JUICING 101
A friend asked me a simple question about juicing (see photo). Here is my lengthy and comprehensive response, which I believe deserves a wider audience; which is why I’m putting it in the public domain. I’m also sharing my playlist of 40 juicing and smoothie recipes.
Depends on volume, but even then slow cold pressed juices are best as a supplement as you really need more (insoluble) fibre in a meal. I make smoothies in my Kuvings SV-500 vacuum blender as meal replacements. The vacuum blender blends the fruit and water mixture in a vacuum, preventing oxidation of the nutrients. In addition to fruit, I add oil seeds, rye flakes, rolled oats or oat bran for additional nutrients and dietary fibre. And sometimes a teaspoon or two of lecithin granules as both a dietary supplement and an emulsifying agent. My juice and smoothie recipes are archived here:
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLKOb_MJ4QZqnW2tIM-Aoh1Mh3thFWx-qy
You’ll notice I tend to use a lot of ingredients, but a bit of everything. The idea behind that is to get a diversity of nutrients from assorted sources. Besides, I already tried just about every 2- or 3-ingredient blends and am now more adventurous.
Notes and nutritional info about the fruits and other stuff I juice and blend are archived in the album called SMOOTHIE INGREDIENTS available here:
https://www.facebook.com/480010398715154/posts/1872876066095240/
First thing to know is that you really need to use a slow juicer, aka cold pressed or masticating juicer. I use the Korean brand Kuvings, Model EVO820.
None of the regular white goods brands make slow juicers, due to intellectual property reasons. Breville in Australia sells a previous generation (i.e. old model) Kuvings made under licence from Kuvings with some cosmetic changes to make it look like the rest of the Breville range.
Do not buy a Kuvings online at discount sites - they use brushless motors that are very sensitive to both voltage and frequency. They design different motors for different markets and many online sites (Lazada is notorious for doing this) sell grey imports meant for different markets that will not work properly and damaging the motor when used in a market whose electricity voltage and/or AC frequency it is not designed for. Usual problem is over-heating or motor burn out.
If you use a centrifugal juicer, like a Moulinex or Philips, or even a Breville, the mechanism is a high-speed grate spinning against the fruit at a few thousand rpm. This speed forces a lot of air into the juice, oxidising it and destroying 90% of the nutrients within 90 seconds. In this video from 2:14:00 the expert especially mentions the (expensive) brand Vitamix as being useless due to the very high speed of its motor:
https://youtu.be/2MWEz_Jz_n0
Another advantage of a slow juicer is that it retains the soluble fibre in the juice. If you let it stand, the juice will not separate out, i.e. there is no sedimentation, even after 8 hours. It will not oxidise and retains its colour and nutritional value. The pulp that is discarded is mostly insoluble fibre but actually also contains loads of phyto-nutrients, trace elements and etc. That’s why I now do smoothies more often - so that I consume the lot. And because of the insoluble fibre, its more suitable as a meal replacement, especially if you drink 800 to 1,200 ml of smoothie at one go, like I do as a meal replacement.
In many food stalls in Malaysia, its even worse, they use a blender, add water and sugar syrup and then filter the resulting mush to give you the “jus buah.”
How juicing works can be summed up in two words: “nutrient density.” Many people get results drinking as little as 250 ml of slow juice a day at breakfast. They say they don’t feel the same the rest of the day (more sluggish, less alert) if they miss their morning fix. Its like taking your daily dose of vitamins but instead of pill popping, getting the nutrients fresh from source.
Hope this explains and helps. If you have more questions, I’d be happy to answer. The father of juicing is Jay The Juiceman Kordich. He died recently at a ripe old age. He’s written a number of books and there are lots of videos by him on YouTube. He and other experts advocate specific juice combinations for specific ailments.
I have no scientific evidence to attribute improvement in my mental health solely to juicing - I can’t prove the causality for a fact, to the exclusion of other factors. But I’m pretty sure it plays a role. Our body can heal itself, it just needs lots of good quality sleep and nutrients as the building blocks to manufacture what it needs. Juicing is a really good way to load ourselves with nutrients, save eating the fruits themselves. By removing the bulk, it concentrates the nutrients. But then again, the pulp that we discard also contains good stuff; so best to do a combination of juicing, smoothies and eating whole fruits and vegetables.
Oh, our gut carries about 2 kg of microbiomes. These gut bacteria feed on the insoluble fibre and produce nutrients that we cannot get from the plant kingdom. This solves a mystery for me - my mom and I know of many lifelong Indian vegans - vegetarians from birth - who are a lot healthier than omnivores. This puzzled me because the anti-vegans keep saying vitamin B12 and some essential amino acids can only be obtained from the animal kingdom as plants don’t make them. Well, the good news is that the gut microbiome makes them for us, especially if you’re Indian and drink lassi and tairoo, i.e. probiotics, as part of your culinary cultural heritage.
Originally posted at:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/MyKuvings/permalink/962475290606816/
#GivingwithKuvings
#lemmelearn
#everyonedeservesachance
Copyright 2003-2011 Azlan Adnan. This blog post is sponsored by The Green Party of Malaysia
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