I’ve decided to jump start my health so I pulled my juicers out of the cupboard.  No, that wasn’t a typo.  I’ve got two juicers. They each have their on specific uses. I cannot and will not choose one over the other.  Together they’re a dynamic duo.

Jack LaLanne Juicer

I use the Jack LaLanne juicer for my fruit drinks. It works great with things like apples, strawberries, blueberries, pears, etc. It’s quick and easy.  All I do is wash the fruit and drop them into the juicer.  Unless I have a batch of unusually large fruit, I don’t have to cut them into smaller pieces.

The resulting volume of juice is amazing. The Jack LaLanne Juicer seems to extract every last drop of juice from the fruit.  It’s great for a quick early morning healthy pick me up.

My Omega Juicer

I also have an Omega juicer. I use this juicer for my greens and vegetables.  In it I juice kale, Swiss chard, carrots, beets, celery, wheat grass and any other type of vegetable I can get my hands on.  It takes much longer to juice in this juicer because the vegetables have to be small enough to fit down the chute.

Using my Omega juicer is more of a pain in the rear, but I’ll never give it up because it juices things that my Jack LaLanne juicer can’t.  Ever try to juice wheat grass or kale in the Jack LaLanne juicer?

Centrifugal vs. Masticating

There’s some controversy abound when it comes to which juicer is the best.  Each of the juicers uses a different method for extracting juice from the fruit or vegetable.

Centrifugal Juicers

The Jack LaLanne juicer uses the centrifugal method for extracting juice.  If you look inside the juicer, there is a large flat disk with what looks like mini razor blades sticking up on an angle.  The juicer spins this disk around at high speeds which causes it to basically shred anything that comes into contact with it.

Around the sides of the disk is a strainer that allows the liquid to pass through while sending the solid particles up and out of the juicer into a holding tank.  There you’ll find the pits, skin and other parts of the fruit that were not juiced.

The controversy with this method is that during the juicing process, in addition to introducing more oxygen to the juice (which speeds the oxidation process thus shortens the shelf life of the juice), there is the argument that the combination of the high-speed blades and the heat generated in the process damages the fruit’s cell structure and destroys the enzymes thus stripping the fruit of its healing properties.

My opinion is that anything produced in a juicer is much (much) healthier than juice sold on a store shelf.  Additionally, as far as the oxidation process goes, most people drink their juices immediately after juicing (at least I do).

Masticating Juicers

My Omega juicer uses the masticating method which is a much slower grinding method.  In essence, the food is pushed up against a strainer and is slowly ground and crushed against the strainer until the juice is extracted.  This is a much slower process and works well with hard to juice items like wheat grass.

Which Juicer is Best?

I’m a fan of both juicers as long as you select the right juicer for the right job.  I tried juicing apples in my Omega and was disappointed.  Not only did it take me longer to cut up the apples, but it yielded a fraction of the juice that I got from my Jack LaLanne juicer for a comparably sized apple.

Attempting to juice green leafy vegetables in my Jack LaLanne juicer is an exercise in futility.  It does not juice wheatgrass or kale.  If you look in the discharge bin, you’ll find all of your wheatgrass and kale there.  I even tried balling it up to see if the Jack LaLanne juicer would juice my greens, but no go.

So, to bring this long post to an end, I have them both, love them both and think they compliment each other nicely.  Jack LaLanne is my morning juicer and my Omega is my afternoon and evening juicer (it also is a pasta maker too).

By the way, both juicers have stood the test of time.  I bought them both in 2003 and they’ve served me well ever since.