Is a juice feast really expensive?

[Ireland]

I'm referring to the juice feast - not juice fast (Angela Stokes) where you drink aproximately 1 gallon of fresh juice daily. I'd love to do this but don't know if I'm able to handle it from a financial perspective.

Any ideas?

[Sunshine9]

Yes, I was thinking about the same thing for myself. Right here in PA this time of year, to make a liter of green juice the produce would cost me between $10 and $12. Yikes. I think doing a juice feast in summer months when produce is in season makes it easiest. Also planning ahead and planting some greens in flower pots in your home, and then using resources like co-ops or bulk purchasing places to buy large quantities of other juicing foods... green apples, citrus, cucumbers, ect.

[greenfeline]

I know what you mean about being expensive. I have heard some people stir the pulp back in, not sure if this is what Angela did. You could save some of the pulp for crackers etc..., but with that much juicing it might become out of control quickly. My juicer kind of sucks and leaves alot of pulp. This weekend I juiced one small beet, about 4-5 carrots and 2 apples and it only gave me maybe 10 oz. of juice.

I think it depends on your juicer also, because some juicers leave more pulp than others. I would think those juicers that do leave more pulp aren't as economical because they aren't extracting as much juice. I do not know which brands specifically, may be someone else knows, but I know I have read that somewhere.

[rawpriestess]

I think it depends on several things,

your juicer, AND what you are juicing,

I put tomatoes and carrots in my smoothies now, they are excellent, and I add at least as much ice as I do juice, I also don't do expensive stuff,

I grow my own strawberries, raspberries and blackberries, etc.

so when they are in season, I will add these to smoothies, but I won't juice them

I do make almond milk and orange juice every day, and carrott juice about every other day so I do juice alot. LOL

orange juice
carrot juice
ice
and some pineapple or mango is really super delicious

I like these slushies, I suppose they are smoothis, but I don't add any banana and I always thought smoothies had banana in them,

but you could certainly do this for not too much money.

[puffysmom]

Why not just stick it all in a food processer or blender? The pulp must be better for our intestines than just the juice. I wonder on this. I did get a juicer but took it back as it wasted to much. I put a banana in and it all ended up in the waste part. Since then i have been blending everything i can.
I read somewheres that just doing juice can cause diareah. sorry bout the spelling. The cure is to not do just juice but the pulp also. I believe I read it in a book that a doctor put out. Seems that is all I am reading these days.

[SedonaSun]

Hi Shannon!

A friend and I are planning to start this March 1. I've read the first month of Angela's blog and she says it was only about $5 a day. Not sure how prices in Costa Rica compare to Canada though.

I've been doing more juices lately to see what my body wants... see if I could do just juice. And I'll tell ya, I ate some rawviolis for lunch today, but really wanted beet carrot apple juice. The flavor of juices is just so intense and rich and savory (because it's concentrated, I'm sure) it's amazing!!

To piggyback on GreenFeline's post, I did 1 beet, 3 carrots, 2 apples, and half a bunch of celery and got about 30-40 ounces out. I have a juicer, but used the K-Tec blender instead and squeezed it all through a nut milk bag (which is what Angela did, too). I think you get more juice this way, plus call me weird, but I like the feel of squeezing the life out of the bag and having it run over my hands. Less clean up, too.

Not sure what I'll do at work. I was thinking of taking the juicer in there and leaving the blender at home, but I guess I'll need to squeeze pulp out if I use the juicer. I don't want to lug an appliance back and forth and certainly can't afford a 2nd K-Tec.

But I did think to cut up my fruits and veggies and store them in baggies so I can just take baggies of veggies to work instead of having to cut them all up there. :)

I'm going to hit some farmer's markets this weekend and see how the prices compare there. I also know a produce manager at a store near me. I haven't asked about produce yet, but they just remodeled the store to include more organics, so I'll see if he can sell "too old" stuff cheaper.

But I like what Victoria Boutenko says in one of her books... (David Wolfe says it, too)...that my health and well being is important enough to not scrimp on what I nourish myself with. She invests in her health and scrimps in other areas of their lives financially. I like that because I used to be a cheap shopper. If burritos or pizzas were on sale really cheap, I bought them--but look where it all got me (that's not the only reason I'm like this, but it's part of it)

I guess the best way to find out is to try it for a week and see how much it costs. You wouldn't be buying nuts or coconut oil or other expensive stuff. Also, no more veggies gone to waste that looked good at the time. Now I can just toss them in to be juiced. I think it really will be cheaper than we anticipate.

[Ireland]

Hey, wow - thanks tons for all the advice!

RP - I have a champion, but it's as old as dirt and even though I've replaced the blade, the pulp still comes out very, very wet. By the way, do you freeze lots of your own produce to use over the winter? (berries, fruit and such)

I am in the process of a separation from my husband and am finding myself with less money than before so I really have to be careful.

Kelly, you're a blessed woman to live where you do. Some days I wish I lived in the far South somewhere where farmers markets and such are happening pretty much year around.

Puffysmom and greenfeline, if you were to just put the pulp back into the juice, how would that differ from just eating the food whole in the first place? Is it because it would be easier to digest because it's been blended? I wonder if it's worth a try...it sure would save tons of money me thinks!

Thanks Sunshine for your ideas, yup, me thinks planning ahead is a good idea after all. Maybe I should just do it with the pulp this time around and then without later in the summer when things are cheaper.

Once again, thanks so much.

[puffysmom]

All I have read on this is that the fiber is important. I would think it probably would be more filling. I dont know much about it. Just what I read. It mentioned that a lot of people cannot juice due to reactions and that they needed the fiber.
I still have a problem with waste. My weight problem has a lot to do with the fact I came from a poor family. Only in money and not in love. We had to eat everything on our plates so to toss out the fiber which is good for us is to hard for me to do. I would say that if u want to do the juicing and it makes u healthier than go for it. Who knows....I might do it also once our garden is producing but right now it is so expensive to buy what I need to be raw that I will do fiber and all.

I cannot wait for spring to get here. I love eating right from the garden and have done it since I was a child.

[Ireland]

Thanks again puffysmon. So, to sum it all up, why not just do smoothies? I imagine it would be the same as just leaving the pulp in?

I'll do an experiment and see what works better. Even putting half the pulp back in wouldn't be such a waste as none.

[greenfeline]

I think the main difference between juicing and smoothies is if I understand correctly, juicing is a way to get all the nutrients without the bulk of the fiber. Plus I know when I have a big juice it feels "lighter" but somehow more dense than a smoothie. I suppose from the concentrated nutrients in the juice. I switch back and forth between juices and smoothies. I like the idea of just using a food processor or blender, though. I had read that Angela did that, but I did not know it left less pulp! I am going to have to try that.

[Ariannah]

The purpose of a juice FEAST was written really well on Angela Stokes's page http://www.rawreform.com/ - She has spoken and written of this 92 day excursion in Costa Rica, and I found it fascinating.

It was to put the body at rest from too much digesting of food, and to cleanse and detoxify, yet not be entirely a "fast" (rest FROM food).

[SedonaSun]

The purpose of a juice FEAST was written really well on Angela Stokes's page http://www.rawreform.com/ - She has spoken and written of this 92 day excursion in Costa Rica, and I found it fascinating.

It was to put the body at rest from too much digesting of food, and to cleanse and detoxify, yet not be entirely a "fast" (rest FROM food).


Yes! If you're ingesting the fiber, your body is still expending energy to try to digest and eliminate it. The point of juices is to get all the nutrients while resting the digestive system. Energy not spent on digestion is energy that can be spent on healing and eliminating toxins. But you're still getting the nutrients from the juice -- way more even than eating raw foods.

[mercystreet]

Personally, I think it's worth the expense - if even for just the three months. I'm not starting mine until June (have been sooo tempted to just jump in now though!), and in the meantine I'm going to source the least expensive organic stuff I can, and get myself familiar with the farmers markets and organic growers where I live. There's a co-op too that I'm going to look into. (I wonder would any of the growers strike up a deal with me in return for free reflexology or reiki..... I just thought of that, something to look into .....:))

I know of some people who go to the farms and they get boxes of the stuff that doesn't sell or blemished stuff that's fine but nobody wanted.

I think that the greens should definately be organic, and the celery, as they are essentials to this programme and you'd be having a lot of them every day. But you could choose other stuff to make up the rest of your juice for the day, from vegetables and fruit that maybe don't get sprayed so much, and stuff you could peel if it wasn't organic.