I recently spent three months on assignment in Adelaide, Australia. Aside from my new love for the people and surroundings of the land down under, I was amazed at the attitude that Aussies have towards healthy eating.
Instead of streets littered with fast food cholesterol mills, any given corner will have shops offering wraps, salads, and fresh juices. When I arrived back home, I immediately bought a juicer for myself because I would have to drive 15 miles to find a shop offering any kind of raw juices.
You just can't shove all those vegetables down every day
The United States Cancer Institute recommends that we eat five servings of fresh vegetables every day. But that's not all. Per the Institute, you also need three servings of fruits every day. That's not every week, or every other day. That's every day.
Their recommendations aren't without merit. It has been proven that people who eat large quantities of fruits and vegetables are about half as likely to develop cancer as those who don't.
How many of us consistently adhere to getting their "daily eight"?
Invest in a juicer
The benefits of a healthy diet that includes ample servings of fruits and vegetables are numerous and well known. The phytochemicals in fruits and vegetables have been proven to be instrumental in the prevention of heart disease, cancer, asthma, diabetes, obesity, and allergies.
So, why a juicer?
One, the ingredients you'll be throwing in can be found at any local grocer. I personally like recipes using beets, celery, carrots, spinach, and a host of other vegetables. Each of these provides its own unique mix of healthy benefits.
Two, one juice session can produce a full day's worth of the recommended fruit and vegetable dietary intake. Convenient and reliable.
One large glass of pure, fresh, raw juice per day will supercharge your immune system, increase your energy, strengthen your bone structure, help you lose weight, clear up your skin, and lower the risk of disease.
Types of juice machines
There are two basic types of juicers on the market.
Masticating
In this type of machine, fruits and vegetables are squeezed through a series of gears that crush them and force them through a finely meshed steel strainer. The beneficial pulp side-product is extracted throughout the process. These machines are typically more expensive but do extract more nutrients and, because of the minimal heat and friction produced by the process, also preserve more of the valuable enzymes.
Centrifugal
A centrifugal juicer utilizes a rapidly spinning basket to shred the fruits and vegetables and forces the juice through a steel strainer via centrifugal force. Depending on the particular machine, pulp may be continuously extracted or harvested from the basket after juicing.
Centrifugal juicers introduce both air and heat to the process, which tends to oxidize a percentage of the nutrients in the juice. But they are less expensive than the masticating models and can still produce juices rich in healthy ingredients.
