If you’re interested in natural beverages, you’re probably wondering what the best fruits and vegetables to juice are.
After all, there are so many options that picking the right ones can prove to be a significant challenge.
To help you, we’ve put together this post where we explore the best juicing options, what makes them so great, and why you should get started. Let’s get started.
The Best Vegetables to Juice
Here are the six best veggies to juice:
- Cucumbers – these veggies offer lots of juice, making them the perfect addition to any juicing program. They are healthy, and are “high output” much like carrots and celery. This means they provide lots of juice when run through the juicer. See the paragraph below on “high output” fruits and veggies to learn why this matters.
- Carrots – thanks to their naturally sweet flavor and rich nutritional profile, carrots are a fantastic veggie to use for juicing. Just make sure to cut the stem off. They also create a lot of juice from each carrot, so they are also “high output” veggies. (1)
- Beets – naturally rich in nitrates, beets offer many great health benefits. Remove the root before juicing. (2)
- Celery – it has an amazing nutritional profile and releases plenty of juice as you process through juicer. Just make sure to cut off one inch above the root, as it often times has embedded dirt. So it’s just easier to cut off that 1 to 2 inches. (3)
- Ginger – commonly known for its immunity-boosting properties, ginger is excellent because it improves our health and adds an interesting flavor to veggie juice. But keep in mind, this is a low output veggie – it will produce very little juice when run through your juicer. (4)
- Kale – it has a rich nutritional profile, and its taste complements that of many fruits and veggies. This is a powerhouse veggie, but also a low output veggie. (5)
The Best Fruits to Juice
- Blueberries – thanks to their rich nutritional and antioxidant profile, blueberries are the sweet delight your fruit juice needs. (6)
- Strawberries – these are among the most delicious berries, and adding some can add a fresh and delightful feel to any fruit juice you make.
- Oranges – full of vitamin C and other nutrients, oranges taste great and work great with many other fruits. (7)
- Lemons – these offer numerous health benefits related to the digestive tract, immune system, and blood glucose levels. You can juice the skin also, just cut off the two ends (at the very tip and bottom). (8)
- Apples – packed with fiber and potassium, apples are low in calories, nutritious, and easy to juice. (9)
Why Are The Above The Best Fruits And Vegetables to Juice?
The fruits and veggies are fantastic because they work great from a juicing standpoint. In other words, you get a lot of juice from each. With that said, you should be careful of what choices you make because some veggies work great in combination with others.
For example, juicing only veggies like ginger and beets produces small amounts of juice. If you want to produce enough juice to last you more than a day, it can quickly turn into a full-day project.
The good news is, you can easily avoid this problem by also adding veggies like celery, cucumber, and carrots, all of which yield a lot of juice.
Before moving on, it’s worth mentioning that you should only buy fruits and veggies for a single juicing session. Fruits and veggies tend to go bad, even if you store them in the fridge, so it doesn’t make sense to buy too much in advance.
High Output Fruits and Veggies
When juicing, you might be only juicing (creating juice) for one glass of juice.
However, many people like to create enough juice for several days. When looking to create enough juice for several days, it’s key to have some “high output” fruits and veggies in the mix.
And “high output” simply means the fruit or veggie, when run through the juicer, creates a good amount of juice. Here are some examples of high output veggies and fruits:
- Carrots
- Celery
- Cucumber
- Oranges
- Lemons
This is a huge benefit, as some veggies (like ginger) create a very tiny amount of juice. So it’s good to have some “high output” veggies like carrots as it speeds up the process (when making juice), and you don’t spend a fortune at the grocery store.
Otherwise, it might take six hours running fruits and veggie through your juicer to create enough juice for a few days. And you’ll need to buy the entire produce section at your local grocery store to create a quart of juice!
The Benefits of Juicing
The most notable benefit of juicing is that it’s an excellent primer for a weight loss journey. Doing it for a short while is great because it makes you feel better, gives your body a break from all that food digestion, and kickstart weight loss.
You can then use that initial traction to jump into a weight loss plan, and you’ll be much more engaged because you’d have already made some progress.
Best Juicer for Fruits and Veggies
As important as selecting the correct fruits and veggies, is selecting the best juicer for fruits and veggies! Some veggies are stubborn and tough to juice. A weak juicer can be a major headache, and you won’t enjoy the process. So whether it’s leafy greens, oranges, or a smooth-juicing veggie like celery, you’ll want to invest in a quality juicer like Breville.
Over time, the blades will dull slightly. As this starts to happen, if your juicer is weak it will become increasingly hard on the throughput. So what once took an hour to create all your juice, now takes two to three hours. Your juicer is working itself to death to process the tough veggies, and the whole process becomes messy.
So invest in a quality juicer, and it’s very well worth the extra money.
Juicing is Not a Long-Term Weight Loss Strategy – It’s a Primer
With that said, juicing is not a good long-term weight loss strategy because it is too rigid and can have adverse effects if you do it over several months. Instead, a three, five, or even ten-day juice is a great start. In many cases, people can expect to lose up to a pound per day.
But you then have to follow the juicing with a clean and healthy diet because you’ll otherwise gain the weight back. So when you complete your juice, it’s so critical to maintain momentum by transitioning a a lean and healthy diet.
This is key, as your body will undoubtedly want to binge after a juice, and if you lose your discipline you’ll give back the benefits that you earned from juicing. So know the best fruits and vegetables to juice, and then maintain your plan for long-term weight control. You’ll be so glad that you did.
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David Williams
A diet and juicing enthusiast, David is an ex-Army Airborne Ranger and Infantry soldier with decades of fitness and wellness experience. A West Point graduate with a degree in engineering, he focuses on technical research related to fitness, nutrition, and wellness. He completed the Martha's Vineyard Diet Detox (21 Day Juice in 2009), and frequently does 3-day, 5-day, and 10-day juices for cleansing and weight loss resets. He has purchased and used over 10 different juicers, and has strong opinions about what works and what doesn't, all from firsthand experience.
References
- Sharma, K. D., Karki, S., Thakur, N. S., & Attri, S. (2012, February). Chemical Composition, functional properties and processing of Carrot-A Review. Journal of food science and technology. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3550877/
- Clifford, T., Howatson, G., West, D. J., & Stevenson, E. J. (2015, April 14). The potential benefits of red beetroot supplementation in Health and Disease. Nutrients. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4425174/
- Celery, raw nutrition facts & calories – self nutrition data. (n.d.).
https://nutritiondata.self.com/facts/vegetables-and-vegetable-products/2396/2/ - Mashhadi, N. S., Ghiasvand, R., Askari, G., Hariri, M., Darvishi, L., & Mofid, M. R. (2013, April). Anti-oxidative and anti-inflammatory effects of ginger in health and physical activity: Review of current evidence. International journal of preventive medicine. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3665023/
- Kale, Raw Nutrition Facts & Calories. Nutrition Data know what you eat. (n.d.). https://nutritiondata.self.com/facts/vegetables-and-vegetable-products/2461/2
- Ma, L., Sun, Z., Zeng, Y., Luo, M., & Yang, J. (2018, September 16). Molecular mechanism and health role of functional ingredients in blueberry for chronic disease in human beings. International journal of molecular sciences. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6164568/
- Oranges, raw, all commercial varieties Nutrition Facts & Calories. Nutrition Data know what you eat. (n.d.). https://nutritiondata.self.com/facts/fruits-and-fruit-juices/1966/2
- Lv, X., Zhao, S., Ning, Z., Zeng, H., Shu, Y., Tao, O., Xiao, C., Lu, C., & Liu, Y. (2015, December 24). Citrus fruits as a treasure trove of active natural metabolites that potentially provide benefits for human health. Chemistry Central journal. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4690266/
- Boyer, J., & Liu, R. H. (2004, May 12). Apple phytochemicals and their health benefits. Nutrition journal. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC442131/