Which juicing technique is best for your health?

New research has found the choice of household juicing technique can influence health outcomes from common vegetable juices.

A study published in ACS Food Science & Technology found juicing can alter the levels of health-promoting phytochemicals and antioxidants in raw vegetables by exposing inner tissues to oxygen, light and heat.

Home juicing machines crush vegetables with fast, spinning blades, resulting in thick juice filled with pulp and dietary fibre.

In contrast, high-speed centrifugal juicers quickly pulverise veggies and separate pulp and fibre, making for a thinner juice. Low-speed juice extractors squeeze juice with a horizontal auger that rotates vegetables at a low speed, producing the least heat of the three methods, while also removing pulp and fibre.

Texas A&M University researchers Junyi Wang, Guddadarangavvanahally Jayaprakasha and Bhimanagouda Patil compared the phytochemical and antioxidant contents of 19 vegetables juiced with these three techniques.

The study found that blending produced juices with the lowest amounts of some beneficial compounds, such as vitamin C, antioxidants and phenolics. The researchers hypothesised that this is probably because the technique produced the most heat. Low-speed juicing generated the highest amounts of beneficial compounds, although not for all vegetables.

Blended vegetable juices also had the highest quantity of α-amylase inhibitors, which help reduce high glucose levels after a meal. The researchers speculate that this is because of the higher fibre content.

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