What is a Masticating Juicer.. or maybe the question should be, what is Cold-pressed Juice?
Well, some hardcore, fan of juice, or we call them, juice fanatics feel that cold-pressing is much better than using a fast centrifugal machine (conventional juicer), because the produce is not cooked by heated-up rotary blades. They believe that the heat kills off nutrients and live enzymes and they can’t have that, as they want their juice as raw as possible – without even using any ingredients that have ever been frozen or warmed up.
The gist of cold pressed is that whatever’s being juiced is pressed between plates rather than shredded by the blades of a centrifugal juicer – this way, they can guarantee, that friction from the blades that heats the juice, does not occur.
This requires a masticating juicer. This process eliminates the rotating blades of traditional centrifugal juicers, instead relying on a process resembling the human eating process.
Fruits and vegetables are fed into the masticating juicer, which grinds and chews the produce to a paste. This paste is then forced through the remainder of the shaft, allegedly extracting more juice per piece of produce than the traditional centrifugal juicer.
Those who advocate this slower process, swear by it, saying that the lack of oxygen and the lack of heat, which is generated by the motor and spinning blades in a centrifugal unit, leaves more nutrients in the juice.
However, research to date, has not really shown the added benefits, and a greater nutrient density in cold-pressed juice vs conventional methods.
Still, it is nice to own a masticating juicer, as it makes a great topic of conversation at the dinner table!
I have both: I first purchased a top end conventional juicer but I got more and more frustrated by the great quantity of foam and the fact that a lot of the expensive organic vegetables and fruits were not completely (well, actually far from it..) juiced, leaving a lot of wet pulp in the waste container. I then decided to buy a “masticating” juicer and it made a huge difference for me. First of all I can really squeeze almost all the juice from my produce: the waste is almost dry when you touch it. Second I can juice stuff like leafy, herbs and really dry and starchy veggies (sweet potatoes, ginger roots) that were simply thrown directly into the waste compartment with the old juicer. Third, I got rid of most of the foam, but not all of it (I know, bummer…)
I don’t know about all the other advantages, but I’m very happy with my masticating juicer.
yeah us too! it is the best invention since sliced bread. thanks for sharing! 🙂