What Should You Not Put in a Juicer?

 

With a high quality juicer, you can juice a lot of fruits and vegetables. However, there are some things that you should not put in a juicer. These might be foods that simply can’t be juiced, and there are also things that would break your juicer.

Experienced juicers know what to juice, but if you’re new to making fresh juice and you’re planning on buying a new juicers…then it is important that you know ahead of time what you can and can not juice.

Sometimes when you buy a juicer, there will be a comprehensive manual inside that will cover what you can and cannot juice. But oftentimes that manual is not inclusive of everything…and is more of a standard users manual.

That’s why I decided to set out to write a manual that explained everything you can not put in a juicer for any reason at all. This includes items that can break the juicer as well as items that simply can’t be juiced because of their texture or consistency.

 

Things That Don’t Juice Well vs Things That Will Damage The Juicer

So, before we go any further, we are going to review the main difference between what you can juice but shouldn’t and what you can’t juice.

There are things that you can juice but shouldn’t because it will break the juicer. This is different than things that you could theoretically juice, but they’d not turn out well.

Things that will break your juicer include pits (stone fruit that hasn’t been pitted). Basically, these are things that should you try and juice them you can damage your juicer.

The other things that you shouldn’t juice are items that really aren’t suited to juicing. They might be better in a smoothie, for instance. We’ll touch on them below, but they include things like avocados. So, you can certainly try and juice them, but I’d advise against it.

 

 

Fresh Unpitted Cherries – You Can’t Put These in a Juicer

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

They look great….but you can’t juice them!

Cherries are great for juices and smoothies. They are one of the best sources of anti-inflammatory antioxidants. But if you buy fresh cherries, you’ve got to pit them. The pits in fresh cherries can break a juicer.

In general, all stone fruit should considered non-juiceable. This is because the hard pits in the fruit (where they get the name stone) make them juiceable.

If you do want to juice cherries, then you have a few options.  The first would be to simply pit them yourself before juicing. And that’s not hard at all. Just make sure you have a cherry pitter. You can pick one up online for a few bucks (link below).

The second option is to buy frozen cherries and juice them. Most frozen cherries will be pitted. You can get dark sour cherries, or red sweet cherries. My only concern is that the pitting is done by machines and you can’t be sure that the cherries don’t have puts.

If you do buy frozen cherries then after a while you’ll have undoubtedly found that there are a few pits that sneak by. While this isn’t a huge issue if you are just using cherries in a regular fashion , it would be a problem if you were juicing them as it would possible break the juicer. So, I advise that you just buy a cherry pitter.

Or if you prefer, just get organic tart cherry juice and add it directly.

 

Nuts- Unless You Have the Right Juicer

You can’t juice nuts. You can blend them in a blender, or you can use an auger juicer to make nut butter. But, no, you can’t juice them.

If you are looking to make nut butter, then you have to use an auger juicer. If the juicer doesn’t use an auger turn screw, then you’re not going to make but butter.

It’s important to recognize that the only way you can  make nut butter is either in a blender or in an auger juicer like the omega.

But you can’t juice an almond or a walnut, they are simply not things that can be juiced.

 

Strawberries and Other Berries- They Don’t Juice

Berries are too soft to juice. Like bananas, which I’ll talk about below, you simply can’t make berry juice. Even though there are a ton of articles online that suggest you can make strawberry juice or the like, they are all pretty much misleading.

What they are describing is a strained blended drink. Which isn’t something you make in a juicer. If you own a juicer, you can’t juice berries. If you put berries in a juicer you’ll be wasting a ton of fruit. It will simply be extruded as wet pulp.

Simply put: berries don’t juice. Either use an auger juicer with a nut butter attachment to make frozen fruit puree, or use a blender to make a smoothie with berries.

 

Bananas- You Can’t Juice Them

Most people haven’t ever heard or considered banana juice. But you will occasionally come across someone online who says that you can juice a banana. I even wrote a whole article on weather or not you can juice a banana.

The fact is that you can’t juice a banana. And you should not put a banana in a regular juicer. The only way you can use a banana with an auger juicer is to make a banana like “nice cream”.

You can make a frozen banana treat using an Omega juicer, for instance, by freezing the banana and then  running it through the juicer and using a nut butter attachment.

If you want to make a smoothie with bananas, then you should use a good blender. You can’t use a blender as a juicer, but you can make some great smoothies with them.

However, you can’t make banana juice. The closest you can get to a banana juice is a thing that’s made with enzymes and strained with cheesecloth. Not a fan of this method myself. Just stick to eating the bananas, making a frozen banana treat, or just blend them in smoothies.

Avocados- Too much fat to Juice

Avocados are a fruit, but they are a fruit that you cannot juice. Not that anyone is looking to make an avocado juice. But even if you did, you couldn’t.

Avocados can’t be juiced because they are too high in fat. There is not a lot of liquid in an avocado, and the fact that it’s bound with such a high fat content fruit makes it something you can’t juice.

You can take avocados and add them to smoothies, but I just prefer to use avocados with my salads. You need to have health fats in your diet, so don’t skip on the avocados. Add them to your smoothie (they are great in green smoothies) or your salad.

And don’t be fooled thinking that avocados are not healthy just because they have fat. This is actually a necessary and healthy fat that helps promote weight loss.

 

Nuts- Unless You Have an Auger Juicer

We discussed this briefly above, but it is important to cover again. You simply can’t juice nuts. You can make nut milk in a blender, or you can make nut butter in an auger juicer, but there’s nothing to juice in an almond or walnut.

If you have nuts, and an auger juicer like an Omega, then you can make fresh nut butter. It’s not even that hard. And it’s easier than using a blender in my opinion.

In fact, making walnut butter, almond butter, or even macadamia butter in an Omega blender is going to save you a huge amount of money.