Jason, thx for sharing your insights on your juicer design. As we know, there’s a lot to know about the biochemistry of juicing! I’ve spent an inordinate amount of time reading about juicing the past six months: the healing power of juices, raw juice chemistry, juicer designs, juicer reviews, books, etc. I’ve learned a lot and would like to learn more from you too.
I purchased a juicer a Breville
BJE510XL that has received good reviews and is easy to clean e.g., 4-6 minute cleanup. I purchased it from Amazon for
$160. I know that this centrifugal type is not necessarily recommended by the Gerson Institute, who has over sixty years of institutional knowledge on the healing power of raw juices for degenerative diseases. They recommend the Norwalk juicer, which uses a two step process: grinding then pressing. If you can afford the $2500 to get one, go for it! Can you get me one too?
One legitimate design limitation of centrifugal juicers is that because the stainless steel basket spins very fast, the juice separation causes an electrostatic charge, thereby ionizing the juice – which causes some loss of enzymes and vitamins. I believe this to be true, but suspect that this loss may be small (here's
one reference on this tricky subject). But it’s important that no matter how you juice, you drink the fresh juice immediately. All fresh juices lose their enzymatic and nutritional value quickly – measured in minutes!
The Breville has five speeds, which does allow juicing of soft fruits or veggies, also preserving some of the nutrition as mentioned above. The
$80 Hamilton Beach
67650 Big Mouth Pro is a good basic juicer too which also has decent reviews from Consumer Reports.
A word of caution here -- you do have to be careful of when juicing –- there’s an awful lot to know about produce nutrition:
1. Only buy and juice organic fruits and vegetables. I won’t even explain this here; it’s too involved and you should know the basics on this by now!
2. Fresh raw juices can be powerful medicine. For example, many vegetables have goitrogens – powerful natural chemicals that interact and even interfere with thyroid metabolism. Broccoli and cabbages are the more popular examples; but even veggies that are not considered cruciferous may have goitrogenic effects. Isn’t it interesting that these same veggies are known to be cancer-fighters?!
3. Fresh juices can also contain phytoestrogens (as in soy), which can alter the delicate balance in of hormones in both men and women. In women, this can lead to irregularities in the menstrual cycle; in men, changes in libido.
4. Some juicing books suggest not mixing fruits and veggies together, with a few exceptions like carrot-apple and carrot-apple-beet.
5. Many books will provide specific recipes for focusing on alleviating certain medical conditions, e.g.: arthritis, liver or kidney cleansing, diabetes, fatigue…
6. Fresh juice contains thousands of potent enzymes and vitamins and can quickly “clean out” your body, which is good, but it puts enormous strain on your liver, kidneys and other organs. It would be wise to do your homework on detoxification essentials while ALSO getting the support of a seasoned nutritionist and naturopathic doctor.
I know a few people from this community that started juicing recently and have made substantial improvements in their well-being, perhaps they will post here. I hope this information helps, pls do share your thoughts and observations with us.