Tips:

• Thoroughly clean (and peel if needed) all of your produce, it makes the juice taste much better and it help rid the residual exterior toxins.  Trim off any discolored plant portions.
• After running the produce through the juicer, you can re-cycle the pulp back through the juicer for a bit more juice. This may be too much effort for the return, but does get a bit more juice when using a centrifugal juicer.  If more juice seems to be required to complete your serving size, add more cucumber, leafy lettuce, celery, and/or carrots. They seem to have more juice in them and that will add volume more quickly than other produce items.
• Use a variety of produce for a better variety of nutrients. Use less fruits since they have a high sugar content and have inherently more calories.
• Broccoli is high in nutrients, but there seems to be a small return of juice in them when using a centrifugal juicer. Cauliflower on the other hand seems to juice fairly well. That does not rule out juicing broccoli.

• Pineapples, pears, and peaches are a good fruit for juice; however, they tend to also have a very high sugar content.  Stick with the green apple most of the time.
• Using lemons and lime in your juice adds zip to the somewhat bland tasting vegetables and makes it much easier to consume. The same goes for adding a bit of fresh ginger and/or turmeric. All of which are good for your system intake. We use lemons and/or limes in most all of our mostly vegetable juices.  (6 Days of Juice Recipes)
• Arugula and Swiss Chard seem to have a strong, “influential” flavor that seems to overpower juices, so we have taken them off our list. You may like them. They are high in nutritional content.
• When adding greens to the juicer, it may be more efficient to run them through with other things like carrots, celery, or cucumbers. You can also roll them into a ball and add them that way. You do not get a lot of juice out of leafy greens like kale, spinach, parsley, cilantro, etc. using a centrifugal juicer. However, the cold press juicers are pricey.
• Carrots, which are great items to juice, seem to be one of the produce items that leave a noticeable residue on the juicer. You have to clean more thoroughly using soapy water to clean it off the plastic when juicing with carrots.
• Generally speaking, vegetables that grow below ground tend to have more sugar and are starchy, On the other hand, vegetables that grow above ground, as a general rule, are not (or less) starchy than their below ground counterparts.
• Beets are very good for you, but are messier than any of the other ingredients, so be aware of this when cutting, slicing, peeling, and otherwise handling them. We always peel them after washing although it is not absolutely necessary. Leaving the peel on gives the juice a bit of an “earthy” flavor. Beets are also somewhat sweet, so don’t use too much fruit in addition to the beets when juicing with them.

• Purchasing a vacuum seal container like those made by Vacucraft allow you to make more juice to store in the refrigerator. The containers allow you to keep the juice for at least several days without losing too many nutirients as the oxidation is kept to a minimum. These sell for about $10 for a 25 oz. container. Each comes with its own hand operated vacuum pump. They are dishwasher safe and BPH free. They make larger sizes as well. That way, you can do a more juicing so that you can consume it over the course of several days.
• When using starchy vegetables in your juice, avoid adding any other fruits with the exception of green apple. Mixing tends to cause intestinal reactions causing gas and possible discomfort. Starchy vegetables include beetroot, possibly carrots, and other vegetables that grow underground.  (List of Non-Starchy Vegetables)
• Fresh juice should be consumed on an empty stomach. Consuming the juice shortly after or just prior to a meal may create stomach upset. Drinking on an empty stomach also allows the juice to be absorbed quicker and more efficiently.  At least twenty minutes or more before a meal seems to work well.

General Juicing Notes

• – A Cold Press Juicer is superior to a Centrifugal Juicer because it not only extracts more juice, but the theory is that a Cold Press Juicer does not slice the produce which seems to have a slightly adverse affect on the nutrients. However, a Cold Press Juicer is more than double the price of a Centrifugal Juicer. It may be argued that with long term use, the efficiency of a Cold Press Juicer may be more cost effect. You use less produce to create more juice. We use a Centrifugal Juicer, the Beville Juice Fountain Plus Variable Speed Juicer. In hidsight, the less expensive 2 speed Juice Fountain Plus may have been sufficient. The cost for either is under $200. The 2 speed juicer costs about $149 and the variable speed model costs $179 as of this writing.
• If you decide to juice on a regular basis, it will take a LOT of produce to create it. The amount of produce will take up a large amount of refrigerator space. Although we are able to store nearly a week’s worth of produce for juicing, the space is still a bit tight on space. This is just something to keep in mind. It has been noted that purchasing produce that is in season will make juicing less expensive. Obviously, summer and early fall will most likely be the best time to get fresh produce to juice.

• The clean up of the juicer remains the part of the overall process that is most tedious. It was suggested in the Breville Juice Fountain Plus owner’s manual that hot, soapy water and a good rinse was the best way to clean the juicer. However, placing the plastic parts on the upper rack of the dishwasher seems to work well for us. An initial rinse to get the major vegetable pulp off before loading will be necessary.
  
• Some people use the unused juice pulp to make vegetable broth, veggie burgers, etc. However, we are not interested in doing that and put the pulp in the garden as a composting material. I doubt that the garden soil will need any fertilizer this coming Spring since the pulp has added a great deal of nutrients to the soil when tilled under.
• Pulp bags that fit the pulp container for the juicer are available for purchase for convenience. We re-purpose the grocery store plastic bags we keep to line the pulp container. A bag is not really necessary. You can allow the pulp to go directly into the pulp container and simply empty and clean. However, using the bags is much more convenient and cleanup is a bit easier too.
• We have been juicing as a supplement to our regular diet. It gives us the fresh nutrients that our bodies need. On the other hand, since juicing takes all the pulp out, you lose the fiber that is in the pulp which you would normally eat. In addition, protein must also be added to your diet to make it more complete. Juicing has allowed us to cut back on our meal portions since it is somewhat filling. We continue to require food with fiber and protein which we consume with our meals.  After all is said and done, the diet you choose, for the most part, is mostly psychological.
• After checking the nutritional information relating to various produce, it has been easier to know what types of nutrients we are getting when juicing. It has been said that drinking the juice on an empty stomach aids in the speed at which the nutrients are absorbed by the body. I have read that the nutrients get into your system in as little as 20 minutes. Eating the same vegetables (if you are able to) can take several hours to digest since the body has to process the food more to get to the nutrients. Juice is digested within minutes.
• Many times, the fresh juice will have a foamy “head” on it. We found that it is not a problem to drink; however, it may make you burp. You can skim this off if you like. We use a whisk and mix just prior to pouring into glasses. I am sure there are nutrients in the foamy juice too.
• Diabetics and pre-diabetics who keep a close eye on sugar content may want to cut down on the amount of fruits added to the juicer. Many of the vegetables like celery, cucumbers, carrots, and beets already have a neutral to sweet taste and the fruit is not always necessary. Juicing anything with sugar will tend to create a spike in blood sugar as the liquid enters the bloodstream rather quickly and is not governed by the fiber that is absent from the juice. I have added fiber to the juices and it cannot be detected as you drink it. That way, you get fiber with the juice. However, this does not deter the sugar spike that juice may have if a lot of fruit is added when extracting the juice. There is no substitute for eating fruits and vegetables whole and raw. Juicing seems to be one way to ingest them without actually having to masticate them the old fashioned way.
• A 12 oz. glass of green vegetable juice contains an entire days serving of that vegetable. Juice is not a meal replacement as has been suggested by others. It is more of a supplement or enhancement of your regular balanced diet. Once your body gets used to these nutrients on a regular basis, your blood sugar stays stable and you do not crave heavy, carbohydrate laden foods and begin to want more vegetables. It is a matter of adaptation.
• Our saliva contains enzymes which are released and begin the digestive process. The enzymes are crucial in delivering key nutrients to your cells. So, swishing your juice around your mouth a bit may help in the overall process.