Are Juicers a Waste of Money?

What to understand before you go out and buy a juicer.

I certainly don’t think so. But then again, I created a site to discuss the benefits of juicing leafy greens.

There are a lot of blog posts online that are basically contrarian  hot takes about juicing. They all claim that they are a waste of money (think of the sites as the clickbait titles you see on pop entertainment magazines).

But serious health advocates from Gary Null to Rhonda Patrick are all juicer fans.

However, we’re jumping ahead of ourselves a bit here. The main question is to determine if juicers are a waste of money. They are only a waste of money if you do not use them.

If you plan on using a juicer, even occasionally, they are not a waste of money.

Is Making Fresh Juice Wasteful?

Here’s the related and more important question to ask. No one will debate if juicers are a waste of money.

If you drink fresh juice, and you make it at home, then obviously a juicer is not a waste of money.

However, is drinking fresh juice a waste of money?

That’s the question we will look at.

I’ve written articles before that discuss if juicing destroys fiber (it doesn’t).

Juicing extracts the liquid (juice) from the solid material (the pulp). The pulp has fiber, the juice has all of the nutrients and antioxidants.

There are plenty of reasons to eat whole vegetables and fruits, and it’s important to get enough fiber in your diet.

But there is also a special place for juice. When you are looking to get therapeutic doses of a nutrient (say high doses of lutein —leafy green vegetables– or beatine, or vitamin C) then it’s going to be juicing that you want.

Juicing celery has potent health effects and benefits that you won’t get from eating plain celery.

Even if you are concerned with what to do with juice pulp, rest assured that you don’t have to throw it away. There are plenty of healthy recipes that you can use your juice pulp with.

 

Is Cold Pressed Juice A Waste?

Here’s the big problem with all of those clickbait titles that claim juicing is a waste. They tend to compare cold pressed juice with regular juice and make a false equivocation.

The two are completely different. Cold pressed juice is super healthy because it is cold pressed from the fruit and vegetables. There is no heat damage done to the juice.

When you buy a juice that is sold in a store in a bottle, then yeah, you’re basically drinking fructose in water.

But that’s not what you get when you drink cold pressed juice. You are getting fresh nutrients and fiber (juicing does not destroy fiber) in an easy to drink and easy to digest way.

Again, a cold pressed juice is never a waste of money. You’re drinking a healthy juice (as opposed to a pasteurized juice from the store or some sort of soft drink).

This is the biggest lie of all. If you see a blog post that claims that cold pressed juice is a waste of money, rest assured that you’re reading some jumbled together nonsense that you can basically ignore.

 

What About Store Brought Juice?

Some folks think that you can simply switch out your juicer for store brought juice. Again, that’s a terrible take. If you see someone who posts that as an argument, you can just assume that this person doesn’t have a clue.

Store brought juice is empty of any nutrients beyond the basic vitamins. When you compare store brought juice to a freshly made juice there is simply no comparison.

The issue with buying store brought juice is not that it doesn’t taste good. No, store brought juice can actually taste quite good. The issue is that you’re not going to be getting the major benefits associated with fresh juice.

As a simple guideline, when buying store brought juice it is important to stay clear of anything that has added sugars. If you are buying freshly made juice in a store–which is not that common–then you also have to worry about it making you sick. There have been incidents of bacterias in freshly made unpasturized juices sold in mass market stores.

Simple pasrurized juices are safe, but they won’t give you the benefits of fresh juice.

 

Why All The Negative Press?

There are a whole lot of reasons why blogs like to talk trash about juicing. Let’s go over a few.

Ad dollars!

This is the main one. Remember that most blogs are monetized by things like advertisements. The big ad spenders in the online world include major companies. Juicing is still a small little market. You know what is not a small market? Soft Drinks, Fast Food, Major Energy Drinks, and even pharmaceuticals.

Once someone owns a juicer, they cut back or stop drinking soda, beer, name brand seltzar, and lots of other processed and commercial products. Lemons, celery, and greens aren’t going to be able to compete with a major multinational brand that spends ad dollars to get clickbait articles written.

The Smoothie Craze

This reason is less negative. There are a lot of die hard smoothie people out there that think smoothies are the most amazing thing in the world.

And smoothies and juices are sort of similar. They are both involved in the fruit and vegetable world. And smoothies became super popular.

It makes sense, then, that there are a lot of articles written by people who are die hard smoothie heads. These are the folks who make green smoothies day and night and think juicing is not as healthy.

Well, they’re wrong, in my humble opinion.

I am a fan of smoothies, but I don’t think that smoothies make juices obsolete. In fact, the best approach, the holistic approach is to use both in tandem.

What I would advocate for is a morning juice (something light such as a celery and lemon juice) and then couple that with a afternoon smoothie. This helps build muscle (if you use protein in your smoothie) and can also help cut calories.

 

Parroting Other Companies

This reason falls in line with generating clickbait. The primary reason here is that you’re dealing with a person (or group of writers) is piggybacking onto the popular posts of other websites. Whether it’s VOX or any of the numerous food blogs, once someone posts a blog post on a particular topic, then what happens is pretty standard.

If that blog post gets popular and if it starts getting traction, then sure enough you will see copycats. Once the signal is out there that the post is being shared on social media, then sure enough it’s going to be replicated.

What are the Best Juicers for the Money?

That is a topic that deserves it’s own blog post.

Basically, the choice of the best juicer for the money comes down to what you’re planning on using your juicer for.

If you are someone who is really interested in making green juices, then it makes sense that you need to buy a juice for leafy greens (i.e. an auger juicer).

Rather than go into detail and cover the variety of different juicers that you can buy, I will just list what I consider to be the best juicers for the money.

When I recommend people get a juicer, I always advocate that you choose a juicer that is well made, will juice what you need it to juice, and is also not going to set you back a large number.

 

Should You Buy  a Juicer or Is It a Waste Of Money?

I certainly don’t think that buying a juicer is a waste of money. If you are someone who wants to live healthy and if you are planning on making your own juice then a juicer is never a waste of money.

A good masticating juicer can allow you to make fresh juice every day in your own home. It will save you a lot of money and also allow you to create healthier juices.