Mixing Juices - The Best Tips and Tricks

Contents show

Juice or smoothie – what’s the difference?

Smoothies contain all the components of the fruit or vegetable, including pulp and fiber. Both are healthy, especially for the intestines due to the fiber they contain
Juices, on the other hand, are the pure extract of fruit or vegetable. They contain neither pulp nor fibers. That’s why you need much larger amounts of starting material for juice. The vitamins are available in a more concentrated form.
The question of whether juices or smoothies are better and healthier cannot be answered in this way. It depends on what you’re aiming for: a smoothie can replace a meal. However, much of the energy consumed is required for the digestion process and the vital substances only get into the blood slowly.
Juice, on the other hand, does not need to be digested because it contains no fiber. The absorbed energy is 100 percent available to the body – and within a short time. In contrast to smoothies, juices do not fill you up.

You can make juice from almost any type of fruit and vegetable. It is important to know how you obtain the nutrients from the plant parts. These are oils, amino acids, vitamins, and trace elements. These healthy ingredients are released from the plant cells by pressing, boiling, or crushing. This makes them more readily available to the human body.
For optimal nutrient yield, you should know in which parts of the plant the most is stored. In the case of spinach, for example, these are the leaves. In the case of fruit, the most valuable components are found in the pulp. With the nettle, on the other hand, you can use all parts from the root to the tip of the leaf.

There are different ways to make juices.

You prepare juices with a citrus press in a classic way and with a lot of manual work. However, this method is only suitable for some types of fruit, such as lemons, oranges, tangerines, grapefruits, limes, and kumquats.
Juice extraction works a little easier with a juicer.
You can produce juice more gently, but also more slowly, with a slow juicer. The fruit or vegetables are first crushed and chopped before the juice is extracted via the built-in auger. The cell structure is crushed without destroying the plant cells.
In a steam juicer, the hot steam bursts the plant cells, extracting the juice. This method has the advantage that the juices can be kept for a very long time if they are collected in a sterile container. A steam juicer is also particularly suitable for the production of elderberry juice. Elderberry contains sambunigrin – the poison is rendered harmless during the half hour in the steam extractor.

Individual juices often taste quite boring. Mix tart or sweet fruits according to your mood.
Some juices don’t look particularly appetizing – they’re gray or dirty green. Lemon, melon, and pomegranate brighten up those juices significantly.