THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN BLENDERS AND JUICERS
And what you need to use when you want to make a juice.
Many blenders promoted today claim to make juices and even have built-in settings that are labeled “Whole Juice” or have something in their description that claims that they are juicing the fruits and veggies but regardless of what they claim a blender cannot make a juice. To experience the full benefits of juicing you must have a machine – a juicer – that separates the juice from the pulp so you are only drinking the juice, not a blended smoothie.
Here are examples of juicers and blenders to help you recognize the difference when looking for your juicer.
These are all blenders, not juicers. From left to right, pictured here are the “NutriBullet Extractor”, the “Vitamix Blender” and the “Blendtec Blender”. They make great smoothies including green smoothies which are very healthy for you but they do not extract juice from vegetables and fruits.
The pictures below show a variety of juice extracting machines or juicers.
Here you see from left to right, a popular model of the “Breville Centrifugal Juicer”, a single-auger style “Omega Masticating Juicer” and the “Tribest Slowstar Vertical Juicer”. Regardless of the style, I’m sure you can see that there is a distinct difference between a blender appliance and a juicing appliance. Be sure you are getting the proper equipment you need to make a fresh extracted juice.
So what’s the best juicer for you to use? Here’s the bottom line answer – the one that you will want to use.
If you have a very busy lifestyle, you will most likely be happier with a “fast” juice maker. That would be one like the Breville Centrifugal Juicer shown above. Its wide chute means that you spend less time cutting your juicing produce into small pieces like you must do with the narrower chute of the “slow” juicer like the Omega. The trade-off is that the high speed of the rotating cutter screen sometimes doesn’t get all of the produce juiced completely. You may notice larger pieces of the produce discarded into the pulp receptacle that you’d rather have juiced down a bit further.
The masticating style juicer like the Omega juices every speck of the produce. That’s because the single-auger mechanism squeezes the produce more completely yielding slightly more juice but it is a much slower process. Not just due to the slow, pressing action of the juicing process but also because you must cut your produce into narrow pieces to fit into the chute. However, when it comes to leafy greens, the pressing action means you get a slightly higher yield of juice from the Omega-type juicer than from the Breville-type so depending on what you plan to juice, that may help you decide between the two varieties.
We have both juicers and we love both of them. But honestly, on an everyday basis, we usually turn to the Breville juicer. When we are fasting, we will often use the Omega for our leafy greens and things like celery that are already small enough to fit the chute without a lot of extra cutting. We have been known to make juices using both of them. We will juice the softer and leafier produce in the Omega and the harder and larger produce in the Breville and then mix the two together. But it took about 2 years for us to get so serious about juicing that we went to that degree to maximize what we were getting from our produce. We started with the Breville juicer and used it for a full year including 4 juice fasts before we even considered adding a second juicer to the process. You will receive all the wonderful benefits of juicing using a very quick and convenient juicer like the Breville.
I also have the Tribest SW-2000-B Slowstar Vertical Slow Juicer pictured in the examples above. This is what is referred to as a “fusion” juicer because it basically combines the best of both worlds of juicers. It is a slow, single auger juicer like the Omega but has a wide chute for the produce and “twice the crushing force produced by most other slow juicers” according to its own product description on Amazon (see link in our Product Resource area). Our primary instructor for our juice coaching program uses this juicer and swears by it and he has been juicing for over 25 years so he’s used a lot of different style juices. I include it here for that reason but cannot speak from personal experience with this one although we would love to purchase this juicer at some time in the future to see how we like it.
When it comes to the quality or quantity of juice produced from any of these juicers, I personally wouldn’t worry too much about that when comparing these juicers. The difference is pretty negligible and over analyzing which one to purchase will only lead to you possibly decide not to try juicing at all. Any good quality juicer will do the job whether it is centrifugal, single auger, fusion or whatever new style is out there today. Focus on how easy the juicer is to use and to clean and that suits your lifestyle.
However, bear in mind that any juicer that costs less than $100 will probably just not stand up to the task. Especially if you are going on an extended 7-10 day juice fast, it must be sturdy enough to keep up with 5-6 juices per day…10-12 juices per day when you are juicing with your spouse or roommate…and more for multiple members of a household.
Inferior juicers often don’t have enough power to juice produce with the skins on such as pineapples or lemons and many nutrients are right near the skin and lost if you have to remove the thicker outer skins which is also quite time consuming. They tend to get clogged making it difficult to push the produce through them so you have to stop and clean the screen several times while trying to make a single juice. You don’t want the juicing process to frustrate you so much that you will just want to quit the fast. I’ve seen this happen too often and I don’t want that to happen to you.
If you can spend $150-$300 when you shop for a good juicer, you will have a juicer that is affordable, easy to use, easy to clean, works efficiently and you will enjoy juicing with it for a long time to come.
Let’s talk about the quality of the produce you plan to juice.
Equally as important as investing in a good quality juicer is putting your money into organic produce, especially on a juice fast when you are consuming large amounts of juices every day. One main purpose of a juice fast is to help the body eliminate toxins and the only way to be sure you are minimizing your intake of toxins is to use organic produce.
Organic produce guarantees that the produce is not only protected from the use of chemicals on the outside of the crop but assures a level of chemical free fertilizers in the soil as well. It also guarantees that the produce has not been genetically modified. This means you are getting a cleaner more nutrient rich and hardier produce when you use organic produce. So as much as you can afford, use as organic produce or produce from the field of your local trusted farmers.
That being said, there are some things that may just be out of your reach especially at the rate you will juice them during a juice fast such as organic apples. And that’s okay. Just do the best you can within your personal budget. Better to use the non-organic produce than to not juice at all.
As long as you are using the best quality produce and a good quality juicer of almost any style that you can afford, you will be getting juices that are full of nutrients and your juicing experience will be quite satisfying for you. All of the juicers mentioned in this article are listed below so you can easily find them in our Super Great Products section. They are affordable and easy to use whether you are just getting started with juicing or you are embarking on an extended juice fast.
Do some research and figure out what will work best for you, your household and your lifestyle. Like I said at the beginning, get the best quality juicer you can afford but at the same time, be sure you will be comfortable using the juicer, cleaning the juicer and that it will support your daily juicing routine rather than creating more work for you than you will put up with. Get a good quality juicer and buy the highest quality veggies and fruits you can afford and you can’t go wrong with that combination.
Super Great Products Links:
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Tribest SW-2000-B Slowstar Vertical Slow Cold Press Juicer and Mincer, Red/Black
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Omega J8004 Nutrition Center Commercial Masticating Juicer, White
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Breville JE98XL Juice Fountain Plus 850-Watt Juice Extractor
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Breville BJE510XL Juice Fountain Multi-Speed 900-Watt Juicer
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Breville 800JEXL Juice Fountain Elite 1000-Watt Juice Extractor
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Breville RM-JE98XL Juice Fountain Plus 850-Watt Juice Extractor (Certified Remanufactured)
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Breville RM-BJE510XL 900-Watt Variable-Speed Juice Extractor (Certified Remanufactured)
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