How we chose the Omega Juicer

      For all of these reasons, and based on our research at the time, including the Gerson Therapy recommendations and others, we determined that the best juicer for our money would have to be a masticating juicer. While they are more expensive, they are also more durable and longer lasting, having no high rpm moving parts. We settled on a single gear masticating juicer as the best choice for our needs based on the factors of durability, ease of use and highest nutritive value of juice.

      Finally, because the masticating juicer does not incorporate oxygen into the juice, we would be able to make juices and store them in the refrigerator for up to three days, eliminating the need for daily juicing without giving up the opportunity to have fresh juices every day to drink.

      Getting Started with Juicing – A few things we got right

      Most Americans have developed a palate which is shaped by sweet and salty. This is not because we are bad cooks or even because we are naturally self-indulgent. It is a direct result of the industrial food which inundates our shops and selection choices.

      Anyone who understands that McDonald’s hamburgers have sugar in them has an idea of how this works, and can begin to appreciate that our palates are being shaped based on the desires of an industry which desires to sell us particular foods or food-like products, as they have been called.

      There is a good and a bad side to this situation. The bad is that we are conditioned to eating things which have been designed purposefully to trigger our sweet/salt cravings and to accentuate our awareness of them, so that things which are not a match to this over-exaggerated sweet/salty food design seem bland, bitter or unpleasant tasting to our palate.

      The good news is that this natural tendency towards the sweet and salty ends of the taste spectrum derives out of our natural affinity for things which match this profile, and when not over exaggerated, are signals to our brain regarding the nutritive values of real foods. In other words, carrots and beets and yams are naturally very sweet when juiced and our palate responds to this natural sweetness exactly as it should – it likes it. Which is a very good thing, because all three of these foods contain vital nutrients our bodies crave.

      (A quick note on yams: In the United States, “yams” are actually orange-fleshed, red-skinned sweet potatoes. The most common varieties are Jewel, Garnet, and the new Georgia Jet, a cold hardy variety which can be grown throughout the United States. True yams are grown throughout Africa and parts of Asia where night time temperatures never go below 70°F. Sweet potatoes are much more nutritious than true yams, see the juicing ingredients guide in this book for more details.)

      When it comes right down to it, our bodies and our brains crave foods which are naturally very high in nutrition and which have tastes which reflect this high nutritive value.

      Just because our brains and taste buds have been tricked into eating substitutions which are full of air and void of nutrition does not mean our apparatus is defective. Indeed, quite the contrary is true.

      One of the great benefits and joys of juicing is that the further down the road of juicing you go the more your brain and palate will provide you with the absolute undeniable positive feedback that they LIKE THIS STUFF and YOU SHOULD DO MORE OF IT! It is incredible how, after only a short time, you will find yourself craving these juices rather than the artificial foods and food products which have captured your palate, your brain and your pocketbook for the last several decades at least.

      On the other side of this coin are the bitters. Bitter vegetables, plants, herbs, and foods hold an important and historically powerful place in our digestion and overall health. Yet, for the most part, our modern palates have been trained away from bitter. Well, unless we want to talk about coffee, that is!

      But for most people, organically grown pungent celery and the bitter greens (mustards, collard, kale etc.) taste unpleasantly bitter and are not something they are rushing out to purchase and consume large quantities of, because, well… they’re bitter!

      However, it is precisely their bitter qualities which make these foods the cleansing, purgative, nutritionally important foods they are.

      So, for most people the idea of juicing things like barley grass, celery, kale or collard greens is nothing short of unappealing. Anyone who has had a majorly strong green juice knows that there is a level of pungent ‘green’-ness which goes over the top, fills your sinuses and can actually make you gag. Or, as one juicing enthusiast wrote when describing how to deal with this problem “How to make a green juice that doesn’t feel like a face plant in the lawn.” – Indeed.

      And yet, we know the greens in these green juices are what make them so healthy and vital for us.

      Our advice?

      When you start juicing, do not try to go to the far extremes of green juicing as your first step.

      Recognize that your palate has been shaped by forces beyond your control in the short-term immediate past, and go slow. The best and easiest way we found to do this is to start with a basic juice of carrot, celery and orange or apple. 1 medium orange or 2 small apples, 4 medium carrots and 4 medium stalks of celery make a nice 12oz. drink for one person.

      In the early days of our juicing we would pick up a 2lb bag of carrots, two bunches of celery and four to six apples and juice it all at once and mix it up to taste until we liked it. Generally we liked it pretty much no matter how we mixed it up, because the apple tempers the celery nicely and the carrot is sweet already.

      Next start adding sweet potatoes, beets and cucumbers and see what you think of that. The sweet potatoes and beets are sweet, and that gives room to add more of the kales, barley grasses and other sharp greens which balance them.

      Adding orange and lemon is always a benefit and always delicious and in fact one of our favorite things to do is to add orange, lemon and lime – whewie what a zing! Plus the vitamin C will improve the body’s absorption of the iron and calcium in those leafy greens.

      Most important of all, keep playing around as you get started. Why? Because the absolute worst thing that you can do at this early stage of juicing is to listen to some ‘guru’ or take some ‘expert advice’ which convinces you to make up juices for which your palate is not yet adapted or ready and then stop juicing altogether.

      Oh, and by the way, if you are a parent, this is doubly and triply true for your kids. Start them off with yams, beets and carrots and maybe throw in a lemon or some celery (not too much!) so they get that super sweet YUMMO taste that has them BEGGING for more. You can work to help them adjust their palate later. And they will – because the real power and beauty and JOY of juicing is that the more you do it the more your palate and your brain and your body wake up and get in the picture and insist you do more of it. It’s a totally natural phenomenon and it will lead you effortlessly to better health and well-being.

      Mistakes of Newbie Juicers

      While it would be fun to say that we were expert juicers from the start, it would be a flat out lie.

      You’d think, with all our research and planning, and given that we actually bought our Omega Juicer as a Christmas present to each other, we’d have been ready to dive in and get it right, right from the start. You’d be wrong.

      It’s

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