Advantages of Masticating Juicers
If you are interested in buying a juicer machine so that you can make healthy juices at home, you may have heard of masticating juicers. Masticating simply means to chew, and it gives a clue to how these machines work – instead of using fast spinning blades to shred everything up, they use slowly revolving gears or augers to crush the liquid out of your fruits and vegetables.
There are some significant advantages to the masticating juicer system.
Slower speed means no air gets mixed in to the juice. This reduces deterioration when the juice reacts with oxygen in air. Also, you don’t get that layer of gray froth that you see on juice made with regular, high speed machines
Unlike high speed machines, no heat is generated when the juice is extracted. In a regular high speed juicer, the blades can spin at up to 5000RPM – the heat resulting can sterilize the juice it touches, resulting in lower vitamin and enzyme levels.
You can juice harder, tougher ingredients such as wheat grass and herbs. Regular high speed juicers cannot process wheat grass because it is too stringy, but the slow crushing action of masticating juicers is ideal for this.
More liquid is actually extracted with the slow juicing method. The great force generated by the slow action of the gears means that you are left with very dry pulp – a good indication that a high percentage of juice has successfully been extracted.
So are there downsides to a masticating juicer? Yes there are. They are slower at making juice, and they are more expensive. If you have a very busy schedule then you may be better off with a high speed juicer instead. Making a batch of about 6 glasses of juice (including cleanup) will take about 30 minutes with a masticating juicer, and about 15-20 minutes with a fast juicer like the Jack Lalanne Power juicer or the Breville Juice fountain.
Photo by rickIn terms of price, you can expect to pay at least half as much again for a masticating juicer of similar quality and size to a normal centrifugal machine.
Despite these two factors, many people still prefer these slower juicers. The fact that you get better juice, greater versatility, and higher juice extraction are generally enough to outweigh the higher cost and extra time you put in.