If you teach your children good smoothie
habits and have fresh fruits, vegetables, and other smoothie
ingredients on hand, as older children and teens, they’ll be
making their own incredibly healthy after-school snacks. Small, single-serving blending machines can make smoothie
lunches or midday snacks even more appealing to working
people. It’s just so darn easy to savor the fresh fruit and
vegetable drinks as alternatives to any junk-food snack or fast-
food meal. Smoothies can play a vital role in a weight-lossprogram because, unlike juices that exclude the pulp, the ﬁber
in smoothies helps stave off hunger. For people who want to be sociable without drinking alcohol,
fresh and frozen smoothies offer exciting, sophisticated
alternatives at social gatherings. The recipes in this book include a wide range of sweet and
savory smoothies that will kickstart your day, maximize
nutrients and supplements, and revitalize your body’s digestive
system. They run the gamut from breakfast, lunch, and dinner;
dessert and cocktail/mocktail smoothies; to frozen and iced
granitas and sherbets. See Chapters 15 to 18 for ﬂavor and
ingredient combinations for smoothies that are refreshing and
luscious delights. T h e  b e n e f i t s  o f  s m o o t h i e s
Like their healthy counterparts, juices, smoothies may be made
from a wide array of organic, fresh fruits and vegetables. But
smoothies are different from juices in two important ways:
They’re made from the whole fruit or vegetable, so they keep
the pure water, nutrients, and the ﬁber in the carbohydrate and
pulp, and they can contain so many more natural and healthy
ingredients like oats, nuts, seeds, herbs, and other natural
supplements. They’r e a good sour ce of fiber
Fiber is the indigestible substance found only in plant foods,
fruits, vegetables, grains, and legumes. Eating ﬁber is one of the
easiest and least expensive ways to prevent disease and
maintain health because it helps the body to eliminate waste
materials and deadly toxins.Water-soluble ﬁber lowers cholesterol and stabilizes blood
sugar. Insoluble ﬁber increases stool bulk and promotes bowel
movement, scouring the intestinal walls of toxic waste matter,
promoting colon health by reducing the risk of diverticulosis
and colon cancer. Because they’re liquidized or ﬁnely chopped whole fruits and
vegetables, smoothies contain both soluble and insoluble ﬁber
from those plants. For an even extra ﬁber boost, add psyllium,
nuts, seeds, cooked beans, bran, and oats to smoothies. High-ﬁber fruits and vegetables include apples, oranges, berries,
pears, ﬁgs, prunes, broccoli, cauliﬂower, Brussels sprouts, and
carrots. They’r e a healthy substitute for empty-calorie drinks
It’s precisely because smoothies contain ﬁber and other slow-
digesting ingredients like nuts, seeds, yogurt, milk, or tofu that
they stay with you longer and satisfy you so much more than
coffee or soda. Smoothie bars: Choosing the right blend
You think you’re making a healthy choi ce by slurping up that heal thy-
sounding, creamy drink from a fast-food outlet or popul ar smoothie bar. If
the drink has low-fat milk or fresh juice, fresh fruit, and ice, you can likely
go ahead and enjoy. But if it’s made from ice cream , pow dered cream ,
sugars (glucose, fructose, corn syrup, or molasses), or any other of the
high-calorie ingredients, you may be in for a shock  at the calories and
chemicals that are lurking in that iced refresher. On average, depending on the outlet, 16 ounces  of a com mercial smoothie
drink contains 260 to 320 calories. If you know  the ingredients are fresh
and not processed and if you’re replacing a dinner  with a high-protein
smoothie, the higher calories may not impact  your daily intake in anegative way. The point is to know exactly what goes  into your drink and
how to make it work as part of your daily calorie intake. It’s true that you can add all sorts of high-calorie or high-fat ingredients to
homemade smoothies, but you’re still in cont rol of the qual ity of the
organic fruits and vegetables (as oppos ed to it being a frozen pulp with
additives); you can opt for low-fat dairy ingredients; and you can be sure
that the juice is fresh, not containing ﬁltered water or extra sweetener s.
Bottom line: Homemade smoothies beat  out com mercial blends  hands
down. My own health routine is to have a fruit smoothie made with
skim milk, 1 cup of fresh or frozen berries, an orange, half a
banana, and 1/4 cup of yogurt, cottage cheese, or tofu in the
morning before work. This is enough to keep me feeling
satisﬁed until lunch at noon. Sometimes I have the same drink
at midafternoon to keep my blood sugar levels even and to
prevent me from feeling like I’m starving, although a vegetable
juice is usually enough to keep me satisﬁed until dinner. They make an excellent meal r eplacement
Busy times call for smart choices instead of fast foods. Smoothies are smart meal replacements because they’re high in
nutrients. If you add small amounts of protein and even some
grain to a vegetable smoothie, you can build that drink into a
powerful meal replacement. Excluding all your meals and taking only juices and
smoothies isn’t wise, because, as nutritionists always point
out, we need a wide variety of whole, natural foods. Excluding the other plant foods like whole grains, beans,
legumes, nuts, and seeds means that you’re limiting the
nutrients your body receives. Breakfast and lunch are the best meals to use smoothies as a
replacement for, especially if you usually skip breakfast and ﬁnd
yourself grabbing a fast meal for lunch. Check out Chapters 16
and 17 for great lunch and dinner smoothie recipes. They’r e an easy way to take medicines, herbs, or
supplements
Often the elderly or people recovering from surgery can handle
smoothies long before they can tolerate solid foods. You can
blend prescribed medications (only those that are meant to be
taken with food) right into the smoothie, making them a
nourishing drink for recovering patients. You also can boost the
caloric content of smoothies by adding omega-3 rich oils, using
whole milk, and adding protein sources. This is often the best
way to bolster the diets of elderly and undernourished patients. Healing herbs, tinctures, and teas can be used as smoothie
ingredients. Healthy supplements like lecithin, bee pollen, whey
protein powder, and green sprouts may be added to the blender
along with the ingredients. Deciding Whether Smoothies
and/or Juices Ar e Right for Y ouIf you’re making your health a top priority now, you’re not
alone. Trends toward healthier options in all areas of our lives
are peaking, with the biggest population bulge, the Baby
Boomers, reaching 50 or older. And these trends are ﬁltering
down to younger generations as well, so that juicing and
smoothies have become a signiﬁcant part of a healthy daily
diet. According to the American Heart Association (AHA), heart
disease is the number-one killer of Americans. The AHA says
that you can reduce your risk of heart disease by the foods you
eat and drink; it identiﬁes seven health and lifestyle factors that
impact health and quality of life. If you visit the AHA website
(www.heart.org ), you can start getting healthy by checking out
My Life Check. In the meantime, here are the AHA’s seven health
factors:
 Don’t smoke. Maintain a healthy weight for your sex and age. Engage in regular physical activity. Eat natural, whole foods and avoid high-fat, high-sugar,
fast- and reﬁned-foods. Manage your blood pressure preferably by diet and
exercise. Watch and manage cholesterol. Keep blood sugar, or glucose, at healthy levels. In one way or another, juices and smoothies can help with many
of these factors. One place to start to determine if juices or
smoothies are a viable lifestyle option for you is to take the
personal health questionnaire in the nearby sidebar. You can
use it to gauge whether you’re getting the appropriate amounts
of fruits and vegetables.Taking stock: A personal health
questionnaire
Setting your own personal health goal s is an excellent way to put a focus
on diet, physical activity, and mental attitude. A good place to start with
your diet is to honestly answer the ques tions in this section and measure
your answers against the facts from heal th experts. This activity points
out any discrepancy between what’s ideal  and where you are right now ,
and it can help you to take the steps you need to have a heal thy life. 1. How do you take your meals? a. Do you eat breakfast? Eating breakf ast is essential to suppl ying
nutrients to the cells for the workday  ahead. b. If so, what do you eat for breakfast? Fresh fruits or vegetables, small
amount of protein, and some source of omega- 3 acids are best to start the
day. 2. What beverages do you drink in a day? Coffee, regular tea, and soft
drinks don’t contribute to a healthy diet. Eight glasses of water is optimal. 3. What snacks do you eat between meals and when do you eat them ? Keeping a log of exactly what you eat for a whole week will point out
what kinds of foods you go to when you feel dow n or bored or hungr y. 4. How often do you go through the drive-through in a week? It should
be a rare to never occurrence. 5. How often do you eat fast food (burgers, tacos , deep- fried chicken,
pizza, french fries)? It should be a rare to never occurrence. 6. How many home-cooked dinners do you eat in a week? It shoul d be
a ﬁve- to seven-days-a-week occur rence. 7. How many fruits and vegetables do you eat in a day? Studies show
that eating seven and ideally ten or more servings of fruits and veget ables(with vegetables being ﬁve or more of those servings) lowers the risk of
many modern diseases. If your diet is falling short of a healthy, preventive, whole foods  way of
eating, changes are in order. Remember: Substituting fresh fruit or vegetable juices or smoothies for
high-calorie, high-fat snacks and drinks is one of the easiest ways to
improve your diet. If you’re already having fresh fruit for snack s, great! Try
fresh vegetable drinks, and expand your choi ces. Only you can determine
what, when, and how you’ll eat and drink.Chapter 3
Buying and Caring for Your
Equipment
In This Chapter
 Choosing a juicer that’s right for you
 Knowing what to look for in a blender
 Maintaining your machines to get the most from them
It wasn’t until the 1930s when the perfection of the small
electric motor led to the invention of juicers and blenders. At
ﬁrst, these machines were used only by restaurants or other
industrial establishments. The practice of using a juicer or
blender in the home kitchen hasn’t been around for much more
than three generations. Many people own or are familiar with using a blender, but juice
machines aren’t as widely used in home kitchens yet. If you’ve
decided that juicing is important to your health and you want to
include juicing in a health regime, this chapter is worth reading
because it explains everything you need to know about the
kinds of machines available today and what features to look for
when buying a juicer. If you’re in the market for a blender, this chapter doesn’t leave
you empty-handed. I give you the tips you need to ﬁnd the right
one for you. Finally, I end the chapter by telling you how to care for and
maintain your juicer and blender, so they’ll serve up delicious,
healthy drinks for years to come.Choosing a Juicer
If you want to buy a juicing machine, this is the place to start. In
this section, I explain the main types of juicers and help you
decide which one is right for you. T y p e s  o f  j u i c e r s
In this section, I cover the three main types of juicers. Knowing your level of engagement in the process of juicing is
critical to matching the type of juicers available to your
lifestyle, your health needs, and your expectations about
convenience, so ask yourself the following questions and keep
your answers in mind as you read about the types of machines
available and their advantages or disadvantages. How much time do I want to spend making juice? Will my juice be a once-a-day quick snack or a health ritual
that I want to put time and effort into? Am I fanatical about extracting the most juice from my
fruits and vegetables and obtaining the highest quality
nutrients, or does convenience trump any slight increase
in nutrients? You can get started on fresh raw juices by dropping in on
a juice bar in a whole-food or health food store, gym, or spa
and sampling the fruit- and vegetable-only juices fresh from
a juicing machine. This will give you a good idea as to
whether you even like the taste (although that isn’t usually
an issue — juices are so good!). You also can see ﬁrsthand
how the machine works and talk to someone who knows
about the types of machines available. Centrifugal for ce juicers
This type of juicer takes fruits and vegetables through a feed
tube and directly in contact with a blade that shreds them. The
juice that comes out of the fruits and vegetables is thrown by
centrifugal force of the spinning basket toward the sides of the
basket and pushed through it into a jug (or glass if you’re only
doing a single serving). If you have a continuously ejecting juicer, the pulp is forced out
of the machine and into a pulp container. If the pulp isn’t
automatically removed from the spinning basket, the basket
becomes full and you have to stop the machine, remove the
pulp, and empty the basket before continuing to juice. Here are the advantages of centrifugal force juicers:
 They have the fewest number of parts of all the juicers,
which makes them fast and easy to assemble and clean. They’re the fastest at extracting juice from fruits and
vegetables, especially if the feed tube is wide enough to
take a whole apple, cucumber, or orange and if the pulp is
automatically ejected. They’re the most popular types of juicers, so you have
many options to choose from. They stand upright and take up less space on the counter. And here are the disadvantages of centrifugal force juicers:
 More oxidation of nutrients takes place in this type of
juicer. (The nutritional quality is still excellent, though,
especially if the juice is taken immediately and not stored.) In general, less juice is extracted from centrifugal juicers. (Some really good brands are available that produce a
fairly dry pulp with not much juice waste.) They won’t juice wheatgrass and other ﬁne grasses. Bottom line: These machines are for people who want to
juice for the nutritional beneﬁts but want to do it with as
little effort and time as possible. Masticating juicers
Making use of a single auger (gear) that’s spiral in shape,
masticating juicers press and chew, or masticate, the fruits and
vegetables as they’re fed into the tube. Juice is extracted and
collected in a container that ﬁts under the gear shaft, and the
pulp is continuously ejected at the end of the gear shaft into a
pulp container. Here are the advantages of masticating juicers:
 They work at a low rpm so they extract more juice from
the fruits and vegetables and excel at juicing leafy greens,
wheatgrass, and other grasses. The slower speed preserves slightly more nutrients than
are preserved by centrifugal force juicers. They can function as grain mills and make nut butters and
baby food. They can masticate frozen fruits, such as bananas and
strawberries, for instant frozen treats. Here are the disadvantages of masticating juicers:
 They have more parts that must be assembled and
cleaned. They have very small feed tubes in order to accommodate
the size of the auger, which means that the food has to be
cut into small pieces and fed one by one through the tube. As a result, juicing with a masticating juicer takes longer
from assembly and cleaning, to preparing the fruit and
vegetables to waiting as each small piece or leaf is fed
through the tube and into the auger. Bottom line: If you want the very most nutrients possible
and you’re willing to spend more time juicing, this is the
machine for you, especially if you plan to juice grasses and
you don’t have a Vitamix machine to make sorbets and nut
butters. T riturating juicers
Similar to a masticating, single-gear juicer, the triturating juicer
has two augers, and it separates the juice in two stages: First, it
crushes fruits and vegetables; then it presses the juice out of
them. This method of extracting juice releases more ﬁber,
enzymes, vitamins, and trace minerals from the pulp, makingthe juice extremely nutrient-rich. Some of these juicers actually
have technology to slow down the oxidation process, which is
important if you want to juice a day’s worth of juice at one time
and store for consumption later. Here are the advantages of triturating juicers:
 Of all the types of juicers, they extract the most nutrients
from fruits and vegetables. The twin augers of triturating juicers turn at a lower rpm
than masticating juicers and extract more juice from a
wide range of leafy greens, grasses, herbs, and hard and
soft fruits and vegetables. They homogenize food to make baby foods, nut butters,
fruit sorbets, and pasta. And here are the disadvantages of triturating juicers:
 They’re the most expensive. They’re slow and have the disadvantages of masticating
juicers in that the food must be cut up. They’re large and imposing machines that take up more
space on a counter. Bottom line: This machine is for you if you already own a
juicer and want to move to the next level or if you know
you’re dedicated to a juicing regime and don’t mind the
extra cost to get the very best nutrients from leafy greens,
herbs, and a wide variety of vegetables and fruits. Wheatgrass juicersThese limited-function machines may be manual (hand-
cranked) or electric. They’re designed to juice wheatgrass and
other grasses, herbs, sprouts, and leafy greens. They can handle
very soft fruit like berries, grapes, and kiwifruit as well. Here are the advantages of wheatgrass juicers:
 They’re simple to use. They’re one-purpose machines that are good at extracting
juice from grass, greens, and soft fruits. They’re relatively inexpensive. Here are the disadvantages of wheatgrass juicers:
 They’re one-purpose machines that require another
purchase if you want to juice hard fruits and vegetables. Cheaper models have plastic blades, which are inferior (so
be sure to look for machines that have stainless steel
blades). Bottom line: Wheatgrass juicers are a good choice if you
want to do only greens and soft fruits. If you want to have
the option of juicing other fruits and vegetables along with
wheatgrass, put the money toward either the masticating
or the triturating juice machines, which can handle
everything the wheatgrass juicers can, but with many more
options. Juice pr esses
Also called citrus presses, these juicers are designed to squeeze
the juice from oranges, tangerines, grapefruit, lemons, and
limes. These tools range from simple handheld reamers or one-handed lemon/lime presses to powerful electric presses that
will juice dozens of orange or lemon halves one at a time but
quickly and with little effort. Manual pr esses
Glass, ceramic, and plastic juicers are designed to sit on a glass
or bowl or have a reservoir large enough to hold the juice from
one-half lemon or one-half orange. Ceramic lemon/lime presses
squeeze the juice from one-half lemon or one-half lime while
catching and straining the seeds. This type of handheld press is
handy for single drinks. Here are the advantages of manual presses:
 They’re inexpensive and easy to use and clean. They’re easy to store in a drawer. Here are the disadvantages of manual presses:
 Because you’re using manual power to juice, it’s slow and
tedious to do more than two or three citrus fruits at a time. You have to strain out the seeds using a strainer. Electric pr esses
Electric juice presses are powerful enough to press an unlimited
number of citrus fruit halves, and most have a strainer built into
the machine. You position the citrus half onto the cup and
lightly pull down the lever, and the cup spins of its own accord,
pressing the juice out into a jug or glass. Here are the advantages of electric presses:
 You can juice dozens of citrus fruit at a time. The machine parts are easy to clean.Here are the disadvantages of electric presses:
 They’re more expensive than manual presses. They take up more space on a counter. F e a t u r e s  t o  l o o k  f o r  i n  a  j u i c e r
You want to ﬁnd a brand that has as many of the features you
want within your budget. Here are some features to consider
before you make your ﬁnal purchase decision. Simplicity: Easy to assemble and use, easy to clean
My theory is that if you want to enjoy health beneﬁts from
juicing, but you aren’t passionate, keeping it simple is the best
route. If your juicer has only a few simple parts and is easy to
use and clean, you’ll be motivated to use it more often. Keeping the juicing machine on the counter is also essential to
simplicity. A sleek, upright centrifugal machine takes up the
least amount of space, is incredibly fast, and is easy to assemble
and clean. If you’re highly motivated or if you already own a fairly
inexpensive juicer and you want to move up to a machine that
juices grasses and extracts more juice and nutrients, the
masticating or triturating juicers are a better choice. Speed: High speed and variable speed
Masticating and triturating juicers have only one speed: slow
and slower, respectively, which is a health advantage. Some centrifugal juicer models come with variable speeds,
which slow the blades of the spinning basket down for soft fruit
and allow you to gradually increase the speed as you juiceharder fruits and vegetables. The slower the basket spins, the
more juice may be extracted from the fruit or vegetable, so this
is a deﬁnite advantage of these types of machines because it
takes a high speed to juice very hard vegetables like beets. Number and quality of nutrients extracted
Masticating or triturating juicers are generally thought to be
better at extracting and preserving the nutrients. However,
because you have to cut up the fruits and vegetables into very
small pieces, depending on how long they sit out, they may lose
nutrients to oxidation before they even hit the auger. It’s
difﬁcult to detect the actual nutrients in the juice from the
different types of juicers, so you have to rely on the information
provided by manufacturers to compare. Efficiency
You’re making an investment when you purchase a juicing
machine. You want to be sure that it’s efﬁcient in doing the
things that you consider to be important. If possible, get a live
demonstration of the juicer in action. Consider the following:
 The amount of juice extracted: Masticating or triturating
juicers are thought to be better at extracting the juice, but
my experience with a centrifugal juice machine
(particularly with the Breville Juice Fountain Multi-Speed)
is that the pulp is pretty dry if you use the variable speed
function and don’t apply any pressure to the fruit or
vegetable as it passes down the feed tube. External pulp ejection: Unless you only ever plan to juice
one serving at a time, this is a critical feature to any juicing
machine and one that I would not give up. Masticating or
triturating juicers continually expel the pulp, so this isn’t
an issue. Some centrifugal juice machines don’t have a
continual expulsion feature, which slows the process ofjuicing — you have to stop the machine in order to clean
out the basket. Yield of juice and dryness of pulp: If you can get a
demonstration of the machines you’re interested in
buying, you can measure the juice extracted from the same
fruits or vegetables. If the pulp is wet, this is an indication
that the machine is not effective in extracting a high yield
of juice. Size of the feed tube: Masticating or triturating and some
brands of centrifugal juicers have a very small feed tube,
which means the food must be cut into small pieces or
leaves must be fed one by one into the machine. If you
know you want a centrifugal juicer, be sure that the model
you choose has a feed tube large enough to take a whole
apple, orange, or cucumber. This feature makes the
preparation easy because the food doesn’t require cutting
and chopping. Reliability
Like a car or boat or any other tool, you want to have the luxury
of using it for a very long time in order to get the most from
your investment. Consider the following:
 Quality of the parts: The quality of the parts and the
materials used are one indication of reliability. Stainless
steel outperforms and outlasts plastic and is easier to
clean. The other determining factor in assessing reliability
is the size of the motor. Motor size: It takes a considerable amount of power to rip
through tough ﬁbers of vegetables like beets and turnips,
and a juicer with insufﬁcient power will slow down or even
burn out over time, so look for a juicer with the most
powerful motor in your price range.Noise
Some juice machines are extremely loud. Noise is a huge issue
to some people, especially if they live with people who might be
sleeping when they want to juice. Choosing a Blender
Blenders remain a popular kitchen tool and their basic design
has changed very little in the 80 years they’ve been in
existence. They’re very good at what they do, and the only
machine to ever come close to eclipsing their use is the food
processor. Still, for puréeing foods and blending liquid with
fruits or vegetables for a smoothie, blenders are the very best
tools for the job. If you want to buy a blender, this section has the information
you need. Here, I explain the main types of blenders and help
you decide which one is right for you. T y p e s  o f  b l e n d e r s
By far, the most popular of all blenders is the traditional,
upright blender. Limited improvements have been made to that
basic model, but the biggest is the invention of the immersion
blender. Cordless and personal-size blenders have made their
way onto the market, too, but they’ve resonated with a
relatively small number of consumers. T raditional blenders
The traditional blender has a tall glass, stainless steel, or plastic
container, with a lid sporting a hole in the middle. It sits on a
base housing the motor and plug. Blades are attached to thebottom of the container; there may be two or four blades that
do the work of cutting food into small particles. Here are the advantages of traditional blenders for making
smoothies:
 The vortex action means that food is liqueﬁed and
drinkable. You can add softer fruits and vegetables through the
opening in the lid toward the end of the blending. Here are the disadvantages of traditional blenders for making
smoothies:
 Food gets caught underneath the small blades. If not enough liquid is added to the container, the food
may get stuck in the blades and it can’t be processed. Bottom line: Blenders work better than food processors
for making smoothies; they’re inexpensive and reliable. Immersion blenders
The immersion or stick blender consists of a slim motor that ﬁts
into the handle of a tool that can be gripped with one hand; the
mixing and cutting blades are attached to the end of the wand. The name comes from the fact that you can immerse the blade
into a bowl of ingredients. Equipped with different speeds, the
immersion blender is designed for light-duty blending of light
batters, sauces, and dips. Here are the advantages of immersion blenders for making
smoothies:
 They’re very small and slim — they can ﬁt in a drawer. They’re somewhat portable. Here are the disadvantages of immersion blenders for making
smoothies:
 They can’t crush ice. They can’t blend harder fruits and vegetables. Bottom line: An immersion blender may come in handy if
you’re making mashed potatoes, sauces, or dips, but when
it comes to making smoothies, an immersion blender isn’t
up for the job. V itamix
Vitamix (www.vitamix.com ) is a brand of blender, All models
come with a four-pointed “wet” blade that’s used for liquidizing
fruits and vegetables, chopping ice, blending frozen mixtures,
mixing batter, chopping dry ingredients, and making creamed
soups. You can purchase a container with a “dry” blade (two ﬂat
and two pointed edges) designed for grinding grains and coffee
and kneading bread dough. The power and speed of the blades is controlled by two
switches, which allow the blades to spin from four times slower
to four times faster than a traditional blender. This variable-
speed control gives you greater control over the degree to
which the machine blends foods. At a low speed, you can add
cooked chicken and other ingredients to a soup without
puréeing it; at the high speed, you can turn raw vegetables into
a steaming soup simply from the friction of the fast-moving
blades.The powerful motor is either 120 or 220/240 volts, and each is
equipped with overload protection, which means that the
motor will shut off to protect the motor from overheating. Here are the advantages of Vitamix blenders for making
smoothies:
 The powerful motor can handle hard fruits and vegetables,
as well as grains and nuts. The size of the container means that you can make more
than a few servings at one time. The only disadvantage of Vitamix blenders: They’re expensive. Bottom line: If you can afford it, this is the machine to
get for making not only smoothies, but soups and other
healthy foods. F e a t u r e s  t o  l o o k  f o r  i n  a  b l e n d e r
Blenders are so ubiquitous that we sometimes forget that there
are different features that make each make and model unique. If
you plan to make smoothies daily, you’ll want to keep the
blender on top of the counter, so height, size, and appearance
will be a consideration in addition to the features outlined in
this section. Container material and size
Blender containers are made from
 Plastic: The least expensive blender containers are made
from plastic. The advantages of plastic are that it’s
lightweight and chip-proof. Glass: Glass is durable and won’t discolor or absorb odors
from herbs or vegetables the way plastic can. Stainless steel: Stainless steel is the most expensive and
the most durable. It keeps frozen mixtures cold longer. On
the downside, you can’t see the mixture inside until you
take the lid off. Containers range in capacity from 8 ounces for the personal or
mini blender container to 10 to 64 ounces for the average
traditional blender to 80 ounces for a Vitamix. Only you can
determine what size is appropriate for your needs. Motor size
As with juicers, the power of the motor is important for
blending hard and ﬁbrous vegetables. The average blender
boasts between 300 and 600 watts of power, with the Vitamix
weighing in at a whopping 1,300 watts. Opt for the most powerful motor you can afford when
choosing a blender —the higher the wattage, the more
versatile your machine will be. A lower-wattage machine
won’t be able to handle thick, frozen cocktails; sorbets; and
granitas. Pulsing button
If you plan to make iced drinks, sorbets, or granitas, a pulsing
button will make that function easier. The ice falls into the
blades when paused and is ground up again when the blades
begin to spin. Without the pulsing button on your blender, you
have to stop and mix up the ice before starting the motor again. V ariable speedsBeing able to start the blender at a slow speed and gradually
increasing it to high so that the food is gradually broken up and
there is less stress placed on the motor is an advantage. The
ability to reduce from a high speed to a very low speed allows
you to add ingredients at the end of blending that you don’t
want to be liquidized or puréed into the rest of the mixture. Ice crusher
This function is similar to the pulsing button. It automatically
stops and restarts the blades so that ice can be easily chopped
and integrated evenly into a blended mixture. Cleaning Y our Juicer or Blender
 Always, always, always clean your juicer or blender
immediately after you use it — as soon as the drink has
been poured into glasses and before you sit down to enjoy
it. The natural sugars in fruits and vegetables can make
cleaning the equipment a nightmare if you wait — they’re
sticky and cause the smaller particles of liquid and other
ingredients to adhere (like glue) to the lid, the container,
the blades, and any utensil or surface that the mixture has
been spilled on or otherwise touched. C l e a n i n g  a  j u i c e r
To clean a juicer, follow these steps:
1. Fill the sink with hot, soapy water. You can do this before you even start juicing, after you’ve
washed and scrubbed the produce.2. After you’ve processed the food and poured the juice into
a glass, unplug the juicer and disassemble the machine,
immersing the parts into the hot, soapy water. 3. Using a brush, clean each part and rinse it under hot
water. 4. Wipe down the motor base and the countertop where
you’ve been working with a hot, soapy cloth. 5. Let the parts dry while you enjoy your juice. 6. After the parts are dry, reassemble the juicer so the
machine is ready for your next healthy drink. C l e a n i n g  a  b l e n d e r
To clean a blender, follow these steps:
1. After you’ve processed the food and poured the smoothie
into a glass, rinse out the container. 2. Add a few drops of liquid soap to the container, and ﬁll it
one-quarter to one-half full of hot water. 3. Place the lid on the container and blend, starting at low
and moving to high speed, and then back down to low. 4. Turn off the machine, unplug it, and pour the soapy water
over the inside of the lid and into the sink. 5. Rinse the container and the lid with hot water. 6. Wipe down the motor base and the countertop where
you’ve been working with a hot, soapy cloth.Chapter 4
Shopping for and Prepar ing Fresh
Produce
In This Chapter
 Stocking your pantry for juicing and smoothies
 Choosing organic
 Deciding on the best produce
 Keeping produce at its peak
Planning saves you money, as well as time, and it keeps you
organized so that making juices and smoothies can be a
seamless part of your daily routine. Planning what to shop for
keeps you focused on the juices and smoothies you’ll make and
helps you to organize the ingredients you have on hand and
those you need to purchase. Planning when and where you’ll
shop lets you work market days into a routine that suits your
work and leisure activities. In general, you should use fresh fruits and vegetables within
two or three days of purchase. That’s why you’ll want to plan
how, when, where, and what to buy — one big grocery outing
every week just won’t work. This chapter is all about buying and handling fresh fruits and
vegetables, what to look for when shopping, how to treat them
so that their nutrients are retained and making sure that you get
the beneﬁt of optimum nutrition when you use them in juices or
smoothies.Your excursion into healthy drinks starts with the recipes and a
list of what you need for a few days’ refreshment. After you get
into the habit of list making and planning a few days’ drink
recipes, you’ll wonder how you ever survived without these
valuable habits — and you may ﬁnd it helpful to transfer those
habits to meal planning and shopping, too. Shopping Like a Pr o
A peach is a peach is a peach, right? Not exactly. The quality of
the nutrients in the peach you place into your grocery cart
depends on many things, including what variety of peach it is,
where and in what kind of soil it was grown, at what stage in its
maturity it was picked, how far and in what kind of container it
had to travel to get to the store, how long it’s been sitting on the
produce shelf, and whether it was subjected to regular misting
with water before you plucked it. The goal is to choose fresh, local organic produce that’s in
season where you live. This commitment serves both you and
your local food community. Here’s how: You get fruits and
vegetables that have ripened on the vine or tree (instead of
being picked green and ripened with gas) and developed their
full complement of vitamins, minerals, and phytonutrients, and
you support the growers in your area so that they can keep
growing vital crops. M a k i n g  a  l i s t  a n d  c h e c k i n g  i t  t w i c e
Organized people live by their lists. They are “thinking”
shoppers who take advantage of produce that is ripe and in
season because it’s the most economical and at its peak. Here’s
what a shopping list does for you: It keeps you on track. Your goal to look and feel better is
achievable if you aim for the optimum number of servings
of a wide variety of fruits and vegetables every day. Making
a list motivates you to make healthy choices, choose a
wide variety of fruit and vegetable recipes, and stick to
their ingredient lists when shopping. It saves you money. Planning the recipes and noting the
fruits and vegetables and other ingredients you have on
hand before you leave for the store means that you won’t
come home with something you already have or don’t
need. And it saves you an extra trip back to the store for
something you missed. It keeps you from getting into a rut. Making a list before
you shop encourages you to check out new recipes so that
you step out of your normal favorites. It widens your
perspective and gives you new ingredients from which to
choose instead of relying on the same three or four items. It helps you plan where and when you’ll shop. All food
spoils, but making a list and shopping for two or three
days’ worth of ingredients means your fresh produce is
always at its peak for juicing and smoothies. It saves you time and effort. Making a list may seem like
more work at ﬁrst, but when you go into the market you
won’t waste time going up and down the isles or
wandering around the produce section wondering what to
buy. Produce shopping every two or three days means that
your cart is lighter and you can get in and out, pack the
car, and be gone in record time. K n o w i n g  w h a t  t o  l o o k  f o r  i n  p r o d u c e
You’re focused on your health (otherwise, you wouldn’t be
reading this book). So, it stands to reason that you want to startwith the ﬁnest produce so that you get the highest-quality
vitamins, minerals, and phytonutrients. Don’t compromise. Get
the freshest fruits and vegetables you can ﬁnd. Here’s how:
 Shop for organic produce. There’s a reason why certiﬁed
organic food production is growing all over the world. Actually, there are several reasons, and they have to do
with the health of the planet and the health of people. There is concrete scientiﬁc evidence that organic farming
results in
• Healthier soil
• Less soil erosion
• Cleaner waterways
• Reduction in human and wildlife exposure to persistent
toxic chemicals
• Less energy usage than conventional farming — 30
percent to 50 percent less
• A healthy population of birds and insects in and around
the farm
Fresh organic produce yields more nutrients because you
don’t need to peel it. Many of the vitamins, minerals, and
phytonutrients in fruits and vegetables are concentrated in
and just below the peel or skin, but that’s exactly where
chemical pesticides and herbicides are lurking. Although North American countries have banned
the use of certain toxic pesticides (such as DDT), those
chemicals are still being produced and exported to food-
producing countries and coming back to us in fruits and
vegetables. If non-organic is your only option, at least try
to avoid the following “dirty dozen” — these fruits and
vegetables have the highest concentrations of pesticides:
apples, bell peppers, blueberries (domestic, not wild),
celery, grapes (especially if imported), kale/collard greens,
lettuce, nectarines, peaches, potatoes, spinach, and
strawberries. If you have no choice but to purchase non-organic
produce, always peel it. Shop for produce that’s in season. The term in season
means that, where you live, the crops grown locally are
being harvested right now. Because of this, plenty of those
fruits or vegetables are available, at the lowest prices, and
they’re fresher than imports. If they’re grown locally, fruits
and vegetables will have ripened naturally, on the vine or
on the tree, and their nutrients will be higher than produce
that’s picked before it’s ripe and transported in
refrigerated crates. To ﬁnd out what’s in season when, check out Fruits
& Veggies—More Matters
(www.fruitsandveggiesmorematters.org/what-fruits-and-
vegetables-are-in-season ). Plan to use what’s in season. This means using, among
other things, tomatoes and peaches in the summer, applesand cranberries in the fall, winter pears and cabbage in the
winter, and leafy greens and asparagus in the spring. Unless you live in tropical areas, winter strawberries and
tomatoes aren’t the best choice for ﬂavor, nutrients, or
price. If you want to use strawberries in winter, plan to
pick your own at a local farm in the summer and freeze
them for winter smoothies. Get it from the person who grows it. Many farmers sell
right on the premises in farm gate sales, because it saves
them time, energy, and transportation costs. If you buy
directly from the farmer, the fruits and vegetables will be
fresh picked and at their peak. They will have ripened the
way nature intended, and they’ll be bursting with vitamins,
minerals, and phytonutrients because they matured
properly. If you can’t make a trip to a nearby farm (or if farms
are too far from where you live), you may be able to buy
from the farmers at your local farmers’ market. Don’t be fooled by “fake” farmers at the farmers’
market. Some markets are very strict about only inviting
the person who raises the fruits or vegetables; others
allow middlemen (people who just buy and sell food, as
opposed to growing it). You can’t miss the fake farmers —
their produce comes in boxes labeled “produce of”
followed by the name of some faraway place. Grow your own. Growing your own vegetables isn’t all
that hard, and it can be done in very small spaces. You can
grow vegetables in containers on a balcony or on very
small patches of land. For more information, check out
Container Gardening For Dummies, 2nd Edition, by BillMarken, Suzanne DeJohn, and the editors of the National
Gardening Association (Wiley). Learn how to tell if it’s fresh. A light touch on peaches,
plums, avocadoes, and melons can easily help gauge their
ripeness. Most fruit smells sweet and fragrant when ripe,
so go ahead and give it a sniff and a gentle caress. Be
aware of the difference between fresh, in-season specials
and the discount bin, which is food that is past its prime. Produce from the discount bin may be tempting due to its
price, but it’ll be past its peak, and many of the nutrients
will have been lost. W e i g h i n g  y o u r  o p t i o n s :  F r e s h ,  d r i e d ,
f r o z e n ,  o r  c a n n e d
When you’re buying fruits and vegetables, you have four basic
options: fresh dried, frozen, and canned. Which has the best
quality? And are the others close or far behind? Fresh: Hands down, fresh is always best when you can buy
it directly from the farm or when it’s locally grown and in
season. Fresh fruit has less nutrients if it’s immature
(under-ripe or picked before it ripens) or over-ripe (past
its peak). The quality of fresh fruit declines the farther it
has to travel to get to your table. The United States Department of Agriculture
(USDA) has prepared two excellent online resources, How
to Buy Fresh Fruits (www.ams.usda.gov/AMSv1.0/getfile? dDocName=STELDEV3103620 ) and How to Buy Fresh Vegetables
(www.ams.usda.gov/AMSv1.0/getfile? dDocName=STELDEV3103623 ), which give information onquality, nutrition, labeling, grades, and how to select
speciﬁc fruits and vegetables. Dried: Dried fruits and vegetables have only had the water
removed — all the nutrients should be intact unless heat
was used in the drying process and an excess amount of
sugar was added (which degrades the nutrients). In the
winter, you may want to use dried fruits in smoothies. If heat was used in the drying process, the label will
show sugar as an added ingredient, and it may give the
drying process used. If fruit is dried chemically by adding preservatives such as
sulfur dioxide, it isn’t a healthy choice, so look for
unsulfered dried fruit. It will be brown and not as visually
appealing, but it’s much healthier. Frozen: Local, in-season fresh fruits and vegetables are
best, but frozen is next to best — and in some cases,
frozen is actually the better choice. This is because fruits
and vegetables that are commercially frozen tend to be
processed close to where they grew and at their peak
ripeness, a time when they’re most packed with nutrients. Of course, buying local fresh fruits and vegetables and
freezing your own is the very best way to ensure that
you’ll have those strawberries for winter smoothies. Canned: A canned fruit or vegetable is better than none at
all. So, if your teenager wants a peach smoothie after
school, go right ahead and stock the pantry with canned
peaches if you haven’t frozen your own. Canned tomatoes, pumpkin and legumes (beans
and peas) retain most of their life-giving nutrients, so
keeping cans of these organic vegetables in your pantry is
a good idea. How to drink juices and smoothies year-
round
I can just see you thinking to yourself, “Okay, but if I’m suppos ed to buy
only in-season fruits and vegetables, how  can I drink my favorite juices
and smoothies year-round?” Fear not — here are some tips:
 Buy in bulk and freeze the extra when local  produce is in season. You don’t need to thaw it if you’re making smoothies, and you only need to
partially thaw it if you’re juicing. (See “Freezing them  for the future,” later
in this chapter.) Look for organic, local frozen summer fruit, sometimes found in
local whole/health stores. If that isn’t available, buy organic imported and
use it in smaller amounts with fresh or frozen local  fruit. Buy organic canned fruit when those fruits are out of season. Look
for and buy fruit packed in water or light syrup becaus e you won’t want
the extra calories from added sugar. If you use canned fr uit pack ed in
water, you can add the liquid to the juice or smoothie and you won’t be
pouring out the water-soluble vitamins. So, if fresh is best, why even mention canned or frozen? Local
fresh produce is available only once, perhaps twice, a year,
depending on where you live. Plus, if you grow your own, you
know that you can’t keep up with the amount your garden is
producing, even if you’re juicing every day. Add to that the fact
that you really should be including berries and a wide range ofsummer-only fruits and vegetables in your diet and, well, you
see the dilemma. It makes sense to use some canned and frozen
produce to augment the fresh winter local produce available
where you live. T r eating Fruits and V egetables like
Gold
What you do with fruits and vegetables when they’re in your
hands is as important as all the steps that took place long
before you saw them. After you choose that fruit or vegetable,
it’s up to you to handle it as if it were gold. After you place fresh
produce into your grocery cart, it’s up to you to wash, store,
and use it with care so that you beneﬁt from the optimum
nutrients. G e t t i n g  t h e m  h o m e
You’ve gone to the farm or the farmers’ market or bought local
produce at the supermarket. To get fresh produce home without
compromising its fresh state or the nutrients it contains, do the
following:
 Keep insulated bags or a cooler in the car and put the
fruits and vegetables in them. Wilting and loss of some
nutrients starts immediately after picking and during the
trip home in a hot trunk or back seat. Head straight home after buying the most perishable
foods. Some foods, like apples, carrots, and pears, will last
longer, but don’t plan on running any more errands after
you pick up more delicate greens, berries, peaches, and
stone fruits. Make produce runs ﬁrst thing in the morning or in the
cooler evenings during the summer months whenever
possible. G i v i n g  t h e m  a  b a t h
It’s a myth that organic foods don’t need to be washed. Think
about that turnip pushing its pointy-head up through the soil. If
that turnip is lucky enough to be growing in organic soil, that
soil is bursting with microbes, bacteria, and other helpful soil
organisms. And that turnip will pass through several hands
(perhaps even be sneezed on) before it ﬁnds its way to your
grocery cart. It’s a fact: Bacteria such as listeria, salmonella, and E. coli may
be clinging to your fruits and vegetables. Washing is the ﬁrst
line of defense in protecting the produce — and you — so here
are some tips:
 Wash ﬁrm fruits and root vegetables, celery, apples,
grapes, and stone fruits when you get home from the
market. That way, you can set these healthy foods out as
snacks and know that they won’t have nasty chemicals or
bacteria to cause food-borne illness. Don’t wash delicate foods such as berries and
mushrooms until just before you’re ready to use them. This keeps them dry and helps prevent mold from working
its destruction. Wash all pre-packaged fruits and vegetables, even if the
label claims they have been pre-washed. One of the easiest and most effective ways to clean most
vegetables, as well as tree and stone fruit, is to immerse
them in a sink full of cool water with ¼ cup white vinegar
added. Use a vegetable brush to gently scrub them all over. Rinse and pat dry before storing. Wash delicate fruit such
as raspberries, strawberries, and blueberries by placing
them in a colander or sieve and swishing them through the
vinegar water. Rinse and pat dry before using. Never use soaps, detergents, bleaches or other toxic
cleaning chemicals on your precious produce. These
chemicals will leave a toxic residue of their own. S t o r i n g  t h e m  t o  l a s t
Storing fruits and vegetables properly will save you money
because they’ll stay fresh until you use them. Use the
information in Table 4-1 to safely store that precious
commodity.F r e e z i n g  t h e m  f o r  t h e  f u t u r e
Freezing fruits and vegetables when they’re at their peak is one
of the easiest ways to preserve them for use later. If you grow or
pick your own or purchase fruits and vegetables when in season
and in quantity, you can save a considerable amount of money
in the winter, when the same produce is being transported from
warm climates. Using frozen fruit in smoothies makes the drink thick and icy
cold. You can partially thaw fruit and vegetables before juicing
them and the result will be thick and creamy. Here is the best
way to freeze the most common fruits and vegetables. Berries
To freeze berries, such as blackberries, blueberries, currants,
raspberries, and strawberries, follow these steps:
1. Wash, hull, or de-stem the berries and dry. 2. Place them in a single layer on baking sheets, and freeze
them for one to two hours. 3. Measure 1- or 2-cup amounts into freezer bags, label the
bags, and freeze. Store for up to three to six months. Stone fruit
To freeze stone fruit, such as apricots, cherries, mangoes,
nectarines, peaches, and plums, follow these steps:
1. Wash, halve, remove the stone or pit, and cut into smaller
pieces. 2. For each cup of light-ﬂeshed fruit (like peaches or
mangoes), toss the pieces in 2 tablespoons of lemon juice.3. Place in a single layer on baking sheets, and freeze for
one to two hours. 4. Measure 1- or 2-cup amounts into freezer bags, label the
bags, and freeze. Store for up to three to six months. T r ee fruit
To freeze tree fruit, such as apples, bananas, citrus fruit, guavas,
kiwifruit, medlar, or pears, follow these steps:
1. Wash, peel (if citrus or bananas), quarter, remove the
core, and cut the quarters in half. 2. For each cup of fruit, toss the pieces in 2 tablespoons of
lemon juice. 3. Place in a single layer on baking sheets, and freeze for
one to two hours. 4. Measure 1- or 2-cup amounts into freezer bags, label the
bags, and freeze. Store for up to six to nine months. V egetables (hard)
To freeze hard vegetables, such as beets, carrots, celery, onions,
parsnips, peppers, rutabaga, turnips, or winter squash, follow
these steps:
1. Wash, pat dry, and cut into 1- or 2-inch pieces. 2. Measure 2- or 4-cup amounts into freezer bags, label the
bags, and freeze. Store for up to 9 to 12 months. V egetables (medium)
To freeze medium vegetables, such as asparagus, beans,
broccoli, Brussels sprouts, cauliﬂower, or peas, follow thesesteps:
1. Wash, trim, sort, or cut into uniform sizes. 2. Leave whole or cut into 2-inch lengths. 3. Blanch in boiling water for 3 minutes, and then plunge
into cold water for 3 minutes. 4. Pat dry and place in freezer bags, label the bags, and
freeze. Store for up to six to nine months. Gr eens
To freeze greens, such as beet greens, collards, kale, mustard
greens, spinach, Swiss chard, or turnip greens, follow these
steps:
1. Remove tough stems and imperfect leaves. 2. Blanch in boiling water for 2 minutes, and then plunge
into cold water for 2 minutes. 3. Pat dry, coarsely chop, and place in freezer bags; label
the bags; and freeze. Store for up to four to six months.Chapter 5
Catering to Special Needs
In This Chapter
 Getting the nutrients you need at every age
 Knowing what you need when you’re pregnant
 Addressing the needs of diabetics
No matter how old you are, you can beneﬁt from juices and
smoothies because the quality of your life depends on the
quality of the food that sustains it. Children get off to an
excellent start with pure, organic purées and juices; teenagers
fuel active bodies with nutrients and energy; and seniors
maintain a healthy immune system and memory while ensuring
that their muscles and bones are strong. This chapter offers everyone the potential to live long, healthy
lives. It shows how a consistent diet of fresh whole foods and
pure fruit and vegetable juices, along with a wide range of
smoothies and supplemental ingredients, provides essential
nutrients at each stage in your growth and helps you and those
you care for to grasp the vitality that is everyone’s birthright. The chapter also addresses the special needs of pregnant
women and people with diabetes. I can’t cover everything nutritional related in this
chapter, so if you want to really dig into the details on
nutritional requirements, check out Nutrition For Dummies,
5th Edition, by Carol Ann Rinzler (Wiley).Choosing Healthy Drinks for
Childr en
Infancy and childhood are times of rapid cell division and
growth. Requirements for all nutrients are higher during this
stage of life than at any other developmental phase. In fact, a
baby is expected to triple its birth weight and increase its
length and head size by 50 percent by the end of the ﬁrst year of
life. This accelerated expansion of muscles, bones, and tissue
continues through childhood and puberty. Infants require up to 18 times the number of calories that
sustain adults. The best “drink” you can give an infant is breast
milk — it provides energy, protein, and improved immune
function. Mothers who breastfeed are giving their babies the
very best start in life, and breastfeeding mothers need the best
nutrients for their own bodies and the milk they’re producing
(see the “Pumping Up the Nutrients When You’re Pregnant or
Breastfeeding” section, later in this chapter). Requirements for fatty acids are higher in infants than in adults
due to their role in the development of the central nervous
system. Polyunsaturated fats and fats high in omega-3 fatty
acids, such as those found in plant foods, are essential to the
diets of both the breastfeeding mother and her baby. Although
babies can’t drink smoothies, breastfeeding mothers can
supplement their omega-3 fatty acids by adding ﬂax seeds,
walnuts, tofu, and even ﬁsh oil to boost this important nutrient. As children grow, vegetable protein, vitamins, minerals, and
phytonutrients are all essential in order to meet their needs. The energy needs for children ages 1 to 3 are still very high,
running around 990 calories per day. After age 3, their needs
drops off so that between the ages of 6 and the time they hitpuberty, kids’ caloric needs are based on weight, height, and
physical activity. Children ages 1 to 3 can be given pure vegetable or fruit
juices that have been diluted with an equal amount of pure
water. Water can be gradually reduced in the pure juice
drinks for children ages 4 and older. After age 4, you can
start to introduce high-energy smoothie drinks with
vegetable protein from nuts, seeds, bran, avocadoes, wheat
germ, and whey protein. Start giving your kids juices and smoothies now, and
you’ll establish habits that will last them a lifetime. T ackling the Needs of T eenagers
For teenagers, protein and energy are essential, but everything
from vitamins A and C for skin and calcium and phosphorous
for bone growth are important to maintaining an equilibrium as
hormones and outside stresses take their toll. With junk food and soft drinks so much a part of teens’ life, they
don’t always care that pizza and soda don’t make for a balanced
diet. And yet, it’s at this stage in their lives that teens can
beneﬁt most from establishing lasting healthy food habits that
include juices and smoothies. Pure vegetable juice is perhaps
the single most important food that teens can have that will
ensure that they get the nutrients they need for development. Low-fat dairy smoothies slide into the number two slot in terms
of delivering protein and calcium.When menstruation starts for females, they need more iron. In
teen males, vitamins C, K, and some of the B vitamins, along
with choline, magnesium, zinc, chromium, and manganese,
become important. Short of taking supplements, vegetable and
fruit smoothies and juices are the perfect foods for keeping
teenagers healthy inside and out. In terms of daily requirements, one or two pure
vegetable or fruit juices and at least one smoothie that
includes a protein and a calcium source are essential for
teens. It’s never too late to get your kids started drinking juices
and smoothies, so don’t worry if you have teenagers today
and you’ve never juiced or made smoothies before. Start
today! Getting the Nutrients Y ou Need as
Y ou Age
Unless you’re ﬁt and active or, at the other end of the spectrum,
suffering from loss of appetite because of surgery or some other
cause, you don’t need as much energy from food than you did
when you were younger. But that doesn’t mean you don’t need
nutrients. Intake of high-quality nutrients in pure juice and
whole foods is essential for a wide variety of health functions,
including immunity, infection and disease prevention, and
strengthening of muscles and bones. Keeping ﬁt and participating in low-impact exercise
designed to maintain bone density is absolutely essential
after 50. Vitamin D is a key nutrient for those older than 70. According to the National Institutes for Health, the daily
requirement is 600 IU per day from birth through the age of
70. Over the age of 70, it jumps to 800 IU per day. As you get older, be careful not to load up on high-
calorie ingredients in smoothies unless you’re
undernourished or underweight. Low-fat dairy and plant
sources of protein (nuts, seeds, oatmeal, tofu) and vitamin
D–enriched dairy foods are excellent ingredients for
smoothies as you get older. Pure vegetable juice is better
than fruit juice because of the high nutrient value and lower
sugar content. You can easily take nutritional supplements and
medications in smoothies because they blend in so well
and don’t add an unpleasant taste to the drink. Juices and smoothies for Fido and Fluffy? Fresh, whole foods provide the same nutritional  beneﬁt s to Fido and Fluffy
as they do to you. Chemicals and empty-calorie foods  have nothing in
them to build bones and muscle and maintain your pet’s eyes, ears,
internal organs, and coat. Pets thrive on fresh veget ables and fruits;organic chicken, lamb, or beef; and legum es and whole grains, such as
brown rice, oatmeal, barley, or millet. That said, I’m not recommending that you actually serve your dog or cat
juices or smoothies. But your precious four-legged friend can beneﬁt  from
the roughage that’s left over from the extraction of the juice from whole
fruits and vegetables. You can use this pulp to suppl ement your pet’s wet
or dry kibble, or you can mix it with cook ed meat, legum es, and whole
grains. In general, a balanced meal for a dog is made up of about  25
percent fruits and vegetables, 25 percent  meat and legum es, and 50
percent cooked grains; for cats, it’s about  25 percent  fruits and
vegetables, 55 percent meat and legum es, and 20 percent  cook ed grains. Before setting out to revamp your pet’s diet, do a bit of research into the
amounts and kinds of whole food that are best for your animal. A great
resource is Home-Prepared Dog & Cat Diets, 2nd Edition, by Patricia
Schenck (Wiley-Blackwell). Boosting smoothies with protein and calcium found in
milk and milk products and using other healthy ingredients
makes them nutritionally equal to meals. If you don’t have
the appetite you used to, or if you live alone and just don’t
feel like cooking for yourself, a smoothie can be a great way
to ensure you’re still getting a healthy, nutritious meal. Pumping Up the Nutrients When
Y ou’r e Pr egnant or Br eastfeeding
You’ve created a new life with your partner, and now you’re the
sole source of absolutely everything your fetus or baby needs. Your diet has never been as important as it is right now, andgetting the vitamins, minerals, protein, carbohydrates, good
fats, and phytonutrients is your job. Pure vegetable and fruit
juices can be a huge asset to your diet when you’re pregnant or
breastfeeding, helping to boost all the essential nutrients and
doing it effectively and without adding fat. Let’s face it, eating for two means that you need it all: energy;
protein; essential fatty acids; vitamins A, C, D, E and the B
vitamins (B12 in particular); folate; choline; calcium;
phosphorus; magnesium; potassium; iron; zinc; copper;
chromium; selenium; iodine; manganese; and molybdenum. It’s
a long list and one that you need to be sure to address for the
health of your baby and for you. Your doctor will give you recommendations about
healthy levels of all these nutrients. The best you can do for
your baby and you is to eat a wide variety of whole organic
foods and choose pure vegetable and fruit juices for snacks
two or three times a day. Low-fat smoothies with protein
and calcium will complement these eating habits to supply
what your body is using. If you’re looking to add
supplements to your smoothies, try avocado, ﬂax, nuts,
seeds, wheat germ, oatmeal, tofu, or whey. For more tips on nutrition during pregnancy, check out
Pregnancy Cooking & Nutrition For Dummies, by Tara Gidus,
MS, RD (Wiley). Mothers who are breastfeeding, perhaps more than any other
group of people, may beneﬁt the most from smoothies and
juices. This is because new mothers need to replenish stores of
minerals (like iron and calcium) in their own bodies and requireprotein, as well as essential vitamins and phytonutrients, in
order to produce high-energy, high-nutrient milk for their
babies. Drinking pure fruit and vegetable juices two or three
times a day is ideal. Keeping Y our Blood Sugar under
Contr ol When Y ou Have Diabetes
Diabetes is a lifelong, chronic disease that is caused by too little
insulin or a resistance to insulin. Insulin is a hormone produced
by the pancreas to move blood sugar (called glucose) from the
bloodstream into muscle, fat, and liver cells where it can be
used as fuel. There are two main types of diabetes (type 1 and type 2), as
well as a condition called gestational diabetes, which is high
blood sugar during pregnancy in a woman who doesn’t have
diabetes. Because diabetes affects so many people (over 20 million
Americans), and because type 2 diabetes most often occurs in
adulthood and is linked to diet and obesity, nutritionists are
concentrating their efforts on diet and exercise to reduce the
risk of this deadly disease, for which there is no cure. There is no way to prevent type 1 diabetes. Maintaining
an ideal body weight, healthy diet, and an active lifestyle
may prevent type 2 diabetes. There is no set diet for diabetics, but keeping blood glucose
levels on target by making wise food choices and staying
physically active is the best plan. Smoothies and juices can be
an important part of a healthy, whole-food diet. Because they’reso much higher in natural sugars, fruit juices and smoothies are
not the best choice for diabetics. In addition, you need to be
aware of glycemic levels of some vegetables when you’re
planning to make vegetable juices or smoothies (see the nearby
sidebar for more on the glycemic index). Smoothies that are made with liquids other than juice,
that are low in calories, and that have some low-fat protein
make excellent snack choices for people with diabetes. The glycemic index and you
The glycemic index (GI) is a ranking of foods  on a scale from 0 to 100. The
number assigned to each food is an indication of how  much they raise a
person’s blood sugar level. Foods that have a high GI raise blood sugar
the most; foods with a low GI raise blood sugar  the least. The goal ,
particularly for people with diabetes, is to stick to low-GI foods  (those
with a GI of about 55 or less).
_OceanofPDF.com_Juicing_and_Smoothies_For_Dummies_-_Pat_Crocker.txt
Summarize the following text section accurately and concisely. Maintain specific details and numerical information, and use anti-repetition mechanisms:

        If you teach your children good smoothie
habits and have fresh fruits, vegetables, and other smoothie
ingredients on hand, as older children and teens, they’ll be
making their own incredibly healthy after-school snacks. Small, single-serving blending machines can make smoothie
lunches or midday snacks even more appealing to working
people. It’s just so darn easy to savor the fresh fruit and
vegetable drinks as alternatives to any junk-food snack or fast-
food meal. Smoothies can play a vital role in a weight-lossprogram because, unlike juices that exclude the pulp, the ﬁber
in smoothies helps stave off hunger. For people who want to be sociable without drinking alcohol,
fresh and frozen smoothies offer exciting, sophisticated
alternatives at social gatherings. The recipes in this book include a wide range of sweet and
savory smoothies that will kickstart your day, maximize
nutrients and supplements, and revitalize your body’s digestive
system. They run the gamut from breakfast, lunch, and dinner;
dessert and cocktail/mocktail smoothies; to frozen and iced
granitas and sherbets. See Chapters 15 to 18 for ﬂavor and
ingredient combinations for smoothies that are refreshing and
luscious delights. T h e  b e n e f i t s  o f  s m o o t h i e s
Like their healthy counterparts, juices, smoothies may be made
from a wide array of organic, fresh fruits and vegetables. But
smoothies are different from juices in two important ways:
They’re made from the whole fruit or vegetable, so they keep
the pure water, nutrients, and the ﬁber in the carbohydrate and
pulp, and they can contain so many more natural and healthy
ingredients like oats, nuts, seeds, herbs, and other natural
supplements. They’r e a good sour ce of fiber
Fiber is the indigestible substance found only in plant foods,
fruits, vegetables, grains, and legumes. Eating ﬁber is one of the
easiest and least expensive ways to prevent disease and
maintain health because it helps the body to eliminate waste
materials and deadly toxins. Water-soluble ﬁber lowers cholesterol and stabilizes blood
sugar. Insoluble ﬁber increases stool bulk and promotes bowel
movement, scouring the intestinal walls of toxic waste matter,
promoting colon health by reducing the risk of diverticulosis
and colon cancer. Because they’re liquidized or ﬁnely chopped whole fruits and
vegetables, smoothies contain both soluble and insoluble ﬁber
from those plants. For an even extra ﬁber boost, add psyllium,
nuts, seeds, cooked beans, bran, and oats to smoothies. High-ﬁber fruits and vegetables include apples, oranges, berries,
pears, ﬁgs, prunes, broccoli, cauliﬂower, Brussels sprouts, and
carrots. They’r e a healthy substitute for empty-calorie drinks
It’s precisely because smoothies contain ﬁber and other slow-
digesting ingredients like nuts, seeds, yogurt, milk, or tofu that
they stay with you longer and satisfy you so much more than
coffee or soda. Smoothie bars: Choosing the right blend
You think you’re making a healthy choi ce by slurping up that heal thy-
sounding, creamy drink from a fast-food outlet or popul ar smoothie bar. If
the drink has low-fat milk or fresh juice, fresh fruit, and ice, you can likely
go ahead and enjoy. But if it’s made from ice cream, pow dered cream,
sugars (glucose, fructose, corn syrup, or molasses), or any other of the
high-calorie ingredients, you may be in for a shock  at the calories and
chemicals that are lurking in that iced refresher. On average, depending on the outlet, 16 ounces  of a com mercial smoothie
drink contains 260 to 320 calories. If you know  the ingredients are fresh
and not processed and if you’re replacing a dinner  with a high-protein
smoothie, the higher calories may not impact  your daily intake in anegative way. The point is to know exactly what goes  into your drink and
how to make it work as part of your daily calorie intake. It’s true that you can add all sorts of high-calorie or high-fat ingredients to
homemade smoothies, but you’re still in cont rol of the qual ity of the
organic fruits and vegetables (as oppos ed to it being a frozen pulp with
additives); you can opt for low-fat dairy ingredients; and you can be sure
that the juice is fresh, not containing ﬁltered water or extra sweetener s. Bottom line: Homemade smoothies beat  out com mercial blends  hands
down. My own health routine is to have a fruit smoothie made with
skim milk, 1 cup of fresh or frozen berries, an orange, half a
banana, and 1/4 cup of yogurt, cottage cheese, or tofu in the
morning before work. This is enough to keep me feeling
satisﬁed until lunch at noon. Sometimes I have the same drink
at midafternoon to keep my blood sugar levels even and to
prevent me from feeling like I’m starving, although a vegetable
juice is usually enough to keep me satisﬁed until dinner. They make an excellent meal r eplacement
Busy times call for smart choices instead of fast foods. Smoothies are smart meal replacements because they’re high in
nutrients. If you add small amounts of protein and even some
grain to a vegetable smoothie, you can build that drink into a
powerful meal replacement. Excluding all your meals and taking only juices and
smoothies isn’t wise, because, as nutritionists always point
out, we need a wide variety of whole, natural foods. Excluding the other plant foods like whole grains, beans,
legumes, nuts, and seeds means that you’re limiting the
nutrients your body receives. Breakfast and lunch are the best meals to use smoothies as a
replacement for, especially if you usually skip breakfast and ﬁnd
yourself grabbing a fast meal for lunch. Check out Chapters 16
and 17 for great lunch and dinner smoothie recipes. They’r e an easy way to take medicines, herbs, or
supplements
Often the elderly or people recovering from surgery can handle
smoothies long before they can tolerate solid foods. You can
blend prescribed medications (only those that are meant to be
taken with food) right into the smoothie, making them a
nourishing drink for recovering patients. You also can boost the
caloric content of smoothies by adding omega-3 rich oils, using
whole milk, and adding protein sources. This is often the best
way to bolster the diets of elderly and undernourished patients. Healing herbs, tinctures, and teas can be used as smoothie
ingredients. Healthy supplements like lecithin, bee pollen, whey
protein powder, and green sprouts may be added to the blender
along with the ingredients. Deciding Whether Smoothies
and/or Juices Ar e Right for Y ouIf you’re making your health a top priority now, you’re not
alone. Trends toward healthier options in all areas of our lives
are peaking, with the biggest population bulge, the Baby
Boomers, reaching 50 or older. And these trends are ﬁltering
down to younger generations as well, so that juicing and
smoothies have become a signiﬁcant part of a healthy daily
diet. According to the American Heart Association (AHA), heart
disease is the number-one killer of Americans. The AHA says
that you can reduce your risk of heart disease by the foods you
eat and drink; it identiﬁes seven health and lifestyle factors that
impact health and quality of life. If you visit the AHA website
(www. heart. org ), you can start getting healthy by checking out
My Life Check. In the meantime, here are the AHA’s seven health
factors:
 Don’t smoke. Maintain a healthy weight for your sex and age. Engage in regular physical activity. Eat natural, whole foods and avoid high-fat, high-sugar,
fast- and reﬁned-foods. Manage your blood pressure preferably by diet and
exercise. Watch and manage cholesterol. Keep blood sugar, or glucose, at healthy levels. In one way or another, juices and smoothies can help with many
of these factors. One place to start to determine if juices or
smoothies are a viable lifestyle option for you is to take the
personal health questionnaire in the nearby sidebar. You can
use it to gauge whether you’re getting the appropriate amounts
of fruits and vegetables. Taking stock: A personal health
questionnaire
Setting your own personal health goal s is an excellent way to put a focus
on diet, physical activity, and mental attitude. A good place to start with
your diet is to honestly answer the ques tions in this section and measure
your answers against the facts from heal th experts. This activity points
out any discrepancy between what’s ideal  and where you are right now,
and it can help you to take the steps you need to have a heal thy life. 1. How do you take your meals. a. Do you eat breakfast. Eating breakf ast is essential to suppl ying
nutrients to the cells for the workday  ahead. b. If so, what do you eat for breakfast. Fresh fruits or vegetables, small
amount of protein, and some source of omega- 3 acids are best to start the
day. 2. What beverages do you drink in a day. Coffee, regular tea, and soft
drinks don’t contribute to a healthy diet. Eight glasses of water is optimal. 3. What snacks do you eat between meals and when do you eat them. Keeping a log of exactly what you eat for a whole week will point out
what kinds of foods you go to when you feel dow n or bored or hungr y. 4. How often do you go through the drive-through in a week. It should
be a rare to never occurrence. 5. How often do you eat fast food (burgers, tacos, deep- fried chicken,
pizza, french fries). It should be a rare to never occurrence. 6. How many home-cooked dinners do you eat in a week. It shoul d be
a ﬁve- to seven-days-a-week occur rence. 7. How many fruits and vegetables do you eat in a day. Studies show
that eating seven and ideally ten or more servings of fruits and veget ables(with vegetables being ﬁve or more of those servings) lowers the risk of
many modern diseases. If your diet is falling short of a healthy, preventive, whole foods  way of
eating, changes are in order. Remember: Substituting fresh fruit or vegetable juices or smoothies for
high-calorie, high-fat snacks and drinks is one of the easiest ways to
improve your diet. If you’re already having fresh fruit for snack s, great. Try
fresh vegetable drinks, and expand your choi ces. Only you can determine
what, when, and how you’ll eat and drink. Chapter 3
Buying and Caring for Your
Equipment
In This Chapter
 Choosing a juicer that’s right for you
 Knowing what to look for in a blender
 Maintaining your machines to get the most from them
It wasn’t until the 1930s when the perfection of the small
electric motor led to the invention of juicers and blenders. At
ﬁrst, these machines were used only by restaurants or other
industrial establishments. The practice of using a juicer or
blender in the home kitchen hasn’t been around for much more
than three generations. Many people own or are familiar with using a blender, but juice
machines aren’t as widely used in home kitchens yet. If you’ve
decided that juicing is important to your health and you want to
include juicing in a health regime, this chapter is worth reading
because it explains everything you need to know about the
kinds of machines available today and what features to look for
when buying a juicer. If you’re in the market for a blender, this chapter doesn’t leave
you empty-handed. I give you the tips you need to ﬁnd the right
one for you. Finally, I end the chapter by telling you how to care for and
maintain your juicer and blender, so they’ll serve up delicious,
healthy drinks for years to come. Choosing a Juicer
If you want to buy a juicing machine, this is the place to start. In
this section, I explain the main types of juicers and help you
decide which one is right for you. T y p e s  o f  j u i c e r s
In this section, I cover the three main types of juicers. Knowing your level of engagement in the process of juicing is
critical to matching the type of juicers available to your
lifestyle, your health needs, and your expectations about
convenience, so ask yourself the following questions and keep
your answers in mind as you read about the types of machines
available and their advantages or disadvantages. How much time do I want to spend making juice. Will my juice be a once-a-day quick snack or a health ritual
that I want to put time and effort into. Am I fanatical about extracting the most juice from my
fruits and vegetables and obtaining the highest quality
nutrients, or does convenience trump any slight increase
in nutrients. You can get started on fresh raw juices by dropping in on
a juice bar in a whole-food or health food store, gym, or spa
and sampling the fruit- and vegetable-only juices fresh from
a juicing machine. This will give you a good idea as to
whether you even like the taste (although that isn’t usually
an issue — juices are so good. ). You also can see ﬁrsthand
how the machine works and talk to someone who knows
about the types of machines available. Centrifugal for ce juicers
This type of juicer takes fruits and vegetables through a feed
tube and directly in contact with a blade that shreds them. The
juice that comes out of the fruits and vegetables is thrown by
centrifugal force of the spinning basket toward the sides of the
basket and pushed through it into a jug (or glass if you’re only
doing a single serving). If you have a continuously ejecting juicer, the pulp is forced out
of the machine and into a pulp container. If the pulp isn’t
automatically removed from the spinning basket, the basket
becomes full and you have to stop the machine, remove the
pulp, and empty the basket before continuing to juice. Here are the advantages of centrifugal force juicers:
 They have the fewest number of parts of all the juicers,
which makes them fast and easy to assemble and clean. They’re the fastest at extracting juice from fruits and
vegetables, especially if the feed tube is wide enough to
take a whole apple, cucumber, or orange and if the pulp is
automatically ejected. They’re the most popular types of juicers, so you have
many options to choose from. They stand upright and take up less space on the counter. And here are the disadvantages of centrifugal force juicers:
 More oxidation of nutrients takes place in this type of
juicer. (The nutritional quality is still excellent, though,
especially if the juice is taken immediately and not stored. ) In general, less juice is extracted from centrifugal juicers. (Some really good brands are available that produce a
fairly dry pulp with not much juice waste. ) They won’t juice wheatgrass and other ﬁne grasses. Bottom line: These machines are for people who want to
juice for the nutritional beneﬁts but want to do it with as
little effort and time as possible. Masticating juicers
Making use of a single auger (gear) that’s spiral in shape,
masticating juicers press and chew, or masticate, the fruits and
vegetables as they’re fed into the tube. Juice is extracted and
collected in a container that ﬁts under the gear shaft, and the
pulp is continuously ejected at the end of the gear shaft into a
pulp container. Here are the advantages of masticating juicers:
 They work at a low rpm so they extract more juice from
the fruits and vegetables and excel at juicing leafy greens,
wheatgrass, and other grasses. The slower speed preserves slightly more nutrients than
are preserved by centrifugal force juicers. They can function as grain mills and make nut butters and
baby food. They can masticate frozen fruits, such as bananas and
strawberries, for instant frozen treats. Here are the disadvantages of masticating juicers:
 They have more parts that must be assembled and
cleaned. They have very small feed tubes in order to accommodate
the size of the auger, which means that the food has to be
cut into small pieces and fed one by one through the tube. As a result, juicing with a masticating juicer takes longer
from assembly and cleaning, to preparing the fruit and
vegetables to waiting as each small piece or leaf is fed
through the tube and into the auger. Bottom line: If you want the very most nutrients possible
and you’re willing to spend more time juicing, this is the
machine for you, especially if you plan to juice grasses and
you don’t have a Vitamix machine to make sorbets and nut
butters. T riturating juicers
Similar to a masticating, single-gear juicer, the triturating juicer
has two augers, and it separates the juice in two stages: First, it
crushes fruits and vegetables; then it presses the juice out of
them. This method of extracting juice releases more ﬁber,
enzymes, vitamins, and trace minerals from the pulp, makingthe juice extremely nutrient-rich. Some of these juicers actually
have technology to slow down the oxidation process, which is
important if you want to juice a day’s worth of juice at one time
and store for consumption later. Here are the advantages of triturating juicers:
 Of all the types of juicers, they extract the most nutrients
from fruits and vegetables. The twin augers of triturating juicers turn at a lower rpm
than masticating juicers and extract more juice from a
wide range of leafy greens, grasses, herbs, and hard and
soft fruits and vegetables. They homogenize food to make baby foods, nut butters,
fruit sorbets, and pasta. And here are the disadvantages of triturating juicers:
 They’re the most expensive. They’re slow and have the disadvantages of masticating
juicers in that the food must be cut up. They’re large and imposing machines that take up more
space on a counter. Bottom line: This machine is for you if you already own a
juicer and want to move to the next level or if you know
you’re dedicated to a juicing regime and don’t mind the
extra cost to get the very best nutrients from leafy greens,
herbs, and a wide variety of vegetables and fruits. Wheatgrass juicersThese limited-function machines may be manual (hand-
cranked) or electric. They’re designed to juice wheatgrass and
other grasses, herbs, sprouts, and leafy greens. They can handle
very soft fruit like berries, grapes, and kiwifruit as well. Here are the advantages of wheatgrass juicers:
 They’re simple to use. They’re one-purpose machines that are good at extracting
juice from grass, greens, and soft fruits. They’re relatively inexpensive. Here are the disadvantages of wheatgrass juicers:
 They’re one-purpose machines that require another
purchase if you want to juice hard fruits and vegetables. Cheaper models have plastic blades, which are inferior (so
be sure to look for machines that have stainless steel
blades). Bottom line: Wheatgrass juicers are a good choice if you
want to do only greens and soft fruits. If you want to have
the option of juicing other fruits and vegetables along with
wheatgrass, put the money toward either the masticating
or the triturating juice machines, which can handle
everything the wheatgrass juicers can, but with many more
options. Juice pr esses
Also called citrus presses, these juicers are designed to squeeze
the juice from oranges, tangerines, grapefruit, lemons, and
limes. These tools range from simple handheld reamers or one-handed lemon/lime presses to powerful electric presses that
will juice dozens of orange or lemon halves one at a time but
quickly and with little effort. Manual pr esses
Glass, ceramic, and plastic juicers are designed to sit on a glass
or bowl or have a reservoir large enough to hold the juice from
one-half lemon or one-half orange. Ceramic lemon/lime presses
squeeze the juice from one-half lemon or one-half lime while
catching and straining the seeds. This type of handheld press is
handy for single drinks. Here are the advantages of manual presses:
 They’re inexpensive and easy to use and clean. They’re easy to store in a drawer. Here are the disadvantages of manual presses:
 Because you’re using manual power to juice, it’s slow and
tedious to do more than two or three citrus fruits at a time. You have to strain out the seeds using a strainer. Electric pr esses
Electric juice presses are powerful enough to press an unlimited
number of citrus fruit halves, and most have a strainer built into
the machine. You position the citrus half onto the cup and
lightly pull down the lever, and the cup spins of its own accord,
pressing the juice out into a jug or glass. Here are the advantages of electric presses:
 You can juice dozens of citrus fruit at a time. The machine parts are easy to clean. Here are the disadvantages of electric presses:
 They’re more expensive than manual presses. They take up more space on a counter. F e a t u r e s  t o  l o o k  f o r  i n  a  j u i c e r
You want to ﬁnd a brand that has as many of the features you
want within your budget. Here are some features to consider
before you make your ﬁnal purchase decision. Simplicity: Easy to assemble and use, easy to clean
My theory is that if you want to enjoy health beneﬁts from
juicing, but you aren’t passionate, keeping it simple is the best
route. If your juicer has only a few simple parts and is easy to
use and clean, you’ll be motivated to use it more often. Keeping the juicing machine on the counter is also essential to
simplicity. A sleek, upright centrifugal machine takes up the
least amount of space, is incredibly fast, and is easy to assemble
and clean. If you’re highly motivated or if you already own a fairly
inexpensive juicer and you want to move up to a machine that
juices grasses and extracts more juice and nutrients, the
masticating or triturating juicers are a better choice. Speed: High speed and variable speed
Masticating and triturating juicers have only one speed: slow
and slower, respectively, which is a health advantage. Some centrifugal juicer models come with variable speeds,
which slow the blades of the spinning basket down for soft fruit
and allow you to gradually increase the speed as you juiceharder fruits and vegetables. The slower the basket spins, the
more juice may be extracted from the fruit or vegetable, so this
is a deﬁnite advantage of these types of machines because it
takes a high speed to juice very hard vegetables like beets. Number and quality of nutrients extracted
Masticating or triturating juicers are generally thought to be
better at extracting and preserving the nutrients. However,
because you have to cut up the fruits and vegetables into very
small pieces, depending on how long they sit out, they may lose
nutrients to oxidation before they even hit the auger. It’s
difﬁcult to detect the actual nutrients in the juice from the
different types of juicers, so you have to rely on the information
provided by manufacturers to compare. Efficiency
You’re making an investment when you purchase a juicing
machine. You want to be sure that it’s efﬁcient in doing the
things that you consider to be important. If possible, get a live
demonstration of the juicer in action. Consider the following:
 The amount of juice extracted: Masticating or triturating
juicers are thought to be better at extracting the juice, but
my experience with a centrifugal juice machine
(particularly with the Breville Juice Fountain Multi-Speed)
is that the pulp is pretty dry if you use the variable speed
function and don’t apply any pressure to the fruit or
vegetable as it passes down the feed tube. External pulp ejection: Unless you only ever plan to juice
one serving at a time, this is a critical feature to any juicing
machine and one that I would not give up. Masticating or
triturating juicers continually expel the pulp, so this isn’t
an issue. Some centrifugal juice machines don’t have a
continual expulsion feature, which slows the process ofjuicing — you have to stop the machine in order to clean
out the basket. Yield of juice and dryness of pulp: If you can get a
demonstration of the machines you’re interested in
buying, you can measure the juice extracted from the same
fruits or vegetables. If the pulp is wet, this is an indication
that the machine is not effective in extracting a high yield
of juice. Size of the feed tube: Masticating or triturating and some
brands of centrifugal juicers have a very small feed tube,
which means the food must be cut into small pieces or
leaves must be fed one by one into the machine. If you
know you want a centrifugal juicer, be sure that the model
you choose has a feed tube large enough to take a whole
apple, orange, or cucumber. This feature makes the
preparation easy because the food doesn’t require cutting
and chopping. Reliability
Like a car or boat or any other tool, you want to have the luxury
of using it for a very long time in order to get the most from
your investment. Consider the following:
 Quality of the parts: The quality of the parts and the
materials used are one indication of reliability. Stainless
steel outperforms and outlasts plastic and is easier to
clean. The other determining factor in assessing reliability
is the size of the motor. Motor size: It takes a considerable amount of power to rip
through tough ﬁbers of vegetables like beets and turnips,
and a juicer with insufﬁcient power will slow down or even
burn out over time, so look for a juicer with the most
powerful motor in your price range. Noise
Some juice machines are extremely loud. Noise is a huge issue
to some people, especially if they live with people who might be
sleeping when they want to juice. Choosing a Blender
Blenders remain a popular kitchen tool and their basic design
has changed very little in the 80 years they’ve been in
existence. They’re very good at what they do, and the only
machine to ever come close to eclipsing their use is the food
processor. Still, for puréeing foods and blending liquid with
fruits or vegetables for a smoothie, blenders are the very best
tools for the job. If you want to buy a blender, this section has the information
you need. Here, I explain the main types of blenders and help
you decide which one is right for you. T y p e s  o f  b l e n d e r s
By far, the most popular of all blenders is the traditional,
upright blender. Limited improvements have been made to that
basic model, but the biggest is the invention of the immersion
blender. Cordless and personal-size blenders have made their
way onto the market, too, but they’ve resonated with a
relatively small number of consumers. T raditional blenders
The traditional blender has a tall glass, stainless steel, or plastic
container, with a lid sporting a hole in the middle. It sits on a
base housing the motor and plug. Blades are attached to thebottom of the container; there may be two or four blades that
do the work of cutting food into small particles. Here are the advantages of traditional blenders for making
smoothies:
 The vortex action means that food is liqueﬁed and
drinkable. You can add softer fruits and vegetables through the
opening in the lid toward the end of the blending. Here are the disadvantages of traditional blenders for making
smoothies:
 Food gets caught underneath the small blades. If not enough liquid is added to the container, the food
may get stuck in the blades and it can’t be processed. Bottom line: Blenders work better than food processors
for making smoothies; they’re inexpensive and reliable. Immersion blenders
The immersion or stick blender consists of a slim motor that ﬁts
into the handle of a tool that can be gripped with one hand; the
mixing and cutting blades are attached to the end of the wand. The name comes from the fact that you can immerse the blade
into a bowl of ingredients. Equipped with different speeds, the
immersion blender is designed for light-duty blending of light
batters, sauces, and dips. Here are the advantages of immersion blenders for making
smoothies:
 They’re very small and slim — they can ﬁt in a drawer. They’re somewhat portable. Here are the disadvantages of immersion blenders for making
smoothies:
 They can’t crush ice. They can’t blend harder fruits and vegetables. Bottom line: An immersion blender may come in handy if
you’re making mashed potatoes, sauces, or dips, but when
it comes to making smoothies, an immersion blender isn’t
up for the job. V itamix
Vitamix (www. vitamix. com ) is a brand of blender, All models
come with a four-pointed “wet” blade that’s used for liquidizing
fruits and vegetables, chopping ice, blending frozen mixtures,
mixing batter, chopping dry ingredients, and making creamed
soups. You can purchase a container with a “dry” blade (two ﬂat
and two pointed edges) designed for grinding grains and coffee
and kneading bread dough. The power and speed of the blades is controlled by two
switches, which allow the blades to spin from four times slower
to four times faster than a traditional blender. This variable-
speed control gives you greater control over the degree to
which the machine blends foods. At a low speed, you can add
cooked chicken and other ingredients to a soup without
puréeing it; at the high speed, you can turn raw vegetables into
a steaming soup simply from the friction of the fast-moving
blades. The powerful motor is either 120 or 220/240 volts, and each is
equipped with overload protection, which means that the
motor will shut off to protect the motor from overheating. Here are the advantages of Vitamix blenders for making
smoothies:
 The powerful motor can handle hard fruits and vegetables,
as well as grains and nuts. The size of the container means that you can make more
than a few servings at one time. The only disadvantage of Vitamix blenders: They’re expensive. Bottom line: If you can afford it, this is the machine to
get for making not only smoothies, but soups and other
healthy foods. F e a t u r e s  t o  l o o k  f o r  i n  a  b l e n d e r
Blenders are so ubiquitous that we sometimes forget that there
are different features that make each make and model unique. If
you plan to make smoothies daily, you’ll want to keep the
blender on top of the counter, so height, size, and appearance
will be a consideration in addition to the features outlined in
this section. Container material and size
Blender containers are made from
 Plastic: The least expensive blender containers are made
from plastic. The advantages of plastic are that it’s
lightweight and chip-proof. Glass: Glass is durable and won’t discolor or absorb odors
from herbs or vegetables the way plastic can. Stainless steel: Stainless steel is the most expensive and
the most durable. It keeps frozen mixtures cold longer. On
the downside, you can’t see the mixture inside until you
take the lid off. Containers range in capacity from 8 ounces for the personal or
mini blender container to 10 to 64 ounces for the average
traditional blender to 80 ounces for a Vitamix. Only you can
determine what size is appropriate for your needs. Motor size
As with juicers, the power of the motor is important for
blending hard and ﬁbrous vegetables. The average blender
boasts between 300 and 600 watts of power, with the Vitamix
weighing in at a whopping 1,300 watts. Opt for the most powerful motor you can afford when
choosing a blender —the higher the wattage, the more
versatile your machine will be. A lower-wattage machine
won’t be able to handle thick, frozen cocktails; sorbets; and
granitas. Pulsing button
If you plan to make iced drinks, sorbets, or granitas, a pulsing
button will make that function easier. The ice falls into the
blades when paused and is ground up again when the blades
begin to spin. Without the pulsing button on your blender, you
have to stop and mix up the ice before starting the motor again. V ariable speedsBeing able to start the blender at a slow speed and gradually
increasing it to high so that the food is gradually broken up and
there is less stress placed on the motor is an advantage. The
ability to reduce from a high speed to a very low speed allows
you to add ingredients at the end of blending that you don’t
want to be liquidized or puréed into the rest of the mixture. Ice crusher
This function is similar to the pulsing button. It automatically
stops and restarts the blades so that ice can be easily chopped
and integrated evenly into a blended mixture. Cleaning Y our Juicer or Blender
 Always, always, always clean your juicer or blender
immediately after you use it — as soon as the drink has
been poured into glasses and before you sit down to enjoy
it. The natural sugars in fruits and vegetables can make
cleaning the equipment a nightmare if you wait — they’re
sticky and cause the smaller particles of liquid and other
ingredients to adhere (like glue) to the lid, the container,
the blades, and any utensil or surface that the mixture has
been spilled on or otherwise touched. C l e a n i n g  a  j u i c e r
To clean a juicer, follow these steps:
1. Fill the sink with hot, soapy water. You can do this before you even start juicing, after you’ve
washed and scrubbed the produce.
Smoothies contain the pulp and other slow-digesting ingredients, which helps to keep you fuller for a longer period and is a healthier alternative to fast-food or junk food.
What are the benefits of smoothies compared to juices?
Nuts, seeds, yogurt, milk, or tofu can be added to smoothies to increase the calorie count.
What are some high-calorie ingredients that can be added to smoothies?
Blenders are better than smoothie bars because they allow you to control the quality of the ingredients, the amount of sugar added, and the freshness of the produce.
Why is it recommended to choose a blender over a smoothie bar?
Always clean the blender immediately after use, rinse with hot water, and wipe down the motor base with a hot, soapy cloth. Do not use toxic cleaning chemicals.
What are some tips for cleaning and maintaining a blender?
Smoothies can be used as a healthy replacement for breakfast and lunch, especially for those who usually skip breakfast and grab a fast meal for lunch.
What are some healthy alternatives to traditional meal options?