Saving juice, drinking throughout day?

[tylercruz]

Hi guys,

Around 6 weeks ago, I bought my first juicer, a really nice Breville one which I've been really happy with.

However, cleaning it, especially the metal mesh, is a massive pain that takes me a long time to do properly (the dishwasher does not get this very clean at all).

As a result, I find juicing to be a huge chore and always despise having to clean it afterwards (again, mainly due to the metal mesh, but the other parts aren't fun either).

I've been doing pretty well though, using the juicer nearly everyday since I bought it.

However, I tend to only make around 500 mL of juice on average when I use it - basically one good serving of juice. Due to all the cleaning pains, it seems like a waste to go through all the cleaning each time (not to mention the cutting board, knife, etc.) just to make 1 serving of juice.

So, I've been thinking that maybe I should maximize its output by making double (or triple) the amount of juice when I use it, and then just refridgerate the rest, drinking it throughout the day. This would be about 1,000 mL or so.

However, I read that it is highly recommended that you drink juice immediately, which is why I haven't done this yet.

Why is this?

Do you lose any nutrients because of this? And if so, is it a lot of nutrients you lose, or nothing to be too concerned about?

Is it because you could get sick/stomach issues by doing this?

Or is it just because the colour or taste will change? Because if it's just that, then I don't care. I could care less about its colour, and I don't think the taste would vary much if it was drunk within the same day.

Please share your thoughts and experience!

[MysticTree]

Different people have different views on keeping juice. I don't think it tastes as good at the end of the day as it does at the start however much you chill and carefully store. Experiment for yourself and see how you go. I also think the cleaning of the juicer can be quite a meditative process if you allow it to be.

[Juicerguy]

Hello Tylercruz,

First of all, grats on getting your new juicer and for starting to juice!

I honestly have found a lot of the centrifugal type juicers, which is what the breville juicer you have is to be a lot harder to clean than some of the other juicer types. I use a masticating juicer which uses a single gear(auger) to crush the juice and is so much easier to clean. I have used centrifugal type juicers and in general, yea they take more time to clean.

Ok, so with the issue of making all or a lot of your juice at the beginning of the day and then drinking it throughout the day. Unfortunately a centrifugal type juicer also makes a juice that is generally believed to not last as long nutrition wise as that of a masticating(single gear) or triturating juicer(twin gear). The other two types though also have similar issues, but the juice from them does last longer.

The reason why is because the juice oxidizes... As your juice sits the oxidation process breaks down the nutrients and enzymes in the juice. In most peoples opinion your juice will still have a lot of goodies in it even if it sits all day, but it will lose a lot of those in the process. The reason why centrifugal juicers make juice that doesn't keep as long is because of the speed(rpm's) at which the juicer operates and the heat it produces. Both of these are believed to contribute to the juice not keeping as long, as well as destroying some of the nutrients in the process.

You have to work with what you have though and seriously... Your juice will still have a load of nutritional benefits. Don't be discouraged by all of this, because this is all relating to optimal amounts of nutrition. The juice you are getting from your breville is still very nutritious and will provide you with all of the positive health benefits that fresh juices have.

A lot of people in order to keep their juice fresher put it in more airtight containers. If you have or can get any kind of mason jar, or any jar that has a lid you can fasten on tightly enough, you can do this to! Even something like a pickle jar will work...Just anything that you can put the juice in and try to keep as airtight as possible. It is believed that the optimal way of doing this is to fill the jar as full as possible and as soon as possible after making your juice and then to fasten the lid on immediately. That way you have a more airtight container and there will much less oxidation occurring.

I definitely can relate with the time it takes to make juice sometimes and also the cleaning process involved after every juice you make...Sometimes you just want to make a glass of juice and be done with it! lol. Then you have this whole cleaning process to undertake after... I use a masticating juicer and the preparation time takes a bit longer as you have to cut up more of the vegetables and fruits sometimes before putting them in the juicer. Luckily the cleanup process is a bit quicker than with a centrifugal juicer, but the overall process can leave me wanting to make a bunch of juice for the day versus one at a time!

Sealing your juices tighter like I mentioned above though should help you to be able to enjoy your juices over the day and not lose to much of the nutritional value in the process! Have a good one!

[tylercruz]

Thank you for the verbose reply Juicerguy. I was a bit disappointed that there was not much response.

Before I bought my juicer, I did do some research and read about the auger juicers, with the real top notch ones using dual augers and costing $600-$800. It was more than I wanted to invest (especially, since this was my first juicer, and I didn't even know if I'd like the taste).

I had a follow-up question for you. You mentioned about how oxidation can occur over time. Do you have any idea as to what kind of rough % difference we are talking about, comparing drinking the juice immediately after juicing, to say.... 6 hours later with it in the fridge? Assume a lid with a pouring spout, but not a lid tight jar. Would it be something like 70% of the nutrients are still there 6 hours later?

Ultimately, I am juicing simply to help me lose weight and to put healthier foods in my body (replacement strategy). I am not ultra crazy about optimizing every single nutrient - I just don't want to be juicing only to discover that I could almost just buy premade juices :-)

Thanks again!

[MysticTree]

I had a follow-up question for you. You mentioned about how oxidation can occur over time. Do you have any idea as to what kind of rough % difference we are talking about, comparing drinking the juice immediately after juicing, to say.... 6 hours later with it in the fridge? Assume a lid with a pouring spout, but not a lid tight jar. Would it be something like 70% of the nutrients are still there 6 hours later?

Different people will give you different answers but I don't think accurate figures exist. It's going to be better than premade juices I would think; considerably better.

[Juicerguy]

I have to agree with Mystic Tree, different people will give different answers and I also haven't found any authoritative percentage loss rate anywhere. If you are just saving your juice for that day I would definitely believe that what you are drinking is much much much more nutritious than something you buy in a bottle at a store.

I would go as far to say even overnight in my opinion, it would probably be much much better...I know with a lot of juices the taste definitely suffers overnight, but I don't know about the nutrients. It seems reasonable to me if you think about the time juices sit on a shelve somewhere, also go through who knows what kinds of processes and receive who knows what kinds of additives. That your juice you are making at home is much better in nutritional content vs the who knows what it is "juice" inside of a bottle at a store somewhere...

Something I found interesting last month while looking at a bottle of "juice" in a supermarket last month. Yes I use the quotes around the word juice on purpose...lol, because I am not sure you can really call it that after it has been sitting in a bottle for who knows how long...

Anyways I noticed that if you look at a lot of the ingredients listed...(I can't remember the brand I was looking at for this, but it was one of the more supposedly healthy, organic and natural juices) that among that list there were vitamins being added. I saw quite a few vitamins added to this "organic natural juice" actually. LOL.

What I also noticed is that were a lot of vitamins listed at 0, meaning there were none of those in the "juice". I looked back at the name of the "juice" and the ingredients of the specific juices that were supposedly in the bottle. I know for absolute sure that the specific juices that were in this bottled "juice" are loaded with all of the nutrients that were listed at zero and also the ones that they added to make it appear that the juice already had these vitamins in it...

My girlfriend and I were laughing and spoke about how bottled juice is just sugar with vitamins added here and there... I mean in my opinion there may be some of the other nutrients available inside of these juices such as phytonutrients, but I don't even know if those survive the long packing, shelve sitting times and especially with some of them the pasteurization processes involved.

It would definitely be my strong opinion that what you are juicing is extremely richer in "real live nutrients" and goodies than anything you will find in a bottled "juice" at a store. Real vegetables and fruits juiced and consumed within a day or so are so much closer to the real living vegetables and fruits that grow out of the living earth than those in a bottle for sure!

I can tell you something for myself, I have not bought or drank one bottled juice(including any listed as organic or natural) since I began juicing. After my experience and all of the research I have personally done, I simply do not believe that is what in those bottles is juice anymore. Good luck with your weight loss and with your new healthy life! Keep juicing Tylercruz, in my opinion you are doing one of the best things you can do for yourself and for your body!

[Bonneric]

I found this thread extremely helpful, and a lot of the same questions I have had over the past couple of weeks have just been answered.

First off, Tylercruz, invest in a hard dish brush! My gf and I too, have complained about the cleaning process. The metal dish bowl is definitely a huge pain to clean, and the dishwasher does not do a thing. Get a brush with hard thistles on them that don't bend. The brush we have is hard to explain, but it fits perfectly and has somewhat of a tooth brush handle. If you make sure to wash the dish IMMEDIATELY after juicing, you will find that the metal mesh becomes clean in less than a minute.

Another way that we save time is by laying down a few paper towels on our fruit/veggie cutting area and also underneath of the juicer, so that cleaning the table is obsolete.

Now back to the topic of nutrient degradation over time.

Last night we juiced peaches, apples, oranges, mango, cucumber, carrots, and ginger into a crazy blend (I think we used too much cucumber and too much ginger, but we are learning).

I just had a glass of it now, and we juiced it approximately 22 hours ago. It still tastes fine to me, although it is hard to tell because the ginger unfortunately masked a lot of the other flavors. All in all we made a solid 2 liters of juice (more than we know what to do with...). Also, the pitcher we use has a button on top that seals the juice in completely, so that may have something to do with it's freshness. I will probably always make sure to throw the juice out at the end of the second day. If we juice in the morning and throw it out the next night, that would be 36 hours. If juice at night and throw it out the next night or morning after that its between 24-36.

Just do a smell check, then a taste check. If it smells fine and doesn't taste sour or rotten, I would guess that it is safe to drink. And even if you lose 75% of the nutrients, I would have to agree with those above that it STILL HAS MORE NUTRIENTS THAN THE CRAP YOU BUY AT THE STORE.

Tonight we are going to juice Peaches and Blueberries, I can't wait. Peaches have to be our favorite to juice so far!

[Raw Angel Mom]

I hear you about cleaning the mesh part but here is my ultimate trick that clean in no time.

Two option, use a nice cotton rag or this tile brush shower. It cost a couple dollars only and you can find that in your grocery store.






The hair of the brush is hard and it prevent the brush hair to get stuck in the hole when you clean it. It work very great.

[tylercruz]

My juicer actually comes with a brush with stiff bristles which does work well, but still takes a while to clean properly. It does help to clean it immediately after juicing, but still takes a bit of time and attention.

Then again, I'm a bit of a clean freak when it comes to washing dishes so I may just be going overkill by making sure every single pore of the mesh is clear of pulp :-)

[EasternRay]

What is lost is primarily the ORP capacity of the juice by oxidation. That is the number of negative hydrogen ions.

[Fifistorm]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qerc7...e_gdata_player

I have seen other videos like this a couple years ago. It's why I got a juicer to begin with.

I often add lemon juice as my own natural flavor enhancer. Vitamin C is a preservative. This helps prevent the juice from oxidizing. That being said, I've stopped juicing because there is too much waste. I would rather use a Vitamix to make a smoothie. It can break down fruits and veggies quite substantially and it is far easier and quicker to clean up.