Smoothie, Juicing and Eating Raw

My lovely new daughter has recently been on a juice fast to reboot her system, another friend is also juicing for health reasons and allowed me to 'taste' her recipe. :-D

While I'm skeptical and leery of trying new food types/items, her juice was delicious. So good in fact,  I purchased a juicer from Wal-Mart and have been juicing for almost 2 weeks. I'm interested and committed enough that I've decided to purchase a high end juicer (I'll be juicing 3-5 days a week depending upon my schedule). L'Equip makes two different types of juicers.

XL Wide Mouth Juicer or the Mini Pulp Ejection Juicer

This is the main reason I've decided to go this route:

"On the other hand, if you don't enjoy eating fresh fruits and vegetables, juicing may be a fun way to add them to your diet or to try fruits and vegetables you normally wouldn't eat."

From the Mayo Clinic website: Is juicing healthier than eating whole fruits or vegetables?

I've had several recommend the Breville, which was used in the documentary (you can watch by clicking a link from their site): Fat, Sick and Nearly Dead.

I did a search and came up with a juicer comparison between the Breville and the L'Equip XL which you can view here.

For those who state that a masticating juicer is better than the centrifugal - check out this site.

I particularly appreciated his exhortation about eating soft fruits versus juicing them.

Benefits of smoothies versus juicing from Eatingwell: Health Benefits of juicing vs. smoothies.

(I prefer juicing - its a texture thing).  << I had that written before I was literally, 'craving' some juice and caved and went into a smoothie store.  They just happened to have a special one: Island Green - with Kale, Spinach, Mango, Banana and Pineapple (if you get one, request it WITH OUT SWEETENER).  Why anyone needs added sweetener with fruit is beyond my ability to comprehend.  Anyway...I've discovered I do like smoothies...oh yum!  I've even been able to replicate at home (almost) the smoothie I bought.

Article from Heatiersteps: 10 Amazing Bnefits of Juicing Raw Fruits and Vegetables
I like her cleaning solution recommendation:

Michelle’s Fruit and Vegetable Wash

½ cup vinegar
1 Tbsp salt
1 Tbsp lemon (optional)

Fill a clean sink or basin with water. Add vinegar and salt. Soak fruits and vegetables for 30 minutes then rinse.

One one more note: I've stumbled across a few articles about using the pulp for other items, as always there are, pros and cons on using the pulp for edible items.

I found one site which had an article and in the comments someone recommended using the carrot pulp and making it into flour. This is a great idea for those who are gluten free. The article is here. A Google search of vegetable flour from juice pulp had a page of results which you can view here.