Is it Worth Getting A Juicer? – Dos and Don’ts
Since purchasing a juicer can significantly affect your monthly budget, you may wonder, if it is worth getting a juicer. Let’s shed more light on this matter.
With great attention comes great controversy; juicing fruits and vegetables has been going through this scene for quite some time now.
One thought process propagates that juicing is better than eating whole fruits and vegetables because absorbing nutrients from juices is more valuable for our bodies. While the statement may look sensible on paper, there is no scientific evidence to justify that drinking the extracted juice of a fruit or vegetable is healthier than eating it directly.
Nothing is a godsend; every machine has its own set of pros and cons, and juicers are no exception. With that being said, let’s discuss the pros and cons of juicers in detail.
Benefits of Juicing in Juicers
- Create an Easy Replacement for Meals and Snacks: Juicers can be ideal if you’re not very fond of cooking. Juices made of fresh ingredients can be an excellent and sometimes healthier replacement for your morning and mid-day meals. Furthermore, juicers are pretty fast in what they do (centrifugal juicers, more specifically). Just put in the (preferably) chopped ingredients and let the juicer do its job.
- Readily Available: Juicers are widely available and cheaply priced these days, thanks to the easy availability of components. For example, you can grab yourself a centrifugal juicer (automatic) for as low as Rs. 3000-4000. However, advanced juicing machines such as cold press juicers can be a bit expensive but worthy for the most part.
- Easy to Handle: Juicers have changed the same approach towards juicing. Thanks to modern juicers, juicing requires less manual labor and is faster than ever. Furthermore, maintaining juicers doesn’t require expert assistance anymore; it’s something you can pull off by yourself. What’s more? Some manufacturers take the game even further with their automatic juicers, easing up the handling part more than ever.
- Cost-Effective: Juicing in a juicer of your own will result in dramatic cost savings in the long run. For example, while a 100ml pack of packaged juice can easily cost you around Rs. 40 on a good day, you can get the better value at a fraction of this price with homemade juice.
- Healthier: Unlike packaged juices from different brands, homemade juices are more beneficial and rich in nutrients. Packaged juices come with added preservatives to increase their shelf life at the cost of nutrients, making them unhealthy and expensive. This is also the key benefit of having the best juicer in your home; not only does it dramatically increase the cost savings, but it also provides you with nutrient-rich juice.
- Extremely Versatile: Juicers are known for extracting juice from fruits and vegetables; they can, however, do a lot more than that. For example, preparing salsa, sauce, or chutney is no big deal for a juicer. Modern juicers come with additional pieces of components and jars to satisfy requirements other than juicing.
- An Easy Way to Satisfy Daily Fruit Intake: Juicers can improve that relationship if fruits and vegetables are not your best friends. Just blend different fruits and vegetables and let the juicer do its job. Some carrot and beetroot juicers are helpful for juicing hard veggies and fruits. It will provide you with juice that’s not only friendly to your taste buds but has all the nutrients of the fruits and vegetables practically intact.
Limitations of Juicers for Juicing
- Cleaning can be Tedious: Juicers tend to get messy while juicing ingredients and filtering out the pulp. Also, you may end up with serious injuries or just spilled juice if you fail to attach the jars properly. The cleaning sometimes can be so annoying that it can ruin your entire experience.
- Not Ideal for Cluttered Spaces: Some juicers are bulky and occupy a lot of storage space. Purchasing one of these juicers may not be a good idea for you if your kitchen is small and full of clutter.
- Consuming the Whole Fruit can be Better: You’ll miss out on the true deliciousness of the fruit if you extract the juice out of it. Furthermore, it’s only the cold press juicers that can preserve all the nutrients while juicing. Other juicers, such as centrifugal juicers, significantly reduce the nutritional value of the ingredients thanks to oxidation and heat.
- Cannot Store the Juice Extracted Using a Domestic Juicer for More than 2 Days: Once you extract the juice, there’s no going back; you have to consume it almost immediately. The nutrients and good bacteria in the fruits and vegetables get perfectly exposed to the environment upon juicing. Even a refrigerator can’t save the juice from spoiling.
Also Read: Juicing Vs. Blending
Types of Juicers in Different Price Range
1. Hand-Operated Juicers
Hand-operated juicers, as the name suggests, are operated manually and involve no motor or electricity whatsoever. These juicers are simple and require a bit of muscle power. They preserve the entire nutritional value of the ingredients but do not filter the pulp out.
Best Use: Hand-operated juicers or manual juicers are incredibly cheap and ideal for occasional juicing. These juicers work excellent in extracting juice from pulpy fruits such as orange, watermelon, grapes, etc.
Cost: Hand-operated juicers are highly affordable and cost just about Rs. 400-600.
2. Centrifugal Juicers
Centrifugal juicers involve a fast-rotating blade to pulverize the ingredients, thereby extracting the juice violently. These juicers are reasonably priced and operate faster as compared to other juicers. However, their fast-rotating blades generate heat and cause oxidation, slightly reducing the nutritional value of the ingredient fruits and vegetables.
Best Use: Centrifugal juicers are made for people who often find themselves in a rush.
Since centrifugal juicers are faster and cheaper than any other type of juicer, they’re often sought out by students, office workers, and bachelors. However, centrifugal juicers are extremely loud and can be annoying at times.
Cost: Depending on the brand, centrifugal juicers are priced at around Rs. 3000-5000 in the Indian market, which is very affordable for an electricity-based juicer.
3. Cold Press Juicers
Cold press juicers use hydraulics to gently crush and press the fruits and vegetables to extract juice without damaging the quality. This is by far the most efficient way of extracting juice.
It is the worthiest juicer in terms of quality and expense. Furthermore, this process of yielding juice doesn’t involve any heat and is slow compared to centrifugal juicers.
Best Use: Cold press juicers are ideal for those who don’t want to compromise on the nutritional value of the juice. Cold-pressed juice ranks the highest in preserving the nutritional value of the ingredient fruits and veggies. Meanwhile, they’re also one of the most expensive types of juicers.
Cost: Cold press juicers are the most expensive of all. You can expect cold press juicers to cost you a chunk of money (around Rs. 10000 to Rs. 40000). The numbers go even higher depending upon the manufacturer.
4. Citrus Juicers
Citrus juicers specialize in extracting juice from citrus fruits only (e.g., Lemon, orange, tomato, etc.). These are made of high-quality plastic and are entirely manual. Citrus juicers are easy to maintain and are highly affordable.
Best Use: As the name suggests, citrus juicers are ideal for extracting large quantities of juice from citrus fruits such as oranges. Extracting juice from other hard fruits such as apple and pineapple won’t work with citrus juicers.
Cost: These are among the cheapest juicers available in the market, with the starting models costing just about Rs. 500. Typically, the average price of citrus juicers is between Rs. 500 – 3000, depending upon the quality and capability of the juicer.
5. Juicer Mixer Grinders
Juicer mixer grinders are the most versatile juicers ever made since they can do much more than extracting juice from fruits and vegetables. As the name suggests, they come with specific jars and modes designed to enable juicing, mixing, and grinding using a single appliance.
Best Use: Mixer juicer grinders are suitable for all three kinds of tasks. The handy appliance is ideal for people who often come across these tasks and don’t want to spend extra on purchasing a juicer, mixer, and grinder separately.
Cost: Juicer mixer grinders are not cheap in any way. On a good day, you can expect these appliances to cost you around Rs. 5000 to 9000, which can be expensive for some users, especially students.
Are Juicers Worth the Money Spent?
So, the question strikes again, are juicers even worthy of your time and money? In that case, our answer would be a definite yes. That is, only if you’re fond of drinking fruit juice and don’t mind missing out on the experience of eating fruit. Also, the benefits of eating a whole fruit are far more than a juice because whole fruit provides you with fiber which is not retailed in a juice.
Furthermore, the versatile price range of juicers can satisfy users with different needs and requirements. For instance, spending a little above Rs. 1000 on a juicer won’t disrupt your monthly budget.
So, even though modern juicers provide an outstanding value for your money, whether purchasing one is worth your money depends solely on whether you even need a juicer or not.
For example, if you don’t find yourself drinking packaged juice often and aren’t a fan of all those big claims over the outstanding health benefits of juices, you’re better off without a juicer. If you need more fiber in your body or don’t want to consume broken glucose molecules from juice to avoid causing diabetes, eating whole fruit is always advisable.
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