Maybe you don’t know this, but I’m kind of a mountain man in the making. You know, one of those guys who hasn’t shaved since Jimmy Carter sent him a secret briefing in the form of an L.L. Bean Catalog that exposed Gillette for putting radio transmitters in their razors because they’re in cahoots with the government and it’s all so they can read your thoughts and find out if you really think FDR was a hero or just some cripple who got lucky? Yeah, that kind. I don’t make my own bacon…yet, but I do strive to only eat food that I’ve either made myself, or has fewer than 5 listed ingredients listed on the package. Yes, this is coming from the Queen of Biscuit Sandwiches, but I got sick of staring back at a fun house version of myself so that’s in the past.
The first thing I had to tackle in getting my health back on track was my intake of sugar. I had an unhealthy relationship with cookies, cakes, chocolate, and candy, which is why I found it hard to stay in shape because I always craved some sort of dessert after every meal. I tried to find substitutions, things like apple slices, raisins, bananas, and even raw honey, but none of it ever fully satiated me long enough to keep me from my bag of chocolate chips. Eventually, I introduced fresh squeezed juice into my diet and found it to be instantly effective in eliminating sugar cravings and on top of that, I felt I had an immense amount of energy. The only problem was that non-pasteurized fresh squeezed juice was expensive. At around $6 for 20 ounces, I wasn’t able to have it very often and so I would inevitably revert back to deep-throating cannolis.
It’s only natural then, that I’ve joined the crystal clutching new age group of juicing. People who own juicers strike me as the kind that, if given the chance, would attempt to treat an aneurysm with a chilled cocktail of tomato, red bell pepper, beet, and carrot juice, and I know this because I am one. I recently received the Breville Juice Fountain Plus as a gift and after spending $30 on an orchard of fruit, I havent stopped using it. So far, I’ve juiced oranges, apples, mangoes, pears, strawberries, carrots, and lemons and it handles it all exceptionally well, without having to peel or cut anything (aside from the oranges). It’s easy to clean, easy to assemble and I love it.
This is also good for someone like me, who is 4 and refuses to eat anything green. I absolutely hate vegetables, so being able to juice beets, spinach and celery (or what I refer to as Cerberus) and hide it in palatable things like apple, carrot, and tomato is absolutely priceless to me, because I can no longer get away with eating tater tots and checking off my vegetable servings for the week.
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The really amazing thing about juicers is the cornucopia of cocktails you can generate! I have a stone-age manual citrus press which single-handedly allows me to get a full serving of booze and vitamin C every day.
@Ira,
Haha yes, up until recently, I was using a citrus press as well. Took forever toiling over those oranges, but it was always so worth it.