Buying Juice V.S. Making Juice

It is always better to make fresh juice, let’s get that out of the way. If you can drink fresh juice, do it. Not only does it taste better, it has more nutrients and is better for you. Fresh juice doesn’t have additives and it is not pasteurized. The pasteurization process will destroy much of the health benefits.

Buying Juice: Store, Fresh, or Supermarket

Now, you can buy so called “fresh” juices in the store. I would be very careful about that. There are two problems1.

The fresh juice usually has tons of additives. Also, how fresh can it be? It has to be made in a factory, bottled, shipped to the store, put on the shelves or fridge. That takes time.

Secondly, if they don’t add preservatives or pasteurize the juice then you have to be very careful. While Pasteurization for juices destroys a lot of the nutrients and enzymes, it is necessary for preserving it. There are a lot of companies nowadays that are exploiting the market for healthy and fresh juice by selling unpasteurized juices. These can be dangerous if they are not handled correctly. If the juice is not kept cold in transport or if it is left out for too long then you have a serious risk of bacteria. There have been several cases of people getting botchalism.

If you are going to buy your juice, then you have two safe choices. Buy a pasteurized juice without any additives like sugar. Or else you can go to a juice bar. The problem with buying a juice that is safe to drink is that it has very little helpful nutrients. The problem with paying for a fresh made juice in a store is that it is pricey. You are going to spend a lot of money.

There is also another problem with going to a juice bar if you are interested in juicing leafy greens. Many juice shops are not designed to handle leafy greens and instead focus on fruit drinks. They might sell vegetable drinks, but these are almost always carrot and apple drinks. Sometimes they might toss in a piece of ginger.

Making Your Own Juice

This is the way to go. If you plan on drinking at least 1 juice a week, then I would suggest getting a really good masticating juicer. I say masticating juicer because this is the model that is the best for leafy greens. It is an overall better juicer. I have a bunch of reviews on this site about why I like it more than the centrifugal juicers.

• When you make your own juice you can make it exactly the way you want.

One of the things I don’t like about buying green drinks from juice shops is that they often sell a leafy green drink that contains lots of cucumber. It might be something like 80 percent cucumber or apple juice and a small pinch of kale or spinach. That’s why I prefer making my own juice. I can make a more even mix.

• It costs you way less.

This is an obvious benefit. You will save a huge amount of money. A juice store will charge you a lot. I’ve seen people charging up to 8 bucks for a green drink. If you add in wheatgrass, than can bump it up to like 10 dollars. That’s way too expensive.

When you make it yourself it costs you very little. Next time you’re shopping take a look at the vegetables and see for yourself. An apple, a bunch of kale, a few stalks of celery costs almost nothing and that would make you a big healthy green drink.

• You can make as much or as little as you like.

Sometimes you want a huge juice and other times you want a little one. When I make a juice I like to be able to decide how much. Sometimes I only want a tiny green drink and don’t make any more than 1 cup. If I want to make enough for later than I make a big jars worth. You have much more flexibility when you make your own.

Store Brought Juice= Suger Water

As a good rule of thumb, if you are buying juice premade in a store that is sold in a refridgerated unit or worse, on the shelf, then you’re just getting sugar water. Most of the nutrients are long gone from the juice due to the methods of preservation.

You can’t store fresh juice for long before it turns sour, goes bad, and looses most of the benefits.

Pasturization is required to protect juice from going bad. While there are still some benefits to a juice that has been pasturized (such as getting vitamin C from orange juice) I would advise you stick to making fresh juice at home.

The nutrients you get from fresh citrus juice greatly outweight the benefits from store brought juice. And while you can use a regular citrus juicer, I would suggest getting a cold press juicer if you are planning on making juice on a regular basis. I have a write up on what you can do with an omega juicer which explains all of the juices you can make.

I should add that if you have a regular citrus juicer, you won’t be able to juice the skin of a lemon or other citrus fruit. But if you use a cold press juicer then you’ll be able to juice a lemon without peeling it and get the benefits of the lemon oil that is in the rind.

 

You can read here about the best way to store fresh juice.

 

Updates: 2022

I wanted to revisit this article and add a bit more to the original posting. I’ve been updating many of the articles lately, and I’ve found that people still have questions about what type of juicer to buy, cold press vs non-cold press juicers, and a ton of other good questions.

I’ve hoped to cover many of them elsewhre on this blog. But lets pause for a moment and look into some of the benefits of making fresh juice at home vs buying it in a store or juice shop.

As we discussed above, the major benefit is that you’ll have full control over your juice. You don’t have to wonder if the fruits are clean, if they are organic, if they’ve been washed of their pesticides. Or if the workers are not hygenic.

Those reasons are enough for me and most people to want to make juice at home. There are a lot of reasons, but Hygene and food sagfety are the main ones.

There’s also cost and conveience. Sometimes you want a juice, but the local juice store isn’t open. Well, if you have a juicer in your apartment or house you can make a juice whenver you want.

If you’re still not sure about which model you want, you can read an article I just posted which covers how to pick the best juicer.