25 years ago my mother sat up one night watching televsion, and a week later it arrived. The Juiceman's Juicer. Oh, how we chided her, "You will buy anything that they show for 30 minutes or more." "It's called brainwashing," we said. "You'll never use it," we teased. She never did. It sat in the box for 15 to twenty years before she past it off to one of us as a prized possession worthy of willing out. And my sister did what any of us would have done at the time, she moved it into her basement.
Now either I am turning into my mother by falling for all the stay young, stay healthy hype, or maybe she was on to something. And possibly she would be a lot healthier if she had actually used it herself because all the research (which I am sure had been there all alone but is now easier to find with the advent of media today) is touting the benefits of a raw healthy organic plant based diet. She was right, and we are all now scrambling to find ways to add more servings to our own diets.
I must admit, it must have been a lot easier for her to choose back then. There were what, one or two choices? Well, I made the mistake of verbalizing my intent to buy on my social networking page recently and was hit with a barage of whose using what, and which is the best. Vitamix, Blendtac, Omicron, soup makers, dough makers, green cutters, nutmilk bags and so on and so forth. Talk about overwhelming. I was waiting for the right one, the right price, the right day of the week to attend a demonstration, the strongest consumer report review, the user reviews, and lastly, approval from my husband if I was going to get to get the one that costed $400 dollar.
Enough! I said yesterday as I lay nursing a cold and wishing I had my new juicer to make an immune deficiencey concoction to help. I lay there, and through the clarity of a foggy, cold head, I asked myself why do I need one and what do I intend to do with it? I then, with the appropriate answers did a few more comparisons, read some more reviews, threads, and articles but this time they were focused on the answers I was seeking.
Now armed with more information, in particular, the differences between a Juicer which pulls out of the nutrients but no fiber and oxidizes fast... so drink up...or a Masticater which uses all of the fruit giving you fiber but in a thicker, pulpy, smoothis like drink. What would it be for me, the "mere" juicer like the liquifying Breville or a grinder ripper fiber infusing masticater blender, like the Vitamix.
The original goal had been to augment my diet with an added option for getting my veggies, not replace them completely. I love cooking and creating new dishes and the color and smells are important to me. Others have touted the Vitamix's abiliity to heat up the veggie juice into a soup in two minutes. But I love slow cooker soups that simmer and bring all the flavors together scenting up the home warmly. So the soup maker was not a necessity. I am about 80% or more gluten free so I don't need the bread maker because, so far anyway, I buy frozen organic gluten free bread. Lastly, the thickness of the pulp that I kept reading about bothered me a bit. I will not even eat fruit-on- the-bottom yogurt. I only do vanilla or thinner pudding types. Also, I kept reading how you can put it in a nutmilk bag to strain it, and that is an extra step. No thank you!
So I opted for the Breville juicer which kept coming in as highest in its catagory. As for the fiber, I will attempt to add it in other delicious and nutrious ways through my diet. By the way, I am in no way intending to undermine the Vitamix. It sounds like a wonderful machine. It just does not sound like what I need at the momment. It reminds me of the Kirby Vacuum. When my husband told me how the Kirby man came by and showed him the most amazing things that their vacuum could do. The man said it can be used on curtains and sofas, you can vacuum the stairs, you can even vacuum the mattress and get all types of crud and micro-organisms out of your bed. And I just looked at him incredulously and said, yes but who has time and who is going to do it? He laughed and agreed, but I later found the cancellation reciept for the order he had placed.
And just like I am not vacuuming matresses, I do not have a desire or need, yet anyway, to make bread with a blender.
Of course it may just be something that I grow to need as I continue to grow in my quest for good health. Until then I will keep you posted on how it went with my new juicer! Cheers!
