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November 3, 2016
What does cold pressed juice mean and how does it work?
It’s easy to write off terms like ‘cold pressed’ as marketing terminology. After all, we live in an age where restaurants add meaningless terms like ‘pan fried’ and ‘hand-selected’ to their scallops and cheese boards all the time. Why should ‘cold pressed’ be any different?
But ‘cold pressed’, when referring to juice, is very different, and this ‘hand-typed’ article will explain exactly what it means and how it works.
So let’s break it down: starting with the ‘pressed’ part
Like it suggests, it means that the juice has been extracted from the fruits and vegetables by using a lot of pressure. Imagine a selection of fruits and vegetables being held between a carpenter’s vise, and then turning that handle, and not stopping until every last drop of juice comes out. That’s what pressing does. And although ‘pressed’ may feel like a new method, it’s been around for thousands of years, most notably to extract the extra virgin olive oil from olives.
The reason why pressing is all the rage with juicing at the moment is because it presents several benefits that other juicing methods cannot offer. A study conducted by The Huffington Post showed that pressing produces more juice pound for pound than centrifugal or rotary juicing methods. This means your fruits and vegetables go further, and that eases the strain on your wallet.
Beyond that, there is a time and hassle saving. More delicate produce such as kiwis, berries, kale and wheatgrass can all be pressed at the same time as more dense and fibrous things like apples and carrots. With a centrifugal juicer, soft fruits and leafy vegetables must be extracted on a slower speed for the best results, while harder produce like those carrots and apples we were talking about demand higher speeds. You basically have to juice twice.
Ok, I get it, but why does it need to be ‘cold’?
Temperature fluctuation in the process of juice extraction can cause reductions in vitamin, enzyme, phytonutrient content, as well as other beneficial stuff. You want all those wonderful things to be in your glass of juice. So by keeping the ingredients cold while you press them you retain those health benefits in your glass of juice.
Centrifugal or rotary juicers use blades to pulverize fruits and vegetables into tiny pieces while spinning at very high speed. The spin action, much like a washing machine spin cycle, allows the juice to pour out into your glass while a fine mesh sieve traps the pulp. Sure, you still end up with a glass of juice, but the metal blades spinning at such high speeds generate heat that accelerates the oxidation of your ingredients, and this kills off vitamins, enzymes and even good bacteria according to health expert, and New York Times best-selling author, Dr Mercola.
The process of pasteurization also inflicts great temperature fluctuations on raw ingredients, amounting to much the same loss of benefits to your juice.
So when your juice is ‘cold pressed’ that means that the ingredients have been kept cold to keep all those nutrients locked into them, and then subjected to high pressure so that all the goodness releases directly into your glass.
So cold pressed is the juice I should be asking for?
Absolutely. Juice has become a very ambiguous word, and in today’s world it can mean a lot of different products that are produced using a lot of different methods. Cold pressed juice by definition is juice that has to have been created using the methods described in this article, and that makes all the difference.
If you’re someone that struggles to find time to eat, let alone eat your recommended daily intake of fresh fruits and vegetables, then cold pressed juicing is something you want to get into. Right now, it’s hard to think of a better way to combine a nutritionally optimal meal or snack in such a time efficient way. This explains why you’ve probably seen more than one Juice bar pop up in your local area in recent times.
And don’t think that cold pressed juicing is the reserve of juicing bars. There are machines available today that can give you all the benefits of cold pressed juice easily and conveniently in your home. There are even some machines, such as the Juicero that combine all the hassle free advantages of juice bar juice with at-home convenience. Juicero owners receive pre-washed carefully selected organic produce in specially engineered pouches. Sound too good to be true? Well you don’t have to take our word for it, Juicero regularly host popup events to demonstrate their simple, no mess, machine. Check out up and coming events here.
There has never been a more important time to be discerning. After all, as the saying goes; an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure, and one way of offsetting future health issues is to pay very close attention to what you put into your body today.