Juicer investment well worth it
Last Christmas, my brother gifted me with a Bella High Power Juice Extractor for $80 at Macy’s. Well, rather he gave me $100 to spend at Macy’s, aiming to update my wardrobe, but I had something else in mind.
My interest in nutrition was at a high peak and therefore I concluded that a new wardrobe would be nice, however, I would rather get what I was adorning at optimal health first. Maybe sharing my experience with Bella this past year might be beneficial to anybody thinking of investing in a juicer or to those who had no idea that there was a difference between a juicer and a blender to begin with.
Yes, there is a difference between a juicer and a blender. A juicer strips fruits and veggies of fiber, giving direct access to nutrients. Understand that plants have all these awesome nutrients bound in fiber (cellulose) which we cannot digest. We need enzymes called cellulase to digest cellulose, but we don't, so therefore the nutrients we could have absorbed “exists” our bodies.
Juicing allows instant infusion of vitamins, minerals and phytonutrients to your bloodstream and gives your digestive system a vacation. A blender basically supports your digestive track, fills you up and balances blood sugar. They each have their benefits, it just depends on what you're aiming to achieve.
If you eat more fruits or want to lose weight, then I would invest in a high-speed blender like a Vitamix so you won't spike your blood sugar and aid digestion. But if your goal is more aligned with what a juicer provides, then a juicer just may be worth your while.
I bet you hear that juicers are messy, time-consuming and not the easiest to clean up. From my experience, this is true. You have to cut up all your pieces so that they can fit into the shoot of the juicer, mushy fiber is spurt out into the pulp collector, tiny fibers get caught in the blade/filter and juice may drip down the receptacle every now and then. On average, I spend about half an hour to an hour juicing. I admit it is not the most convenient thing to do, but at the same time it is not the hardest thing to endure.
To be honest, I do not mind the mess or clean up because I am so excited about how much I am getting for my dollar. The one thing I love the most about my Bella is that I use every cent spent on produce. Believe it — an entire watermelon utilized and not thrown in the dump. I cut up the middle pink into squares and eat it like we normally do. I then juice the greens and whites (which by the way, is where the minerals are). You get a green, mineral-rich juice, pink watermelon for a maipe day and mulch to enrich and fertilize your soil. Every piece of that watermelon went to use and that gets me excited.
Juicing is healthy, nutritious and gives you your money’s worth. Its only downside, really, is that humans are lazy. Fine, some are busy, but admit it, we can be pretty idle. Anyway, some say that nothing worth it is ever that easy.
I do not regret choosing Bella over new clothes. If anything, it has brought more health and appreciation in my life. It has opened up my eyes to how much we waste and how uneducated I was about nutrition and the chemical reactions that occur within our body.
Please note I am not a doctor and this is my opinion, which you are not obliged to agree with.
Two tips for those seriously thinking of investing in a juicer this New Year would be to place a plastic bag in the pulp collector so that it's easy to dump in your soil and alleviates cleanup, and look into whether you want a masticating (slow) juicer or a centrifugal (fast) one.
Audrey Meno is a resident of Mongmong.
This article originally appeared on Pacific Daily News: Juicer investment well worth it
