Knowing your fruits and vegetables very well can mean becoming a healthy juicer. There is a bit of an art to juicing, and though its not rocket science, you have to think of it as cooking, where ratios and flavors are very important.
Some absolutely terrible concoctions can be created from bad juicing, and there may be a good chance that you already know this from your own experience. To help you become a smart, and healthy juicer, here are ten tips you won't want to do without.
1. If you are looking for a bite to add to your juices, be careful of ingredients that do this too much. For instance, ginger is used a lot for flavoring and so is lime, but it typically takes very little of either ingredient to add full flavor to a brew. Before you decide to give up on that last terrible juice recipe, you may want to try it again, but lighten up on spices and citruses.
2. Understand when to peel and when not to peel a fruit. Some people are against eating orange peels because of the dyes that they contain, while others love the spicy zip. Which ever person you are, imagine how much you can throw a juice off by adding certain peels. On ther other hand, some peels do not have very much flavoring and can be very good for you.
3. A little bit of apple is the perfect way to sweeten a drink without having to use sugar.
4. Depending on the juicer and yourself, juicing can be time consuming every now and then. If you don't want to get into juicing every single day, try juicing 16 ounces instead of the daily 8, and drink two days worth of juice then. By going about it like this, you can juice about 3 days out of the week, but get a full weeks worth of nutrition.
5. Most people become very eager to get started juicing, and so they go crazy at first. Take it easy if you are new to this, because your digestive system needs time to get used to your new health plan. Consuming too much juice all the time can give you digestive fits.
6. A lot of recipes will call for carrots and though they are tasty in your drinks, try not to get to carried away with them. Too many carrots all the time can raise a person's blood sugar level quite a bit. A good juicing regime is one that is diverse.
7. Buy only what you intend to juice, and make sure that it is done within a timely manner. At first it will no doubt take you some time to learn what proportions you will need for your favorite recipes, but once you get the hang of it - try to be a frugal shopper. Too many people stock up on fruits and vegetables, only to find that they can't juice them in a timely manner. The majority of the produce goes bad, and money is blown. Even if this isn't the case, its important to juice everything when its still fresh enough to contain all of the minerals, vitamins, and general nutrition.
8. Remember that you don't need to wash what you intend to peel. This is something that a lot of juice enthuisiasts don't think about, and so this tip can be very helpful for saving time.