ADVERTORIAL
Gulp of L fe
By Jade Tan
Here we go, kale,
kale, kale! We
explore the world
of blenders and
juicers, and their
immense benefits.
Before a certain World Cup
theme song plays on loop
in your head, ask yourself
this: how many fruits can
you consume and digest in
five minutes?
Digesting an apple takes
about 30 minutes. Digesting an apple,
a pear, a stick of carrot, and a bunch
of greens would probably take you
two hours – enough time for some of
it to start fermenting in your stomach
before it gets processed. What if you
could get all that fresh, pure goodness
into your system in five minutes?
Let me start with a disclaimer: juicing
isn’t a panacea to all dietary woes,
since it removes dietary fibre, which is
essential to our diet, and can be very
high in sugar, especially if you use a
high percentage of fruits and sweet
vegetables such as carrots.
But it is a great way to incorporate
greens into your diet (provided your
juicer is capable of juicing - more on
that as we go on), and eat more fruits
and veggies. Packed with nutrients
and enzymes, juice cleanses and
heals your cells without needing your
digestive system to work through a
ton of roughage. If like me, you’re the
only one in the family who’s eating the
fresh veg, juicing is a nifty way to use
up all that expiring produce you have
lying around!
However, not all juice is made the
same. The quality of your fruits and
veggies aside, your juice-maker plays
a huge part in the quality of your
morning OJ too.
CENTRIFUGAL JUICERS
If your juicer works fast but produces
considerably wet pulp, there’s a high
chance that it’s a centrifugal juicer.
Efficient with soft and hard fruits
and vegetables, it works well for
people who like the taste of freshlysqueezed juice and enjoy the added
nutritional kick. However, its fastrotating shaving action introduces air
and heat, which causes the nutrients
to oxidise quickly, thereby making it
a less than ideal choice for those who
take the nutritional values of their
juice seriously.
MASTICATING JUICERS
Favoured by many nutritionists, the
masticating juicer is a high-end juicer
that can handle just about anything you throw at (or, in) it. This overachiever not only milks your
leafy greens and wheatgrass for what they’re worth, it also makes sauces, nut butters and
more - a domestic goddess’ dream. Most importantly, its crushing action helps retain
much more body-fortifying nutrients that will
last longer unconsumed, since it produces
less heat.
THE HUROM SLOW JUICER
As someone who has fun experimenting
with health trends, I was delighted to
be given an opportunity to try out the
HUROM Slow Juicer for a fortnight.
Here, I give you the lowdown.
The juicer is fairly simple to
assemble despite comprising six
main parts. Turning it on, I braced
myself for its thunderous whirring.
Instead, I was greeted by a
surprisingly gentle hum.
Loads of noise due to the engine
Will not wake anyone up in the
and whirring action of blades
morning
Most nutrients are retained as
generated from the blades,
no heat is generated from the
resulting in oxidisation
NUTRIENTS
Masticating Juicer
Quite a lot is lost due to the heat
NOISE GENERATED
Centrifugal Juicer
crushing action
The small mouth of the chute rejected the first set of
fruits I had cut, so I had to slice my fruits thinner to
fit them through. When they did fit, I was pleasantly
surprised at the juicer’s speed. Don’t be misled by the
name; the slow juicer is faster than many juicers out
there. It took no longer than 20 seconds to juice a small
apple, which is decent timing.
An apple, a pear, a lemon, a carrot and two sticks of
celery gave 400ml of juice on my no-frills juicer, and
500ml on the HUROM.
Upon close inspection, I realised that the pulp from the
HUROM was much drier than the one from my normal
juicer. The former resembled fluffy cotton balls while I
could still manually squeeze juice from the latter.
In my two weeks of using the HUROM, I experienced a
couple instances when items got stuck and the juicer
would stop. Thankfully, all I had to do was to press the
reverse button for a few seconds to make the juicer
regurgitate the stuck item. This, I found incredibly
convenient. As with all juicers, it is important to put
the parts together properly before use, because any misalignments will be amplified by the
grinding movement of the auger and require you to dissemble the juicer to fix it.
I never used to make juice in the mornings because every minute in the morning is precious to
me, and oh the noise! I wouldn’t want to wake everyone in the family up! Since the HUROM is
quiet, I make time to use it in the mornings before I work out, which is perfect because juice can
be so energising! I am also extremely pleased that I can juice some of the stronger-tasting but
no less nourishing raw greens to make them more palatable.
There are many ways to live well. Let juicing be one of them, not all of them (though I don’t think
I can ever go back to a conventional juicer!). Stay healthy, everyone!
Jul 2014 • Family & Life
27