Wednesday, October 31, 2012

What Is the Difference Between Centrifugal and Masticating Juicers?


Juicing has risen in popularity in recent years with an increase in concern over health. Drinking fruit or vegetable juice is a great and convenient way of increasing your nutrient intake. Juice can be part of a weight loss diet and it also claimed by many people that it helps to combat a large range of diseases and health conditions.


For those new to juicing buying a juicer can be a highly daunting process with such a vast array of models available. What you will quickly see is that in the main, juicers fall into two varieties; centrifugal juicers and masticating juicers.

Let's look first at centrifugal juicers. One of the first things that you will notice is that they are considerably cheaper which always has to be a consideration. With some centrifugal juicers you need to chop your fruit first before processing. However, more recently there has been a rise in popularity of whole fruit juicers which allow you to add the whole fruit without any chopping or peeling beforehand.

Once added the fruit is sliced with a flat cutting blade. It is then spun at high speed to separate the juice from the pulp - that's the centrifugal bit. The higher speed the juicer operates the more juice it is able to extract. An unfortunate side effect of this process is that the juice can become warm and air is introduced into it. Both of these can cause a loss of vitamins and will not keep as long.

Masticating juicers work in a very different way. These have a single screw type mechanism (known as an auger) which crush the fruit and vegetables into small pieces before squeezing out the juice. This type can juice from a wider range of produce including leafy greens and wheatgrass. Typically the juice yield is much higher than centrifugal juicers and there does not tend to be the same loss of nutrients. The downside of these models is that are generally more expensive.

So which should you choose? Well that rather depends on what your priorities are. If cost is the most important factor for you, then you should choose a centrifugal juicer. However, if you want the maximum amount of juice from a wide range of fruit and vegetables without loss of nutrients then a masticating juicer is the way to go. Whichever you choose, introducing juicing into your life will improve your diet.

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