. Certain types of pulp can be used to feed the birds in your garden.

Wheatgrass is a big reason that many people get into juicing, because it must be juiced: wheatgrass is non-digestible due to its high levels of cellulose, but juicing it makes the nutrients that wheatgrass contains available. One ounce of wheatgrass juice is said to contain the same amount of nutrients as 2.5 lbs of green vegetables. It is grown from the red wheatberry, a special strain that contains high concentrations of chlorophyll, amino acids, enzymes, minerals and vitamins. You can grow your own wheatgrass indoors from a starter kit, which can be more economical than buying it, on a windowsill that receives sunlight daily. It should be cut when it reaches around 7-8".

I also sent my father-in-law a list of potent "superfood" fruits and vegetables (in rainbow order – think of this as a checklist, and try to get the whole rainbow in each week):

- PURPLE: grapes, prunes, plums, cherries, cranberries, raisins, blueberries, peppers, açai, pomegranate, dragonfruit, purple bell peppers, purple carrots

- RED: tomatoes, pink grapefruit, watermelon, apples, beets, strawberries, red bell peppers, red cabbage, chard, currants, damson plums

- ORANGE: pumpkin, carrot, squash, yam, mango, apricot, cantaloupe, orange bell peppers, passionfruit, mangosteen

- ORANGE-YELLOW: oranges, tangerines, grapefruit, peaches, lemons, limes, papaya, pineapple, nectarines, goji berries, golden beets

- YELLOW-GREEN: peas, beans, spinach, green bell peppers, collards, cucumber, mustard greens, kiwi, avocadoes, bananas

- GREEN: broccoli, Brussels sprouts, cauliflower, cabbage, kale, bok choy, broccoli sprouts, wheatgrass, karela, other sprouts

- WHITE-GREEN: garlic, onions, celery, leeks, scallions, shallots, ginger, asparagus, pears, artichokes, endives, mushrooms, chives

- SEA VEGETABLES: spirulina, kelp, seaweeds

More about juicing and Omega juicers:

Harvest Essentials

Cool Tools

Epinions on the Omega 8006