Many people worry about the quality of juice they get from centrifugal juicers and how it compares with cold-pressed juices. So, do centrifugal juicers destroy nutrients?
Yes, centrifugal juicers do destroy nutrients to an extent. A juice from centrifugal juicers has only 85% nutritional value of the original ingredient. However, there’s no conclusive evidence of this. Heat and oxidative reactions during the juicing process reduce the nutritional value of the juice.
Let’s dig into this in more detail now.
- What Affects The Nutritional Value Of A Juice Produced By Centrifugal Juicers?
- Centrifugal Juicers Vs. Cold-Press Juicers – Which Juicer Produces More Nutritious Juice?
- Is The Nutrient Loss During Centrifugal Juicing Significant?
- Do You Have To Be Concerned About The Nutrients Lost During Centrifugal Juicing?
- References
What Affects The Nutritional Value Of A Juice Produced By Centrifugal Juicers?
Centrifugal juicers are also known as fast juicers because they operate fast.
These devices produce juices much faster than masticating or cold-press juicers.
They use sharp, spinning blades to chop and shred ingredients.
When fruits and vegetables are fed through the chute into the jar, these blades cut and pulverize them in seconds.
Next, the device uses a spinning action to separate the juice from the pulp.
As the contents of the jar spin at high speed, the centrifugal force comes into play.
It separates the juice from the solid part.
Centrifugal juicers use an internal mesh to trap solids.
The clear liquid from the produce trickles into the base of the jar.
Meanwhile, the pulp, seeds, and all solid remnants remain inside the mesh.
You can easily pour the juice that drains out of the mesh into a container and consume it.
Now, let’s look at how the nutrient level can get affected during juice extraction using a centrifugal juicer.
1. Fast operation of the centrifugal juicer produces heat.
We already mentioned that centrifugal juicers operate at high speed.
When any device operates at high speed, it produces heat.
The blades of centrifugal juicers spin at a speed of nearly 10K revolutions per minute, and they become very hot.
Some natural nutrients in fruits and vegetables are sensitive to heat.
Exposure to heat for even small durations will alter their structure or destroy them.
So, the heat produced during juicing can break down heat-sensitive nutrients in different fruits and vegetables.
However, remember that centrifugal juicers don’t take too long to complete juicing.
So the heat produced during the process doesn’t get much time to destroy nutrients.
Unless the nutrients break down fast, it will not affect the nutritional content of the produce too much.
There are many vitamins, minerals, and nutrients that are unaffected by heat.
The heat from a juicer will not affect these nutrients, and they will deliver the same benefits to you as the fresh ingredient.
2. Oxidation of ingredients.
Have you noticed how apples, pears, and bananas turn brown when you cut them and leave them open for a while? This is because of oxidation.
Oxidation occurs when cut produce is exposed to air.
The oxygen in the air reacts with the natural enzymes in these ingredients and alters their form.
The ingredients will also change color due to this action.
A centrifugal juicer begins the juice extraction process by grinding the ingredients into a pulp.
Cutting the produce exposes it to air and oxygen.
This causes the enzymes in the cells to react with oxygen. As a result, various chemical reactions occur.
Some of them manifest as color or texture changes. Oxidation can also lead to the destruction of some nutrients.
However, a centrifugal juicer doesn’t take too long to produce juice.
So, there isn’t enough time for oxidation to cause much damage. So the effect is usually insignificant.
Recommended Further Reading:
- Do Juicers Need Water? (When To Add Water In A Juicer?)
- How Much Power Does a Dishwasher Draw?
- Do Masticating Juicers Retain Fiber? (How Do They Do It?)
Centrifugal Juicers Vs. Cold-Press Juicers – Which Juicer Produces More Nutritious Juice?
Centrifugal juicers use sharp spinning blades and centrifugal force to extract juice from natural produce.
They shred and chop the ingredients.
Then, the spinning action of the blade and container causes the juice to separate from the pulp.
So, you can obtain juice very quickly, and the entire process is over in a few minutes.
Cold-press juicers operate differently.
They are called slow juicers because they take more time than centrifugal juicers to yield juice.
In this case, the device crushes the ingredients using a strong metallic press.
It will then squeeze the juice from the ingredients, strain it, and release it into the storage container.
The juice is high-quality and nutritious.
If you compare the juice produced by centrifugal juicers with cold-press juicers, you will notice significant differences.
Centrifugal juicers yield foamy juices with slightly darker colors because of the effect of oxidation.
Meanwhile, cold-pressed juices have no foam. Instead, they have a fresh and clear color.
You will also get more juice when you cold-press an ingredient than when you use a centrifugal juicer.
Now, if you look at the pulp that remains in either device, cold-press juicers yield drier pulp than centrifugal juicers.
This is because cold-press juicers are better at squeezing juice from an ingredient than centrifugal juicers.
So, they produce more juice than centrifugal juicers.
Serious juicing enthusiasts prefer cold-press juicers over centrifugal juicers, even though they take longer to operate.
It’s because they claim that cold-pressed juice has an almost zero oxidation rate.
Technically, cold-press juice also has more nutrients than juice from centrifugal juicers because the process is not fast, and there is no heat involved.
Is The Nutrient Loss During Centrifugal Juicing Significant?
There are hardly any scientific studies that compare the nutrient value of juices produced by centrifugal juicers and cold-press juicers.
Nonetheless, data collected by private researchers suggest that cold-press juicing is better than centrifugal juicing.
In a comparative study of the vitamins present in juices produced by either method, the results indicated that cold-pressed juice had higher nutritional content for the tested ingredients.
So, we can assume that heat and oxidation during centrifugal juicing affect the quality of the juice.
It reduces its nutritional value by nearly 15%.
Interesting Further Reading:
- How Long Does It Take For An Oven To Cool Down? (And Self-Clean)
- Do All Juicers Leave Pulp? [Best Juicers That Don’t Leave Pulp]
- Do Deep Fryers Cause Smoke?
Do You Have To Be Concerned About The Nutrients Lost During Centrifugal Juicing?
Through juicing, you extract fluids from a vegetable or fruit using a machine.
Depending on the method followed, the content quality will vary.
When you use a centrifugal juicer, you may not get a juice that offers 100% of the same nutritional value as the original fruit or vegetable.
Nonetheless, you will still receive a nutritionally-loaded, natural product.
Regardless of whether you use a centrifugal or cold-press juicer, remember that neither device delivers 100% of the nutrients in the original ingredient.
They remove solid lumps and insoluble fiber, which are an integral part of the fruit or vegetable.
So, when you juice any ingredient, you miss the benefits of the fiber it contains.
Hence, there is some loss of nutritional value when you opt for juice instead of consuming the product in a raw form.
If you want to enjoy the real benefits of the fruit or vegetable, you can either eat it raw or blend it.
Blending uses the whole ingredient and transforms it into a liquid that is easy to consume.
You will not only enjoy the nutritional benefits of the constituent nutrients but also get all the fiber.
However, blenders operate at high speeds.
So, this process can also lead to the oxidization of enzymes and heat-sensitive vitamins.
That’s why there is some loss of nutritional value.
