best juicer (long reply)

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The gold standard of juicers remains the Norwalk, developed by raw food guru

Norman decades ago. They're big and expensive but produce the most

nutritious juice by breaking cell walls in a two-step operation. Carrots,

apples, and other vegetables and hard fruits are shredded in the first step,

called trituration. The triturated pieces go into a fabric pressing bag. The bag

is then folded and placed on the shelf of the hydraulic press, which presses

the filtered juice. The resulting juice keeps for up to 7 days in the

refrigerator without losing any significant nutrition. Several websites sell

reconditioned Norwalks. The juicer is versatile, makes nut butters, etc.

Pineapple,

pomegranates, and other juicy fruits can be pressed without trituration. Not my

favorite way of juicing citrus, as it squeezes the rind and releases so much

essential oil that the juice can taste bitter or overwhelmingly orange or

grapefruit. You can't use the pressing bag/hydraulic press for berries -- I

tried strawberries when we first got ours and sent strawberry fragments all over

the kitchen, hall, and living room. (It would have helped if I'd studied the

instructions first!)

The Report, a comparison of the nutritional content of juice made

from 5 pounds of identical carrots, parsley, and celery using a centrifugal

juicer (like the Jack La Lanne), a macerating juicer (Champion is the

best-known model), and the Norwalk, shows that pressing releases more juice and

significantly more nutrients. In the carrot sample, juice from the centrifugal

juicer contained 501 mg calcium, while the macerating juicer's juice contained

1458 mg calcium, and the Norwalk's juice contained 2708 mg calcium.

For information about Norwalk juicers see geocities.com, nwjcal.com, or

the manufacturer's website, norwalkjuicers.com. For the Norwalk Juicer

Community, an online forum not affiliated with the manufacturer, see

norwalkjuicer.com. New Norwalk juicers cost around $2,000, and reconditioned

models sell

for around $1200, more or less, as available. Reconditioned Norwalks are always

in demand, so they sell quickly.

The triturator (step one) is used alone for soft fruit, resulting in a

thick puree, and does a good job of shredding vegetables for salads, grinding

cereals or flour from whole grain, making baby foods, grinding coffee or

herbs, and making soft desserts from frozen fruit, like sorbets. The fineness

or

coarseness of the ground/shredded depends on which grid (if any) is in place.

Dr Mercola at mercola.com has a juicer comparison chart in which he

recommends the Omega 8003, a single-screw juicer that works at low speed to

help

prevent heat caused by friction. Dr Mercola criticizes the Norwalk as being

difficult to clean (partially true, though it's simple once you've done it a

few times) and requiring up to 30 minutes of effort to clean properly

(definitely not true). All of the Norwalk's stainless steel parts are

dishwasher

safe, and I often clean the triturating unit (the part that requires extra

effort) in one or two minutes in the kitchen sink with a bottle brush, soap,

and

water. The stainless steel pain is easily rinsed or put in the dishwasher.

As others have pointed out, the VitaMix is not a juicer but rather an

industrial strength blender. The manufacturer claims it does everything --

grinds meat, grinds grain, mixes/kneads bread dough, makes soup, makes ice

cream.

Some of that is true. It makes a good frozen dessert from frozen bananas and

a small amount of liquid. It makes an excellent pureed soup, although

leaving it running long enough to heat ingredients through friction is a

tedious,

noisy operation. (Easier to preheat ingredients, then blend them.) It does not

make nut butters as easily or as well as the Norwalk, and even though the

video demonstration shows the VitaMix turning wooden blocks into sawdust,

grinding creates heat from friction, which is not always desirable.

VitaMix machines now come with clear plastic containers. They're made

of very hard, sturdy plastic, and it's nice being able to see what's going on

inside the blender, but I still use my older stainless steel containers for

many applications.

If I were buying a juicer today and didn't already have the Norwalk,

VitaMix, and Jupiter juicers (Jupiter is a single screw-press juicer from

Germany that makes the best strawberry and other soft fruit/berry juices, like

grape, peach, plum, etc.), I would probably buy a twin-screw press like the

Green

Star or Green Life.

There is an excellent comparison chart showing strengths and weaknesses

of several types of juicers at livingfoods.com. In my experience, no single

machine does everything, no matter what the manufacturer says. Grinding meat

is far easier with the Jupiter juicer's meat-grinding attachment or with my

Kitchen Aid mixer's meat-grinding attachment than with the VitaMix, and the end

results are more uniform than with the Norwalk. When the Norwalk's

triturator/grinder gets stuck, you have to disassemble it, clean it, and

reassemble.

Do this enough times and you think about which machine works best for what.

You can grind grain in the VitaMix, but the procedure is faster and results

more uniform in the Norwalk, and even faster and more uniform in a dedicated

grain grinder -- that is, a machine that does nothing but grind grain.

We bought the Jupiter years ago when it was sold as the Miracle Wheat

Grass juicer. We don't juice much wheat grass these days but will keep it

forever as our favorite juicer of berries and soft fruit.

If you're on a budget and want the most versatile juicer you can find,

the single-screw Omega or twin-screw presses like Green Star and Green Life

are probably your best choice. They do other things, too, but they do an

excellent job of extracting juice from all kinds of fruits and vegetables. Any

juice that is pressed in a hydraulic or screw press contains more nutrients and

lasts longer in the refrigerator than juice from a centrifugal juicer.

Centrifugal juicers spin shredded fruit/vegetable matter and release the juice

with

centrifugal force. That procedure introduces so much oxygen that the juice

has to be consumed right away or it deteriorates rapidly.

If you have a VitaMix and want to press clear, filtered juice from the

vegetables or fruits that it purees so well, you can use a manual juice press,

the K & K, which is a converted automobile jack with a stainless steel

pressing surface and pan. Wrap the pulp in its heavy dacron pressing cloth

(lined

with a paper towel for cleaning convenience), place it in the pan, and pump to

press the juice out. I used this combination for several years while I

daydreamed about getting a Norwalk. For information about the K & K juicer, see

ezjuicers.com.

Since discovering coconut oil and the benefits of fresh coconut, I've

been using the VitaMix for smoothies (that's where it shines) and the Norwalk

to

shred fresh coconut meat and press fresh coconut milk.

Have fun researching juicers, and good luck with the appliance you

choose,

CJ