Fruit & Vegetable Juicers
When looking for a fruit and vegetable juicer it can be a difficult decision because there are so many models on the market. In the information below we talk about some of the key features that should be considered before making a purchase.

Pulp
When juicing there are two ways juicers deal with the resulting pulp. Either pulp can be ejected as the juicing happens or the pulp can be retained internally until juicing is finished and then removed. It is preferable to have a juicer that ejects pulp as it juices, because then there is no limit to how much juice is produced before stopping to empty the pulp.

Centrifugal Juicers
As the name suggests, these juicers use centrifugal force to separate juice from pulp. Fruit and vegetables are fed down to a spinning cutter which strains the juice and forces out the pulp. Juice produced in this way is mixed with a lot of oxygen and therefore has a short shelf life. Drinking the juice immediately after making it will make sure the nutritional content is at its highest. There also tends to be a low concentration of natural enzymes in the juice as the spinning motion of centrifugal juicers generates heat which kills the enzymes. A centrifugal juicer cannot be used to juice things such as bananas as they will clog up the fine strainer. Also centrifugal juicers are not the best choice for juicing leafy green vegetables, wheatgrass or alfafa.

Masticating Juicers
Juicers that use this type of juicing technique chew the vegetables mimicking the natural way the teeth break down fruit and vegetables. This slower speed method releases a lot more nutrients from the fibers of the vegetables and fruits and also has a higher natural enzyme content. Also due to the less violent method of production there is less oxygen in the juice, which means that the juice stays fresh for longer.

There are different types of masticating juicer. The three main ones are single cutter, single auger masticating juicers and twin gear juicers.

Single cutter juicers have a cutter that is cylindrical in shape which is tapered to the end with small teeth running down the length. These teeth chew and mash to produce the juice, this process delivers better quality juice than the centrifugal juicers.

Single auger masticating juicers, like the Solo Star,use a screw that rotates and crushes in a mincing motion. This type of juicer is slightly slower than a centrifugal type juicer but produces juice of quality second only to the twin gear masticating juicer.

Twin gear masticating juicers, such as the Green Star 1000 use two gears that are close together and produce juice by their interaction. Everything gets crushed, mashed and finally pressed through a fine screen. This process produces the best type of juice, with the highest content of nutrients and enzymes.
Overall when talking about masticating juicers a single cutter model would be a good introduction to this type as long as you did not want to juice wheatgrass. If wheatgrass was needed to be juiced then there are less expensive manual wheat grass juicers such as the Z star. If budget is not a limitation then the juicer of choice would be the Greenstar juicer with its superior twin gear masticating method.

If the use of a juicer is to be used for overcoming a serious illness such as cancer, the Nutritional Cancer Therapy trust recommends the twin-gear technology. This is because it extracts the most nutrients from the pulp as possible.
We recommend that people should undertake their own research into particular illnesses to make an informed decision on what to buy.