Masticating Juicers – Cold Press Juicer, Slow Juicers or Living Food Juicers

Masticating juicers are also known as cold press or slow juicers and are very different in operation to the more commonly known centrifugal juicer.

The word mastication means ‘to grind or crush (food) with or as if with the teeth’.

What are masticating juicers?

All the juicers in the Vitality 4 Life range, Oscar or BioChef are masticating or slow cold press juicers. These are relatively new and were preceded by the Champion Juicers which was halfway between a centrifugal and a masticating juicer.

The more common type of juicer is a centrifugal juicer which essentially grates the produce and flings out the juice by centrifugal force. Just like grating a carrot, after a short time it will turn brown due to oxidisation (exposure to air).

Centrifugal juicers spin at such a high speed that the produce can even become warm which also diminishes the nutritional content. Juices made in this way should be consumed immediately.

A masticating juicer like the Oscar Neo DA 1000 and Oscar Neo DA 1200 or the BioChef Axis Cold or BioChef Axis Compact juicer extracts juice in an entirely different way.

Produce is feed into the chute and a central auger crushes or masticates the ingredients and pushes this through a sieve to gently separate the juice from the pulp. You will notice the vibrant colour of the juice and the dryness (and paleness) of the pulp.

Soluble fibre remains in the juice while the pulp contains the insoluble fibre which our bodies would expel if eating the whole fruit or vegetable.

The juicer has basically done the job of chewing for us.

Why is drinking juice more beneficial than eating vegetables whole?

Consuming whole fruits and vegetables is enormously important and cold pressed juices should not replace this but the consumption of juices takes nutrition to a whole new level.

By juicing and separating the insoluble fibre, when we consume the juice it reduces digestive stress and the nutrients are assimilated easily and quickly.

Take a kilo of carrots for example. Chewing and separating the soluble fibre from the insoluble fibre takes a lot of work from our digestive system. When this job has already been done with a cold press or slow juicer, it allows our digestive system to have a rest and absorb the nutrients.

This is enormously beneficial for people with digestive issues or who are undergoing treatment making it difficult to eat.

Browse our selection of juicers and find the right one for you!