Juicing
Why Juice?
Juicing revolutionized me. The main reasons I juice are:
- Health: how else can you get adequate veggies & fruits in a day? Juicing can beat cancer, keep you medication free, and it’s the perfect start to your day.
- Taste. It’s delicious! (I’d like a one-way ticket to YumTown please.)
- I feel great! I feel healthier than I ever have (at age 40).
- Looks. It’s great for your hair, skin, eyes, and waistline.
- Budget. In addition to getting most of your nutrients from budget-friendly items like wholesale organic produce (Stanley’s is my favorite in Chicago), you can reuse the pulp in things like veggie burgers, soups, muffins, etc. My favorites:
- Turkey burgers: mix the pulp with ground turkey, add some cheese and wha-BAM, you have healthier turkey burgers
- Swedish pancakes: I usually segment the pulp into two sorts of bags: sweet & non-sweet. The sweeter pulp – from mixtures involving more fruits – is great to mix into sweeter things like muffins & pancakes. The more vegetal pulp is great for adding to pasta, eggs, stir frys and dog treats.
- For more ideas, this article has a ton of other great ideas on what to do with leftover juice pulp.
This article has great tips on how to reuse food in general, which is a related topic.
Where to learn more
This is a great place for beginner juicers:
http://www.juicingcollection.com/
How I started:
I started juicing when I stumbled across a juicer at a yard sale. It was an Omega 1000 juicer worth $180 going for $30. I had just bought 6 pairs of wacky sunglasses for 50 cents each at a yard sale down the street and the gentleman selling the juicer wanted two of them. I offered him two pairs of sunglasses and whatever was in my pocket — which was $7 – for the juicer. And for a whopping $8, my life changed.
I juice right when I wake up. Here is what my breakfast looked like today before I juiced it:
Hello Kitty is says “heyyyy” from behind the Jack Lalane Juicer:
I highly encourage looking for a juicer that someone isn’t using — there are many lying around the world collecting dust. I have since upgraded to the Jack Lalane juicer, which is more industrial, faster and easier to clean than the Omega. I got it on Craigslist for $50. I highly recommend.