how to select the right juice

In today’s overloaded information age, healthy is quite vague. And in the juice world, it’s extremely vague. We’re going to break it down for you.

juicer type:

There are many juicers on the market. The most common juicing approach is to use a centrifugal juicer. This is where there is a metal blade that spins at high speeds to extract the juice from the produce. The pros to this approach is that it’s quick and easy. The con is that the high speeds cause friction that heats the produce, destroying many enzymes. It also oxidizes the produce, reducing the nutrients.

Here at Midwest we use Cold pressing. Cold Pressing uses two metal plates to crush and press the produce which creates little to no friction, resulting in a much more nutrient and enzyme rich juice. And without any heat, it also maintains the fresh, delicious flavor of the raw produce. Cold-pressing is important for crafting the highest quality juice—we take pride in this.

cold pressed vs. centrifugal juice

pasteurization & HPP:

This is the most important part of the juicing process: how potential bacteria is killed and the shelf life is extended. Some companies add nasty chemicals and preservatives. Thankfully, those are rarely perceived as healthy.

Most companies use heat pasteurization. This is where the whole ingredients are exposed to high levels of heat. Heat alters the flavor and the juice no longer tastes fresh and delicious. This also raises the risk of recontamination because the ingredients are still in open air. Most importantly, it kills the enzymes which help you absorb the nutrients, and cause high levels of oxidation, killing nearly all the vitamins and nutrients.

We use high pressure pasteurization (HPP).

quantity per bottle:

This is an often overlooked area of juicing. Many businesses flaunt the unbelievable high quantity of produce in each of their bottles. Some claim they have 4 pounds of produce in a bottle! That may sound good, but it’s actually not. Let’s do the math:

That’s not how we juice. We couldn’t imagine juicing produce and leaving some of the juice to be wasted inside the pulp.

That’s why we use only the highest quality and freshest produce to give you the healthiest juice possible and avoiding waste.

ingredients:

The ingredients of the juice is now becoming the most important part to consumers, and rightfully so. What’s in a juice matter. Not all juices are created equally. In fact, not even all organic, cold-pressed, HPP juices are created equally.

Most organic, cold-pressed, HPP juices are made from 100% fruits and vegetables. The problem arises when juices have too much fruit. Note: FRUIT IS NOT BAD FOR YOU. However, juices have none of the fiber that you do from whole fruit. And that has a big perk: no fiber means more juice, which means more vitamins and nutrients. But with no fiber, the high concentration of sugar in the fruit is very hard on your liver, will likely spike your insulin, and a study has shown that drinking fruit juice will increase your total caloric intake. To stay focused, productive, and full of energy, this is something you will want to avoid.

So why are most juices full of fruit? Well frankly, it’s quite tasty. Most people are way more averse to vegetables than fruit. It’s the easy route to making juices taste good. But it’s simply not good for you.

We decided to step up to the challenge: make the healthiest possible juice for your busy life to keep you going throughout the day. Here’s what we do: