Masticating Juicer

Juicing has become a hot trend among health enthusiasts and for a good reason. Juicing helps your body absorb all the nutrients and enzymes from the produce better. More often than not what we ingest is simply passed out without much nutrient absorption as the nutrients are locked in the food cells that need to be ruptured to release them.
Masticating JuicerJuicing is a convenient and delicious way to get the required minerals, fiber and other nutrients which are easily released in the process. Homemade juices are far fresher and nutrient loaded with controlled sugar than the store-bought-packaged stuff.
However, buying the right equipment for juicing can be an overwhelming task when you look at the wide range of variety, features, price and quality available today.

Types of juicers

There are broadly two types of juicers – Centrifugal and Masticating Juicers. Centrifugal are the traditional high speed juicers that use a sharp blade against a mesh filter to produce and separate juice, utilizing the centrifugal force.

Whereas the masticating juicers are the newest generation of juicers which use an auger to crush or grind the produce to yield better quality and quantity of juice. Read review of the best masticating juicer here.

Why chose masticating over centrifugal juicers?

CENTRIFUGAL JUICER MASTICATING JUICER
Nutrition The high RMP of 3,000 -16,000 RPM produces more friction and heat, killing most nutrients in process. Running at the speed of 40 – 160 RPM produces much lesser heat and helps preserve vital nutrients and enzymes better.
Oxidation The high RPM also stirs in a lot of oxygen resulting in foaming and oxidization of your juice. This not only discolors the juice but also reduces its freshness and nutrients. Low speed reduces oxidation and thus help retain its freshness much longer.
Method The spinning blade chops up the fruits and vegetables and then spins out the juice from the produce in high-speed. But the juice is runny and less flavorful. The grinding or the crushing method squeeze out the juice better with more nutrients. The resulting juice is thicker in texture and loaded with nutrients.
 Leafy Vegetables  No Efficiently juices all vegetable like root vegetable, leafy greens as well as wheatgrass.
 Nuts  No Has the ability to produces milk from cashews and other nuts.
Juice yield Lower yield leaving the pulp still wet. Dry pulp with up to 20% higher juice yield in comparison to a centrifugal juicer. Proves to be economical in the longer run.
Maintenance More parts to clean making it less convenient to use. Fewer parts design makes it easy to clean and maintain.
Noise More noise due to high speed grinding Very low noise due to slow pressing action.
Price Ranging from $75 and above Price starts from $ 300 and above.

What to look for in a masticating juicer?

If you are still not impressed with a masticating juicer, try taking the pulp from your centrifugal juicer and feed it to masticating juicer. You’ll be surprised at the amount of juice that was left behind by your juicer that the masticating juicer efficiently extracts.

Here are some of the things to check out –

Single or Double Auger – If you are looking for a heavy duty machine that efficiently handles larger loads of juicing, you should go for twin augers. Single auger machines might be easy on the pocket but they malfunction easily and won’t juice your greens and other root vegetables so well.

Speed and Force – The key feature of masticating juicer is their low speed which delivers the health benefits and value for money with more juice yield. So ensure that the one that you have shortlisted must have the top speed of 100 RPM.

However, when juicing fruits one needs more speed. Dual speed or speed switching mode allows you to achieve that. Speed and force are two different requirements though. You still need high power to develop higher torque for when you need it. So look for slower speed but higher power.

Ease-of-use – Look for a juicer with a wider feeder hole so that you can easily push in your produce without having to first cut it and easily feed it in. Wider diameters also mean they will be easy to clean. Machines that can be easily disintegrated allows easy cleaning.
Some machines also provide some dishwasher safe parts that can be directly put in and others can be cleaned with just warm water.

These newer machines also have a feature called “reverse motion” that prevents clogging.

Warranty – With the price you pay for these machines, you want to make sure that you get a good warranty in case something goes wrong. Brands offer up to 15 years of warranty and excellent customer service. So read reviews and terms well before investing your money in these sometimes tricky machines.

Versatility – Many masticating juicers also allow you to prepare nut milks, sorbet, ice-creams, sauces, baby food, and nut butters.

Happy Blending!

Author Bio:

Namrata Kothari is software engineer by education and a food and fitness blogger by passion. She is a lover of yoga and satire and has always been fascinated about nutrition and healthy living, but the real journey of research started after giving birth to two kids.