Juicers Compared and 10 Uses for Juice Pulp

Are you considering juicing?  Don't know what type of juicer to use?  We have been juicing for about two weeks and now I look forward to it everyday.   There are many juicers and ways to juice so I have written about two main types in this post, juice with no pulp and juice with pulp.   I hope it helps you decide that juicing is for you, no matter what type of juice and juicer.

Dueling Juicers

In our house, food is our medicine, so when we took the opportunity to compare two juicers, the Vitamix and the Sharper Image centrifuge juicer, we did it with the understanding that both ways result in benefiting our body, which is a win-win either way.

The Vitamix pulverizes fruits and vegetables, leaving all the ground up flesh:  skin, seeds, stalks, etc.  You end up drinking the whole plant, pulp and juice.  Other brands like this include Magic Bullet Nutribullet,  Blendtec and Ninja. 

The Sharper Image centrifuge juicer separates the ground up pulp from the juice, so only the juice is what you drink.  There are many brands that do this as well, such as Breville, Cuisinart, Hamilton Beach, etc.  Then there are masticating juicers made by Omega, which do an even better job of separating the pulp from the juice.  You can spend a lot of time shopping for of these on Amazon (there are so many) but I recommend that you think about your needs, the price and read the reviews.  We had purchased our Sharper Image juicer about 4 years ago and honestly have barely used it until now.  If I were purchasing one today, I likely would pick a different one simply because I have more interest in juicing now.

My husband insists on using the Vitamix to juice since he wants the fiber, hates to waste food and is juicing for the purpose of getting concentrated nutrients.  He also firmly believes that much of the vital nutrition resides in the skin and seeds of fruits and vegetables and doesn't want to miss out on these.

He is not alone in this conviction.  Many health proponents insist that the only way to truly benefit from fruits and veggies is to consume the whole plant.  For example, in many vegetables and fruits, the skins and peels contain the highest amounts of vitamins, carotenoids, flavonoids and antioxidants. To read more on juicing using the whole fruit or vegetable, I've linked to a good article below.
http://www.whfoods.com/genpage.php?tname=george&dbid=24

Whereas, I am juicing according to the GAPS protocol, (similar to many therapeutic diets) where juice without the fiber is used to absorb nutrients quickly and aid in detoxification.  There are many health practitioners which promote fiber-free juicing as the only way to benefit from juicing.  Some even eschew reusing the pulp afterward.  I've linked to one such article below.

http://juicing-for-health.com/joy-of-juicing/juicer-pulp-recipes.html

Time

One day, we decided to compare the process and outcome of the two juicers.  We made juice in the Vitamix and the Sharper Image centrifuge juicer using the same exact ingredients.  Both required the same amount of prep time since the vegetables and fruits need minimal chopping.  The juicers took the same length of time to produce juice. 

Next, we compared the amount of juice and quality of juice.  The centrifuge juicer produced exactly one glass of juice that was very liquid and pulp-free, whereas the Vitamix produced double the amount of juice, filled with pulp.  The centrifuge juice was delicious and palatable, whereas the pulp in the Vitamix juicer rendered the drink thick (and disagreeable, at least to me).  With the centrifuge juicer there was a full pitcher of pulp leftover from the centrifuge juice.  My husband was not thrilled with this waste (even though we compost it).

Both?

An example of a health advocate who promotes both pulp-free and pulp-filled juices, the Food Babe article linked here, highlights how she drinks pulp-free juices but also drinks smoothies containing pulp:  http://foodbabe.com/2013/08/05/juicing-mistakes/

10 Recipes for Pulp

And there are plenty of ways to use the juice pulp.  The Plan to Eat article linked below boasts 10 such ways to use the pulp leftover from juicing, and in the comments there are an additional 20 more  suggestions!  I love all the ideas on how to use the pulp.  No more waste.  No more conflict.
http://www.plantoeat.com/blog/2012/06/ideas-for-using-juicer-pulp-or-what-do-i-do-with-this-stuff/

Clean-up

Lastly, we compared the clean-up.  Without question, the Vitamix was far, far easier to clean than the centrifuge juicer.  It was clean within 60 seconds, whereas the other juicer took a good 15 minutes to clean, due to all of its parts.

Remember, both juicers are efficient and beneficial, depending on your purposes in juicing.  Both produce nutritious juice quickly.  The whole idea is to get more vegetables and fruit in you, and either will do just that.   I know people who have lost 60 pounds through juicing with pulp and I know people who have lost 60 pounds through juicing with no pulp.   So, juice, juice, juice no matter which way you do it.


Happy Juicing!
-- Two Peas