Healthy Juice: There’s Only One Type That’s Worth Drinking!

Last year, I was introduced to cold-pressed juices. Ever since my body has experienced them, I can’t seem to live without them. When we don’t have access to them due to travel or just lack of time in making or buying them, my husband — and even my three-year-old — miss them as well! As soon as we step into our apartment after traveling, our three-year-old asks, “Can I have some juice?” And we have only one type of juice at home: cold-pressed juice.

“The juices extracted from fresh-raw vegetables and fruits are the means by which we can furnish all the cells and tissues of the body with the elements and nutritional enzymes they need in the manner they can be most readily digested and assimilated.” – Dr. Norman Walker

What Is Cold-Pressed?

“Cold-Pressed” describes the method of juice-making. The Rolls-Royce of cold-pressed juicers is the Norwalk Juicer, and juice bars that use the Norwalk Juicer will market their juices as such. Rather than using a “centrifugal” juice extraction process (which most conventional juicers do), the Norwalk Juicer extracts juice through the tremendous pressure exerted by a Hydraulic Press. Maximal amounts of natural fruit sugars, vitamins, trace minerals, enzymes, and other vital elements are preserved. This imparts to the juice an extremely fine quality and flavor which is unequaled by any other method of juice extraction.

Centrifugal juicers involve a rapidly spinning strainer. Heat, static electricity and large amounts of air are drawn in; nutrients are destroyed as oxidation occurs. Essential enzymes in fruit and vegetable juice die at temperatures exceeding 50 degrees Celsius. Any juice extractor using a high-speed blade or centrifuge creates friction heat and destroys vital nutrients. Juicing machines will allow you to take control of the quality of the produce, but extraction methods can still destroy vital nutrients, vitamins and living enzymes.

What Are The Benefits Of Cold-Pressed Juice?

The key benefits of the cold-pressed method are:

1. Nutrients and Enzymes Are Preserved. Because the cold-pressed method does not generate the heat that the centrifugal method does, fewer nutrients and enzymes are killed. From the Norwalk website:

2. Higher Yield. The cold-pressed method extracts much more juice and nutrients from the vegetables and fruit. We have both a Norwalk Juicer and a Breville (centrifugal machine, which is great for other reasons), and my husband estimates that the Norwalk Juicer produces about 50% more juice from a given batch of ingredients).

3. Taste. The juice from a Norwalk Juicer tastes much better. It tastes cleaner and crisper.

So Why Do I Feel More Energy From My Juices?

Besides the superior nutritional content that is demonstrated in the table above, another big reason is that when I can drink these cold-pressed juices, I choose to drink a lot of greens (with fruit!). Over time, I have been slowly diluting the amount of fruit juice.

When I haven’t had the juices in a while, the best way to describe what I crave is the oxygen to my cells. Turns out, greens to bring oxygen to more cells of the body! Explanations for my body’s craving for these green juices are below:

• Calorie for calorie, greens offer the most nutritional bang per calorie than any other food. They are rich in minerals (including iron, calcium, potassium, and magnesium) and vitamins, including vitamins K, C, E, and many of the B vitamins. They also provide a variety of phytonutrients including beta-carotene, lutein, and zeaxanthin, which protect our cells from damage and our eyes from age-related problems, among many other effects. Phytonutrients have been shown to protect the body against free radical damage, stimulate detoxifying enzymes, support the immune system and act as antiviral and antibacterial agents.

• Greens are a rich source of chlorophyll, which acts as a detoxifier in the body. Chlorophyll also helps the blood to deliver oxygen to all the cells of the body as well as helping to neutralize free radicals that cause damage to cells. If you suffer from bad breath or body odors, chlorophyll will help that — it is a natural deodorizer! The darker the greens, the higher the chlorophyll content. To get the full benefit of the chlorophyll in greens, it’s best to eat them raw or very lightly cooked.
• Greens are alkalizing. It’s important to keep our body’s PH at a healthy level. However, the modern American diet consists of mostly acid-forming foods like meat and carbohydrates. Consuming lots of vegetables, particularly greens, would help maintain health and balance.
• Dark, leafy greens contain essential omega-3 fatty acids, which are vital for all body functions and protect against heart disease by lowering bad cholesterol.
• Greens are powerful antioxidants, which are known to protect the body from damage from toxins in the environment and the foods we eat. Antioxidants neutralize these toxins and clear them from the body.
• Wheatgrass is also a powerful detoxifier and is high in chlorophyll, minerals and other nutrients vital to good health. It’s an excellent way to cleanse the blood and support the liver. Many health food stores have a juice section where you can get fresh wheatgrass—start with a 1-ounce shot followed by some vegetable or fruit juice, and when your body is more used to the detoxifying effect, you can take 2 ounces. A word of caution: Don’t take wheatgrass and follow with vigorous exercise—I did once and regretted it, as I felt nauseous throughout my workout session.
• The main benefit of green juice is its alkalizing effect. Fruit juices are more astringent; essentially the fruit digs it up and the green moves it out!

There Are Drawbacks…

The Norwalk juices are relatively expensive to make and buy; and they have a shelf-life of approximately 3 days. It is unlikely to be sold at a grocery store but, rather, a juice bar. If you start paying attention, then you’ll notice how rare the Norwalk Juicer is. However, there are a few great juice-makers that ship nationwide (below)!

Conclusion

The Norwalk juices provide an unusual sense of refreshment, rejuvenation, air, and energy to my body. They also taste great. If you ever have the opportunity to try it, then I highly recommend it!

Liquiteria

Organic Avenue

BluePrintCleanse

In NYC, some popular sources of Norwalk juicers are Liquiteria, Organic Avenue (multiple locations and nationwide delivery), One Lucky Duck, Pure Food & Wine, and Blue Print Cleanse (multiple pickup locations and nationwide delivery).

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